Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individual innovativeness and social factors shape consumers’ purchase decisions of organic products. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an online survey of 988 Canadian participants. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships between social identity, social influence, perceived value and purchase intention within a multi-group framework to show the moderating effect of consumer innovativeness. Findings The results show that the two social dimensions – social identity and social influence – influence purchase intention and the perceived value of organic products partially mediates these relationships. Further, the personal characteristic, “consumer innovativeness”, moderates these relationships. Research limitations/implications Although the sample consists of a higher proportion of younger participants, the results are consistent with theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, which underscores the importance of generational differences in organic product purchases. Practical implications Managers need to develop a more nuanced understanding of how social influence and social identity play different roles in the purchase intentions of consumer innovators vs later adopters. This knowledge can guide practical segmentation, targeting, positioning and promotion strategies. Originality/value This study complements the individual innovativeness predispositions literature by showing that the consideration of social factors leads to a more nuanced understanding of consumers’ purchase intention than either set of factors separately. It also contributes to the literature on adoption of organic products by introducing consumer innovativeness dimension as a key factor.

The consumption of local food, a major trend in industrialized countries around the world has experienced an unprecedented craze in the pandemic context that we are experiencing. Since the beginning of the crisis and in various media, communication about local food seems inconsistent. However, companies would have every interest in better communicating the multifaceted areas of the locality that customers value or adopting the same language if they wish to collaborate with each other. This research aims to identify and evaluate the “fit” or the “gap” of the different local food’ meanings of Canadian agri-food stakeholders through data mining of one of their communication media: Twitter. Using tweets by over 1300 Twitter accounts from Canadian agri-food companies and a popular hashtag, we analyze a sample of their tweets in 2019 and 2020 by creating and using a local food’ keyword dictionary based on the concept of proximity. Term frequency and multivariate analysis of variance of 16,585 tweets about local food show significant differences in dimensions of proximity used in communications. This study shows the interest of using the concept of proximity to better define and understand the valuation of local food products. In addition, it offers a methodology capable of distinguishing the nuances of meaning of the locality of products using natural data that is accessible via social media.

Purpose Currently, the bulk of research on marketing innovation focuses on various firm-level dimensions using relationships from the technological (product and process) innovation literature. Research on industry-level differences in marketing innovation is lacking. Testing relationships form the technological paradigm in the context of the marketing innovation paradigm is also lacking. This paper aims to present empirical evidence on both aspects using a large-scale data set. Design/methodology/approach This study uses two large-scale datasets, each consisting of approximately 4,000 Canadian enterprises in 18 industries. The data was collected by Statistics Canada in 2009 and 2012 through its nationwide Survey of Innovation and Business Strategies program. Two widely used theoretical frameworks, resource-based view of the firm and the competitive perspective, are used to generate constructs and hypotheses in relation to marketing innovation. The data was analyzed using multi-level logistic regression. Findings The findings show that industry-level competition is a much more important driver of marketing innovation than firm-level competition. The authors also show that marketing constructs that are significant in the context of technological innovation are also significant for marketing innovation. Research limitations/implications This study extends the firm-level literature by providing evidence of how industry-level dynamics enhances marketing innovation. The study also provides empirical evidence from Canadian enterprises that complement those from other countries. Practical implications A deeper understanding of the drivers of marketing innovation can enable managers to enact innovation strategies that can enhance organizational performance, differentiate themselves and enhance customer engagement and brand image. Originality/value As one of the few studies to examine industry-level differences in marketing innovation, the authors show that disaggregating competition into industry-level and firm-level provides a clearer picture of how competition advances marketing innovation. Additionally, this study is the first of its kind to provide empirical evidence on Canadian enterprises, thereby complementing evidence on marketing innovation from other countries. Thus, this study makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the emerging marketing innovation literature.

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