Consumer Confusion and Green Consumption Intentions from the Perspective of Food-Related Lifestyles on Organic Infant Milk Formulas

Shao-Ping Yang,Rospita Odorlina P. Situmorang,Shu-Chun Chang,Ta-Ching Liang,Minhas Hussain

doi:10.3390/su13041606

Shao-Ping Yang, Rospita Odorlina P. Situmorang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041606

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Abstract

A sustainable lifestyle and green consumption are becoming popular nowadays due to increased awareness of environmental issues and many incidents regarding food safety. This has triggered the rapid development of the marketing of green products and the promotion of many green brands which causes confusion among consumers. This paper’s purpose is to evaluate the relationship between this consumer confusion and different Food-Related Lifestyles (FRLs) tending towards green consumption, taking as a case study organic infant milk formula. This study was based on an online survey which was conducted with 381 Taiwanese parents and carried out from January to February 2019. Through cluster analysis, this study categorized the different FRLs into three groups, i.e., consumers unfamiliar with food product quality, consumers who value food quality, and consumers who value food practicality. This study found that there is no significant correlation between different levels of consumer confusion and different FRLs. Furthermore, different consumers’ FRLs have significant correlations with green consumption intention. This study also found a positive relationship between consumer confusion and green consumption intention.

Highlights

In recent years, rising environmental awareness has prompted governments, corporations, and the public to pursue goals of energy conservation, pollution reduction, resource protection, and sustainable development
This result is supported by previous study on organic food in Vietnam conducted by Van and Hui (2019) [28] which mentioned that the percentage of type of people who value highly food quality named as conservative people was the highest compared to the other clusters
Numerous aspects in this field have yet to be discussed, including organic infant formulas, a product that is rarely associated with this field

Summary

Introduction

In recent years, rising environmental awareness has prompted governments, corporations, and the public to pursue goals of energy conservation, pollution reduction, resource protection, and sustainable development. The Commission of the European Communities [2] defined green products as those that have lower impacts on and risks to the environment, prevented waste, and used less resources in manufacturing. Green products are pollution-free products that are reusable or preservable [3]. By this definition, organic food refers to food produced in accordance with ecological principles both in the processing and materials used (zero chemicals and reduction of all types of pollutants, using renewable energy sources, and safeguarding genetic diversity) [4,5] and these are categorized as green products

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