Marketing Healthy Diets: The Impact of Health Consciousness on Chinese Consumers’ Food Choices

Zhen Huang, Yi-Dan Zhu, Jia Deng and Cheng-Lu Wang
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Zhen Huang: School of Economics & Management, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341003, China
Yi-Dan Zhu: School of Educational Science, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341003, China
Jia Deng: School of Foreign Languages, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341003, China
Cheng-Lu Wang: Department of Marketing, College of Business, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT 06516, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: Dietary choices, as the types and amounts of foods that individuals consume, are a major determinant of human health and environmental sustainability. From a marketing perspective, it becomes imperative to identify and understand the factors that motivate consumers to adopt a sustainable diet and purchase healthy food. This research is an attempt to contribute to the literature by revealing the major driving forces leading to healthy food consumption and identifying its underlying mechanism. Based on a survey of the diets and lifestyles of 307 Chinese consumers in several cities of the Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces, our empirical results indicate that consumer health consciousness is a major predictor of the intention to purchase healthy products. Such a relationship is explained by the psychological benefits associated with the consumption experience and the perceived naturalness of the product. Moreover, a high perceived nutritional value will enhance the mediation influences of the psychological benefit and the perceived naturalness on purchase intention while a low perceived nutritional value tends to negate such an impact.

Keywords: sustainable diet; health consciousness; perceived psychological benefit; perceived naturalness; perceived nutritional level; marketing strategy (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 (2)

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