Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

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Appetite
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet

Intention to purchase organic food among young consumers:

Evidences from a developing nation
Rambalak Yadav*, Govind Swaroop Pathak
Department of Management Studies, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 5 September 2014
Received in revised form
21 August 2015
Accepted 14 September 2015
Available online 16 September 2015

The present study attempts to investigate the consumer's intention to purchase organic food in the
context of a developing nation (India) using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Further, the study has
incorporated additional constructs (moral attitude, health consciousness and environmental concern) in
the TPB and measured its appropriateness. Responses were collected from 220 young consumers
adopting convenience sampling approach. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
to evaluate the strength of relationship between the constructs. The ndings reported that the TPB
partially supported the organic food purchase intention. Among the additional constructs incorporated,
moral attitude and health consciousness positively inuenced the consumer's intention to purchase
organic food. The study has supported the inclusion of new constructs in the TPB as it has improved the
predictive power of the proposed framework in determining consumer's intention to purchase organic
food.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Organic food
Environmental concern
Health consciousness
Theory of planned behavior

1. Introduction
In Millennium Development Goals, 2010, United Nations
mentioned sustainable consumption as one of the main pillars of
achieving environmental sustainability (Marrakech Process
Secretariat: UNDESA and UNEP, 2010). Considering the importance of environment for the welfare of human beings the concept
of ethics in consumerism has prospered (Dowd & Burke, 2013) and
has become one of the mainstream issues (Carrington, Neville, &
Whitwell, 2010). The production and consumption of food is one
of the most commonly discussed topics in the ethical behavioral
literature as it is associated with various environmental impacts
(Tobler, Visschers, & Siegrist, 2011). Now the consumers have
started showing greater concern about their health, quality and
nutritional value of food (Gil, Tomas-Barberan, Hess-Pierce, Holcroft, & Kader, 2000), which has motivated them to change their
dietary preferences. The present decade has seen an increased
demand for organic food which is perceived to be healthier and
environmental friendly than conventionally grown foods (Williams
& Hammitt, 2001). As a result the consumer preferences have

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rbyadav1988@gmail.com (R. Yadav), gspathak@gmail.com
(G.S. Pathak).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.09.017
0195-6663/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

shifted from conventionally grown foods to organically produced

foods.
Earlier, the production and consumption of organic food was
more popular in developed countries but this concept is also getting acceptance in developing countries. About one-third organically managed land of the world is in developing countries. More
specically, India is among the developing countries having one of
the largest areas under organic management (Willer & Kilcher,
2009; as cited in Chakrabarti, 2010). Earlier the organic food produced in the India was exported to the United States and Europe
(The Hindu, 2010) but with time organic food products are gaining
acceptance in domestic market as well. According to a survey of
Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) an increase in consumption of organic food products has
been noticed in India during the last ve years (Economics Time
Bureau, 2013) but the market penetration is still at the nascent
stage in the domestic market (Kapoor & Garyali, 2012). As the
consumption of organic food is fairly a new concept in developing
countries in comparison to their developed counterparts, so it
would be interesting to study the various aspects of organic food
purchase intention in developing nations like India. Most of the
research on consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding purchase
and consumption of organic foods are from the perspective of
developed countries. Therefore, the present study attempts to understand the consumer's intention to purchase organic food in the

R. Yadav, G.S. Pathak / Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

context of a developing nation- India; adopting the theoretical

framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).

1.1. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and its applicability in

organic food choice behavior
The TPB states that three factors, namely; Attitude toward the
behavior, Subjective norm, and Perceived behavioral control, all
together leads to the formation of a behavioral intention (Ajzen,
1985). Attitude toward behavior refers to the degree to which a
person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the
behavior in the question Subjective norm is dened as perceived
social pressure to perform or not perform the behavior Perceived
behavioral control is an individual perceived ease or difculty or
performing the particular behavior. The people having a higher
degree of control over them are more likely to have strong intention
to perform a particular behavior. Behavioral intention is dened as
individual's readiness to perform a certain behavior and it is
assumed as an immediate antecedent of the actual behavior (Ajzen,
1991).
The TPB has been found very useful in predicting consumer
intention and behavior in a wide range of elds (Mathieson, 1991)
and has also been applied successfully in food choice and behavior,
more specically in context of organic food (Dowd & Burke, 2013).
The TPB framework has been found to be suitable in predicting
organic food purchase intention across different cultures. Arvola
et al. (2008) studied the applicability of TPB in organic food purchase intention across three different countries (UK, Italy and
Finland). The TPB was found suitable in predicting organic food
purchase intention across these cultures. However, the relative
inuence of variables varies across country to country. Similar
studies were conducted by Smith and Paladino (2010) in Australia
and by Zagata (2012) in the Czech Republic using TPB as the
theoretical framework. The result showed the applicability of TPB
in determining organic food purchase intention across various
cultures. On the basis of this discussion, following hypotheses can
be proposed.

