Impacts of household norms and trust on organic food purchase behavior under adapted theory of planned behavior

Abstract

PurposeThis paper proposed an adaptation of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to study the factors influencing organic food purchase behavior in an emerging market. This research introduced household norms as an important factor that reflected the influence of household activities and family pressure on individuals to perform organic food purchase behaviors. The role of trust in organic food as a direct and a moderating factor was examined in the proposed framework as well.Design/methodology/approachThe study proposed a model with 10 hypotheses from the literature review. The hypotheses were tested using data collected from 407 organic food customers in Hanoi, Vietnam. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that household norms played an important role influencing purchase intention and behavior. This research also showed that trust in organic food directly affected purchase intention and played a moderating role on the attitude towards organic food and purchase intention relationship. However, trust in organic food did not show moderating effects on other relationships in the model.Research limitations/implicationsMore context-specific reasons may be incorporated into the research model to better explain consumer purchase behaviors.Originality/valueThe role of household norms and its impact under TPB has not been investigated for organic food purchase behaviors, particularly in emerging markets.