Green food consumption: Studies on consumers’ purchase intentions and the intention-behaviour gap in the Chinese context

With the growing problem of the global environment and exposure to various food safety incidents, consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment as well as the safety and quality of food products. Therefore, growing calls for safe, healthy, environmentally friendly, and sustainable food consumption have been growing. As one of China’s most successful ecolabelling programs, green food has shown great potential for further expansion among Chinese food consumption. This doctoral research has taken consumers’ purchase intentions and the intention-behaviour gap (IBG) as the main research objects under the above research background. The present doctoral research aims to systematically explore appropriate models and factors affecting consumers’ green food purchase from the intention generation phase to the intended execution phase in the Chinese context. This study has applied a contemporary research design by converging both quantitative and qualitative approaches. To investigate Chinese consumers’ intentions to buy green food, this study has initially examined the adaptability of the existing models from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the modified stimulus-organism-response (M-SOR). Considering the Chinese context’s purchasing characteristics and cognitive and affective processes, this study has proposed an amended model (i.e., A-TPB) and an integrated model (i.e., IGFPI) to explain consumers’ green food purchase intentions better. Quantitative methods were used to obtain the research data via paper questionnaires and on-line surveys, while structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to analyze the data. Further, this thesis has deeply explored the driving factors of consumers’ purchase intentions, the triggering factors of IBG, and the influence of the latest COVID-19 crises by the open-minded qualitative approach of a semi-structured in-depth interview. This thesis’s findings reported the impacts of different frameworks and factors on consumers’ purchase intentions and IBG for Chinese green food consumption. This study can promote the benign development of the Chinese green food industry and provide theoretical and data support for the relevant stakeholders of the green food sector to formulate policies and strategies precisely.