The role of subjective norms in forming the intention to purchase green food

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the specific role of two types of subjective norms in forming the intention to purchase green food. Based on the outcomes of a questionnaire completed by a sample of 411 household primary shoppers from a transitional country in the Southeast Europe region, we developed three models that depict the predictive power of attitudes, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms, and confirmed a significant positive relationship between green food purchasing intention and all three antecedents. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed two important theoretical insights: (1) descriptive norms represent statistically significant predictors of green food purchase behaviour; and (2) incorporating both social and descriptive norms increases the variance explained in intention. The latter also empirically proves that the meaning behind the two variables (social and descriptive norms) is different. These results contribute to the strengthening of the theory of planned behaviour in the part which has so far been referred to as the weakest link.