Explicit Versus Implicit "Halal" Information: Influence of the Halal Label and the Country-of-Origin Information on Product Perceptions in Indonesia

The devil is not as black as he is painted? On the positive relationship between food industry conspiracy beliefs and conscious food choices

Previous research found that conspiracy beliefs were usually activated when individuals faced different types of psychological threats and that they led mainly to maladaptive individual and societal outcomes. In this research, we assumed that potential harmfulness of conspiracy beliefs may depend on the context, and we focused on the link between food industry conspiracy beliefs and conscious food choices. We hypothesized that food industry conspiracy beliefs may allow for a constructive attempt to protect oneself against real or imagined enemies (i.e., food industry companies) by conscious food choices (e.g., paying attention to how much the food products are processed). We tested this hypothesis among Polish participants (Study 1; N = 608; cross-sectional and Study 2; N = 790; experimental). Study 1 confirmed that context-specific conspiracy beliefs (but not general notions of conspiracy) are associated with adaptive consumer behaviors. Study 2 showed that inducing feelings of threat related to the possibility of purchasing food contaminated by a harmful bacteria (vs. control condition) increased food industry conspiracy beliefs, which were further positively linked to conscious food choices. We discuss the role of threat and conspiracy beliefs in adaptive consumer behaviors related to food choices.

THE EFFECTS OF HALAL CERTIFICATION AND PRODUCT FEATURES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: A SCENARIO-BASED EXPERIMENT

With the rise in the population of Muslims globally, the issue of halal products is becoming increasingly important. The fact that consumers prefer halal products and demand more of these products has attracted companies’ attention as well. The certification of halal products and product type affects the behavior of consumers towards these products. Besides that, the countries that produce the products, whether Muslim or not, is a matter of concern for consumers who are sensitive about halal products. In this study, halal product certification, how consumer behavior changes according to product type, and the country where the product is produced were examined. A scenariobased experiment was used to test the hypotheses developed, and the effects of independent variables on consumer purchase intention, trust, and perceived risk were examined. The religiosity scale was used as a control variable to control consumer religious sensitivities in the study. The results showed that halal-certified products and Muslim country product origin led to a higher level of consumer purchase intention, trust, and lower levels of perceived risk. Besides that, the existence of halal certification increased purchase intention for utilitarian products. Based on the results, the interaction of halal certification and country of origin has a significant impact on consumer purchase intention, while the interaction of halal certification and product type has a significant impact on consumer purchase intention as well as perceived risk. Halal certification increases both consumer purchase intention and trust in products produced by non-Muslim countries.

Marketing Clues on the Label Raise the Purchase Intention of Genetically Modified Food

As more and more genetically modified foods (GMFs) must be labeled, adding more information to increase the willingness to buy genetically modified food has become the focus of scholars and enterprises. Most current studies have confirmed that the consumer attitudes and purchase intention toward GMFs are not good. This study aims to match consumers’ different information-processing mechanisms by adding marketing information clues and regulating their purchase intentions by contradictory attitudes towards GMFs. According to the interest demands of GMFs, the marketing clue information was divided into functional information and environmental information. Through two studies, we find that consumers are more inclined to environmental information than heuristic. Functional information is more attractive to males, and the young generation prefers ecological information. Consumers with high ambivalence towards genetically modified foods are more inclined to choose environmental attribute information.

Online Food Shopping: A Conceptual Analysis for Research Propositions

Shopping foods online is different from shopping other things online. To stimulate more thinking and enrich potential future research imagination, this paper reviews for online food shopping features, offers a commentary, and proposes future research directions. The propositions include the following: (1) The design and implementation of online food shopping (eco)systems should engage the consumers and other stakeholders to co-create collective and social values; (2) A better fit between technologies’ and food businesses’ natures could generate better applications for online food shopping; (3) A business model with sound finance systems becomes the core of a healthy online food ecosystem; (4) The interaction and transformation between online (virtual) and offline (virtual) food businesses determines the dynamic development of future food shopping.