Motivations to buy organic food in emerging markets: An exploratory study of urban Indian millennials

Abstract

A broad literature indicates two primary motives for consumers using organic food, a concern for health and a concern for the environment. Surprisingly, there is far less research examining the relationship between motivation and its principle antecedent, consumer perceptions of organic food. The purpose of this research is to explore the relative perceptual profiles of organic food consumers who buy out of concern for their health and for the environment, respectively. Organic food consumption in emerging markets is currently growing faster than it is in Western markets. We survey a set of urban Indian millennial organic food users as representative of organic food users in emerging markets generally, and as drivers of a burgeoning organic food market in India, which has a huge millennial population, to determine their relative perceptions of organic food in a multi-attributed manner, according to their primary reasons for buying and consuming it.These results confirm the primacy of health and environmental motives among urban Indian millennial organic food users, and show that those who buy organic food primarily for their health are pragmatic types mostly concerned about performance and utility, whereas, those who buy primarily to help the environment are social individuals mostly concerned about their appearance to others. Interestingly, results also indicate an inverse relationship between consumers’ attitude toward organic food and their intention to buy it, suggesting that those consumers who use organic food for health reasons have a greater affinity for organic food, but those consumers who use it for environmental reasons are less price sensitive and more prone to actually buying it. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.