123

1.3. Moral attitude

The TPB has been criticized mainly, as it has no consideration for
moral inuences that affect the behavior (Armitage & Conner,
2001; Arvola et al., 2008; Dowd & Burke, 2013) and moral attitude plays an important role in inuencing the domain where there
is conict of individual and social gains (Manstead, 2000). Moral
attitude aims to measure the favourable self-evaluations which arise
from anticipated compliance with one's own moral principles
(Schwartz, 1977). Moral obligation can be useful in the context of
organic foods as purchasing organic food shows the individuals
concern for themselves, society and the environment, so there is a
possibility that conicts may arise between personal and social
gain. Addition of moral norms in the TPB has proved its applicability in behavioral studies (Arvola et al., 2008; Dowd & Burke,
2013). Dowd and Burke (2013) found that addition of moral attitude has a profound effect on the TPB, as it added 8% to the
explanatory power of the TPB model whereas Arvola et al. (2008)
shows that inclusion of moral attitude in the TPB model tted the
data slightly better than the original TPB model. The discussion
leads to the formulation of hypothesis H4.
H4. Moral attitude positively inuences the consumer intention
to purchase organic foods.

1.4. Health consciousness

H2. Subjective norm signicantly inuences the consumer's

intention to purchase organic food.

Health consciousness can be dened as the degree to which

health concerns are integrated into person's daily activities (Jayanti &
Burns, 1998). Consumers consider health as an important parameter while purchasing the food products (Wandel & Bugge, 1997)
and show interest in issues related to food and health (Rozin,
Fischler, Imada, Sarubin, & Wrzesniewski, 1999). The consumers
who were more concerned about their health related issues had
more favorable attitudes toward purchasing organic products (Paul
& Rana, 2010). Organic foods are generally perceived as a healthier
option as compared to the conventionally grown foods (Lea &
Worsley, 2005) and health concern is considered as one of the
major factors that motivates the consumer attitude and intention
towards the purchase of organic foods (Chakrabarti, 2010; Davies,
Titterington, & Cochrane, 1995; Magnusson, Arvola, Hursti, berg,
de
n, 2003; Zanoli & Naspetti, 2002). The following hypothe& Sjo
ses were proposed based on the above discussion:

H3. Greater behavioral control signicantly increases consumer

intentions to purchase organic food.

H5. Health consciousness among consumers positively inuences

their attitude toward organic food.

H1. Consumer's attitude towards the organic food positively inuences their intention to purchase organic food.

1.2. Incorporating new constructs in the TPB

The TPB is open for modication as Ajzen (1991) suggested that
it can be deepened and broadened by adding new variables or
altering the path of the existing variables. Although TPB is based on
the assumption that behavioral intention is determined by attitude,
subjective norm and PBC, previous researches show that there are
some domain specic factors which are not included in this model
(Armitage & Conner, 2001; Donald, Cooper, & Conchie, 2014).
Therefore, increasing evidences has been noticed in the recent
psychological literature for including predictor variables in the TPB.
Inclusion of additional predictor variables has resulted in
improving the predictive utility of the TPB across various domains
(Arvola et al., 2008; Donald et al., 2014). The present study has also
attempted to include new constructs (moral attitude, health consciousness and environmental concern) in the TPB taking support
from the extant literature.

H6. Health consciousness positively inuences the consumer's

intention to purchase organic food.

