Consumers' prefabricated food purchase behavior: a research on the influencing mechanism of food safety risk
Jiaxin Zhao, Tinggui ChenPurpose
Strengthening the safety of prefabricated food and ensuring the “safety on the tip of people's tongues” are important parts of the overall goal of building a healthy China. Existing research has mostly focused on the direct relationship between the food safety risks of prefabricated food and consumer purchasing behavior, without considering the roles of government trust and enterprise trust. This paper aims to examine the underlying influencing mechanisms, centering on their mediating roles.
Design/methodology/approach
This article, based on grounded theory and risk perception theory, incorporates government trust, enterprise trust, the safety risks of prefabricated food and consumer purchasing behavior into a unified analytical framework. It establishes a second-order parallel mediation structural equation model to analyze the mechanism through which food safety risks affect consumers' purchasing behavior toward prefabricated foods in the Yangtze River Delta region of China.
Findings
Research findings indicate that (1) the food safety risks of prefabricated food have a negative impact on government trust, enterprise trust and consumer purchasing behavior; (2) higher levels of government trust and enterprise trust promotes consumer purchasing behavior and exert a positive effect and (3) government trust and enterprise trust play a mediating role in the relationship between the food safety risks of prefabricated food and consumer purchasing behavior.
Originality/value
This study presents methodological and theoretical innovations. It uses a sequential mixed-methods approach that integrates grounded theory and a second-order parallel mediation SEM to construct a data-driven, testable model. It further incorporates government and enterprise trust into an integrated framework to examine their mediating roles between food safety risks and consumer purchasing behavior, thereby delivering theoretical and practical value for China's prefabricated food industry.