Unlocking the vegan mindset: a constraint–effects–mitigation framework for understanding switching intentions

Purpose With the growing awareness of environmental sustainability, animal welfare and health benefits of vegan diets, understanding behavioural and psychological processes that influence consumers to switch to a vegan diet is crucial. Therefore, the current study employs an extended constraint–effects–mitigation model to assess the role of perceived constraints, motivation, negotiation and learned helplessness in understanding consumers' intention to switch to a vegan diet. Design/methodology/approach The current study was conducted in two stages. The first stage involved 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews, which were examined through content analysis. In the second stage, data were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire from 374 participants. All the proposed relationships were analysed using PLS-SEM 4.1.0.3. Findings Results show that constraints inhibit consumers from switching to a vegan diet; however, they appear to have an insignificant impact on negotiation strategies. The positive and significant impact of negotiation strategies on learned helplessness confirms the role played by negotiation strategies in encouraging consumers to switch to veganism. Notably, motivation strongly influences negotiation strategies and consumers' switching intentions. Research limitations/implications This research advances the literature on vegan food adoption by integrating motivation, constraints, negotiation and learned helplessness in a single framework based on the CEM model. Practical implications The insights from the current research can be leveraged by marketers to design affordable and accessible sustainable products that cater to diverse consumer needs and preferences. Originality/value This study expands the existing literature on food and consumer behaviour by examining the consumers' intentions to switch to vegan food through the lens of extended CEM framework. This study adds a novel dimension to the understanding of vegan food consumption by integrating the psychological construct of learned helplessness, which has not been previously studied in this domain. By doing so, this study equips the marketing practitioners with deeper understanding of the factors inhibiting consumers to switch to vegan food consumption.