Research on Improving Online Purchase Intention of Poverty-Alleviation Agricultural Products in China: From the Perspective of Institution-Based Trust

Abstract

Poverty alleviation by consumption is a powerful way to help the poor people get rid of poverty, which plays a significant role in China's rural revitalization. However, the achievement of poverty alleviation by consumption mostly depends on government procurement, and the enthusiasm of customers to participate is low, facing the severe challenge of poor sustainability. Helping the poor is the most common motivation for customers to buy poverty-alleviation agricultural products (PAAP). However, as the negative events of poverty alleviation such as “tragic marketing” constantly appear in news reports, customers' trust in sellers has been seriously damaged. The psychological protection system for fear of being cheated hinders customers' purchase intention. Therefore, we believed that trust is an important factor in enhancing customers' purchase intention of PAAP. Customers buy PAAP mainly through online channels, and institution-based trust is the most important way to generate trust in online channels. Thus, this study investigated the institutional mechanisms that affect customers' trust in the sellers of PAAP and discussed the influence of trust on the online purchase intention of PAAP. Data were obtained through a questionnaire survey and tested empirically. The results showed that the effectiveness of the user feedback mechanism, platform supervision mechanism, product traceability mechanism, and product certification mechanism can enhance customers' purchase intention by enhancing their trust. Individual trust tendency positively regulated the relationship between the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms and consumer trust. The conclusion can not only provide new theoretical guidance for the practice of poverty alleviation by consumption in China but also offer new ideas for the poverty alleviation undertakings in other countries.

The Trust Factor: A Comprehensive Review of Antecedents and Their Role in Shaping Online Purchase Intentions

“…Trust in two dimensions, ability, and integrity, significantly influences policyholders' purchase intentions, with reputation, system quality, cooperation, financial risk, and benefits serving as key factors in shaping these trust beliefs, with implications for both theory and practice. Wu & Yuan (2022) User feedback and platform supervision strengthen trust, affecting purchase intentions.…”

The Evolutionary Game Analysis of Low Carbon Production Behaviour of Farmers, Government and Consumers in Food Safety Source Governance

“…In food safety source governance, increased government investment in food safety source governance leads to consumer trust in carbon-labeled agricultural products. This consumer trust can propel food safety source governance into a virtuous cycle [45]. On the one hand, the government guides farmers to engage in low-carbon production and establish a market for carbon-labeled agricultural products; on the other hand, consumers regain trust in the government's governance of food safety issues and restore the attributes of agricultural products as trust goods, and consumers' trust in the government's environmental governance helps increase market demand for carbon-labeled agricultural products, which in turn drives farmers to adopt low-carbon production technologies and provide more high-quality primary agricultural products to obtain consumer benefits from low-carbon preferences [46].…”

When helping is risky: The influence of ethical attributes on consumers’ willingness to buy farmer-assisting agricultural products online

“…E-commerce-assisted agricultural marketing has received more and more attention and support ( Li et al, 2022 ). It is essentially a moral economic behavior that people’s purchasing behavior is imbued with good moral value by encouraging consumers to buy agricultural products, with the help of moral mobilization ( Mai and Li, 2014 ; Han et al, 2018 ).…”

“…When consumers are concerned about collective goals, demand for social welfare products increases ( Simpson et al, 2021 ), especially in the network, the positive dynamic events can enhance the network collective behavior intention through the digital emotion infection ( Goldenberg and Gross, 2020 ; Xie and Li, 2022 ). Thus, although some studies have indicated that the e-commerce platform has the potential for farmer-assisting and poverty alleviation ( Peng et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2022 ; Zeng et al, 2022 ), few scholars consider the role of social media communication in the psychological process of consumers’ online shopping for farmer-assisting agricultural products. In particular, there are few related studies on collective efficacy based on e-commerce platform ( Hornsey et al, 2021 ; Lee and Littles, 2021 ; Valizadeh et al, 2022 ).…”