Ethical consumption intentions and choice behavior towards organic food. Moderation role of buying and environmental concerns

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.350Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Examines the consumption values underlying organic food consumption.

  • Social, emotional, and epistemic values are significantly associated with intentions.

  • Conditional and epistemic values are significantly associated with choice behavior.

  • Epistemic value emerged as the most significant predictor of intention and choice behavior.

  • No significant differences between buyer and non-buyers of organic food. However, environmental concern has a significant moderation effect on certain associations.

Abstract

This study investigated the factors driving ethical consumption intentions and choice behavior among community-based buyers and non-buyers using the theory of consumption values. The moderating influence of buying involvement and environment concerns on all the studied relationships was also examined. Data were collected using structured questionnaire survey at different organic farmers' markets. A total of 282 community-centric organic buyers and 170 non-buyers participated in the study. Structural equation modelling approach was employed for data analysis. The results indicated the significant association of social, emotional, and epistemic values with ethical consumption intentions. Epistemic value was identified as the most important influencer towards both ethical consumption and choice behavior. Buyers and non-buyers were not significantly different. However, consumers with varying levels of environmental concerns were statistically different when it came to the associations of epistemic and price-related functional values and ethical consumption intentions. The study results could be utilized by managers and practitioners to target this niche market and promote organic food among the mainstream market. This may, in turn, lead to increased adoption of the cleaner production practices in terms of organic farming, which is beneficial for both people and the planet.

Introduction

Nowadays businesses are increasingly incorporating various ecological and social welfare concerns while adopting sustainable development principles (Chow and Chen, 2012). According to the United Nations’ (1987) most popular definition, sustainability implies the fulfillment of the requirements of the present generation without any compromises in the ability of the next generation to fulfill their own needs. This explanation points to the significance of environment welfare and conservation of natural resources during consumption (Strong, 1997). Sustainability could be attained through ethical or green or sustainable consumption (Huang and Rust, 2011).

Ethical consumption is referred to a set of purchase initiatives that are motivated by various ethical choices, e.g., fairly traded and environment-friendly goods (Szmigin et al., 2006). Ethical consumption comprises a broad spectrum of evolving societal and ecological concerns, such as human rights, environment, animal welfare, local community initiatives, social justice issues, and many other issues (Carrigan et al., 2004). Different ethical communities have emerged supporting ethical consumption broadly or focused on a more specific ethical issue (such as organic or fair trade) (Papaoikonomou and Alarco, 2017). While there is a growing consumerism movement, organic food has been supported by a larger community of consumers because of its perceived benefits over conventional food products (Essoussi and Zahaf, 2008). These are collectively referred as organic food consumption community (Kushwah et al., 2019).

This consumption community around organic food has grown worldwide and, thus, resulted in the increased popularity of organic food. The total number of countries participating in organic agriculture is 178 and covers around 57.8 million hectares (Mha) worldwide (Willer and Lernoud, 2018). The top three countries with the highest land area under organic farming are: Australia (27.1 Mha), Argentina (3.0 Mha) and China (2.3 Mha) (Willer and Lernoud, 2018). The total market value of the organic food was estimated to be 89.7 billion USD at the end of 2018, where the US, Germany, and France were reported as the top three countries in terms of market value. In the same report, the number of organic producers was reported to be highest in India (Willer and Lernoud, 2018).

The growing demand for organic food has motivated a large number of producers to move on to the organic method of farming from conventional methods (ASSOCHAM and E&Y, 2018). Consequently, the area dedicated to organic farming in India is growing at a rate of 15%, which is much higher than the global growth rate (Willer and Lernoud, 2018). Recently, as per the National Program for Organic Production, the total area under organic production in India during 2017–2018 was 3.56 million hectares (ET, 2018). Notably, Sikkim, one of the 29 states in India, has been declared as an entirely organic state (ASSOCHAM and E&Y, 2018). India exported organic products worth 515 million USD during the 2017–2018 financial year, up from 370 Million USD in 2016–2017 (ET, 2018).

Despite the overwhelming performance in the export market, the domestic consumption of organic food is still low in India, standing at below 1% of the global market share (Willer and Lernoud, 2018). Furthermore, the dynamics of buying and selling organic produce in the domestic market is also changing. There are two main trends observed in the organic marketplace in India. First, supermarket and specialty stores, wherein certified organic food products are being sold. Second, community-centric farmers' markets, which consist of groups of independent producers selling both certified and non-certified organic food products directly to consumers. Despite the presence of a large number of independent organic retailers and supermarkets, the consumption of organic food through community-centric organic farmers' markets has increased. On the one hand, these independent retailers are struggling to sustain in the market due to increased competition, higher pricing structure, lack of authentic measures and unorganized market structure (ASSOCHAM and E&Y, 2018). However, on the contrary, consumption through organic farmers' markets is increasing. The two main apparent reasons could be the trust and direct interaction between producers and consumers in these markets (Alonso & O'Neill, 2011; Essoussi and Zahaf, 2008; Szmigin et al., 2006). Hence, it is strikingly important to study the factors positively influencing the intentions and choice behavior of these organic food buyers. This study fills this gap through examining the underlying factors driving the consumption of organic food in India. The findings of the study from the community-centric buyers could be used by independent retailers and public policy makers for mainstreaming the consumption of organic food.

