Organic food and obesity: factors influencing actual purchase of organic food in COVID-19 pandemic with moderating role of organic food availability

Abstract

PurposeOrganic food consumption decreases the risk of becoming obese or overweight. This study intends to see the influence of customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort and natural content on the intention to purchase organic food (IPOF) that leads to the actual purchase of organic food (APOF). Moreover, organic food availability is a moderator between IPOF and APOF.Design/methodology/approachPLS-SEM is used for hypothesis testing. A purposive sampling technique was followed to gather data from organic food consumers in Lahore, Gujranwala and Islamabad and a total of 479 questionnaires were part of the analysis.FindingsThe outcomes show that customer perceived value, effort and natural content is positively related to IPOF. Despite this, COVID-19 fear and food neophobia are negatively associated with IPOF. IPOF and organic food availability are positively related to APOF. Finally, organic food availability significantly moderated between IPOF and APOF.Practical implicationsThis study outcome reveals that companies of organic food can recognize customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort, natural content and organic food availability in their decision-making if they determine the actual purchase of organic food. This study offers a valuable policy to companies of organic food to enhance customer’s behavior in purchasing organic food in Pakistan. Besides, practitioners and academicians can benefit from this study finding.Originality/valueThis initial research integrates customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort, natural content, IPOF and organic food availability to determine APOF in the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, consumption value theory is followed to develop the framework.

Beggars can't be choosers: factors influencing intention to purchase organic food in pandemic with the moderating role of perceived barriers

“…Food neophobia is negatively related to satisfaction toward organic food and accepted H3. Nguyen et al (2022) reveal that food neophobia is negatively linked to organic food liking. This study suggests that organic food companies can develop trust among customers that avoid buying organic food by conveying organic food advantages.…”

“…The major reason to purchase organic food is health ( Colovi c and Miti c, 2022). Customers are more conscious during the COVID-19 pandemic about health and they increase their consumption of organic food instead of inorganic food (Nguyen et al, 2022). Young consumers are more health-conscious and try to purchase organic food (Pham et al, 2019).…”

“…Less concentration to determine satisfaction toward organic food through food neophobia (Kabir and Islam, 2021; Li and Cui, 2021). Organic food organizations should give importance to food neophobia because this is important in determining IPOF (Nguyen et al ., 2022). On the other hand, food neophilia plays a significant role in enhancing customer's satisfaction in food tourism (Mak et al ., 2012).…”

Purchase intention of organic foods from the perspective of consumers

“…It is also suggested that the relationship between the intention to (re)purchase organic products with knowledge of the product and other moderators be tested, such as, for example, purchase frequency, age, age group of the consumer, type of organic food, among other demographic aspects, in addition to testing mediators such as product availability, cultural aspects and definition of brands (from agricultural producers or retailers) that can influence the decision to (re)purchase organic foods. Furthermore, it would also be opportune to investigate the moderating effect of organic food availability (Nguyen et al. , 2023) and price sensitivity (Hartono et al ., 2020) on organic food purchase intention in several contexts (markets and cultures).…”

Eco-innovation of food processing and manufacturing SMEs

“…When normality assumptions are not fulfilled, PLS is considered an appropriate approach. The PLS-SEM technique handles both simple and complex models (Nguyen et al ., 2022). Furthermore, when data are limited, multicollinearity issues exist, and data have some missing values, the results generated by the PLS model are deemed more accurate compared to the ordinary least square (OLS) model (Rehman et al ., 2021f).…”