IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v28y2019i2p327-338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are green consumers really green? Exploring the factors behind the actual consumption of organic food products

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Testa
  • Silvia Sarti
  • Marco Frey

Abstract

The increasing interest in sustainable consumption has lead several scholars to investigate the determinants that drive the consumption of organic food. Most of this research is based on consumers' self‐reports of their purchasing behavior by exploring declared behavioral intentions. There is a lack of understanding concerning the determinants of organic food consumption based on actual purchasing behavior. To fill this gap, this study is based on a combination of actual purchasing data and self‐reported data from a sample of 79 Italian consumers. The determinants of organic food consumption are explored by analyzing the effects of subjective norms, attitude, perceived behavioral control, intention to buy, organic knowledge, and health consciousness on actual purchasing behavior. Our results suggest that actual purchasing behavior is positively influenced by intention to buy and negatively by subjective norms. Although attitude towards buying organics is positively affected by health consciousness and perceived behavioral control, consumer knowledge about organics is found to influence purchase intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications, along with avenues for future research, are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Testa & Silvia Sarti & Marco Frey, 2019. "Are green consumers really green? Exploring the factors behind the actual consumption of organic food products," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 327-338, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:28:y:2019:i:2:p:327-338
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2234
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2234
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2234?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Voon, Thomas Jan P. & Ngui, Kwang Sing & Agrawal, Anand, 2011. "Determinants of Willingness to Purchase Organic Food: An Exploratory Study Using Structural Equation Modeling," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 14(2), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Hongyi Sun & Pei‐Lee Teh & Jonathan D. Linton, 2018. "Impact of environmental knowledge and product quality on student attitude toward products with recycled/remanufactured content: Implications for environmental education and green manufacturing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 935-945, November.
    3. Pat Auger & Timothy Devinney, 2007. "Do What Consumers Say Matter? The Misalignment of Preferences with Unconstrained Ethical Intentions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(4), pages 361-383, December.
    4. Ivar Krumpal, 2013. "Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature review," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2025-2047, June.
    5. Vermeir, Iris & Verbeke, Wim, 2008. "Sustainable food consumption among young adults in Belgium: Theory of planned behaviour and the role of confidence and values," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 542-553, January.
    6. Henning Best & Jochen Mayerl, 2013. "Values, Beliefs, Attitudes: An Empirical Study on the Structure of Environmental Concern and Recycling Participation," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 94(3), pages 691-714, September.
    7. Gianluigi Guido & M. Prete & Alessandro Peluso & R. Maloumby-Baka & Carolina Buffa, 2010. "The role of ethics and product personality in the intention to purchase organic food products: a structural equation modeling approach," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 57(1), pages 79-102, March.
    8. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    9. Park, C Whan & Mothersbaugh, David L & Feick, Lawrence, 1994. "Consumer Knowledge Assessment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 71-82, June.
    10. Michal Carrington & Benjamin Neville & Gregory Whitwell, 2010. "Why Ethical Consumers Don’t Walk Their Talk: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Gap Between the Ethical Purchase Intentions and Actual Buying Behaviour of Ethically Minded Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 139-158, November.
    11. Carrington, Michal J. & Neville, Benjamin A. & Whitwell, Gregory J., 2014. "Lost in translation: Exploring the ethical consumer intention–behavior gap," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2759-2767.
    12. Chiou‐Fong Wei & Chang‐Tang Chiang & Tun‐Chih Kou & Bruce C Y Lee, 2017. "Toward Sustainable Livelihoods: Investigating the Drivers of Purchase Behavior for Green Products," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 626-639, July.
    13. Francesco Testa & Ivan Miroshnychenko & Roberto Barontini & Marco Frey, 2018. "Does it pay to be a greenwasher or a brownwasher?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1104-1116, November.
    14. Flavio Boccia & Pasquale Sarnacchiaro, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Preference: A Structural Equation Analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 151-163, March.
    15. Fisher, Robert J, 1993. "Social Desirability Bias and the Validity of Indirect Questioning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(2), pages 303-315, September.
    16. Smith, Samantha & Paladino, Angela, 2010. "Eating clean and green? Investigating consumer motivations towards the purchase of organic food," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 93-104.
    17. Noah J. Goldstein & Robert B. Cialdini & Vladas Griskevicius, 2008. "A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 472-482, March.
    18. F. Testa & F. Iraldo & A Vaccari & E. Ferrari, 2015. "Why Eco‐labels can be Effective Marketing Tools: Evidence from a Study on Italian Consumers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 252-265, May.
