1. Introduction
In this fast-moving world, not just production but also consumption habits are changing rapidly. The growing health consciousness, environmental concern, and market dynamism have acted as catalysts for consumers’ inclination toward organic food products [
1,
2]. These products are made with no or negligible amounts of harmful chemicals, colors, and additives that could otherwise contribute to human health adversities along with environmental degradation [
1,
3]. In pursuit of living a healthier life, consumers have started using products that are not just healthy but environmentally friendly, too [
4]. Thus, for the greater environmental good, these food products are gaining much attention around the globe [
5]. These products can be labeled as organic if they abide by the rules set by different regulatory bodies concerning the use of harmful chemicals in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, etc. [
6].
Organic food products have many benefits over their non-organic counterparts. Scientific inquiries have confirmed lower levels of agrochemical residue in human bodies for those who consume organic foods [
7,
8]. The cultivation of food organically also helps ease the pressure on the environment through soil and water conservation, along with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions [
9]. This not only helps safeguard the environment but also maintains a healthier biodiversity for the creatures on/in land, air, and water [
9]. The norms for labeling a food product as organic prohibit the usage of genetically modified organisms/foods that are otherwise linked to the probability of creating illness and pollution [
10], thereby adding to the value organic food products hold. Additionally, organic food products have also been tried and tested for better nutritional value. Studies have affirmed the presence of higher amounts of nutrients like Vitamin C, Iron, Omega-3 fatty acids, and Magnesium in organic food products compared to non-organically grown foods, including both vegetables and meat [
11]. These advantages are pushing consumers around the globe toward organic food products. The display of these products across offline and online marketplaces is increasing more than ever. Studies have suggested a great interest and consumption intention toward organic food [
1,
6,
12]. The global market for organic food products stood at USD 185.3 billion in 2022, with an expected growth of around 12% (CAGR) during 2023–2028 [
13], while that of India stood at USD 1278 million in 2022, with an expected growth rate of 23.8% (CAGR) during 2023–2028 [
14]. Like other countries, India also regulates the manufacturing, packing, and selling of organic foods under the Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulation, 2017. The labeling of any food product as organic is possible only after final product certification under the guidelines laid down by the aforementioned regulations through the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) or Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India) [
15].
Just like every rose comes with some thorns, organic food products are also exposed to some serious concerns that create hurdles for their consumption. They are usually higher in price than the conventional products. Studies reflect that price is inversely related to the adoption rate of organic food products [
6,
16], even if the consumers are environmentally conscious. Consumers’ willingness to pay a premium has been pointed out as an important element in shaping their actual use of the product [
17]. Another common concern is skepticism about the product being organic. Many consumers develop doubt against the brands due to reported events of false claims, hidden information, exaggeration, etc. [
18]. Skepticism regarding organic labeling can create a gap between intention and actual use. The growing popularity, existing concerns, and available statistics provide sufficient motivation for researchers to explore the domain of organic food products. Studies have been carried out around the globe to uncover the purchase/consumption intention [
1,
4,
6,
12] and adoption [
19,
20] of organic food products. However, other crucial research questions relating to a willingness to pay more (WTPM) and organic skepticism have not been explored yet. This gap may put a blindfold over the eyes of academicians and industry practitioners. It may create a lack of understanding regarding what may motivate a consumer to pay a higher price for buying an organic food product. Thus, considering this gap significant, we propose to use the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV) to enhance understanding of the concern. TCV may help us determine the role of various consumption values in articulating consumers’ WTPM along with their choice behavior for organic food products. Further, we intend to inquire about the moderating role of organic skepticism to make the study more robust. Hence, the present study is conducted to answer the following concerns:
RQ1. Do the consumption values play a significant role in shaping consumers’ willingness to pay more (WTPM) and choice behavior for organic food products?
RQ2. Does skepticism of organic labeling moderate the relationship between WTPM and choice behavior?
The outcome of this study will add quality inputs to the literature and practice. Firstly, the inquiry into the consumers’ WTPM for organic food products will be assessed. There is a huge gap in the existing literature despite it being a major concern. Secondly, the ability of TCV to explain the adoption of organic food products will also be an important achievement of this research. Thirdly, empirically testing the moderating role of organic skepticism will be another crucial element of this study, as skepticism exists among all classes of consumers. The result will help to better understand the consumer behavior concerning the organic food products. These findings will not only be an addition to the existing literature but may also be crucial for various practitioners involved in manufacturing, marketing, distributing, and selling organic food products.
