Abstract
In many developing countries, the market for green foods is still nascent, and factors that influence their consumption are poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate what drives the regular and occasional purchase behaviors of Iranian consumers. A systematic sampling technique was used to investigate the adoption behavior of 370 regular and occasional consumers in Karaj County, Iran. Also, a Bayesian model was constructed based on the theory of planned behavior, the value-belief-norm theory, and media influence. The Bayesian structural equation modeling revealed that the consumption behavior of both regular and occasional buyers appears to be driven by their environmental attitudes, environmental concerns, and also product accessibility. However, the relative effects of these determinants were different. In addition, the consumption behavior of regular buyers was influenced by green purchase perception, price fairness, purchase intention, and the media. Whereas other major determinants of occasional buyers’ behavior included hedonic attitude and labeling confidence. Recommendations and implications for policymakers and marketers were offered to increase green food consumption.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from Dr. Amir Alambeigi (alambaigi@ut.ac.ir) on reasonable request.
References
Abdul-Muhmin AG (2007) Explaining consumers’ willingness to be environmentally friendly. Int J Consum Stud 31(3):237–247
Aertsens J, Verbeke W, Mondelaers K, Huylenbroeck G (2009) Personal determinants of organic food consumption: a review. Br Food J 111:1140–1167
Aitken R, Watkins L, Williams J, Kean A (2020) The positive role of labelling on consumers’ perceived behavioural control and intention to purchase organic food. J Clean Prod 255:120334
Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50:179–211
Akehurst G, Afonso C, Gonçalves HM (2012) Re-examining green purchase behaviour and the green consumer profile: new evidences. Manag Decis 50(5):972–988
Anser MK, Yousaf Z, Usman B, Nassani AA, Abro MMQ, Zaman K (2020) Management of water, energy, and food resources: go for green policies. J Clean Prod 251:119662
Azzurra A, Massimiliano A, Angela M (2019) Measuring sustainable food consumption: a case study on organic food. Sustain Prod Consum 17:95–105
Barber N, Taylor C, Strick S (2010) Selective marketing to environmentally concerned wine consumers: a case for location, gender and age. J Consum Mark 27(1):64–75
Batra R, Ahtola OT (1991) Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian sources of consumer attitudes. Mark Lett 2(2):159–170
Black IR, Cherrier H (2010) Anti-consumption as part of living a sustainable lifestyle: daily practices, contextual motivations and subjective values. J Consum Behav 9(6):437–453
Campbell MC (2007) Says who?!” How the source of price information and affect influence perceived price (un)fairness. J Mark Res 44(2):261–271
Campbell J, DiPietro RB, Remar D (2014) Local foods in a university setting: price consciousness, product involvement, price/quality inference and consumer’s willingness-to-pay. Int J Hosp Manag 42:39–49
Chan R (2001) Determinants of Chinese consumers’ green purchasing behavior. Psychol Mark 18:389–413
Chaudhary R, Bisai S (2018) Factors influencing green purchase behavior of millennials in India. Manag Environ Qual 29(5):798–812
Chekima B, Chekima K, Chekima K (2019) Understanding factors underlying actual consumption of organic food: the moderating effect of future orientation. Food Qual Prefer 74:49–58
Chen MF (2007) Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in relation to organic foods in Taiwan: moderating effects of food-related personality traits. Food Qual Prefer 18(7):1008–1021
Chen TB, Chai LT (2010) Attitude towards the environment and green products: consumers’ perspective. Manag Sci Eng 4(2):27–39
Chen YS, Chang CH (2012) Enhance green purchase intentions. Manag Decis 50:502–520
Cheung MF, To WM (2019) An extended model of value-attitude-behavior to explain Chinese consumers’ green purchase behavior. J Retail Consum Serv 50:145–153
Cho YN, Thyroff A, Rapert M, Park SY, Lee HJ (2013) To be or not to be green: exploring individualism and collectivism as antecedent of environmental behavior. J Bus Res 66:1052–1059
Chou SF, Horng JS, Liu CHS, Lin JY (2020) Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: an integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes. J Retail Consum Serv 55:102113
Chyong HT, Phang G, Hasan H, Buncha MR (2006) Going green: a study of consumers’ willingness to pay for green products in Kota Kinabalu. Int J Bus Soc 7(2):40–54