1.5. Environmental concern

Environmental concern indicates the degree to which people are
aware of problems regarding the environment and support efforts to
solve them or indicate the willingness to contribute personally to their
solution (Dunlap & Jones, 2002: 482). An individual's concern for
the environment is fundamental to environmental research and has
a direct relationship with the environmentally friendly behavior
(Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, 1987). Pagiaslis and Krontalis (2014)
have also mentioned in their study that environmental concern has
a direct and a positive impact on consumer's intention to buy ecofriendly products. Environmental concern plays a signicant role in
determining the purchase intention of organic food (Smith &
Paladino, 2010) as buying organic food is considered as proenvironmental behavior. Tregear, Dent, and McGregor (1994)

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R. Yadav, G.S. Pathak / Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

found in their study that consumer's who prefer organic products

were more likely to engage in eco-friendly activities, which shows
their concern for the environment. Increased concern about the
environment is responsible for the increased consumption of
organic food. The discussion results into the following hypotheses:
H7. Environmental concern among consumers positively inuences their attitude towards organic food.
H8. Environmental concern positively inuences the consumer's
intention to buy organic food.
On the basis of above discussion a research framework has been
developed (Fig. 1 shows the theoretical framework used in the
study).
2. Method
2.1. Questionnaire design
The questionnaire of the study consisted of two parts: a) close
ended questions, and b) open ended question.
a) The close ended portion of questionnaire was designed by
adopting items from relevant literature. Items were measured
using a 5 point Likert's scale, where 5 indicates a positive view
(Strongly Agree) and 1 represents a negative view (Strongly
Disagree). Some questions were reversed scored with an aim to
be consistent with the direction throughout the scale. The
questionnaire items and their source of adoption are mentioned
in Table 1.
b) The second part of the questionnaire contains an open ended
question What are the major barriers you face while buying
organic foods?

2.2. Research design, area and subject of study

The data were collected using a self administered questionnaire
in two districts of Uttar Pradesh (India): Varanasi and Allahabad.
Varanasi and Allahabad are the two mid-sized cities of Uttar Pradesh (the most populous state in India). The respondents
comprised of young adults (18e30 years) which were chosen on
the basis of convenience from above mentioned districts. The researchers had chosen young adults as youth are more concerned

about the current environmental condition and relative to their

judgment level, they have more ability to reect their choices of
eco-friendly products (Kanchanapibul, Lacka, Wang, & Chan, 2014).
Although the results of convenience sampling may limit the
generalizability of the ndings, there are evidences that suggest the
usage of young population is reliable for such studies (Cheah &
Phau, 2011).
Firstly, the questionnaire was pilot tested among educated
youth; few revisions were made in the questionnaire on the basis of
their recommendations. The young consumers were traced at locations such as college campuses and shopping malls. Firstly the
population was briefed about the topic of the survey. Further, a total
of 380 questionnaires were distributed in both the districts using
group administration approach for on the spot completion of the
survey. Group administered questionnaires allow rapid data
collection and high response (Adler & Clark, 2006). A total of 256
questionnaires were returned representing a high return rate i.e.
67.3%. At the end, 220 usable responses were considered, eliminating the incomplete responses and extreme outliers. Kline (2011)
suggested that there should be at least 10 cases per parameter.
Therefore, a sample size of 220 sufces the research as study
comprised of 22 items. The nal sample of 220 meets this priori
condition. Table 2 provides the demographic composition of the
sample.
2.3. Statistical analysis
The theoretical framework was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical
Package for Social Science) and AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structure) version 21. Two study model of SEM was followed in the study
(Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). Firstly the measurement
model was used to test the validity and reliability of the model and
later on structural model was tested for the model t and hypothesis testing.
3. Results
3.1. Measurement model: reliability and validity
The measurement Model provides the quantitative measures of
the validity and reliability for the constructs. Using Cronbach's a,
internal consistency among the items was measured, the score
ranges from .780 to .908 which lies between the acceptable limit of
.7 and higher (Hair et al., 1998). Further, the convergent and
discriminant validity were measured. Convergent validity was
measured on the basis of three components: composite reliability
(C.R), factor loading and variance extracted (A.V.E). The value of
composite reliability ranged from .69 to .89 which implies that all
constructs met the recommended criterion of .6 and higher
(Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). The value of factor loading (.63e.90) was well
above the recommended level of .6 (Chin, Gopal, & Salisbury, 1997).
The value of A.V.E ranged from .53 to .81, which also met the
acceptable limit of .5 (Hair et al., 1998). The detail of reliability and
convergent validity are outlined in Table 3.
The square root of AVE of each construct was larger than the
correlation between the constructs which ensured the adequate
discriminant validity (Chin, 1998). It can be summarized that the
theoretical model represents an adequate validity (convergent and
discriminant) and reliability. The details of discriminant validity
and descriptive statistics are mentioned in Table 4.
3.2. Structural model: goodness of t statistics and hypothesis
testing

Fig. 1. Proposed theoretical framework.

