IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v156y2023ics0148296322009766.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Causal complexity of sustainable consumption: Unveiling the equifinal causes of purchase intentions of plant-based meat alternatives

Author

Listed:
  • Bhattacharyya, Jishnu
  • Balaji, M.S.
  • Jiang, Yangyang

Abstract

Sustainable consumption has received much attention, although its antecedents are not fully elucidated. Existing studies are constrained by the assumption of symmetrical paradigms, emphasizing the net effects of antecedents without considering the complexity of sustainable consumption decision-making. This study draws on the theory of consumption values and the complexity theory to identify the complex combinations of consumption values (health, food safety, ecological, curiosity, novelty, prestige, avoidance of guilt) that explain consumers’ intentions to purchase plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA). An online survey was used to collect data from 252 meat eaters in the United States. Data were analyzed with fsQCA to identify the causal configuration of consumption values that explain meat-eaters’ PBMA purchase intentions. The fsQCA results revealed six heterogeneous combinations of the consumption values that result in high levels of purchase intention toward PBMA. The findings can be used by marketers to develop strategies for promoting sustainable consumption and PBMA.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhattacharyya, Jishnu & Balaji, M.S. & Jiang, Yangyang, 2023. "Causal complexity of sustainable consumption: Unveiling the equifinal causes of purchase intentions of plant-based meat alternatives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:156:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322009766
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113511
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322009766
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113511?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davis, Donna F. & Golicic, Susan L. & Boerstler, Courtney N. & Choi, Sunny & Oh, Hanmo, 2013. "Does marketing research suffer from methods myopia?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1245-1250.
    2. Pappas, Ilias O. & Woodside, Arch G., 2021. "Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    3. Heesup Han, 2020. "Theory of green purchase behavior (TGPB): A new theory for sustainable consumption of green hotel and green restaurant products," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2815-2828, September.
    4. Paolo Antonetti & Stan Maklan, 2014. "Feelings that Make a Difference: How Guilt and Pride Convince Consumers of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Consumption Choices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 117-134, September.
    5. Pappas, Ilias O. & Kourouthanassis, Panos E. & Giannakos, Michail N. & Chrissikopoulos, Vassilios, 2016. "Explaining online shopping behavior with fsQCA: The role of cognitive and affective perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 794-803.
    6. Moons, Ingrid & Barbarossa, Camilla & De Pelsmacker, Patrick, 2018. "The Determinants of the Adoption Intention of Eco-friendly Functional Food in Different Market Segments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 151-161.
    7. Kopplin, Cristopher Siegfried & Rösch, Stella Franca, 2021. "Equifinal causes of sustainable clothing purchase behavior: An fsQCA analysis among generation Y," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Juying Wang & Xiaoqing Yu, 2021. "The Driving Path of Customer Sustainable Consumption Behaviors in the Context of the Sharing Economy—Based on the Interaction Effect of Customer Signal, Service Provider Signal, and Platform Signal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Gonçalves, Helena Martins & Lourenço, Tiago Ferreira & Silva, Graça Miranda, 2016. "Green buying behavior and the theory of consumption values: A fuzzy-set approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 1484-1491.
    10. Philip Anderson, 1999. "Perspective: Complexity Theory and Organization Science," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 216-232, June.
    11. Sheth, Jagdish N. & Newman, Bruce I. & Gross, Barbara L., 1991. "Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 159-170, March.
    12. Woodside, Arch G., 2014. "Embrace•perform•model: Complexity theory, contrarian case analysis, and multiple realities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2495-2503.
    13. Fredrik Carlsson & Peter Frykblom & Carl Johan Lagerkvist, 2007. "Consumer willingness to pay for farm animal welfare: mobile abattoirs versus transportation to slaughter," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 34(3), pages 321-344, September.
    14. Susana Costa e Silva & Carla Carvalho Martins, 2017. "The relevance of cause-related marketing to post-purchase guilt alleviation," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(4), pages 475-494, December.
    15. Lin, Jiabao & Guo, Jinyuan & Turel, Ofir & Liu, Shan, 2020. "Purchasing organic food with social commerce: An integrated food-technology consumption values perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Gligor, David & Bozkurt, Siddik, 2020. "FsQCA versus regression: The context of customer engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teng Yu & Yajun Zhang & Ai Ping Teoh & Anchao Wang & Chengliang Wang, 2023. "Factors Influencing University Students’ Behavioral Intention to Use Electric Car-Sharing Services in Guangzhou, China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    2. Duong, Cong Doanh, 2023. "“What goes around comes around†: Activating sustainable consumption with curvilinear effects of karma determinants," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Jan Dul & Sven Hauff & Ricarda B. Bouncken, 2023. "Necessary condition analysis (NCA): review of research topics and guidelines for good practice," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 683-714, February.
    4. Maria Elena Latino & Marta Menegoli & Maria Chiara De Lorenzi, 2024. "A pattern‐based tool to support companies in sustainability‐oriented business strategies: grounded theory research in agribusiness," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3348-3367, July.

