Determinants of Organic Food Consumption in Narrowing the Green Gap

Abstract

Understanding and recognising environmentally-friendly behaviour are vital in achieving the Sustainability Development Goals and driving the economy for countries and producers of environmentally-friendly goods. Nevertheless, various stakeholders have expressed concern about the existing green gap, which greatly hinders their marketing efforts. This situation persists as mainstream research investigates people’s purchasing intentions, under the notion that the intention to perform a specific behaviour would generally predict the actual behaviour. The key argument of this study is that examining the actual consumption behaviour of organic foods is the ideal approach towards investigating purchase intention drivers as a proxy for consumption. In response to the green gap, the theory of planned behaviour is expanded by including the dimension of temporal orientation, i.e., a future orientation that has an influential but unrecognised effect on many human behaviours. In contrast to the prevalent operationalisation of attitude, the term is defined as a product-specific attitude which is markedly dissimilar to the environmental attitude in its orientations. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling technique was used to analyse the research model. The findings indicate that while product-specific attitudes and perceived availability positively affect organic food consumption, subjective norms do not. Additionally, the data implies that product-specific attitudes are stronger when future orientation is high.

1. Introduction

The importance of organic food is becoming more widely recognised, and the demand for it is rising [1]. The recent 22nd Global Organic Farming Report by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) indicates that approximately 3.1 million farmers manage at least 72.3 million hectares of agricultural land organically with an estimated economic value of 110 billion US dollars [2]. The leading country with the largest organic agricultural land area is Australia with 35.7 million hectares, followed by Argentina and the United States with 3.7 million and 2.4 million hectares, respectively. Malaysia, the focus of this research, is one of the nations with the lowest proportion of organic agricultural land (est. 2003 hectares), comprising only 0.01 percent of the total agricultural land [2], with a total of 211 certified organic farms [3]. As for organic food consumption, according to a survey carried out in 2022 on organic food, 38 percent of respondents in Malaysia claimed that they occasionally purchased organic food. In comparison, only 4% of respondents in Malaysia reported never purchasing organic food products [4]. According to Suhaimee (2016), most organic food farmers in Malaysia plant organic vegetables due to the higher demand than other food types. Next to organic vegetables are organic fruits. In Malaysia, organic food is a niche product with a smaller market share than conventional products [5]. Still, it is expanding due to rising demand, and the Department of Agriculture is certifying additional farms for organic farming [5,6].

Despite the rise in organic food cultivation and the plethora of studies exploring the factors influencing people’s intention to buy organic food, the market share of organic foods and beverages remains low [7]. This issue is encapsulated by [8] as the so-called “attitude-behaviour” or “green gap” due to the discrepancy between the consumers’ claim or expression and their actual behaviour (e.g., [9,10,11,12,13]). In fact, those who self-identify as green/environmentally friendly consumers are said to be 50% higher than actual “environmentally friendly” customers [14]. Correspondingly, a slew of current researchers calls for additional research to help reduce or constrict the green gap, which prevents consumers from committing to their intention and putting attitude into practice, by assessing the consumers’ actual behaviour to prevent the possible bias of their expressed intent [10,15].

Various behavioural theories have been used to add more dimensions and to explore elements that constitute the intention and drive the behaviour to purchase organic food, but the gap remains. Given this, Moisander et al. [16] suggested looking at larger consumer behaviour changes rather than focusing on specific purchases. Miniero et al. [17] also argued that marketing studies have mainly focused on purchase intent rather than effective consumer choice. Futerra et al. [5] discovered that models which predict the intention to buy ethically are not perfectly indicative of ethical action 90% of the time. According to Futerra et al. [5], this condition has profound implications, as product launches based on purchase intentions are more likely to end in costly failures. Furthermore, ref. Morwitz [18] outlined a 60-year meta-analysis indicating that buying intentions may not always translate or materialise into actual behaviour. Morwitz [18] came to the conclusion that purchase intentions are an imperfect predictor of what consumers do/act upon. Similarly, Nabi [19] refuted the concept that the intention to undertake a task typically predicts actual performance. Nabi [19] and Rimal [20] provided compelling data indicating discrepancies in predicting models for intention and actual behaviour/action. As a result, researchers should be careful about using the construct of organic food consumption when they are only looking at purchase intention or purchase behaviour, and not treating it like consumption. In addition, they should not confidently conclude their findings to encourage organic food consumption because the two actions differ significantly.

