The effects of consumer consciousness, food safety concern and healthy lifestyle on attitudes toward eating “green”

Tan, Booi Chen, Lau, Teck Chai, Sarwar, Abdullah and Khan, Nasreen (2021) The effects of consumer consciousness, food safety concern and healthy lifestyle on attitudes toward eating “green”. British Food Journal, 124 (4), 1187-1203. (doi:10.1108/BFJ-01-2021-0005).

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to propose a research framework to examine the effects of consumer consciousness, food safety concern and healthy lifestyle on the attitudes toward eating “green” simultaneously in a single study. Besides, the mediating role of healthy lifestyle in forming a positive attitude toward eating “green” is also examined in this study. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire-based approach was applied in this study. The unit of analysis was individual consumer (aged 18 years and above) who lived in Klang Valley, Malaysia. PLS-SEM was used to test the structural relationship of the constructs in the model based on the 300 useable data collected. Findings: The results indicated that health consciousness, food safety concern and healthy lifestyle have a significant effect on attitudes toward eating “green”, whereas environmental and price consciousness did not have such effect. A healthy lifestyle also mediates the relationship between health consciousness and attitude toward eating “green”. An individual’s healthy lifestyle that focused on physical health-related activities will increase the effect of consumer health consciousness on their attitudes toward eating “green”. Practical implications: The outcome of this study provided deeper insights for firms to assess the feasibility of entering or expanding their operations in the green market with more enduring and effective sales and marketing strategies. Originality/value: Consumers’ acceptance of or resistance toward organic food had become the centre of the research focus by the academician and the industrial practitioners over the years, despite the inconsistencies of the results obtained to predict such behavior. In this study, besides examining the direct effect of the proposed variables on the attitudes toward eating “green”, the mediating role of a healthy lifestyle in forming such attitudes was also examined.

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