    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. Alyahya, Mansour & Agag, Gomaa & Aliedan, Meqbel & Abdelmoety, Ziad Hassan & Daher, Maya Mostafa, 2023. "A sustainable step forward: Understanding factors affecting customers’ behaviour to purchase remanufactured products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Nikookar, Ethan & Gligor, David & Russo, Ivan, 2024. "Supply chain resilience: When the recipe is more important than the ingredients for managing supply chain disruptions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    3. López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & Quiñoá-Piñeiro, Lara & López-Pérez, M. Luisa, 2024. "Water and waste management strategies as drivers of the financial performance of food companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Chen, Xiayu & Shen, Junya & Wei, Shaobo, 2023. "What reduces product uncertainty in live streaming e-commerce? From a signal consistency perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Yanan Li & Sid Terason, 2023. "Configuring the Pattern of Sustainable Tourism Development as Affected by the Construction of a High-Speed Railway System," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    6. Hanne Knight & Mohamed Yacine Haddoud & Phil Megicks, 2022. "Determinants of corporate sustainability message sharing on social media: A configuration approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 633-647, February.
    7. Enrique de Diego Ruiz & Paloma Almodóvar & Ignacio Danvila del Valle, 2023. "What drives strategic agility? Evidence from a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA)," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 599-627, June.
    8. Confente, Ilenia & Scarpi, Daniele & Russo, Ivan, 2020. "Marketing a new generation of bio-plastics products for a circular economy: The role of green self-identity, self-congruity, and perceived value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 431-439.
    9. Krishen, Anjala S. & Berezan, Orie & Agarwal, Shaurya & Kachen, Sheen, 2023. "Affective commitment recipes for wine clubs: Value goes beyond the vine," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Gligor, David & Russo, Ivan & Maloni, Michael J., 2022. "Understanding gender differences in logistics innovation: A complexity theory perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    11. Gupta, Samrat & Deodhar, Swanand J. & Tiwari, Amit Anand & Gupta, Manjul & Mariani, Marcello, 2024. "How consumers evaluate movies on online platforms? Investigating the role of consumer engagement and external engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Hew, Jun-Jie & Lee, Voon-Hsien & Leong, Lai-Ying, 2023. "Why do mobile consumers resist mobile commerce applications? A hybrid fsQCA-ANN analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Emily Bacon & Michael D. Williams & Gareth H. Davies, 2023. "On the Combinatory Nature of Knowledge Transfer Conditions: A Mixed Method Assessment," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 1039-1061, June.
    14. Adrian Micu & Alexandru Capatina & Angela-Eliza Micu & Robert Rusu & Constantin Avram, 2019. "Configurations of Causal Conditions Leading to Geotagged Image and Social Context Recognition in the Case of AI Media Platform," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 479-486.
    15. Tan, Teck Ming & Makkonen, Hannu & Kaur, Puneet & Salo, Jari, 2022. "How do ethical consumers utilize sharing economy platforms as part of their sustainable resale behavior? The role of consumers’ green consumption values," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    16. Mehran, Javaneh & Olya, Hossein GT., 2020. "Canal boat tourism: Application of complexity theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    17. Abdul Rauf & Ameer Muhammad Aamir Abbas & Asim Rafiq & Saifullah Shakir & Saira Abid, 2022. "The Impact of Political Instability, Food Prices, and Crime Rate on Tourism: A Way toward Sustainable Tourism in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    18. Odou, Philippe & Schill, Marie, 2020. "How anticipated emotions shape behavioral intentions to fight climate change," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 243-253.
    19. Anh Thi Nguyen & Alrence S. Halibas & Robert McClelland & Nguyen Hoang Thuan, 2024. "Configurational analysis of conditions influencing customers’ channel switching intention in omnichannel retailing: a fuzzy-set analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 141-178, February.
    20. Dedeoglu, Bekir Bora & Boğan, Erhan & Kucukergin, Kemal Gurkan & Birinci, Muhammet Cenk, 2023. "Are tourists afraid of the unknown? Examining the role of travel constraints and tourist xenophobia with symmetric and asymmetric perspectives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).

    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:eee:jbrese:v:156:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322009766. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    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.