Role of Organic Certification and Trust in Organic Food Buying Intention: Attitude as a mediator

Abstract

The present research study aims to evaluate the impact of organic certification and trust on consumers’ purchase intention of organic food products by using the TPB framework with evaluating the mediation effect of attitude. The present study is based on 466 western consumers of India collected via convenience sampling method through an online survey and social media. The structured questionnaire was designed in the form of a Google form and a link for the same shared online. The Collected data were analyzed using CFA and SEM. Findings suggest that trust, organic certification, and attitude towards organic food significantly influence purchase intention, whereas subjective norm and perceived behavioural control do not. It empirically confirms the mediating effect of attitude between organic certification and intention to buy. Organic certification and trust both have more of a direct effect on purchase intention than an indirect effect via attitude as a mediator. This study is based on organic food in general and not a for specific product class where the result can be different. The limitation of convenience sampling may affect the result where the future studies can be directed. This paper explores the role of ‘organic certification’ and ‘trust’ in getting insights into Indian consumers’ organic food purchase intention that is rare in nature. Moreover, the mediating role of ‘attitude’ in organic food is examined as a novel contribution in India.

Keywords

• organic food product
• organic certification
• purchase intention
• theory of planned behaviour (tpb)
• structural equation modeling