1. Introduction
Tea is known as the world’s second most popular beverage after water [
1,
2]. According to Global Market Report [
3], the amount of tea production of the world in 2017 was 5.98 million tons and retail value of tea products was nearly USD 50 billion. Retail sales have remained a high growth rate in the last decades. Furthermore, the largest tea production country is China which exported an amount of USD 1.6 billion in 2017. The total tea consumed in China is more than the combination of all tea consumption of other countries in the world. Tea product is expected to be the largest potential market of beverage in developed and developing countries in the next few years [
3].
Organic tea has become the most important types of tea products that receives consumers’ great demand in the last few years [
1]. According to Global Market Report [
3], the global organic tea will reach more than USD 1.3 billion in 2024. The average growth rate will be approximately 5.8% during 2019–2024. Several types of organic tea have been sold in the global markets, including black tea, green tea, and others. North America has dominated the global organic tea in the last decades due to a large market demand with great purchasing power of consumers. Asia-Pacific has also accounted for a significant market share in the global organic tea market. It is estimated that Asia-Pacific will be the largest market for organic tea in the next few years [
3]. Some of the largest producers and sellers of organic tea in the global market are Unilever, Tata Global Beverages Limited, Stash Tea Company, Shangri-la Tea, Yogi Tea, Mighty leaf Tea, Zhongshan Standard Industry Company, Hunan MeeTea Company, and others [
2,
3].
Regular consumption of tea can provide consumers with different benefits (e.g., anti-diabetic, anti-aging and pro-metabolic) and reduce depression risks [
2,
4,
5]. Notably, organic tea is widely recognized as a safe and healthy product because it is free of chemical residues, fertilizers and pesticides [
6,
7]. Organic tea is cultivated by unique production systems and techniques that sustain the health of soils, ecosystems and people health [
8]. The demand for organic tea has increased rapidly in the last decades. Several reasons attribute to this increase, including enhancement in consumers’ income and consumption knowledge, high regulations from government to develop sustainable agriculture, and high standard from certificated institutions [
9]. For example, Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) is a global standard that is often used to certify tea and coffee products. More specifically, VSS requires tea producers to comply with high standards that enable climate resilience, prevent soil erosion, and protect consumers’ health. In addition, the standard is used to ensure tea products that are produced to meet consumers’ demands while maintain the goal of sustainable development.
While numerous studies have investigated the consumption of organic food in general [
10,
11,
12,
13,
14] and specific categories, such as organic meat [
15,
16], organic milk [
17,
18], organic fruits and vegetables [
19,
20], research on organic tea is still very limited. Several prior studies have primarily focused on the production and plantations of organic tea [
21,
22]. Other studies also focus on tea culture and marketing of organic tea product [
1,
6,
8]. However, little knowledge is known about consumers’ perceptions and purchase decisions toward organic tea, despite a large increase in consumer demand for such a healthy beverage. A notable study conducted by Sumi et al. [
6] in Bangladesh found several predictors of consumer intention to purchase organic tea, including perceived price, trust, environmental concern and health benefit. However, this study underestimated the impact of store-related factors such as store prestige, store innovative and in-store experience. It also failed to investigate the role of potential mediators in explaining consumer’s purchase intention associated with organic tea. Furthermore, it should be also noted that although China is the largest tea production and the largest tea market in the world [
3], few studies have determined the antecedents of consumers’ perceived healthiness of organic tea and how such a perception influences consumer purchase decision-making. This lack of research provides very limited knowledge for researchers and business managers in tea industry in China market. To fill this gap, this study aims at investigating key factors that predict consumer perceived healthiness of organic tea. Furthermore, this study also determines the relationship between perceived healthiness and purchase intention with the mediating role of attitudes toward organic tea.
This study is expected to offer further insights for researchers and business managers in the tea industry to develop more effective marketing strategies aiming at promoting the consumption of organic tea. Furthermore, given that the present study focuses on consumers and tea stores in China, its findings will enrich the literature relating to purchase behavior and consumption of organic tea in emerging markets, where there are increasing demand for healthy and safety tea products [
23,
24,
25,
26].
The remaining of this study is organized as follows. The second section discusses literature and develops hypotheses. The third section discusses research method and sample data. The fourth section presents results. The fifth section provides a detailed discussion of both theoretical and managerial implications. The final section presents the research limitations and future research directions.
5. Discussions and Implications
This study seeks to contribute to the literature relating to organic food consumption and sustainable behaviors by investigating the antecedents and outcomes of consumer perceived healthiness or organic tea. Specifically, it examines different marketing factors that predict consumer perceived healthiness of organic tea, and the relationship between perceived healthiness and purchase intention with the mediating role of attitude toward organic tea. Results of empirical analysis indicate that product quality, customer service, in-store experience, store innovativeness, and store prestige altogether enhance consumer perceived healthiness of organic tea. That is, except high price policy, all other variables significantly and positively predict consumers’ perceptions of the healthiness of organic tea. Store innovativeness and in-store experience have the highest impact on perceived healthiness of organic tea. These results imply that when consumers purchase organic tea, they not only focus on the product itself but also care about the innovativeness of the stores and their shopping experience. This is because consumers have too much choices of products in today’s business environment. Consumers tend to seek for the pleasure in their shopping trips and they also demand newness and novelty from physical stores [
34,
35]. Furthermore, high price policy has no significant influence on consumers’ perceptions of healthiness of organic tea. This can be explained by the fact that consumers who prefer organic tea don’t rely on price to evaluate the value of organic tea. Consumers may not care about high price of organic tea due to their purchase power and income increase. Organic tea is also daily consuming product, its high price may be acceptable for consumers as compare with price of other types of products. Furthermore, perceived healthiness appears to have a positive influence on purchase intention toward organic tea. Notably, attitudes mediated the relationship between perceived healthiness and purchase intention toward organic tea. Based on these findings, this study provides implications for researchers and business managers.