Nevertheless, there has been a lack of effort in re-evaluating potential factors encouraging actual consumption rather than merely organic food purchasing intention. Previous studies have mainly explored determinants of purchase intention of organic food as a proxy to encourage organic food consumption; thus, it is argued that the focus of prior studies does not readily encompass consumption itself, since purchase may be secondary to consumption motive and decision. Despite the fact that a portion of buying intention is realized by the actual purchasing behaviour of the product, which eventually leads to consumption, the gap can be narrowed if the approach is reversed, beginning with actual consumption behaviour followed by purchasing. Moreover, there is a need to take into account that food is a regularly consumed commodity, which implies that repeat consumption is a highly consistent and powerful predictor of repeat purchase behaviour.

As such, the aim of this study is to offer a framework of factors that affect the actual consumption of organic food by incorporating a more focused dimension of attitude, namely, product specific-attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control operationalised as perceived availability on top of temporal orientation as a moderator by adopting the theory of planned behaviour. Following the seminal works of Ajzen [21] and Ajzen and Fishbein [22] which recognise the significance of culture and value in influencing the relative influence of attitude and other factors on behaviour creation in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), future orientation is incorporated. Similarly [23,24] expressly encouraged the inclusion of time value or our sense of time as a moderator in the consumer decision-making process. Many scholars agree with the recommendation, and asserted that future orientation is prevalent and profound [25,26]. Despite evidence of its influence, future orientation is underexplored in many areas of human behaviour, including in organic food consumption.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Underpinning Theory

Over the years, several theories have been advanced to examine consumer habits. The current study uses the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to examine organic food consumption. This theory sets the foundation for describing diverse individuals’ motivations by relating conduct or behavioural intents to attitudes, subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioural control (PBC). To this day, the TPB is still applicable for evaluating consumer behaviour and behavioural intention [21,27] and has been successfully and widely adapted to predict a vast array of behaviours, including environmentally-friendly behaviour [10]. TPB has also been used to predict intention and investigate food consumption behaviour (e.g., [21,28]).

In contrast to popular interpretations and operationalisations of the categories, this study focuses on a niche operationalisation of attitude namely product-specific attitude (PSA) since it differs from the environmental attitude in its orientation and has not been examined in earlier studies. PBC is operationalised as the perceived availability (PA) of organic food. Organic product availability is considered a behavioural control variable that restricts consumer adoption. According to [11], non-motivational variables such as resources and opportunity might determine behaviour [29]. This study extends the TPB by including the temporal orientation dimension of future orientation as a moderator. Zimbardo [26] stated that temporal orientation exerts a substantial and conspicuous impact on human behaviour, yet is still lacking in environmentally-friendly studies. Figure 1 shows the hypothesised correlations along with extensive explanations of each variable in the conceptual framework.

2.2. Product-Specific Attitude

The influence of attitude on organic food purchase intention is equivocal since specific research works have revealed a modest association [30,31], while others detected an insignificant relationship [11]. This appears to be due to the common utilisation of attitude in the context of environmental attitude. It might also be debated that attitude is considered an attitude towards the environment in the context of ecological behaviour as a whole. Such an approach is unrealistic since it does not take into consideration the goal of long-term use of organic food, which focuses on the product’s attributes rather than only the environmental element. According to [32], a favourable attitude towards sustainable products is an excellent beginning point for encouraging sustainable consumption. It has been established that the more closely the attitude is towards a certain product that matches, reflects, or corresponds with the behaviour, the more predictive the attitude becomes [33,34].

According to [35], people desire a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle not only because they care about the environment and understand their part in the ecosystem, but also because they anticipate personal benefits. Personal advantages are tied to the product and can be obtained exclusively by consumption or usage, resulting in a favourable attitude towards the product. Correspondingly, a product-specific attitude is described as a consistent tendency to either positively or unfavourably respond to a product [36], whereas [37] expressed environmental attitudes as a positive or unfavourable psychological inclination towards the environment. As such, the more precisely the attitude is towards a given product that matches, reflects, or corresponds to the attitude towards the action, the more predictive the attitude will be. Previous research has shown that a general attitude towards the environment does not necessarily flow into other ecologically-favourable contexts [38,39]. Hence, integrating and researching the role of product-specific attitude is relevant since individuals who consume organic food are considered strongly connected to the product and communicate their true notion regarding the product as opposed to perception, which could lead to bias.

