What Attributes of Meat Substitutes Matter Most to Consumers? The Role of Sustainability Education and the Meat Substitutes Perceptions

Ha-Won Jang and Meehee Cho
Additional contact information
Ha-Won Jang: College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
Meehee Cho: College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Given the rising environmental, health, and food safety concerns, the advantages of meat substitutes are garnering increased attention. Applying the extended theory of planned behavior, this study explored what aspects of meat substitutes positively influence consumer purchase intention associated with attitude, subjective norms, and behavioral control. In addition, the level of consumers’ education in sustainability was analyzed for its potential moderating effect within the proposed model. A total of 319 responses obtained from Korean consumers were used. The analysis results revealed that the health attributes of meat substitutes improved consumer attitude, subjective norms, and behavioral control. The environmental attributes enhanced consumer attitude and behavioral control but had no significant effect on subjective norms. Further, subjective norms led to a positive attitude, and attitude and behavioral controls positively improved meat substitutes’ purchase intention. Our analysis revealed that sustainability education significantly enhanced the positive relationship between behavioral control and purchase intention. This study provides an integrative framework that allows for a systematic understanding of consumer responses regarding meat substitutes. Our model may be useful in exploring other influential attributes of meat substitutes that can lead to more positive consumer responses and ultimately enhance consumption.

Keywords: meat substitutes’ attributes; consumer attitude; subjective norms; behavioral control; purchase intention; education levels in sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/4866/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/4866/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:4866-:d:796662

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().