Extending the stimulus organism response model with exercise habits to explain consumer purchase intentions for alternative foods

The growth of the population and the increasing severity of environmental problems have made it impossible for traditional foods to satisfy the ever-growing demand for food. Alternative foods are becoming an increasingly important research direction in order to address the challenges of food safety and sustainable development in the future. The current academic research has not yet reached a large scale. Many studies focus on alternative food purchasing intentions is relatively limited, with most studies focusing on motivation and sustainability, green e-word-of-mouth, and online digital factors. Based on the stimulus-organization-response (SOR) model, this paper adds the factor of exercise habits as a supplement to the model. Stratified sampling was used to conduct an online questionnaire survey among university students, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze 353 valid samples. According to the findings, exercise habit has a negative impact on food neophobia, and food neophobia has a negative impact on satisfaction. However, green word-of-mouth has a significant impact on satisfaction, and satisfaction has a significant impact on purchase intention. It is specifically intended to promote the dissemination of sustainable consumption concepts and to influence consumers to make healthy and environmentally friendly product choices. Also, the results of the research can help the government formulate relevant policies, and provide a basis for decision-making by enterprises to expand into new markets and producers to alter their production processes. A business can increase consumers' purchase intention through sports cooperation, reducing food neophobia, and strengthening green word-of-mouth. Policymakers should promote alternative foods through community demonstrations and provide strengthened sports nutrition education.