Understanding organic food consumption: attitude as a mediator

Abstract The aim of this research was to examine the effect of health consciousness, environmental concern and food safety concern on both the intention to buy organic foods and the attitude towards organic foods, and the effect of attitude towards organic foods on the intention to buy organic foods. It had also a specific aim to explore whether attitude has a mediation effect on the relationship between the intention to buy and health consciousness, environmental concern and food safety concern. Data were gathered from consumers using a survey. The questionnaire used was administered to a convenience sample of 385 consumers from A dana, T urkey, through a self‐administered questionnaire. Regression and mediation analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The findings suggested that the attitude and the intention to buy were affected by health consciousness, environmental concern and food safety concern. They also showed that the attitude plays a fundamental role both in terms of the direct impact on the intention to buy and the indirect effect as a mediator on how the health consciousness, environmental concern and food safety concern affect the intention to buy. This research is useful to fill the gaps in the literature regarding the mediation effect of the attitude on the relationship between the intention to buy and food safety concern. Another contribution is being one of the first to examine the attitude as a mediator on the relationship between the intention to buy organic foods and health consciousness, environmental concern and food safety concern of T urkish consumers.