Unravelling the attitude-behaviour gap paradox for sustainable food consumption: Insight from the UK apple market

The remarkable progress made by the sustainable food industry as compared to the persistent small market share it holds, presents attitude-behaviour gap paradox which existing research is yet to address. The paper attempts to resolve this conundrum by addressing two key research objectives: Firstly, we draw on Campbell’s paradigm to develop a sustainable product purchase behaviour model by conceptualising and measuring behavioural difficulties in terms of behavioural\ud inhibitors/promoters, which includes Past Purchase, Premium Pricing, and Product Availability and Product Variety barriers. Further to this, we establish the exact role of purchase behavioural inhibitors/promoters from the point of view of Campbell’s paradigm. This is achieved through\ud analyses of actual behaviour data consisting of loyalty card data in the UK with a sample size of 1.8 million customers and supermarket shopper till receipt data in the UK. Evidence from the study established the existence of a sustainable product purchase inhibitor and promoter typology, which are critical to sustainable food purchase behaviour, but their degree of influence differ significantly. Our study subsequently, validates the Campbell’s paradigm theory since we were able to establish using the actual purchase behaviour data that indeed, the purchase inhibitors are what causes the so-called gap between claimed purchase behaviour and actual purchase behaviour. The study further highlights theoretical and managerial implications of the findings

Willingness to reduce food choice in favour of sustainable alternatives: the role of government and consumer behaviour

Despite greater emphasis being placed on research into ethical consumer behaviour, there is still no clear view of the magnitude of willingness to reduce food choices in favour of sustainable alternatives (WTRFCIFOSA), while the role of government is also under the microscope, more specifically how willing it is to take the initiative in keeping only organic food on the shelves. This study advances a new concept by theorising “willingness to reduce food choices for sustainable alternatives”. The concept emerged from assessing consumer behaviour, ethical attributes, health attributes, and the roles played by both government and food producers in relation to naturalness. It is theorised that WTRFCIFOSA would lead to the consumption of natural and organic food. At present, consumers themselves have no willingness to switch to organic consumption. Moreover, ethical and health attributes, government, and food producers have no significant impact on convincing consumers to opt for organic/natural food. It is therefore suggested that governments should introduce the concept of mandatory consumption of sustainable alternatives by reducing the range of unnatural and less ethical food choices for consumers, because naturalness is a significant moderator in the process