5.1. Theoretical Implications
Consumers have been increasingly interested in organic tea in recent years. Demands for organic tea have increased rapidly not only in China market but also the global market [
3,
6]. Despite the importance of organic tea in consumers’ daily life and its large potential market, very few studies have determined consumer behavior in tea industry and tea consumption. This study fills research gap in current literature by investigating antecedents of consumer perceived healthiness of organic tea. The findings indicate that various marketing factors influencing consumer perceived healthiness of organic tea include product quality, customer service, in-store experience, store innovativeness, and store prestige. These findings imply that consumers’ evaluation of organic tea depends not only on tea product itself but also other factors of tea stores. Therefore, this study enriches knowledge in current organic tea literature and provides implication for marketing research in tea industry.
This study finds a positive association between perceived healthiness and purchase intention toward organic tea, which is in line with the study conducted by Sumi et al. [
6]. This finding suggests that consumer perception of healthiness is an important factor in the purchase decisions toward organic tea. That is, consumers often perceive organic tea as safer and healthier than other types of tea products. Consumers also feel that organic tea has less negative impact on environment because organic tea is cultivated and processed without fertilizers, chemicals, and pesticides. With the perceptions of the benefit of organic tea to human health and environment, consumers tend to hold high intention to purchase organic tea. Thus, this study sheds a new light on the relationship between perceived healthiness and purchase intention toward organic tea. This finding may be of interest to researchers who wish to understand the issue of healthiness and purchase behavior toward organic tea.
The findings also indicate that perceptions of healthiness positively influenced consumers’ attitudes which in turn positively affected purchase intention toward organic tea. In other words, when consumers perceive organic tea as safe and healthy products, they tend to form positive attitudes and take action to purchase organic tea. This finding enriches current literature emphasizing the roles of health consciousness and health benefits in organic food consumption [
57,
58,
59,
60,
61,
62]. Importantly, it provides fresh insight into the mediating mechanism of consumer attitudes in the link between consumers’ perceptions of healthiness and purchase intention toward organic tea. Thus, this finding may have implication for researchers who will study the mediating and/or moderating mechanism in the relationship between consumers’ perceptions and behavior in organic tea consumption.
Finally, although China has been the largest tea market in the world, very limited studies have determined the issue of organic tea consumption in China. This study contributes to the extant literature relating to sustainable food consumption by providing evidence on consumer behavior toward organic tea consumption in China. To our best knowledge, this study is one of the most comprehensive research that provides insights into the antecedents of perceived healthiness and its relationship with purchase intention with the mediating effect of consumer attitudes toward organic tea in China market. Thus, this study provides initial evidence to advance our knowledge about consumer behavior toward organic tea in China.
5.2. Practical Implications
Several implications for business managers are also proposed based on our findings. It is suggested that tea stores should have strategy to raise consumers’ perceptions of healthiness of organic tea. For example, managers should plan and execute marketing strategy to deliver signal of high product quality of organic tea to consumers. Marketing advertising should differentiate the product quality between organic tea and other types of tea products. Specifically, organic tea has superior product quality than other tea products.
At the same time, in order to satisfy consumers’ demand, tea retail stores should use different methods to enhance their service quality. For example, managers should improve their customer service by training their service personnel. Professional salesperson will provide high quality of service and advance consumers’ knowledge about organic tea. Tea stores should also use advanced technology to help consumers during their shopping (e.g., an advance payment system may reduce consumers’ time of waiting).
Furthermore, managers should invest to improve tea stores’ shopping environment and innovativeness to create more shopping experience for consumers. For example, tea stores should focus their attention to store environment to improve quality of indoor environment (e.g., quality of air, layout, thermal, and acoustic environment of tea stores). Besides, tea stores also should innovate to create more value for consumers. For example, tea stores may develop new products, create new package, or innovate their service strategy. By improve store environment and innovative more new products and service for consumers, tea stores can enhance consumers’ in-store shopping experience when they purchase at tea stores.
In addition, a marketing strategy to build store prestige is also necessary to create a favorable image in the eyes of consumers. To persuade consumers purchase organic tea, business managers should also plan marketing strategy to shape consumers’ positive attitudes toward organic tea. For example, advertising strategy should emphasize the benefits of organic tea that bring safety and healthiness for human health. With appropriate marketing and advertising strategy, tea stores may improve consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward organic tea.
Policy makers should also play an important role in communicating and promoting health-related benefits of organic food in general and organic tea in particular. Informational and educational programs should be implemented to deliver a clear message about the healthiness of organic tea, its ability to increase metabolism and how it can reduce depression risks. Such programs should be co-developed and co-implemented with organic food manufacturers, retailers, universities and schools.