Crane A (2000) Marketing and the natural environment: what role for morality? J Macromarket 20(2):144–154
Daniel WW, Cross CL (2018) Biostatistics: a foundation for analysis in the health sciences, 11th edn. Wiley, New York
Dewald B, Bruin BJ, Jang YJ (2014) US consumer attitudes towards “green” restaurants. Anatolia 25(2):171–180
Dhir A, Sadiq M, Talwar S, Sakashita M, Kaur P (2021) Why do retail consumers buy green apparel? A knowledge-attitude-behaviour-context perspective. J Retail Consum Serv 59:102398
Dunlap RE, Jones RE (2002) Environmental concern: conceptual and measurement issues. Handb Environ Sociol 3(6):482–524
Ellen P, Wiener J, Cobb-Walgren C (1991) The role of perceived consumer effectiveness in motivating environmentally conscious behaviours. J Public Policy Mark 10:102–117
Fornara F, Molinario E, Scopelliti M et al (2020) The extended value-belief-norm theory predicts committed action for nature and biodiversity in Europe. Environ Impact Assess Rev 81:106338
Ghazali EM, Nguyen B, Mutum DS, Yap SF (2019) Pro-environmental behaviours and value-belief-norm theory: assessing unobserved heterogeneity of two ethnic groups. Sustainability 11(12):3237
Gustavsen GW, Hegnes AW (2020) Individuals’ personality and consumption of organic food. J Clean Prod 245:118772
Han H (2020) Theory of green purchase behavior (TGPB): a new theory for sustainable consumption of green hotel and green restaurant products. Bus Strategy Environ 29(6):2815–2828
Hauser M, Nussbeck FW, Jonas K (2013) The impact of food-related values on food purchase behavior and the mediating role of attitudes: a Swiss study. Psychol Mark 30(9):765–778
Jaiswal D, Kant R (2018) Green purchasing behaviour: a conceptual framework and empirical investigation of Indian consumers. J Retail Consum Serv 41:60–69
Jang Y, Kim W, Lee H (2015) Coffee shop consumers’ emotional attachment and loyalty to green stores: the moderating role of green consciousness. Int J Hosp Manag 44:146–156
Joshi Y, Rahman Z (2015) Factors affecting green purchase behaviour and future research directions. Int Strateg Manag Rev 3(1–2):128–143
Kareklas I, Carlson JR, Muehling DD (2014) “I eat organic for my benefit and yours”: egoistic and altruistic considerations for purchasing organic food and their implications for advertising strategists. J Advert 43(1):18–32
Kautish P, Paul J, Sharma R (2019) The moderating influence of environmental consciousness and recycling intentions on green purchase behavior. J Clean Prod 228:1425–1436
Kautish P, Khare A, Sharma R (2020) Values, sustainability consciousness and intentions for SDG endorsement. Mark Intell Plan 38(7):921–939
Kavaliauskė M, Vaskiv U, Šeimienė E (2013) Consumers perception of Lithuanian eco-label. Econ Manag 18(4):802–815
Kim Y (2011) Understanding green purchase: The influence of collectivism, personal values and environmental attitudes, and the moderating effect of perceived consumer effectiveness. Seoul J Bus 17(1):65–92
Konuk FA (2019) The influence of perceived food quality, price fairness, perceived value and satisfaction on customers’ revisit and word-of-mouth intentions towards organic food restaurants. J Retail Consum Serv 50:103–110
Kumar A, Prakash G, Kumar G (2021) Does environmentally responsible purchase intention matter for consumers? A predictive sustainable model developed through an empirical study. J Retail Consum Serv 58:102270
Lago NC, Marcon A, Ribeiro JLD, de Medeiros JF, Brião VB, Antoni VL (2020) Determinant attributes and the compensatory judgement rules applied by young consumers to purchase environmentally sustainable food products. Sustain Prod Consum 23:256–273
Laroche M, Tomiuk M, Bergeron J, Barbaro-Forleo G (2002) Cultural differences in environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of Canadian consumers. Can J Adm Sci 19(3):267–283
Le Thi A, Nguyen MT, Thu Vu HT, Nguyen TTT (2020) Consumers’ trust in food safety indicators and cues: the case of Vietnam. Food Control 112:107162
Lee K (2008) Making environmental communications meaningful to female adolescents: a study in Hong Kong. Sci Commun 30(2):147–176
Liobikiene G, Mandravickaite J, Bernatoniene J (2016) Theory of planned behavior approach to understand the green purchasing behavior in the EU: a cross-cultural study. Ecol Econ 125:38–46
Marsh TL, Schroeder TC, Mintert J (2004) Impacts of meat product recalls on consumer demand in the USA. Appl Econ 36(9):897–909
Massey M, O’Cass A, Otahal P (2018) A meta-analytic study of the factors driving the purchase of organic food. Appetite 125:418–427
McCarthy BL, Liu HB, Chen T (2015) Trends in organic and green food consumption in China: opportunities and challenges for regional Australian exporters. J Econ Soc Policy 17(1):2