H1. 

Product-specific attitude positively influences actual consumption of organic food.

2.3. Subjective Norms

Previous research on environmental behaviour and behavioural intention had frequently disregarded subjective standards and eliminated them from analysis [40,41,42]. Subjective norms have a favourable effect on the intake of various foods and beverages including alcohol and fast-food consumption [28], fish burger consumption [43], fish consumption [44], genetically-modified tomatoes [45], and green products [46,47,48].

According to [49], the extent of exposure to consumption influences the formation of normative beliefs and, as a result, the likelihood that judgement will conform to these normative beliefs. Similarly [50] found that ethical message phrasing in the hotel setting, such as “the majority of guests in this hotel room reuse their towels” greatly increases visitors’ compliance when it is more closely tied to the state and circumstance of hotel guests. This is because such representation makes it easier for the customer to identify with the majority. Similarly [51] found that when guests are presented with a door hanger with the phrase “join your neighbours in conserving energy” with the aim to reduce their energy consumption, they tend to conserve the most energy. Gockeritz et al. [52] suggested that the feeling that others approve of engaging in such behaviours strengthens the correlation between subjective norms and conservation behaviour. When “significant others” such as family members, co-workers, or leaders encourage environmental activity, individuals are more inclined to participate in or execute this behaviour; hence, it is anticipated that the result would be the same or viewed similarly in terms of organic food intake. Thus, it would be interesting to examine the role of subjective norms towards organic food consumption behaviour to establish the narrative and its function in influencing behaviour.

H2. 

Subjective norms positively influence actual consumption of organic food.

2.4. Perceived Availability

Availability is considered a behavioural control variable for organic food since it can potentially limit consumer adoption. This is consistent with [11,21,29], who advanced that PBC would regularly result from conveniently accessible behavioural beliefs; in this context, beliefs are related to resources and barriers, including the time needed, that can enable or impede the performance of a certain behaviour. Similarly [53,54] noted that perceived behavioural control reflects external perceived difficulty aspects such as perceived barriers and resource availability.

Perceived availability describes a person’s perception of how convenient it is to obtain or consume a specific commodity [32]. The availability of organic food items is beyond consumers’ control since the supply chain determines it. Aertsens et al. [24] found in their review that the lack of organic products is the greatest barrier or factor limiting consumers’ intention or behaviour. According to [55], the limited availability of ethical products adds to their ineffective marketing and poor retail exposure. Although the motivation to acquire organic food may be strong, the product’s limited availability makes acquiring organic food more difficult or undesirable, which is more likely to discourage the behaviour [56,57,58]. In their empirical study [59] increased the availability of a milk product by notifying respondents that the products are easily obtainable and by offering additional helpful messages for finding the nearest store carrying Le Fermier products. Intriguingly, they discovered no difference between individuals who got the message of manipulation and people who did not in terms of the belief that these goods are difficult to obtain. Their investigation, however, indicated a discrepancy between individuals who did not plan on buying organic food and those that did, with the latter reporting greater availability. On the basis of this discussion, the purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon within the context of actual consumption which is more ideal than the stage of purchase intent, when consumers are actively engaged in or utterly involved in consumption activity. Repeated or previous purchases will definitely impact a consumer’s decision to buy organic products. This occasion will assist in determining the actual effect of perceived availability on consumer behaviour.

H3. 

Availability of organic food positively influences actual consumption of organic food.

2.5. Future Orientation

As an extension to the TPB, this study employs and examines future orientation as a moderator. Future orientation is the extent to which a person engages in future-oriented behaviours, such as having a proactive and long-term perspective, deferring gratification, and considering the consequences of one’s actions and decisions with regard to the future. In the same regard, focusing on the consumer adoption decision process [60] identified time as a crucial variable in innovation dissemination research and adoption research. This notion was independently investigated by [26] who established that temporal orientation is a prevalent, profound, and mostly unrecognized influence on the vast majority of human behaviours. Notwithstanding [10] argued that despite its pervasive influence, the study of temporal orientation in marketing and consumer behaviour is still in its infancy.

