The role of environmental concern in purchasing decision on organic food and the link to greenwashing

Leblebici Kocer L., Ulucak Z., Akca T. D.

ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s10668-023-04150-8
  • Dergi Adı: ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, PASCAL, ABI/INFORM, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), BIOSIS, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CAB Abstracts, Geobase, Greenfile, Index Islamicus, Pollution Abstracts, Veterinary Science Database, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Erciyes Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Customers have changed their buying habits due to growing consumer awareness of good nutrition and environmental degradation. They now seek more natural, high-quality, and dependable items from companies. Businesses include organic products in their product offers, and organic product consumption is becoming a growing market considering the changing consumer expectations. For this reason, firms in the industry must understand what influences consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions concerning organic food. On the other hand, Companies may make greenwashing to increase their sales by seeming more sustainable or environmentally friendly than they are, without making any meaningful changes to their practices. In this paper, we analyze the factors affecting the purchasing decisions of consumers on organic food and relate the results with the greenwashing behaviour of firms. An online survey obtained the research data via Google Forms to 425 consumers selected by convenience sampling. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Model were used to analyze the data. Our results show that health consciousness, food safety, price sensitivity, and quality are significant drivers of organic food purchasing decisions, while environmental concern is statically insignificant driver of consumer attitudes.