This study commences with an introduction to the topic and highlights the need and significance of the study. A review of past literature is presented in
Section 2, followed by hypothesis development (
Section 3), materials and methods (
Section 4), and results (
Section 5). A detailed discussion, along with a conclusion, is presented in
Section 6, while
Section 7 gives extensive implications for theory and practice. The study concludes by presenting the limitations and directions for future studies in
Section 8.
6. Discussion and Conclusions
The present study enquires about the impact of various consumption values, namely, functional value, social value, epistemic value, emotional value, and conditional value, on consumer choice behavior and WTPM for organic food products. The study also inspires an understanding of the impact of choice behavior on WTPM for such products, along with the moderating role of skepticism in this relationship. The results obtained were quite interesting, demonstrating the significant impact of functional value (price), social value, epistemic value, emotional value, and conditional value on consumers’ choice behavior, thus accepting H2a, H3a, H4a, H5a, and H6a but rejecting H1a, i.e., the impact of functional value (quality) on choice behavior. Additionally, the results show a significant impact of only functional value (price) on WTPM accepting H2b. Thus, no significant impact of all the other values was observed, rejecting H1b, H3b, H4b, H5b, and H6b.
The rejection of H1a and H1b implies that functional value (quality) has no significant impact on choice behavior and WTPM. This contradicts the basic premise propounded by [
21,
37], as well as existing findings [
24,
34,
38]. This could have occurred because consumers who are health, environment, and ethics conscious opt for organic food products irrespective of their taste, texture, aroma, size, color, etc. While the genetically modified products and food produced while ignoring ethical and environmental concerns may bear better taste and other quality determinants, organic food products are consumed irrespectively. However, H2a and H2b were accepted, depicting a significant impact of functional value (price) on choice behavior as well as the willingness to pay more. This is quite in line with the existing body of knowledge, as shown by the results of previous studies [
37,
38,
41,
46]. This simply implies that when consumers perceive that the benefits received from the product are equal to or more than the price paid, they intend to choose the product. Similarly, consumers pay for products based on the value they perceive. Thus, they will be willing to pay more based on a higher value or benefits obtained [
37]. H3a, proposing the impact of social value on choice behavior, was supported by the findings of this study. This result confirms the previous findings, too [
23,
27,
41,
43]. This implies that consumers purchase organic food products not only for health or environmental reasons but also to obtain social recognition. Meanwhile, H3b, positing social value’s influence on WTPM, did not find any support. This is in line with [
42] but in contrast with the findings of [
34,
69]. It conveys that although consumers may choose such products based on social value, they may not possess WTPM merely to achieve social value.
H4a and H4b posited the impact of emotional value on choice behavior and WTPM. H4a was accepted, while H4b was rejected based on our results. The acceptance of H4a coincides with the findings of other studies in diverse domains [
25,
27,
42,
46]. This simply implies that the emotions ignited by organic food products significantly impact consumers’ choice of such products. Consumers have associated emotions with these products, and those emotions must be taken care of by the marketers. On the other hand, the rejection of H4b is contradictory to the basic premise of the theory [
21] and to the findings in branding research, too [
32], but coincides with the study concerning green products [
47]. Consumers attach their emotions to products and brands and recall them while making purchase intentions/decisions, but paying a price premium is not ignited similarly.
H5a, assuming a significant impact of epistemic value on choice behavior, was accepted, while H5b, which assumed EPV’s impact on WTPM, was rejected. The acceptance of H5a stresses that consumers consume organic food products to gain knowledge about them. This is also opined by previous studies in the context of other products. Consumers not only seek information or knowledge but are also willing to gain experiences with these products. However, they may not be ready to pay a price premium for the sake of experiencing an organic food product in place of a conventional one.
The impact of conditional value was also assumed on choice behavior and WTPM through H6a and H6b, respectively. H6a found affirmation in the results and among the existing studies [
24,
41]. This gives us an understanding that consumers associate organic food consumption with situational factors, too. They may have certain situations or conditions in which their choice of such products goes high or low. However, the rejection of H6b conveys that situations may not impact their willingness to pay a premium for such products. They may think of adopting organic food but not at a higher price based on situational factors.
This study also aimed to explore the impact of choice behavior on the willingness to pay more (H7), which was supported by the findings and congruence with the existing literature [
50,
51]. The acceptance of this hypothesis clearly states that once a consumer chooses organic food products, they may be ready to pay more than their conventional counterparts.
This research also hypothesized the moderating role of organic skepticism over the relationship between choice behavior and WTPM (H8). The findings revealed a significant negative role of skepticism, which means that even if the consumer has made a choice of consumption, the skepticism may stop them from paying more for such products. This result also finds support from existing literature, which found a strong influence of skepticism over consumer behavior [
53,
54,
56].