Further, the theoretical framework was tested for goodness of t

R. Yadav, G.S. Pathak / Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

125

Table 1
Questionnaire items and their source of adoption.
Variables

Measuring items

Sources of adoption

Attitude (ATT)

1. Buying organic food is a good idea.

2. Buying organic food is a wise choice.
3. I like the idea of buying organic food.
4. Buying organic food would be pleasant.
1. Most people important to me, think that I should buy organic food.
2. Most people, important to me, would want me to purchase organic food.
3. People whose opinion I value would prefer that I shouldn't buy organic foodR.
1. To buy or not to buy organic food is entirely up to me.
2. I am condent that if I want, I can buy organic food.
3. I didn't have resources and time to buy organic foodR.
Purchasing organic food instead of conventional one would make me:
1. Feel like personal contribution to something better.
2. Feel like doing the morally right thing.
3. Feel like better person.
1. I chose food carefully to ensure the good health.
2. I didn't consider myself as health conscious consumerR.
3. I think often about health related issues.
1. The balance of nature is very delicate and can be easily upset.
2 Human beings are severely abusing the environment.
3. Humans must maintain the balance with nature in order to survive.
4. Human interferences with nature often produce disastrous consequences.
1. I am willing to buy organic food while shopping.
2. I will make an effort to buy organic food in the near future.

Wang, Wiegerinck, Krikke, and Zhang (2013).

Subjective Norm (SN)

Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)

Moral Attitude (MA)

Health Consciousness (HC)

Environmental Concern (EC)

Purchase Intention (PI)

Han, Hsu, and Sheu (2010)

Han et al. (2010)

Arvola et al. (2008)

Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005)

Roberts and Bacon (1997)

Lee, Hsu, Han, and Kim (2010)

R. Represents reverse scoring of the items.

indices. The results showed that goodness of t statistics of the

theoretical framework represents a good t, as it lies in the
acceptable limit (c2 199.341, c2/df 1.246, Goodness of Fit index
(GFI) .920, Adjusted Goodness of t index (AGFI) .894, TuckereLewis Index (TLI) .979, Comparative Fit Index (CFI .981,
Incremental Fit Index (IFI) .982, Root Mean Square Error of
Approximation (RMSEA) .034). The observed value of AGFI was
.894 that exceeds the cutoff level of .8 (Chau & Hu, 2001). All other
t indices were well above the recommended criteria (Bagozzi & Yi,
1998). On the basis of the above results, it can be inferred that the
proposed theoretical framework represented a good data t. At the
end, the proposed theoretical framework was also compared with
the TPB model. The ndings shows that the proposed theoretical
framework represents a better model t (Adjusted R2 .565) in
comparison to the TPB (Adjusted R2 .318) for measuring consumer intention to purchase organic food.

Table 2
Demographic characteristics of the sample.
Demographic variable
Age
18e22
23e27
28e30
Gender
Male
Female
Education qualication
Up to class XII
Graduate
Post graduate
Higher degree (PhD)
Family monthly income (in Rs)
below 15,000
15,001e35,000
35,001e50,000
50,001 and above
Occupation
Students
Service professionals
Businessmen

45
75
100

20
34
46

121
99

55
45

35
66
100
19

16
30
45
09

22
67
87
44

10
30
40
20

135
50
35

61
23
16

3.3. Hypothesis testing

Attitude (b .198, t 2.558, p < .05) and perceived behavioral
control (b .229, t 3.346, p < .01) were signicant in determining
the purchase intention, whereas subjective norm (b .045, t .759,
p > .05) failed to show signicant inuence on purchase intention of
organic food. Hence hypotheses H1 and H3 were supported,
whereas H2 was not supported. Among the TPB variables,
perceived behavioral control (PBC) emerged as the most signicant
determinant of organic food purchase intention followed by consumer's attitude toward organic food. Furthermore, moral attitude
(b .453, t 5.192, p < .01) and health concern (b .242, t 2.687,
p < .01) had a signicant positive inuence on the organic food
purchase intention, which supported the hypotheses H4 and H6.
The environmental concern (b .046, t .739, p > .05), did not
have any signicant inuence on the consumer's intention to purchase organic food. Hence, hypothesis H8 was not supported.
Among the added constructs in TPB, moral attitude had the most
signicant inuence on consumer's organic food purchase intention followed by health consciousness. Health consciousness
(b .532, t 7.033, p < .01) and environment concern (b .288,
t 4.337, p < .01) were positively related to consumer's attitude
toward buying organic food, which supported the Hypotheses H5
and H7.
In response to the open ended question regarding the problems/
barriers perceived by consumers while buying organic food products, a total of 210 consumers responded. 83% of the consumers
(175 respondents) felt that the high price of the organic food is a
major barrier to them. While 71% (149 respondents) stated that
inconvenience (unavailability of organic foods in nearby shops and
supermarkets) was among the major problem faced by them while
buying organic food products.

