MRKT 640 Week 3 Research Project: Annotated Bibliography Example

Annotated Bibliography: The Theory of Planned Behavior and the Gap Between Intending and Buying Organic Food

Research Topic

Topic: Organic food buying seen through the theory of planned behavior. Research question: How well does the theory of planned behavior explain consumers' intentions to buy organic food, and why do so many positive intentions fail to become purchases? The group chose the topic because organic food is a market in which consumers report strong favorable attitudes while purchases remain a modest share of food spending, which makes it a hard case for any model that runs from attitude to action.

Annotated Bibliography

Aertsens, J., Verbeke, W., Mondelaers, K., & Van Huylenbroeck, G. (2009). Personal determinants of organic food consumption: A review. British Food Journal, 111(10), 1140-1167. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700910992961

This review organizes research on why people buy organic food within a framework that links Schwartz's theory of values to the theory of planned behavior. Aertsens et al. (2009) connect organic food attributes to abstract values such as security, hedonism, universalism and benevolence and argue that appeals to those values can shape attitudes. Besides attitude, they identify subjective and personal norms and perceived behavioral control as influences on consumption, and they call attention to underexamined factors such as emotions, involvement and uncertainty. As a review of secondary sources, it reports no new data, but its framework is useful for organizing a scattered literature. The group will use it in the literature section to show how values sit behind the attitudes the theory measures, and its point about uncertainty will support the discussion of why intentions stall in the store.

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

This article by Ajzen (1991) is the foundational statement and review of the theory the paper examines. It proposes that intentions are predicted by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, and that intentions together with perceived control account for considerable variance in behavior. Ajzen reviews the evidence available at the time and finds the theory well supported, while acknowledging unresolved questions about how underlying beliefs relate to the three predictors and whether past behavior adds prediction beyond the model. As the original source, it is essential and highly cited, though the evidence it reviews predates most consumer applications. The group will use it to define the theory's constructs in the introduction and to frame the paper's central question, since Ajzen's own discussion of perceived control anticipates the barriers that later organic food studies identify.

Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta-analytic review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40(4), 471-499. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466601164939

This meta-analysis integrates 185 independent studies published through 1997. Across those studies, Armitage and Conner (2001) report that the three predictors together explained 39 percent of the spread in intentions and the model 27 percent of the spread in behavior; perceived control improved prediction over attitudes and norms alone, and the model did better with behavior people reported themselves than with behavior someone else observed or recorded. They also found subjective norm to be a weak predictor of intention, partly because of poor measurement. The study's breadth makes it a strong benchmark, although it covers many behaviors, few of them purchases. The group will use its figures to set expectations for how much of organic food buying the theory can explain, and its finding about self-reports will support the group's critique of studies that measure only intentions or self-reported purchases.

Arvola, A., Vassallo, M., Dean, M., Lampila, P., Saba, A., Lähteenmäki, L., & Shepherd, R. (2008). Predicting intentions to purchase organic food: The role of affective and moral attitudes in the theory of planned behaviour. Appetite, 50(2-3), 443-454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2007.09.010

This cross-national study tested whether adding affective and moral attitudes improves the theory's prediction of intentions to buy organic food, using samples from Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom. Arvola et al. (2008) found partial support: moral attitude, the sense that buying organic is the right thing to do, explained intentions better than subjective norms in the United Kingdom and Italy, and affective items added to the measurement of attitude. The comparison of three countries strengthens the findings, but the outcome is intention rather than purchase. The group will use the study to support the argument that the standard model underweights the feelings and moral convictions that organic buyers describe, and its country differences will appear in the section on how culture shapes the theory's predictors, linking the paper to the course's chapters on culture.

Carrington, M. J., Neville, B. A., & Whitwell, G. J. (2010). Why ethical consumers don't walk their talk: Towards a framework for understanding the gap between the ethical purchase intentions and actual buying behaviour of ethically minded consumers. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(1), 139-158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0501-6

Carrington et al. (2010) develop a conceptual framework to explain why ethically minded consumers often fail to buy what they intend to buy. They argue that models such as the theory of planned behavior stop at intention and add three elements to explain the gap: whether consumers form implementation intentions, specific plans for when and where to act; their actual behavioral control at the moment of purchase; and the situational context of the shopping trip. The article is conceptual and does not test the framework, which limits its evidence, but it is the clearest model of the gap the paper addresses. The group will build the discussion section around it, using its three elements to organize the explanations found in the empirical studies and to propose what marketers might do at each point.

