Consumption Value and Organic Food Purchasing Behavior of Online Consumers

Abstract

This study examined how consumption value theory, religious knowledge, website quality, and e-satisfaction influence consumers’ online organic food purchasing behavior. This study collected 989 data points from Bangladeshi online organic food consumers using convenience sampling and analyzed them using SPSS and PLS 4.0-SEM. The results indicate that apart from epistemic value all other consumption values, such as functional, emotional, social and conditional influence online organic food purchases through the mediating effect of religious knowledge, website quality and e-satisfaction. Consumption value is an emerging theory in organic food purchasing research, a new phenomenon in this context. The current study makes a groundbreaking contribution to theory development and contextualization. Consumption value theory has been studied in organic food purchase research predominantly in developed nations. By investigating the theory in the context of online organic food purchasing behavior in Bangladesh, this study validates its generalizability and adds to the existing body of knowledge. In addition, the mediating role of religious knowledge in the relationship between organic food purchasing intention and purchasing decision online has been given little attention by the previous literature. The study proposes several strategies for organic food marketers that would stimulate consumers’ values and relevant context, encouraging them to buy more organic food online, and thus increase the development and profit of online organic food businesses, which is extremely important toward creating a healthy nation.