How stable is the value basis for organic food consumption in China?

Abstract

The objective this paper is to investigate whether a solid and stable value base exists in China for buying organic food, and which values that might be. We study the stability of the value basis for buying organic food in China by means of two surveys with ordinary Chinese consumers collected in 2009 (n = 529) and 2012 (n = 478) outside supermarkets selling organic food in Guangzhou, China. Consistent with previous studies in Western countries, we find that the attitude towards buying organic vegetables is related to the value type Schwarz terms “Universalism” and when Universalism is controlled, no other values increase explained variance. The value–attitude and the attitude–behavior relationships for organic vegetables are significant at both times and are not significantly different between the two time points. However, contrary to what we expected, the studied behavior (purchase of organic vegetables) is significantly related to basic values only in 2009, but unrelated in 2012. We discuss the implications of these findings for the development of a sustainable consumption pattern in China and specifically for consumers adopting “green” solutions invented in the west, sometimes referred to as “green leap frogging”.