Determinants of sustainable food consumption - Moving consumers down the path of sustainability by understanding their behavior

Abstract

Increasing consumption of environmentally friendly goods is important for dealing with the climate challenge. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate which factors determine consumption of this type of goods. Primary data is collected in Gothenburg through a questionnaire and analyzed using a SEM model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The empirical findings confirm several relationships suggested by the theoretical framework. Attitude and perceived consumer effectiveness are found to be the most important predictors of environmentally friendly food consumption while availability is found statistically insignificant. It is recommended that marketing efforts should focus on these areas, attempting to increase consumer trust in brands and labels. An addition of new variables should increase predictive power of the model and further investigation of different attitudes and behavioral control factors is recommended for future research.