4. Discussion
The primary objective of the research was to identify the factors
that determine the consumer's attitude and intention to purchase
organic food. The study has used TPB as its theoretical framework
and further attempted to extend the TPB by including new

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R. Yadav, G.S. Pathak / Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

Table 3
Result of factor loading, reliability and validity.
Constructs

Items

Factor loading

SMC*

Cronbach's a

C.R

AVEb*

Attitude (ATT)

ATT1
ATT2
ATT3
ATT4
SN1
SN2
SN3
PBC1
PBC2
PBC3
MA1
MA3
HC1
HC2
HC3
EC2
EC3
EC4
INT1
INT2

.83
.88
.88
.72
.81
.83
.63
.68
.89
.65
.75
.71
.80
.78
.77
.83
.89
.80
.90
.90

.69
.78
.78
.52
.66
.69
.40
.47
.69
.42
.56
.51
.64
.61
.59
.68
.79
.64
.81
.81

.902

.89

.69

.793

.86

.58

.780

.79

.53

.802

.69

.54

.833

.82

.61

.831

.74

.70

.908

.89

.81

Subjective Norm (SN)

Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)

Moral Attitude (MA)

Health Consciousness (HC)

Environmental Concern (EC)

Purchase Intention (INT)

Note: Two items EC1 and MA2 were removed due to low factor loadings. *- SMC- Squared Multiple Correlation (squared value of correlation between the constructs), C.RP
P
P
Composite Reliability, AVE-Average Variance Extracted, AVEb* calculated as
SMC/( SMC standard measurement error).

Table 4
Correlation among the constructs.
ATT

SN

PBC

MA

HC

EC

PI

ATT
SN
PBC
MA
HC
EC
PI

.83
.02
.03
.23b
.38b
.35b
.55b

.76
.09
.01
.02
.10
.02

.72
.15a
.08
.07
.15a

.73
.16a
.11
.56b

.78
.29b
.42b

.83
.23b

.90

Mean
S.D

4.26
.44

4.08
.43

4.06
.46

4.18
.40

4.20
.46

4.30
.40

4.42
.46

Note: The bold values represent the square root of AVE.

ATT: Attitude, SN: Subjective norm, PBC: Perceived behavioral control, MA: Moral
attitude, HC: Health consciousness, EC: Environmental concern, PI: Purchase
intention.
a
Correlation is signicant at the .01 level (2-tailed).
b
Correlation is signicant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

constructs in it. The results showed that attitude towards the

organic food and perceived behavioral control signicantly inuenced the consumer's intention to purchase organic food, whereas
subjective norm failed to show any signicant inuence on purchase intention. The ndings suggested that consumers cope relatively well with disabling factors as perceived behavioral control
(PBC) emerged as the most signicant determinant of organic food
purchase intention among the core TPB variables (Zagata, 2012).
Further, consumer's intention to buy organic food was also determined by their attitude towards the organic food. This signies the
importance of positive attitude towards organic food among consumers while buying it. Subjective norms did not show any signicant impact on the organic food purchase intention which
implies that buying organic food is yet to become a social norm in a
developing nation such as India. The ndings are consistent with
Arvola et al. (2008), Smith and Paladino (2010), where TPB partially
supported the organic foods purchase intention.
Further additional constructs (moral attitude, health consciousness and environmental concern) were included in the TPB
model. The relationship between moral attitude and organic purchase intention validated the ndings of Arvola et al. (2008) and
Dowd and Burke (2013). Moral attitude in particular had a profound

