What drives willingness to purchase and stated buying behavior toward organic food? A Stimulus–Organism–Behavior–Consequence (SOBC) perspective
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
View/ Open
Date
2021Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Original version
Talwar, S. Jabeen, F. Tandon, A. Sakashita, M. Dhir, A. (2021). What drives willingness to purchase and stated buying behavior toward organic food? A Stimulus–Organism–Behavior–Consequence (SOBC) perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 293, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125882Abstract
The consumption of organic food is gaining ground globally due to consumers’ concerns for personal
health and food safety. Several countries, such as Japan, are turning their focus to promoting organic food
consumption, but research is scarce on Japan’s organic food market. Additionally, despite consumers’
positive predisposition, retail sales in Japan for organic food are low, and there is a need to understand
the reason for this disparity. The present study addressed this need by examining factors that may drive
consumers’ willingness to purchase (WTP) and stated buying behavior (SBB) toward organic food
through the StimuluseOrganismeBehavioreConsequence (SOBC) paradigm. The developed model was
tested using cross-sectional data collected from 928 Japanese consumers. Study findings suggest that
food safety concerns (FSC) and health consciousness are positively related to openness to change, and
ethical self-identity. Further, openness to change and ethical self-identity are positively associated with
WTP, while SBB is positively associated with WTP. In addition to this, buying frequency positively
moderated the association of self-identity with WTP and WTP with SBB. The study offers critical im-
plications for researchers, marketers and retailers.