McDonagh P, Prothero A (2014) Sustainability marketing research: past, present and future. J Mark Manag 30(11–12):1186–1219
McDonald S, Oates CJ (2006) Sustainability: Consumer perceptions and marketing strategies. BUs Strategy Environ 15:157–170
Mkhize S, Ellis D (2019) Creativity in marketing communication to overcome barriers to organic produce purchases: the case of a developing nation. J Clean Prod 242:118415
Muralidharan S, Rejon-Guardia F, Xue F (2016) Understanding the green buying behavior of younger millennials from India and the United States: a structural equation modeling approach. J Int Consum Mark 28(1):54–72
Nagothu US (2018) Summary: sustainable intensification of agriculture, technology and policy options. Agricultural development and sustainable intensification. Routledge, London, pp 274–296
Nielsen TD, Jensen FV (2009) Bayesian networks and decision graphs. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin
Nur Nadirah MS, Ghazali H, Bakar AZ, Othman M (2016) Understanding media literacy in relation to adolescent soft drink consumption behavior. Int Food Res J 23(1):381–388
Olson EL (2017) The rationalization and persistence of organic food beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. J Clean Prod 140:1007–1013
Orlando G (2018) Offsetting risk: organic food, pollution, and the transgression of spatial boundaries. Cult Agric Food Environ 40(1):45–54
Paço A, Shiel C, Alves H (2019) A new model for testing green consumer behavior. J Clean Prod 207:998–1006
Patel JD, Trivedi RH, Yagnik A (2020) Self-identity and internal environmental locus of control: comparing their influences on green purchase intentions in high-context versus low-context cultures. J Retail Consum Serv 53:102003
Persaud A, Schillo SR (2017) Purchasing organic products: role of social context and consumer innovativeness. Mark Intell Plan 35(1):130–146
Pham TH, Nguyen TN, Phan TTH, Nguyen NT (2019) Evaluating the purchase behaviour of organic food by young consumers in an emerging market economy. J Strateg Mark 27(6):540–556
Phipps M, Ozanne LK, Luchs MG, Subrahmanyan S, Kapitan S, Catlin JR, Gau R, Naylor RW, Rose RL, Simpson B, Weaver T (2013) Understanding the inherent complexity of sustainable consumption: a social cognitive framework. J Bus Res 66(8):1227–1234
Piggott NE, Marsh TL (2004) Does food safety information impact US meat demand? Am J Agricult Econ 86(1):154–174
Prakash G, Pathak P (2017) Intention to buy eco-friendly packaged products among young consumers of India: a study on developing nation. J Clean Prod 141:385–393
Qi X, Ploeger Angelika A (2019) Explaining consumers’ intentions towards purchasing green food in Qingdao, China: the amendment and extension of the theory of planned behavior. Appetite 133:414–422
Qi X, Ploeger Angelika A (2021) An integrated framework to explain consumers’ purchase intentions toward green food in the Chinese context. Food Qual Prefer 92:104229
Ricci EC, Banterle A, Stranieri S (2018) Trust to go green: an exploration of consumer intentions for eco-friendly convenience food. Ecol Econ 148:54–65
Roberts JA (1996) Green consumers in the 1990s: profile and implications for advertising. J Bus Res 36:217–231
Rothenberger S (2015) Fairness through transparency: the influence of price transparency on consumer perceptions of price fairness. Working Papers CEB, 15
Schultz P (2000) Empathizing with nature: the effects of perspective taking on concern for environmental issues. J Soc Issues 56:391–406
Sharma AP (2021) Consumers’ purchase behaviour and green marketing: a synthesis, review and agenda. Int J Consum Stud 45(6):1217–1238
Sharma A, Foropon C (2019) Green product attributes and green purchase behavior: a theory of planned behavior perspective with implications for circular economy. Manag Decis 57:1018–1042
Sharma R, Shahbaz M, Kautish P, Vo XV (2021) Does energy consumption reinforce environmental pollution? Evidence from emerging Asian economies. J Environ Manag 297:113272
Sillani S, Nassivera F (2015) Consumer behavior in choice of minimally processed vegetables and implications for marketing strategies. Trends Food Sci Technol 46:339–345
Singh N, Gupta K (2013) Environmental attitude and ecological behavior of Indian consumers. Soc Responsib J 9(1):4–18
Smith S, Paladino A (2010) Eating clean and green? Investigating consumer motivations towards the purchase of organic food. Australas Mark J 18(2):93–104
Solekah NA, Handriana T, Usman I, Supriyanto AS (2020) Green marketing tools, supply chain, religiosity, environmental attitude and green purchase behavior. Int J Supply Chain Manag 9(4):371–378