7. Implications
7.1. Theoretical Implications
The outcomes of the present study have notable implications and additions to the body of knowledge concerning the consumption of organic food products. Prior research performed on this perspective has focused mostly on the health-conscious aspect of organic food consumption. However, the present study utilized the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV) to make it a more robust inquiry. On the one hand, consumption is studied from a comprehensive value perspective, while on the other hand, the application of TCV is also tested for an underexplored segment, i.e., organic food products. To utilize TCV, the present study used functional value differently for quality and price as per the suggestions of [
37], while many studies combined both. Additionally, this research expanded the theory with the application of value perceptions to generate WTPM. This study, thus, primarily contributes toward expanding the scope of TCV as well as organic food consumption research. Moreover, the consumers’ WTPM is an important aspect that was left unnoticed by the majority of researchers in the organic food consumption domain. As mentioned earlier, too, organic food products are generally priced above their non-organic counterparts. This makes the inquiry into the willingness of consumers quite inevitable. This research also fills in this gap, which can be taken as a stepping stone for further studies.
It is a quite known assertion that consumers develop skepticism against such products based on hyperbolic claims in advertisements, word of mouth, media mistrust, etc. Thus, this study also included skepticism as a moderating variable in the relationship between choice behavior and WTPM. It even produced an interesting finding that even if a consumer is ready to choose such products, skepticism may restrict their willingness to pay more. This reflects the crucial role of skepticism in influencing consumer purchase behavior. This opens a new gateway for research and discussion in the field of consumer behavior as well as food marketing.
7.2. Practical Implications
The present study produces very valuable outputs for marketing and manufacturing practitioners of organic food products, with special reference to the Indian context. Firstly, the affirmation of consumption values’ impact on choice behavior provides a clear understanding to the practitioners that Indian consumers’ choice is a function of multiple values that they seek in the product. Mere focus on branding and too much expenditure on marketing may be in vain, as the choice behavior of consumers is a set of multiple factors. Since the quality perception in the case of food products in India is not just the nutrient content of the food but also the taste, texture, size, color, etc., the producers must take this into cognizance. Marketers must also keep this in mind while crafting the marketing strategies related to such products. The health and environmental factors of organic food products must be highlighted while creating marketing campaigns around the quality of organic food products. The research also points out the significance of price value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value in shaping the choice behavior of consumers. It is evident from the research that these values bear an impact on consumers’ choice behavior; thus, advertisements and other marketing tools can be used to address these values of organic food products to attract consumers. For instance, the usage of such products can be popularized over social media platforms with a story trend, or associating a social image with the usage of these products can create a lot of social value for the product. Similarly, creating emotional campaigns highlighting the adverse effects of non-organic foods on health as well as the environment can create a proper positioning of these products. Likewise, the situational association of these products can be created with ads focusing on a variety of situations in which these products can be used. Also, booklets or a QR code can be used, providing information for alternative uses and additional benefits of these products. The marketers must also note that once choice behavior is generated, consumers are expected to create WTPM, too, as per the research outcomes. However, skepticism may obstruct this behavioral outcome. Thus, skepticism must be addressed very actively by marketers, as this industry is quite sensitive to skepticism and stereotyping. Marketers can devise innovative methods to dispel doubts about organic food products. They can launch campaigns assuring consumers of 100% organic food products, with verification available anytime, anywhere. The company may provide an extensive compensation guarantee if any discrepancies are found. This will create trust among consumers. Moreover, marketers can employ informative and persuasive messaging when crafting advertisements for organic food products. This approach aids in fostering trust by offering abundant information and encouraging consumers to explore alternatives to conventional options.
8. Limitations and Directions for Future Research
Our study is not immune to shortcomings. To begin with, the data collection relied on self-administered questionnaires, which could introduce biases despite efforts to address them. This research explores the choice behavior and WTPM for organic food products among Indian consumers using a sample size of 374. Although this sample size is enough to get a representation of the population, a larger sample size with multiple sets can create a better picture of the phenomenon studied. An attempt was made to reach out to a wide audience; however, future studies can use more structured and systematic attempts to ensure a better representation of the population and minimize the probability of bias. Furthermore, this is a cross-sectional study; in future investigations, the utilization of longitudinal or alternative cross-sectional methodologies could provide deeper insights into the phenomena under examination. The concept of environment can also be considered while studying the organic food domain, as these products are not only healthy but also contribute a lot toward environmental sustainability. One more aspect that needs attention is that quality is a function of several items, especially among the food items. Thus, a better understanding could have been created if different elements of functional value (quality), like taste, texture, color, size, etc., were studied separately. Future research in the same domain can take note of this.