Preceding studies on temporal orientation supported the notion that when loss and gains occur in the future, it adds to an optimistic disposition [61]. In other words, individuals will strive to minimise their losses and maximise their gains as a result of their actions. This is consistent with the logic behind the preventative state, its direction towards fulfilling responsibilities, and its knowledge of undesirable repercussions and related losses, and hence corresponds to environmentally-friendly conduct [62]. For example, temporal orientation has been used to predict general pro-environmental behaviour [17] and renewable energy [63]. Carmi [64] and Leonidou et al. [65] noted that values might be incorporated into sustainable behaviour or other behavioural research to explain and bridge the gap between the motivating variables and the behaviour. Ref. [23] observed that the incorporation of values as a moderator in behavioural studies is still lacking and uncommon, despite substantial literature advocating for additional studies on the influence of temporal orientation on consumer behaviour. Conversely, Polonsky et al. [66] noted that individuals fail to choose environmentally friendly alternatives because they do not consider the long-term consequences of their behavior or activity. This phenomenon occurs because the impacts of human consumption on the environment are typically delayed, making it difficult for individuals to perceive or predict future consequences based on their current behavior or consumption patterns [67]. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the effect of future orientation in moderating the relationship between attitude and organic food consumption since previous research has argued that those pro-environmental behaviours include temporal conflict (the past and the future) [68,69]. Steptoe et al. [70] stated that by comprehending and applying a sense of time orientation, organisations are capable of effectively communicating their messages to consumers.

H4. 

The positive relationship between product-specific attitude and actual consumption of organic food is stronger when future orientation is high.

3. Methodology

The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and a quantitative research approach. An online self-administered questionnaire was utilised. By doing so, the respondents can respond to the survey questions at their convenience and have more time to reflect on their answers before completing them. The first part of the questionnaire sought self-reported frequency of organic food consumption. This study’s items were adapted from established measures that fit this research setting. This study relies on the scale developed by [71] for measuring product-specific attitude, the scale by [43] for measuring subjective norms, the scales by [42,72] for measuring availability, the scales by [73,74] for measuring organic label, and the scale by [75] for measuring future orientation. All the measuring items are based on a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates very difficult/very unlikely/strongly disagree, and 5 indicates very easy/very likely/strongly agree. A face-validity with a sample size of 25 allowed for additional feedback on the items’ wording and completion time. Some items were slightly reworded after the preliminary test.

Purposive sampling was employed in this study since it focuses on actual consumption of organic food. To determine the factors that influence organic food consumption, only individuals who consume organic food were surveyed, and excluding those who are only aware of organic food or plan to consume it. This is due to the fact that the latter is not an appropriate proxy for consumption, since not all purchases involve personal consumption, whereas all consumption is accompanied by a purchase and is viewed as significantly related to the product, as previously discussed. This is in accordance with the recommendation by [19,76,77,78] to not combine actual behaviour and intention cases’ responses as their patterns are distinct. A self-administered questionnaire was employed for collecting data in this research using the drop-off and collect approach. By doing so, it allows the respondents to answer the survey questionnaire conveniently on their own time. This is because respondents will have time to reflect before indicating their response to each question and seek additional information when needed as pointed out by Aaker and Day [79]. Participation in the survey was entirely voluntary, and a total of 252 questionnaires were collected from Malaysians who consume organic goods.

We utilised G*Power to compute the minimum sample size required to attain statistical power [80] for determining the sample size of respondents for this research. Since the model includes five predictors, we set the effect size at 0.15 and the required power at 0.95. The needed sample size was 138. Thus, we set out to collect data above or at the same amount. In addition, it is suggested for PLS-SEM to utilise the “10 times” rule of thumb for determining the required minimum sample size [81]. This criterion indicates that PLS-SEM required a minimum sample size of 10 times the maximum number of structural paths or relationships, which in our model would require a minimum sample size of 50 (i.e., 10 × 5 structural paths = 50 samples). In both circumstances, it is plausible to conclude that a sample size of 252 is acceptable for this study and has sufficient statistical power.

The study model was examined using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique using SmartPLS 3 software [82]. PLS-SEM is relevant and preferable in this study, which aimed to predict actual organic food consumption determinants, as stated by [83]. Anderson and Gerbing [84] suggested a two-step analytical approach, first evaluating the measurement model and then the structural model (hypothesis testing).