    19. Krittinee Nuttavuthisit & John Thøgersen, 2017. "The Importance of Consumer Trust for the Emergence of a Market for Green Products: The Case of Organic Food," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 323-337, January.
    20. Fuller, Christie M. & Simmering, Marcia J. & Atinc, Guclu & Atinc, Yasemin & Babin, Barry J., 2016. "Common methods variance detection in business research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3192-3198.
    21. Francesco Perrini & Sandro Castaldo & Nicola Misani & Antonio Tencati, 2010. "The impact of corporate social responsibility associations on trust in organic products marketed by mainstream retailers: a study of Italian consumers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(8), pages 512-526, December.
    22. Zanoli, Raffaele & Naspetti, Simona, 2002. "Consumer motivations in the purchase of organic food. A means-end approach," MPRA Paper 32712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. William Young & Kumju Hwang & Seonaidh McDonald & Caroline J. Oates, 2010. "Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 20-31.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhengxia He & Yanqing Zhou & Jianming Wang & Cunfang Li & Meiling Wang & Wenbo Li, 2021. "The impact of motivation, intention, and contextual factors on green purchasing behavior: New energy vehicles as an example," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1249-1269, February.
    2. Roh, Taewoo & Seok, Junhee & Kim, Yaeri, 2022. "Unveiling ways to reach organic purchase: Green perceived value, perceived knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, and trust," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Sadiq, Muhammad Ahsan & Rajeswari, Balasundaram & Ansari, Lubna & Danish Kirmani, Mohd, 2021. "The role of food eating values and exploratory behaviour traits in predicting intention to consume organic foods: An extended planned behaviour approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Terlau, Wiltrud & Hirsch, Darya, 2015. "Sustainable Consumption and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap Phenomenon - Causes and Measurements towards a Sustainable Development," 2015 International European Forum (144th EAAE Seminar), February 9-13, 2015, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 206233, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    5. Erifili Papista & Athanasios Krystallis, 2013. "Investigating the Types of Value and Cost of Green Brands: Proposition of a Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 75-92, June.
    6. Kyriakos Riskos & Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Naoum Mylonas & George Tsourvakas, 2021. "Ecolabels and the Attitude–Behavior Relationship towards Green Product Purchase: A Multiple Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Francesco Testa & Roberta Iovino & Fabio Iraldo, 2020. "The circular economy and consumer behaviour: The mediating role of information seeking in buying circular packaging," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3435-3448, December.
    8. Theresa Eichhorn & Oliver Meixner, 2020. "Factors Influencing the Willingness to Pay for Aquaponic Products in a Developed Food Market: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Alex Hiller & Tony Woodall, 2019. "Everything Flows: A Pragmatist Perspective of Trade-Offs and Value in Ethical Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 893-912, July.
    10. Francisco José Torres‐Ruiz & Manuela Vega‐Zamora & Manuel Parras‐Rosa, 2018. "Sustainable Consumption: Proposal of a Multistage Model to Analyse Consumer Behaviour for Organic Foods," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 588-602, May.
    11. Terlau, Wiltrud & Hirsch, Darya, 2015. "Sustainable Consumption and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap Phenomenon - Causes and Measurements towards a Sustainable Development," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Catherine Janssen & Joëlle Vanhamme, 2015. "Theoretical Lenses for Understanding the CSR–Consumer Paradox," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 775-787, September.
    13. Tsarenko, Yelena & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean & McLeod, Colin, 2013. "Environmentally conscious consumption: The role of retailers and peers as external influences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 302-310.
    14. Roberta Sebastiani & Francesca Montagnini & Daniele Dalli, 2013. "Ethical Consumption and New Business Models in the Food Industry. Evidence from the Eataly Case," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 473-488, May.
    15. Carrington, Michal J. & Neville, Benjamin A. & Whitwell, Gregory J., 2014. "Lost in translation: Exploring the ethical consumer intention–behavior gap," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2759-2767.
    16. Volker Lingnau & Florian Fuchs & Florian Beham, 2019. "The impact of sustainability in coffee production on consumers’ willingness to pay–new evidence from the field of ethical consumption," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 65-93, April.
    17. Micael-Lee Johnstone & Lay Tan, 2015. "Exploring the Gap Between Consumers’ Green Rhetoric and Purchasing Behaviour," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 311-328, December.
    18. Brahim Chekima & Mohamed Bouteraa & Rudy Ansar & Suddin Lada & Lim Ming Fook & Elhachemi Tamma & Azaze-Azizi Abdul Adis & Khadidja Chekima, 2023. "Determinants of Organic Food Consumption in Narrowing the Green Gap," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, May.
    19. Dimitris Georgantzis Garcia & Eva Kipnis & Efi Vasileiou & Adrian Solomon, 2021. "Consumption in the Circular Economy: Learning from Our Mistakes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-23, January.
    20. Shah, Sayed Kifayat & Zhongjun, Tang, 2021. "Elaborating on the consumer’s intention–behavior gap regarding 5G technology: The moderating role of the product market-creation ability," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:28:y:2019:i:2:p:327-338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.