impact as it made a high contribution of 17.4% to the explanatory

power of the proposed framework. The nding suggested the
importance of moral attitude in determining the consumer's
organic food purchase intention in Indian context is similar to that
of developed nations. Health consciousness also emerged as the
signicant predictor of organic food purchasing, accounting for
unique contribution of 4.6% in explaining the proposed framework.
This is consistent with the ndings of Davies et al. (1995) and Zanoli
and Naspetti (2002), which stated that heath consciousnesses
among consumers positively inuences their intention to purchase
organic foods. This shows that Indian consumers are conscious
about their health related issues and consider health as an important parameter while taking the decision to buy food products like
their developed counterparts. Therefore, health related benets of
organic food should be disseminated among the consumers as
organic foods are perceived as healthier in comparison to
conventionally grown foods (Lea & Worsley, 2005; Williams &
Hammitt, 2001). These ndings suggested that moral attitude and
health consciousness are worthy to be included in the TPB model
for predicting organic food purchase intention in the context of
developing countries. Environmental concern did not show any
signicant inuence on purchase intention of organic food which
contradicts with the ndings of Smith and Paladino (2010). This
shows that respondents are less altruistic in behavior in comparison to their counterparts of developed nations. The study supported the ndings of Magnusson et al. (2003) that egoistic motives
such as health consciousness is more important in comparison to
the altruistic motives such as environmental concern while taking
the decision to buy organic food products. The ndings reported
that the TPB as well as the proposed theoretical framework represents a good data t. But the inclusion of new constructs (Moral
attitude, health consciousness and environmental concern) in TPB
has improved the model t as the explained variance (Adjusted R2)
increased from 38.1% (TPB) to 56.5% (proposed framework) which
justies and supports the addition of these new constructs in TPB
while predicting the consumer's intention to purchase organic food
in case of a developing nation.
High prices and unavailability of organic foods were reported as
major barriers to the consumers. Therefore price and availability
should be considered as important parameters while devising
strategy for organic food. Earlier studies have also reported about

R. Yadav, G.S. Pathak / Appetite 96 (2016) 122e128

the price sensitiveness of Indian consumers (Manaktola & Jauhari,

2007) as compared to their developed counterparts. Also, feeling
of inconvenience was found among consumers as organic food
products are not easily available in their nearby grocery shops/
stores. Availability of organic food is an important aspect as most of
the consumers have a pragmatic approach toward buying and did
not prefer to search for several stores for the product they want
(Hjelmar, 2011). The ndings reported that consumers are highly
intended to buy organic food (Mean of PI 4.4/5). Therefore,
serious efforts should be made to improve the distribution channel
of the organic food so the consumers can easily buy the organic
food from nearby markets and stores.
5. Limitations of the study and scope for future research
The study is limited to measuring the purchase intention of
organic food; there is no measurement of actual buying behavior.
Although previous ndings has supported that intention to act is
positively correlated with actual behavior, there is a need to
incorporate actual buying behavior along with the intention in
future studies. Further, the study has measured the organic food in
general whereas earlier studies have shown that consumption of
organic food differed among various food products such as organic
fruit, organic meat, organic milk etc. which may limit the generalization of ndings. The future studies may test and compare the
consumer intention and behavior towards various ranges of organic
food products. The study is limited to young adults of a particular
region which may bias the result as the educated youth may be
more prone to socially desirable response (Kaiser, Schultz,
Berenguer, Corral-Verdugo, & Tankha, 2008). The self selection
bias of respondents may also be a problem in the present research
as those who are more health conscious, pro-environmental and
knowledgeable about organic food may have participated in the
study resulting in over-representation of such people in the sample
derholm, & Berglund, 2009). As, India is a country with a
(Hage, So
lot of demographic variations, there is a need to consider similar
types of research among various socio-demographic groups (such
as age, gender, education, income etc.) for generalized reporting.
6. Conclusion
The study has proved the applicability of a well established
social-psychological model i.e. TPB for measuring consumer
organic food purchase intention in the context of a developing
nation- India. The study has partially supported the applicability of
TPB for organic food purchase intention as attitude and perceived
behavioral control signicantly inuenced the organic food purchase intention whereas subjective norm failed to prove its applicability. The study has contributed to the growing body of research
in the eld of organic food consumption with special reference to a
developing nation by incorporating additional constructs such as
health consciousness, environmental concern and moral attitude in
the TPB model. The ndings supported the incorporation of moral
attitude and health consciousness in the TPB model as both constructs signicantly inuenced the consumer's intention to purchase organic food. Further, it was also reported that the inclusion
of these constructs has improved the predictive power of the proposed theoretical framework. The health related issues were found
to be more important for Indian consumers in comparison to the
environmental issues while making purchase decisions for organic
foods.
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