Podsakoff et al. [85] recommended utilising Harman’s one-factor test to assess common method variance when the predictor and criterion variable data are gathered from the same source. A factorial analysis without rotation was performed in SPSS, and the findings confirmed that the first component accounts for just 23.881% of the variance, which is significantly lower than the majority, showing that common method bias is not an issue in this study.

4. Results

4.1. Profile of Respondents

Table 1. Demographics of the Respondents.

Demographics		Frequency (N = 252)	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	103	40.9
	Female	149	59.1
Age	20–29	66	26.2
	30–39	95	37.7
	40–49	48	19.0
	50 and above	43	17.1
Yearly Household Income	RM 50,000 and below	27	10.7
	RM 50,001–100,000	77	30.5
	RM 100,001–150,000	98	39.0
	RM 150,001–200,000	34	13.5
	RM 200,001 and above	16	6.3

USD = MYR 4.42 (30 March 2023).

describes the background of the sample, where 59.1% of the respondents are female, whereas 40.9% are male. The majority of the respondents are between 30 and 39 years old (37.7%), followed by those between 20 and 29 years old (26.2%). The majority of the respondents (39%) earn between MYR 100,001 and MYR 150,000 annually.

4.2. Assessment of the Measurement Model

Assessing the measurement model includes evaluating its reliability and validity. Validity is composed of convergent validity and discriminant validity. By assessing the indicator loadings, Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability (CR), convergent validity is examined [81,82].

Table 2. Convergent validity.

Construct	Item	Loadings	CR	AVE
Product-Specific Attitude	PSATT1	0.909	0.927	0.717
	PSATT2	0.872
	PSATT3	0.859
	PSATT4	0.844
	PSATT5	0.739
Subjective Norm	SN1	0.898	0.915	0.782
	SN2	0.894
	SN3	0.861
Availability	ATT1	0.882	0.899	0.749
	ATT2	0.862
	ATT3	0.852
Organic Label	OL1	0.867	0.882	0.652
	OL2	0.85
	OL3	0.739
	OL4	0.766
Future Orientation	FO1	0.908	0.921	0.745
	FO2	0.828
	FO3	0.882
	FO4	0.832
Consumption	OFC	1	1	1

demonstrates that all the loadings are greater than 0.70, the AVE values are more than 0.5, and the composite reliabilities are higher than 0.70. Hence, according to Hair et al. [82], the measurement model’s convergent validity is satisfactory.

Using Cohen’s [86] method of analysing correlations between constructs and the square root of the AVE for that construct, the discriminant validity was examined. The square root of the AVE for each construct should be higher than the sum of the correlations between the construct and the other constructs in the model [81,87].

Table 3. Fornell-Larcker Criterion.

	1	2	3	4	5
1. Availability	0.863
2. Future Orientation	0.087	0.85
3. Organic Food Consumption	0.710	0.071	1
4. Product-Specific Attitude	0.658	0.115	0.866	0.847
5. Subjective Norm	0.055	0.172	0.092	0.075	0.849

Diagonals (bolded) represent the square root of the average variance extracted, while the off-diagonals are correlations among constructs. Diagonal elements should be larger than off-diagonal ones.

presents the results which indicate that the discriminant validity of the measures utilised in this study has been established.

4.3. Assessment of the Structural Model

The findings of the structural model analysis are presented in

Table 4. Result of the Structural Model (Hypotheses Testing).

Hypothesis	Relationship	Std. Beta	Std. Error	t-Value	Decision	f2	Q2	R2
H1	PSATT → OFAC	0.790	0.103	7.631 **	Supported	0.386	0.566	0.548
H2	SN → OFAC	0.033	0.038	0.869	Not Supported	0.045
H3	ATT → OFAC	0.419	0.104	4.042 **	Supported	0.278
H4	PSATT*FO → OFAC	0.226	0.082	2.36 **	Supported	0.183		0.617

