“Green cannibalism” or an “organic inside job”? Empirical insights into the rivalry of ethical grocery types

Abstract

Despite having favorable purchase intentions toward organic groceries, the respective purchase behavior falls often short. This so-called intention-behavior gap is investigated by exploring the impact of competing ethical products fulfilling green consumption motives ("green fit") as well or lacking credibility of organic groceries on organic purchase behavior. The first two studies (n 1 = 225; n 2 = 321) assessing actual and reported purchase behavior are testing the impact of perceived substitutability of local and fair trade alternatives compared with organic groceries. A third study (n 3 = 145) examines the impact of food miles and packaging on perceived product quality and credibility as possible reasons for a lacking "green fit" of organic groceries in terms of an experimental design. Local (fair trade) and organic groceries are perceived as substitute (complementary) alternatives. Additionally, local (organic) "green fit" impedes (enhances) the transformation from organic intentions into a respective purchase behavior. Wrapped organic produces with high food miles are linked to lower quality and credibility perceptions, reducing organic sales rates in favor of local groceries. K E Y W O R D Scredibility, green fit, intention-behavior gap, perceived product quality, substitutability

Antecedents of Environmentally and Socially Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior

“…energy conservation) are usually evaluating product categories, such as organic foods, for measuring "green consumption" (Ngobo, 2011, Van Doorn & Verhoef, 2015, de-Magistris, & Gracia, 2016, Frank & Brock, 2019, while fair trade has commonly been seen as part of socially responsible consumption (de Pelsmacker & Janssens, 2007, Frank & Brock, 2019. Some authors have aimed to assess "competitive situation of the ethical grocery market" (p. 598, Frank & Brock, 2019). They find fair trade products as complementary products, while local and organic groceries as substitutes to each other when consumers buy "green" (Frank & Brock, 2019).…”

“…Some authors have aimed to assess "competitive situation of the ethical grocery market" (p. 598, Frank & Brock, 2019). They find fair trade products as complementary products, while local and organic groceries as substitutes to each other when consumers buy "green" (Frank & Brock, 2019).…”

“…Besides including sustainability dimensions in their research, some authors also combine it with additional concept of self (health and safety) vs. other (e.g. support local economy) related motives for behavior (Frank & Brock, 2019) and combine it with perceived value concept (Currás-Pérez,…”

“…Research by Catlin et al (2017) shows that consumers perceive the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability as psychologically distinct and align the social dimension of sustainability with local, short term and affective reflections while the environmental dimension with global, long-term and cognitive thoughts. More productoriented research includes multidimensionality by comparing competing/substitute products of organic, local and fair trade ethical alternatives (Frank & Brock, 2019). More research is still needed with regard to questions whether consumers act differently when behaving in environmentally or socially responsible way, how do environmentally and socially responsible behaviors differ regarding their antecedents; whether marketers need to separate environmental and social appeals and how can they create successful sustainability programs that are aligned to consumer sustainability needs and wants.…”

Consumption in the Circular Economy: Learning from Our Mistakes

“…Consequently, modelers attempt to identify factors and processes that may hinder SCB. Among the most common, are explanations of the IBG such as barriers to SCB such as price premiums overtaking consumers' willingness to pay extra [103,104], the unavailability of sustainable/green alternatives [104,105] and lower perceived quality [106]. Further common explanations of the gap include situational factors, such as citizen-consumer role conflicts [107], and information-based reasons like lack of knowledge or trust regarding some sustainable product/service [108] and information overload, typically present in a market setting [109].…”