Controlled and uncontrolled communication stimuli and organic food purchases: The mediating role of perceived communication clarity, perceived health benefits, and trust

Abstract

Despite a growing demand worldwide, organic food remains a niche category, with consumers only purchasing it some of the time. This study examines the mediating effects of consumers’ perceived clarity of organic food-related communication, trust for, and perceived health benefits of organic foods in the relationship between controlled and uncontrolled communication stimuli and organic food purchases. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1011 Australian organic food consumers using Structural Equation Modeling. We find that all mediators except perceived communication clarity perform as hypothesized, with the latter not mediating the relationship between uncontrolled communications and perceived health benefits of organic foods. The results suggest that marketers should ensure clarity in controlled organic food communications, signal health benefits of organic food and build consumer trust to generate organic purchases.

Keywords:

• Controlled communication
• uncontrolled communication
• organic food purchases
• communication clarity
• mediation analysis
• S-O-R model

Notes

1. Consumer exposure to controlled – as well as uncontrolled – communications was measured via their perceptions of to what extent each respective type of communications has been conducive to shaping consumer knowledge about organic food. For example, if a consumer states that TV advertising have helped shape her/his knowledge of organic food ‘to a very great extent’ (which implies a ‘7’ on the Likert scale), we infer that this consumer’s perceptions about organic food have been shaped ‘to a very great extent’ by the TV advertising.

2. ‘I am happy about the level of organic food information available to me’; ‘Organic certification is sufficient proof that a product is truly organic’; ‘The information provided on organic food labels is clear to me’.