** p < 0.01.

. We proceeded by examining the direct relationships. Organic food consumption was found to be significantly influenced by product-specific attitude (β = 0.790, p < 0.01) and perceived availability (β = 0.419, p < 0.01), whereas subjective norm (β = 0.033, p > 0.01) was not statistically significant. As a result, H1 and H3 are accepted, while H2 is rejected. In total, these variables account for 54.8% of the variance in the consumption of organic foods, substantiating the model’s predictive power and meaning for the purposes of interpretation [87]. The moderating interaction of future orientation was evaluated in the following phase. The interaction term between product-specific attitude and future orientation was created by mean-centring the variables on reducing multicollinearity. The R² increased to 0.617 after the interaction effect was included in the model, representing a 6.9% change in R². The outcome shows that there is a significant interaction impact between future orientation and product-specific attitude (H4) (β = 0.226, p < 0.01, MHighPSA = 4.01). This demonstrates that the association between product-specific attitude and consumption of organic food is stronger in individuals with a high future orientation. Dawson [88] suggested graphing the interaction effect to evaluate how the moderator influences the interactions. The outcome is depicted in Figure 2.

The blindfolding-based cross-validated redundancy values (Q²) is 0.566, further supporting the model’s predictive relevance. In addition to blindfolding, the effect sizes were evaluated. Cohen [86] recommended looking at the change in the R² value in assessing the effect sizes. According to Cohen’s [86] recommended thresholds of 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35, which reflect small, medium, and large effects, respectively, all relationships demonstrated a significant impact. There was one large effect (PSA) and two small effects (ATT and PSATT*FO).

5. Discussion

To the researchers’ best knowledge, this study is among the earliest proposing and examining a conceptual model to understand how product-specific attitude, subjective norms, and perceived availability, with the moderating role of future orientation in determining individuals’ actual consumption of organic food and explore the relative importance of these variables as opposed to being limited to organic food purchasing intention which is less ideal of a proxy that led to green gap as discussed earlier. The previous approach has been reported to mislead marketers regarding factors that could foster organic food actual consumption, resulting in a 90 percent loss [5]. Therefore, this study yields a more accurate result to bridge the green gap between what people claim and the actual behaviour of organic food consumption.

Accordingly, this research is built on TPB, which contributes to the expanding body of knowledge that supports the integration of temporal orientation and operationalization of attitude as a product-specific attitude as opposed to a general attitude that lacks the individual’s interest in the environmental context. The result supports forming a framework for determining organic food consumption behaviour. While there is a considerable amount of research on environmental behaviour, this study’s central notion or concept is yet to be explored and undoubtedly has significant implications for the environment, marketing research and practice. This research will assist us in better understanding what makes people in developing nations consume organic food in an effort to increase organic food consumption. Producers and marketers of organic food who support sustainable consumption will find the findings helpful in their quest to understand the motivations behind how people utilise their products. This study is crucial to the government’s effort in encouraging and inculcating sustainable consumption among the citizens.

Firstly, the finding supports the notion that general attitudes toward the environment do not always translate into other contexts that are ecologically favourable; however, the more closely a specific attitude matches, reflects, or corresponds to a particular product or subject, the more predictive that attitude is towards the behaviour [27,38]. Essoussi and Zahaf [89] observed that typical consumers of organic foods tend to look for labels such as “pesticide-free”, “no chemicals”, and “no GMOs”. Consequently, this helps people develop a positive attitude towards organic food by making them believe that it is more nutritious, safe, and healthy, ultimately giving them the confidence to eat it. This suggests that eating organic food is more about achieving personal gain than upholding moral beliefs towards the environment. In order to encourage new consumers and improve the attitudes of current organic consumers, it is advised that relevant stakeholders place more emphasis on communicating these characteristics to the public. This will increase demand, ensure significant organic agriculture and sales growth, and encourage new consumers. Practitioners could convey these qualities through a marketing campaign, attractive product packaging, credibly certified labelling, in-store digital advertising, and ads demonstrating the advantages of organic produce for the consumer.

Despite the insignificant relationship between subjective norms and organic food consumption, the findings are consistent with the literature, which revealed that subjective norms are sometimes not a significant predictor and in fact only a weak predictor [29,90]. A sound explanation for the context of this study is that organic food consumption adoption is still in its infancy in Malaysia and remains a niche market, as reported by [91]. As a result, there is only minimal exposure to subjective norms that promote the practice of eating organic food. In other words, while sustainable consumption is not yet widely accepted as a moral standard that one must abide by in order to be accepted by others, consumers are not feeling pressure from people they regard as influential in adopting it. Once the adoption intensity increases in Malaysia to a certain degree that is viewed as the standard linked to food consumption generally, it is anticipated that subjective norms will play a big part in changing people’s orientation towards organic food consumption. Alternatively, designing messages and movies (a slice of life) that depict the local community accepting organic food as the standard for healthy eating and living is one way to establish and build subjective norm pressure among the public. Such messages can then be posted on various social media platforms, where they can be viewed repetitively by a large group of audience and customers so that they would choose organic food and include it in their daily diet. This is demonstrated by [49,52], who asserted that the extent of repeated and high exposure to consumption influences the initiation of normative beliefs and that when individuals observe their “significant others”, relatives, co-workers, or leaders supporting environmental behaviour, they are much more likely to participate in or undertake this behaviour themselves. The situation is anticipated to be identical for organic food consumption.