The three main aims of the present study are: a) to study the factors associated with the consumption of organic food among community-centric buyers. This has been examined using the theory of consumption values (hereafter, TCV). Since consumer choice behavior is influenced by multiple consumption values (Sheth et al., 1991), this theory provides the comprehensive set of values for understanding the consumer intentions and choice behavior in the studied context; b) to examine the association between consumption values, ethical consumption intentions, and choice behavior of community-centric buyers of organic food; c) to examine the differences among distinct consumer groups based on their buying involvement (community buyers vs. non-buyers) and degree of environmental concern (high, medium, and low).

Two of the most significant theoretical contributions of the current investigation are, first, this empirical study provides a comprehensive set of consumption values influencing community-centric organic food buyers. Furthermore, the association between consumption values, ethical consumption intentions, and choice behavior was tested and presented. Second, this study provides insights into the differences in consumers’ intentions and choice behavior based on their involvement in buying and concerns towards the environment. This study also has numerous practical implications for the several stakeholders involved, such as organic food producers, marketers, public policy makers, and certification agencies. The findings of the present study will enrich the existing understanding on the community-centric organic food buyers and will provide newer insights to independent retailers and policymakers regarding the changing dynamics of the organic food markets and organic food buyers. The findings could be utilized for designing future communication to reach this target audience and for increasing the mainstream consumption of organic food.

Section snippets

Theory of consumption values (TCV)

The concept of values has been widely studied and is considered the essential predictor of consumer decision-making (Sheth et al., 1991). Based on this study, value is resulted from a set of personal experiences of the consumers and possesses multiple dimensions (Sheth et al., 1991). The definition of perceived value evolved from a unidimensional to a multidimensional concept (Sánchez-Fernández and Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007). Perceived value refers to complete evaluation (positive or negative) of

Functional value

Functional value implies the expected performance of the product in terms of its functionality, physicality, and utilitarian ability (Sheth et al., 1991). This is considered as one of the main drivers of consumer choices (Sheth et al., 1991; Yildirim and Candan, 2015). It can be measured using two important dimensions, namely quality and associated price value (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). Likewise, in organic consumption literature, functional value price (Hansen et al., 2018; Prakash et al.,

Overview of the study area

Farmers' market are the more traditional form of retail, and therein exists a direct interaction between producer and consumer (Alonso & O'Neill, 2011). According to Pyle (1971), the focus of farmers' market has two clear stages: (1) to provide power to the public, and (2) to provide visibility to the producer. However, more recently, the focus of farmers' market has involved the interaction of both stages. Amidst the growing news of chemical ingredients and their significant influence on human

Measurement analysis: reliability and validity

The reliability and validity assessment was performed using different methods. The reliability analysis of the various study measures was done by the composite reliability (CR) assessment. The CR value for all study measures exceeds the recommended point of 0.70 (see Table 2) (Hair et al., 2010).

Next, for assessing convergent validity, three different criteria have been suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981), and these have been attained in this study. First, the standardized factor loadings

Discussion

There is scant literature examining the association of consumption values and ethical consumption intentions and choice behavior in reference to organic food in the studied context. The present study bridges this research gap. For this, the present study proposed and empirically tested a new model that consists of six independent predictors (functional price and quality, social, emotional, epistemic, and conditional values) and two dependent variables (ethical consumption intentions and choice

Study implications

The findings of the present study can be used to draw different imperatives for both scholars as well as practitioners. The current study has four main theoretical implications. First, this study extends the emerging literature on the application of TCV in the context of organic food by providing insights on the unstudied associations. The novelty of this study lies in examining the interplay between different consumption values and consumers’ ethical consumption intentions and choice behavior

Limitations and future work

The present study suggested newer insight regarding the association of consumption values, ethical consumption intentions, and choice behavior. This study has two main limitations. First, the data were collected from the National Capital Region Delhi. This may limit the generalizability of the study findings in other contexts. This could be expanded to other metropolitan cities and regions, which would help in generating a deeper understanding of choice behavior and may further improve the

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