Purchasing Behavior of Organic Food among Chinese University Students

The consumption of organically produced food is gaining ground around the world due to growing consumers’ concerns for personal health. Nevertheless, researchersaddressed the intention-behavior gap pertaining to buying organic food and called for more studies on consumers’ actual purchasing behavior...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 13; no. 10; p. 5464
Main Authors Ali, Hazem, Li, Min, Hao, Yunhong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 13.05.2021
Subjects
Attitudes
Buying
Consciousness
Consumers
Food
Marketing
Multivariate statistical analysis
Natural & organic foods
Personal health
Pricing policies
Purchasing
Questionnaires
Students
China
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Summary:The consumption of organically produced food is gaining ground around the world due to growing consumers’ concerns for personal health. Nevertheless, researchersaddressed the intention-behavior gap pertaining to buying organic food and called for more studies on consumers’ actual purchasing behavior. In order to understand this disparity, the current study examined the relationship among health consciousness, pricing policy, consumer trust, personal attitude, and purchasing behavior of organic food among university students. In addition, this research examined the moderating impact of word of mouth (WOM). This research adopted a quantitative method and employed convenience sampling to administer survey questionnaires to buyers of organic food in five Chinese universities between November 2020 and February 2021. A total of 335 questionnaires were collected and used for data analysis. Structural equation modeling results revealed that purchasing behavior is positively related to health consciousness and negatively influenced by pricing policy, while personal attitude and consumer trust had an insignificant association with students’ buying behavior of organic food. Further, WOM had a positive moderating impact on the relationship between health consciousness and purchasing behavior; and was found to strengthen the negative relationship between pricing policy and organic food purchasing behavior. This study presents some critical implications for researchers and organic food retailers and marketers.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13105464