Dean, M., Raats, M. M., & Shepherd, R. (2008). Moral concerns and consumer choice of fresh and processed organic foods. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(8), 2088-2107. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00382.x

This study applied the theory to intentions to buy organic apples and organic pizza, adding moral norms. Dean et al. (2008) first elicited beliefs from 30 people, then surveyed 281 respondents, and found through multiple regression that a positively worded moral component added significantly to the prediction of intention for both foods, while negatively worded moral items did not, and that affective attitude was a strong predictor. The design's comparison of a fresh and a processed food is useful, since consumers may view the two differently, though the sample is modest and the outcome again is intention. The group will use the study alongside Arvola et al. (2008) to show that moral and affective attitudes recur across samples, and it will cite the apples and pizza comparison when discussing how product type shapes the theory's predictions.

Dean, M., Raats, M. M., & Shepherd, R. (2012). The role of self-identity, past behavior, and their interaction in predicting intention to purchase fresh and processed organic food. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(3), 669-688. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00796.x

Building on their earlier work, Dean et al. (2012) surveyed about 500 people for each of two foods, organic tomatoes and organic tomato sauce, measuring the theory's constructs along with moral norms, past behavior and self-identity, the extent to which people see themselves as organic consumers. Moral norms and self-identity each added to the prediction of intention beyond the other variables, even when past behavior was included, and there was some evidence that past behavior moderated the effect of self-identity for the processed product. The larger samples and the inclusion of past behavior make this a stronger test than many single-food studies. The group will use it to argue that identity, being the kind of person who buys organic, helps explain who acts on intentions, a point that connects to the textbook's treatment of self-concept.

Hughner, R. S., McDonagh, P., Prothero, A., Shultz, C. J., & Stanton, J. (2007). Who are organic food consumers? A compilation and review of why people purchase organic food. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 6(2-3), 94-110. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.210

Hughner et al. (2007) synthesize published research on organic food consumption and identify the motives consumers give for buying it, among them health, taste, concern for the environment, food safety and animal welfare, as well as the barriers that keep them from buying more, including price and limited availability. They emphasize that "organic" means different things to different people and that organic consumers are not a single group in demographics or beliefs. The review's strength is its breadth across studies and countries; its limit is that it summarizes reported motives without weighing them. The group will use it to describe the market in the introduction and to caution, in the discussion, against treating organic buyers as one segment, which supports the paper's recommendation that marketers target occasional buyers separately from committed ones.

Michaelidou, N., & Hassan, L. M. (2008). The role of health consciousness, food safety concern and ethical identity on attitudes and intentions towards organic food. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 32(2), 163-170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2007.00619.x

This study used structural equation modeling to test how health consciousness, food safety concern and ethical self-identity shape attitudes and purchase intentions toward organic produce. Michaelidou and Hassan (2008) found that food safety concern was the strongest predictor of attitude and health consciousness the weakest, contrary to some earlier research, and that ethical self-identity predicted both attitude and intention. The study's use of structural modeling is a strength, although its sample and setting limit generalization. The group will use it to show that the motives behind favorable attitudes may differ from what marketers assume, and its finding on ethical self-identity will be paired with Dean et al. (2012) in the section on identity. The finding that health was the weakest predictor will also support the recommendation to test safety-focused messages.

Paul, J., & Rana, J. (2012). Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(6), 412-422. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761211259223

Paul and Rana (2012) set out to understand the behavior of ecological consumers and the factors that shape their intention to buy organic food. Using face-to-face interviews with a structured questionnaire, they surveyed 463 respondents and analyzed the data with multiple regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis. They found that health, availability and education positively influenced attitudes toward buying organic food and that consumers were generally more satisfied with organic than conventional food, though satisfaction varied. The study's sample is large and its analysis varied, but it relies on attitudes and stated satisfaction rather than observed purchases. The group will use its finding on availability as evidence for the role of perceived and actual control and its practical recommendations, such as stressing health benefits and quality, in the paper's marketing implications.