Souiden N, Chaouali W, Baccouche M (2019) Consumers’ attitude and adoption of location-based coupons: the case of the retail fast food sector. J Retail Consum Serv 47:116–132
Stern PC, Dietz T, Abel T, Guagnano GA, Kalof L (1999) A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: the case of environmental concern. Hum Ecol Rev 6:81–97
Stranieri S, Ricci EC, Banterle A (2017) Convenience food with environmentally-sustainable attributes: a consumer perspective. Appetite 116:11–20
Suki NM (2016) Consumer environmental concern and green product purchase in Malaysia: structural effects of consumption values. J Clean Prod 132:204–214
Sultan P, Tarafder T, Pearson D, Henryks J (2020) Intention-behaviour gap and perceived behavioural control-behaviour gap in theory of planned behaviour: moderating roles of communication, satisfaction and trust in organic food consumption. Food Qual Prefer 81:103838
Tan BC (2011) The role of perceived consumer effectiveness on value-attitude behaviour model in green buying behaviour context. Aust J Basic Appl Sci 5:1766–1771
Tan WL, Goh YN (2018) The role of psychological factors in influencing consumer purchase intention towards green residential building. Int J Hous Mark Anal 11:788–807
Tandon A, Dhir A, Kaur P, Kushwah S, Salo J (2020) Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust. J Retail Consum Serv 57:102247
Tarkianen A, Sundqvist S (2005) Subjective norms, attitudes and intentions of Finnish consumers in buying organic food. Br Food J 107(11):808–822
Taufique KMR, Vaithianathan S (2018) A fresh look at understanding green consumer behavior among young urban Indian consumers through the lens of Theory of Planned Behavior. J Clean Prod 183:46–55
Thøgersen J (2011) Green shopping: for selfish reasons or the common good? Am Behav Sci 55:1052–1076
Torres-Ruiz FJ, Vega-Zamora M, Parras-Rosa M (2018) Sustainable consumption: proposal of a multistage model to analyse consumer behaviour for organic foods. Bus Strategy Environ 27(4):588–602
Trivedi RH, Patel JD, Acharya N (2018) Causality analysis of media influence on environmental attitude, intention and behaviors leading to green purchasing. J Clean Prod 196:11–22
Truong VA, Lang B, Conroy DM (2021) Are trust and consumption values important for buyers of organic food? A comparison of regular buyers, occasional buyers, and non-buyers. Appetite 161:105123
Vega-Zamora M, Torres-Ruiz FJ, Parras-Rosa M (2019) Towards sustainable consumption: keys to communication for improving trust in organic foods. J Clean Prod 216:511–519
Vermeir I, Verbeke W (2008) Sustainable food consumption among young adults in Belgium: theory of planned behavior and the role of confidence and values. Ecol Econ 64:542–553
Wang EST (2013) The influence of visual packaging design on perceived food product quality, value, and brand preference. Int J Retail Distrib Manag 41(10):805–816
Wang P, Liu Q, Qi Y (2014) Factors influencing sustainable consumption behaviors: a survey of the rural residents in China. J Clean Prod 63:152–165
Wang H, Ma B, Bai R, Zhang L (2021) The unexpected effect of frugality on green purchase intention. J Retail Consum Serv 59:102385
Warner HW, Forward S (2016) The effectiveness of road safety interventions using three different messages: emotional, factual or a combination of both messages. Transp Res F Traffic Psychol Behav 36:25–34
Woods J, Williams A, Hughes JK, Black M, Murphy R (2010) Energy and the food system. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci 365(1554):2991–3006
Yadav R, Pathak GS (2016) Determinants of consumers’ green purchase behavior in a developing nation: applying and extending the theory of planned behavior. Ecol Econ 134:114–122
Yu X, Gao Z, Zeng Y (2014) Willingness to pay for the “Green Food” in China. Food Policy 45:80–87
Zafar AU, Shen J, Ashfaq M, Shahzad M (2021) Social media and sustainable purchasing attitude: role of trust in social media and environmental effectiveness. J Retail Consum Serv 63:102751
Zhao HH, Gao Q, Wu YP, Wang Y, Zhu XD (2014) What affects green consumer behaviour in China? A case study from Qingdao. J Clean Prod 63:143–151
Zhen JSS, Mansori S (2012) Young female motivations for purchase of organic food in Malaysia. Int J Contemp Bus Stud 3(5):61–72
Funding
This research did not receive any financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Alambeigi, A., Keshavarz, M., Roshanpoor, F. et al. Framing a model for regular and occasional consumption of green foods in developing countries. J Consum Prot Food Saf 18, 147–161 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-023-01433-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-023-01433-0