Community enterprise consumers’ intention to purchase organic rice in Thailand: the moderating role of product traceability knowledge

Abstract

PurposeOrganic rice forms the largest portion of the Thai organic food market. Because of its increasing popularity, marketers need to better understand consumer behaviour to address emerging concerns regarding product safety and quality and to tailor better marketing strategies relevant to the development of organic rice. As such, this study aims to examine consumers' purchase intention towards organic rice, using traceability information, and to investigate the direct and moderating roles of product traceability knowledge, using the theory of planned behaviour.Design/methodology/approachResponses were collected from 243 organic rice consumers in a farmers' market in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand, following a convenience sampling approach. The gathered data were analysed using structural equation modelling to evaluate the strength of the relationship between the constructs.FindingsThe findings reveal that subjective norms, health consciousness and product traceability knowledge have a significant positive influence on consumers’ intention to purchase organic rice. This study also establishes the moderating role of product traceability knowledge in perceived behavioural control and purchase intention, indicating that elaborated product information through traceability is essential for consumers who feel capable of buying the product. However, the direct effects of attitude and perceived behavioural control are insignificant, indicating the presence of external barriers to the purchase of organic rice, and that people may have a negative attitude towards the product. In addition, the cost perception result reveals that consumers consider price as an indicator of organic product quality, thereby increasing their desirability.Social implicationsThe findings of this study will help community enterprises in Thailand develop a more effective marketing strategy based on the identified motivators of organic rice purchase intention.Originality/valueThis study develops a model that integrates important factors related to organic food consumption to generate a more comprehensive analysis of this mainstream research. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is also the first study to investigate the moderating role of product traceability knowledge to obtain a new and more focused understanding of how this factor influences purchase intention when applied explicitly to organic food. Finally, the findings provide theoretical contributions and implications for both the community enterprise and policymakers on developing strategies for organic rice marketing among community enterprises in Thailand.

Assessing the role of organic food supply chain traceability on food safety and consumer wellbeing: A mediated-moderation investigation

“…The study's analysis of the function and influence of consumer awareness of organic food on food safety is another important contribution. This empirical finding also addresses the ongoing discussion regarding whether consumer knowledge of traceability and awareness of organic food could lead to such relationships (Hong et al, 2020;Cavite et al, 2021). The empirical research in this paper supports this position by demonstrating that the relationship between food safety trust and consumer wellbeing can be moderated by consumers' awareness of organic food.…”

“…To better understand consumer expectations regarding organic food supply chain traceability practices, it is therefore essential to understand the safety trust of organic food traceability. Therefore such understanding helps producers and marketers of traceable organic foods develop more informed marketing strategies ( Cavite et al, 2021 ). Going beyond economic impacts to address customer happiness and social value of traceability, this research seeks to investigate how supply chain firms employ traceability technologies to increase consumer consumption values, often results consumer wellbeing.…”

Consumer purchase intention of social enterprise products: mediating role of emotional value

“…As found in other studies (Al-Swidi et al , 2014; Moons and de Pelsmacker, 2015; Zhang et al , 2018; Gungaphul et al , 2022), PBC also showed no significant relation to PI. Cavite et al (2022) also reported a similar finding in their studies of intention using the TPB model. In the proposed model, accessibility, availability and convenience were the factors used to indicate the PBC construct.…”

Strategic guidelines for community enterprise development: a case in rural Thailand

“…Among the main objectives of a CE are production, marketing and selling of locally produced goods at a more affordable price than big companies producing the same product (Somswasdi et al , 2015). Several types of CEs are present in Thailand, such as mushroom (Changwatchai and Santipolvut, 2015), textile (Distanont et al , 2017; Naipinit et al , 2016; Seenuankaew et al , 2018), curry paste (Seenuankaew et al , 2018), handicrafts, fishery, forestry and wood products (Naipinit et al , 2016) and rice (Cavite et al , 2021c; Prasertwattanakul and Ongkunaruk, 2015; Raungpaka and Savetpanuvong, 2017; Ruangsarakul et al , 2019; Seenuankaew et al , 2018). The most common of them is the RPCE.…”

“…This approach has been widely applied in most organic food products (Jitrawang and Krairit, 2019;Pandey et al, 2019). Several studies have Community enterprise development also started to explore the role of product traceability (Cavite et al, 2021c;Chen et al, 2020;Spence et al, 2018;Wang and Tsai, 2019). This can be applied to CE's organic rice products considering consumers' concern for safer and healthier foods.…”