Scalco, A., Noventa, S., Sartori, R., & Ceschi, A. (2017). Predicting organic food consumption: A meta-analytic structural equation model based on the theory of planned behavior. Appetite, 112, 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.02.007

Scalco et al. (2017) combined studies that applied the theory of planned behavior to organic food and used meta-analytic structural equation modeling to estimate the strength of the relationships among attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention and behavior. Their results support the robustness of the theory in the organic food domain. A meta-analysis focused on this exact topic is the strongest single source for the paper's first research question, though it inherits the limits of the original studies, most of which measured self-reported rather than observed purchasing. The group will use it as the central evidence that the theory explains organic food intentions well, then turn to the intention-behavior research to show what the model leaves unexplained. It also gives the group a recent, domain-specific comparison with the broader figures in Armitage and Conner (2001).

Sheeran, P. (2002). Intention-behavior relations: A conceptual and empirical review. European Review of Social Psychology, 12(1), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/14792772143000003

Sheeran (2002) asks how large the gap between intentions and behavior is and which variables might close it. Using a meta-analysis of meta-analyses, he quantifies the relationship and shows that intentions, while useful, leave much of behavior unexplained. He then reviews four groups of moderators, the type of behavior, the type of intention, properties of the intention such as its stability, and cognitive and personality variables, and discusses the role of habit and automatic behavior. The article is a rigorous synthesis from a leading researcher on the topic. The group will use it to define and size the intention-behavior gap in the paper's second section and to explain why habitual purchases, such as weekly groceries, may be especially resistant to new intentions, an argument that connects to the textbook's discussion of low-involvement decisions.

Tarkiainen, A., & Sundqvist, S. (2005). Subjective norms, attitudes and intentions of Finnish consumers in buying organic food. British Food Journal, 107(11), 808-822. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700510629760

This study tested a modified version of the theory with Finnish consumers buying organic bread and flour in a hypermarket. Using structural equation modeling, Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) found that a model in which subjective norms influence intention indirectly, through attitude, fit the data better than the original model. Attitude alone accounted for more than half the variation in intention, and intention in turn tracked self-reported buying closely. The authors note that the study covered only two product categories and one store format, which limits generalization. The group will use it to show that the social influence the theory calls subjective norms may work by shaping attitudes rather than directly, which connects to the course's chapter on group influences, and its high intention-behavior link will be contrasted with studies that find a wide gap.

Vermeir, I., & Verbeke, W. (2006). Sustainable food consumption: Exploring the consumer "attitude-behavioral intention" gap. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 19(2), 169-194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-005-5485-3

Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) examined why young consumers' favorable attitudes toward sustainable food products do not always lead to intentions to buy them, studying sustainable dairy products with a survey of young Belgian consumers. They examined how involvement, certainty, perceived consumer effectiveness, social norms and perceived availability related to attitudes and intentions, and concluded that raising involvement and the sense that one's purchase makes a difference, along with improving availability, could narrow the gap. The study locates a gap earlier in the chain than most, between attitude and intention, which is valuable, though its young sample limits generalization. The group will use it to argue that the gap has more than one stage and that perceived availability, a form of perceived control, matters for organic and other sustainable foods alike.

Yadav, R., & Pathak, G. S. (2016). Intention to purchase organic food among young consumers: Evidences from a developing nation. Appetite, 96, 122-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.09.017

This study investigated young consumers' intention to purchase organic food in India using the theory of planned behavior and found that the theory partially explained those intentions, with some of its relationships supported and others not. Yadav and Pathak (2016) extended the model with additional constructs to improve its explanation. Its value for the group lies in testing the theory outside the European and North American settings that dominate the literature, though its young sample and focus on intention limit what it can say about purchasing. The group will use it in the section on culture and markets to show that the theory's predictors may carry different weight in a developing economy, and it will be cited with Arvola et al. (2008) when the paper compares results across countries.