In addition, the results demonstrated that perceived availability encourages organic food consumption and may function as a barrier if it is opposing. When it comes to organic food, accessibility is critical because it is not as widely available as conventional food due to its limited production and localised demand. Providing information that highlights the availability of the produce by the retailers or growers via social media platforms is much needed as it is considered an effective communication tool today, especially during the COVID-19 restrictions which altered how people make their purchases and communicate heavily over social media. This could increase the perceived availability and make it less of a barrier. To boost the exposure of this product category and make it stand out from the crowd of conventional foods, retailers must allocate an area in the supermarket to selling organic produce. Additionally, increasing the variety and supply of organic foods in regular supermarkets effectively offers more options and consistent availability to support organic foods consumption successfully.

Furthermore, it was discovered that future orientation moderates the link between product-specific attitudes and consumption of organic foods, strengthening the association among people with high levels of future orientation. This implies that consuming organic food involves temporal conflict (future), which promotes a better outlook and greater commitment. According to the study by [92] that looked at cross-cultural differences, Malaysia scored highly on the country’s value score and relatively high on the country’s practice score for future orientation, which reflects the study’s sample. This is particularly relevant to the abrupt occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed that those who are prepared in terms of monetary saving and health care can cope better in a disaster than those who are not. To ensure a relatively comfortable future, more people are developing increased awareness for the future in numerous ways. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased people’s motivation to consume healthy food [90] because they perceive it as something healthy (positive attitude towards the product) and helpful for maintaining good long-term health (future-oriented). Marketers could perhaps portray organic produce in terms of its future benefits for the consumer and the environment, thus making existing and prospective consumers more aware of the long-term benefits of organic food and affirming their loyalty to it.

6. Limitations and Future Research

This study addressed the issue or gap identified by earlier studies about the consumption of organic foods by using purchase intention as a proxy for consumption. The study discussed a sensible and valuable method for examining the actual consumption of organic food and suggested a framework that entails a crucially important attention factor that deals with behaviour shaping, which is a novel aspect of the actual consumption of organic food and is a product-specific attitude and temporal orientation. The justification for organic food consumption as a construct does not seek to refute earlier research on consumers’ motivations to purchase organic food. Instead, it is an effort to add to these efforts and the larger literature on environmental consumer behaviour by reassessing the situation through the lens of consumption, in the hopes that it will be helpful for producers, marketers, and policymakers in their efforts to encourage citizens to consume organic food, thus leading to more sustainable development.

Despite the study’s contributions, it is essential to note several limitations to expand our understanding of the consumption of organic foods. As this study was conducted in Malaysia, it is recommended that future research validate this model on a different sample from different geographic locations to determine if the theory holds for all consumer groups and to confirm the generalizability of previous or ongoing investigations. In addition, it is recommended that future studies focus on a specific product category or compare a different product category, such as dairy, vegetables, fruits, or meat, to determine whether the findings across categories produce the same result or not. This is significant since various organic food products may be influenced by other variables [55].

Utilizing bibliometric analysis is an additional recommendation for advancing the field of organic food consumption. It substantiates systematic literature review and meta-analysis and is a popular and rigorous tool for exploring and interpreting vast scientific data. It helps researchers dissect a particular field’s evolutionary nuances and illuminate its emerging areas. Bibliometric analysis is a scientific computer-assisted review process that can identify core research or authors and their association by examining all the publications associated with a particular subject area. Bibliometric analysis can provide substantial and interconnected data on a subject, enabling comprehension of the broader intellectual landscape [93]. Nevertheless, its application in business research is still relatively new and often insufficient, such as in organic food consumption behaviour.