Beyond Environmental Concern: Multiple Consumer Value Logics Driving Willingness to Pay for Food Forest Produce

ABSTRACT For regenerative agricultural systems such as food forests to move from experimental niches to scalable market solutions, they must attract consumer acceptance and sufficient willingness to pay a price premium. This study examines the demand‐side drivers of consumers' willingness to pay for food forest produce, focusing on nature connectedness, perceived health risks associated with monoculture farming, climate change concern, and need for uniqueness. Using a quota‐based US online‐panel sample designed to approximate the adult population on gender, age, income, and education ( N = 845), this study examines participants' evaluations of food forest products after standardized introductory information. The results show that all four factors positively influence stated willingness to pay, with nature connectedness emerging as the most influential driver. Moreover, the effect of climate change concern on willingness to pay is contingent on consumer identity orientation: Its impact is stronger among consumers low in uniqueness‐seeking and weaker among those with a high need for uniqueness. Overall, the findings indicate that market support for regenerative agri‐food systems is shaped by a configuration of value logics (i.e., relational–ecological, self‐protective health, collective‐normative, and identity‐expressive), rather than by environmental concern alone. These logics operate partly as complementary sources of price acceptance, whereas the identity‐expressive logic also creates a substitution effect by weakening the marginal influence of climate concern among consumers high in uniqueness‐seeking. The study contributes to strategy and sustainability research by showing how consumers' willingness to pay for regenerative food systems can be explained by the selective coupling of different consumer value logics.