Crafting the Organic Mindset Through Attitude: A PLS-SEM Approach

Organic food consumption is a crucial concept of sustainability, especially in the quest for a healthy lifestyle, thus having witnessed human beings’ attention shift towards eco-friendly products, altogether eradicating the fear of pesticides’ adverse impact. Despite numerous research studies on organic food, very few have focused on health and environmental concerns underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in Malaysia’s context. Utilizing the TRA, the present study investigates the influencing factors and the mediating impact of attitudes on organic food purchases among Malaysian adults. The study utilized purposive sampling, and data analysis was conducted by Partial Least Square, Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings from 374 respondents accentuate the significance of attitude (ATT) in organic food purchase intention (PI) while confirming the pivotal role of health consciousness (HC) and subjective norm (SN), be it in PI or ATT. Although environmental concerns (EC) were seen to influence ATT directly but not PI, EC was able to render its impact on PI, mediated by ATT. This study offers crucial information that will aid organic food stakeholders in motivating purchase intention while providing impetus to the organic food’s body of knowledge. The present study concludes that organic food proponents can strategize through market segmentation, involving producers and marketers sharing information about product quality, ecological benefits, and flavor. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2024-05-04-08 Full Text: PDF