Foster, (2005),"Exploring the gap between attitudes and behaviour: Understanding why consumers buy or do not buy organic food", If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to test the extension of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in an organic food buying context. Design/methodology/approach -The relationships between subjective norms and attitudes and intention to buy organic food were studied by applying structural equation modelling. Findings -The proposed modified model of the TPB model fitted the data better than the original model, implying that in the organic food-buying context the role of subjective norms differs from the original theory of planned behaviour. In buying organic food subjective norms affected buying intention indirectly through attitude formation. In addition, results showed that the modified TPB model predicts intention to buy organic food better than the original model. Based on the results, it can be said that consumers' intentions to buy organic food can be predicted with their attitudes (R 2 ¼ 0:558), which can further be predicted by subjective norms (R 2 ¼ 0:374), and that behavioural intentions reliably predict self-reported behaviour (R 2 ¼ 0:824). Research limitations/implications -First, this study concerned only organic bread and flour products, and therefore the results cannot be expected to explain consumer behaviour for all organically produced products. Second, just one retail channel of organic foods, a hypermarket, was examined. Since the different store formats have also very different characteristics (e.g. price level and number of products), it is likely that also the consumers' buying behaviour differs between different stores. Originality/value -In past studies on organic food-buying behaviour, the role of subjective norms has often been neglected -either they are not included in the models or their explanatory power has been weak.

This study assesses the level of consumers' felt involvement in four distinct product categories of organic food (coffee, bread, fruit, and flour), and examines the role of felt involvement in the broader context of organic food shopping behavior. It is shown that the reason why consumers do not buy organic food regularly despite their positive attitudes is that such ideologically formed attitudes are not present in habitual, low-involvement shopping activities with limited problem-solving needs as in food shopping from grocery stores. The statistical analysis of an empirical sample of 200 consumers gives substantial support to the hypothesized new organic food buying behavior model.

No abstract

Purpose -The objective of this paper is to examine online brand relationships, and the linkage between satisfaction, trust, and loyalty on the web site level. The web site is considered to be an extension of the parent brand. It also seeks to explore the effects of offline experiences on web site-level experiences. Design/methodology/approach -Hierarchical regression analysis is applied in order to test the hypotheses. The data are based on an online survey (n ¼ 867) conducted on a Finnish consumer-magazine web site. Findings -The research findings support the results of earlier studies suggesting that satisfaction and trust on the web site level are determinants of web site loyalty. However, they also show that brand-level experiences affect online satisfaction, trust, and loyalty differently, depending on the consumers' relationship with the brand. Interestingly, in this case the length of user history and registration on the web site had a negative effect on web site trust. Two of the reasons behind this type of result are believed to be the prevalent culture in web site discussion forums and the degree of fit between the parent brand and the brand extension. Originality/value -The paper synthesises the literature on online and offline brand relationships and brand extension. The results of the study, which was based on a large-scale survey, give researchers and practising managers alike valuable information on how parent-brand experiences relate to the attitudes and commitment of customers to online brand extensions. The context of the study, i.e. the magazine publishing industry, has attracted less research attention, even though several publishers have extended their brands online.

No abstract