Influences on purchase intentions of organic food consumers in an emerging economy

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-12-2019-0364
Published date17 April 2020
Pages599-620
Date17 April 2020
AuthorNeeraj Dangi,Sapna A. Narula,Sandeep Kumar Gupta
Subject MatterStrategy,International business
Inuences on purchase intentions of
organic food consumers in an
emerging economy
Neeraj Dangi, Sapna A. Narula and Sandeep Kumar Gupta
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the determinants of organic food buying behaviour in an
emerging economylike India, where organic food yet has low market share in spite of its potential.Using
the theory of plannedbehaviour (TPB) as the underlying basis, it attemptsto explain the effect of attitude,
subjective norms and the perceived behaviour control (PBC) on buyingintention towards organic food
among respondents in Delhi-National capital region, India. Additionally, it attempts to discriminate
functionaland constructive attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach A quantitative questionnaire survey approach was used on 306
respondentsand multiple linear regressionwas used to validate the research model.
Findings Attitudes and PBC have a significant positive impact on the intention to purchase organic
food. This paper found subjective norms to be weak and barely significant to intention. The results
conclude that health motives, past purchase behaviour, knowledge, affordability and trust in organic
certification label are the main facilitators in organic food purchase. Primarily, the respondents see
buying organicfood regularly as being of value and enjoyable to them.A more favourable appearance vs
conventionalfood was negatively relatedto behavioural intention.
Originality/value This research could aid all stakeholders in the organic food sector, particularly
emerging economieslike India where the organic market is stillnascent. It could be an essential driver to
improve customerinvolvement and thus aid them in the decision-making processto choose organic food
over conventionalfood. It also attempts to establish the usability of TPB in assessingfunctional attitudes
based on constructiveattitudes for organic food purchase.
Keywords Organic food, Consumer buying behaviour, Theory of planned behaviour, Attitude,
Perceived behavior control, Subjective norms, Indian consumers
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Consumers’ demand for safe and environmentally friendly products is increasing
throughout the world. Organizations are responding by becoming more sustainable to
remain relevant and competitive (Rao,2007;Chariri et al., 2019;Laskar, 2018;Singh and El-
Kassar, 2019;Singh, 2019) by changing their governance, operations and products (Singh
et al.,2019
;Bhaumik et al.,2019;Kumar et al., 2020;Singh,2018a, 2018b). Sometimes
organizations, especially in emerging economies, may adopt just for the sake of corporate
social responsibility compliance (Gaur et al.,2019), whereas others desire to gain a
competitive edge over competitors through differentiation.Nevertheless, consumer concern
for ecological, nutritional, health and other related issues have led to consistent growth of
organic food and drinks across the world (Schlatter et al.,2020;ASSOCHAM & EY, 2018),
which had reached US$114bn in 2018 (Schlatter et al., 2020). The three most significant
organic food and drinks markets in the world (as of 2017) are USA (US$47.9bn), Germany
(US$12.8bn) and France (US$10.7bn), respectively, with Switzerland, Denmark (US
Neeraj Dangi and
Sapna A. Narula are both
based at the Department of
Business Sustainability,
TERI University, New Delhi,
India.
Sandeep Kumar Gupta is
based at the School of
Management and
Entrepreneurship, Shiva
Nadar University, Greater
Noida, India.
Received 14 December 2019
Revised 26 February 2020
Accepted 3 March 2020
DOI 10.1108/JABS-12-2019-0364 VOL. 14 NO. 5 2020, pp. 599-620, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 jJOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES jPAGE 599
$368 each) and Sweden (US$272) having the highest per capita consumption of organic
food per annum (Schlatter et al.,2020).The organic food market in India, though nascent, is
seeing sizeable growth and was estimatedat US$223.2m (2017) (Schlatter et al.,2020).
The demand for organic food in India is limited to big towns (Oswald, 2013;Nandi et al.,
2017) primarily metro cities (Sally, 2013), where it grew by 95 per cent since 2012
(ASSOCHAM & EY, 2018). The growth has been highest in Delhi and Mumbai
(ASSCOHAM, 2013) with Delhihaving the highest household income among metros in India
(Shukla,2010, 2018). However, further analysis shows that in spite of 62 per cent of
households in metros prefer organic over conventional food, yet their weekly organic food
purchase remains low (ASSOCHAM, 2013). So, in spite of Delhi-National capital region
(NCR) residents having one of the highest purchasing powers in India and increased
awareness, organic food is far from becoming a mass product. The intention is not always
translated into behaviour in spite of higher income suggests supply and demand
constraints. Thus, in spite of increased awareness, the share of organic food in India has
remained low; the per capita consumption of organic food in India is only US$0.21 (2017)
compared to US$12.8 globally (2018) (Schlatteret al., 2020).
Researchers globally have considered health and environmental motives, demographic
characteristics and psychographic factors like attitudes in their study (Baker et al.,2004;
Zhou et al.,2013). However, most studies have been done on developed economies.
Buying decisions depend on social, economic, cultural and other related factors (Haryanto
et al., 2019) like product origin (Vijaranakorn and Shannon, 2017;Wei, 2008) and often
involves trade-off or loss aversion strategies by the consumer (Burhanudin and Ferguson,
2018), that may vary considerably nationally and regionally limiting the generalisation of
previous conclusions from other regions (Gong et al.,2013;Parida and Sahney, 2017).
Thus, an analysis of Indian market may offer a different insight about consumer buying
intention as the inference drawn from other, especially developed nations may not be
relevant and valid (Zhou et al.,2013).
There have been very limited studies on organic food consumption in India which have
been conducted in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore (Basha and Lal, 2019), Kolkata
(Prakash et al., 2018) and New Delhi (Pandey and Khare, 2015;Sondhi, 2014;Misra and
Singh, 2016). However, oftenthey have limited it to specific demographic groups like young
consumers (Yadav and Pathak, 2016;Prakash et al., 2018). Additionally, previous studies in
India have either not factored in the influence of subjective influence (friends, family and
opinion leaders) (Misra and Singh, 2016), clustering Delhi (metro) with non-metro cities
together (with different demand and supply conditions) (Singh and Verma, 2017;Pandey
and Khare, 2015) or sampled from non-organic food consumers (Sondhi, 2014). Further,
previous organic food consumption studies in India have not screened potential
respondents based on-time duration of previous organic food purchase, whereas we have
only considered existing organic food consumers who have purchased organic food
product(s) in the past one month. This we believe could help in reducing the intention-
behaviour gap during organic food purchase as mentioned earlier and is sometimes
argued (Hamlin, 2016;Singhand Verma, 2017).
For our study, we have used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) proposed by Icek
Ajzen. It evolved from the theory of reasoned action and of late has become the dominant
social psychological theory for predicting human behaviour. Specifically, the TPB model
offers a better examinationof the underlying beliefs that highlight the psychographic factors
(attitude), social norms factors (subjective norms) and other facilitators and barriers
(perceived behavioural control [PBC]) of behavioural intention compared to other theories
(Ajzen,2015a, 2015b). Further, socio-demographic factors act as background factors to
test its influence on its intention (Ajzen, 2015b). However, the study limits itself to study the
underlying beliefs and not background factors. The utility of this model in organic food
consumption has been supported previously (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005; Anssi and
PAGE 600 jJOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES jVOL. 14 NO. 5 2020

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