Buying Organic Food Products: The Role of Trust in the Theory of Planned Behavior

“Many studies within the food consumption literature have assumed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) as their theoretical reference for investigating the psychosocial factors that explain consumers’ intentions and behaviors.”

“50 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981); furthermore, the AVE of each construct was higher than the squared correlations among the constructs, indicating good convergent and discriminant validity.”

“Additionally, marketers should design marketing campaigns focused on the personal advantages of organic food consumption, such as health benefits (Kushwah et al., 2019), and on facilitating the perception of control, thus supporting individuals in overcoming obstacles and barriers (e.g., the cost…”

“…of fields, such as those concerning health behaviors (McEachan et al., 2016), healthy eating (Riebl et al., 2015), pro-environmental behaviors (Klöckner, 2013), and organic food consumption (Scalco et al., 2017), and its predictive power has been demonstrated in a number of meta-analyses like…”

“…of the concept of trust: (a) the expectation that the counterpart will act in a reliable and not harmful manner and (b) the intention to rely on the counterpart, at the same time as accepting some degree of vulnerability (e.g., uncertainty, risk of being frustrated) (Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000).”

“The lack of consumer trust in green products can act as a barrier to green consumption (Joshi and Rahman, 2015); vice versa, uncritical trust in the “organic food” category or label may leave consumers”

“Furthermore, The TPB theory has been implied to study consumer behavior in many study areas, such as [11].”

“The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constitutes one of the most influential frameworks for explaining and predicting intentional behavior across consumer, health, and sustainability contexts (Canova et al., 2020).”

“The scale for “Intention to Buy Organic Food” was adopted from Canova et al. (2020) and Istiasih et al. (2022) .”

“Consequently, individuals are more likely to purchase organic products if those around them perceive the products as beneficial (Canova et al, 2020).”

“Although prior studies have not consistently supported the effect of subjective norm on purchase intention (38), perceived normative pressure remains theoretically relevant and empirically supported in organic and sustainable consumption contexts (5, 39, 40).”

“Similarly, positive cognitive evaluations of a product’s eco-friendliness significantly amplify consumption motivation [34–38].”

“Despite this robust growth, organic products typically command price premiums, which has led to increased consumer uncertainty toward marketing claims and a persistent trust gap between producers and consumers [6].”

““Green food” increasingly serves as an overarching concept linking organic, fresh, and sustainable food within modern food systems alone (Canova et al. 2020; Dangaiso 2024).”

“In the context of organic food purchase intention, the consumer's evaluation towards organic products, the influence of social pressures, and his confidence in regular purchase of such products, all these determinants are recognized as important under the TPB framework (Canova et al., 2020).”

“Kepercayaan normative berhubungan dengan harapan orang lain terhadap pilihan makanan sedangkan kepercayaan kontrol focus pada pandangan seseorang mengenai mudah dan kesulitan dalam memilih makanan sehat (Canova et al ., 2020).”

“Previous studies have shown that personal health awareness positively affects customer attitudes and behaviors towards local food (Canova et al., 2020; Ting et al., 2017).”

“Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur district Knowledge about organic products plays an important role in purchasing the products (Canova et al., 2020).”

“Generally, two explanations are provided to understand less buying rate of natural and biotic sustenance: the high price of natural and biotic sustenance; and limited accessibility of these products (Canova et al., 2020).”

“Consistent with global trends, a local study by Saleki et al. (2019) highlights a disparity between intention and actual behaviour in organic food consumption (Akbar et al., 2019; Canova et al., 2020; Sultan et al., 2020).”

“Recent organic food studies used trust as an additional construct to predict CI (Canova et al ., 2020; Carfora et al ., 2019; Carfora et al ., 2021).”

“Among the most common: "perceived ease of use", "personal moral norm", "ability to refuse", "perceived moral obligation", "past behavior", "perception of usefulness", “trust” and others depending on the specific field of scientific investigation [37].”