IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v86y2025icp2070-2094.html

Understanding consumer behavior in the choice of healthy food retail outlets: An examination of information types and the interplay between institutional trust and social recommendations

Author

Listed:
  • Esfandiari Bahraseman, Sasan
  • Dashtabi, Maryam Dehghani
  • Firoozzare, Ali
  • Boccia, Flavio
  • Pakook, Somayyeh
  • Covino, Daniela

Abstract

Amidst the complexities of food environments, retail outlets play a pivotal role in shaping healthy dietary patterns, urging a closer analysis of consumer behavior in various retail settings. This study investigates consumer behavior in choosing healthy food retail Outlets in Mashhad, Iran, utilizing a Multinomial Logistic Regression (MNL) to analyze preferences for open-air food markets, small local shops, and large-chain supermarkets. The research adopts a comprehensive approach, integrating various consumer behavior theories to examine the complex interplay of individual, social, economic, and institutional factors influencing healthy food shopping choices. Consumers who prefer large-chain supermarkets are primarily influenced by the type of information available on healthy products, such as the product’s place of origin, health certification, and pesticide and fertilizer usage. Institutional trust, represented by government endorsements, tends to favor open-air markets and large-chain supermarkets, while social recommendations benefit small local shops. Perceived accessibility emerges as a crucial factor, particularly influencing the choice of small local shops in areas with perceived limited access to healthy foods. The study also reveals that other factors such as age, gender, perceived household expenses, health-centric food Choice, and trust in brands play significant roles in shaping consumer preferences. These findings contribute to the literature by offering a multidimensional understanding of consumer behavior in healthy food retail environments in developing countries. The research provides valuable insights for retailers, policymakers, and urban planners.

Suggested Citation

  • Esfandiari Bahraseman, Sasan & Dashtabi, Maryam Dehghani & Firoozzare, Ali & Boccia, Flavio & Pakook, Somayyeh & Covino, Daniela, 2025. "Understanding consumer behavior in the choice of healthy food retail outlets: An examination of information types and the interplay between institutional trust and social recommendations," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 2070-2094.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:86:y:2025:i:c:p:2070-2094
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2025.05.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592625002012
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2025.05.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gumirakiza, Jean Dominique & Curtis, Kynda R. & Bosworth, Ryan C., . "Who Attends Farmers’ Markets and Why? Understanding Consumers and their Motivations," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18.
    2. Grandi, Benedetta & Burt, Steve & Cardinali, Maria Grazia, 2021. "Encouraging healthy choices in the retail store environment: Combining product information and shelf allocation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    3. Meng, Ting & Florkowski, Wojciech J. & Sarpong, Daniel B. & Chinnan, Manjeet S. & Resurreccion, Anna V.A., . "Consumer’s Food Shopping Choice in Ghana: Supermarket or Traditional Outlets?," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 17(A), pages 1-24.
    4. Rebecca Pradeilles & Ana Irache & Milkah Wanjohi & Michelle Holdsworth & Amos Laar & Francis Zotor & Akua Tandoh & Senam Klomegah & Fiona Graham & Stella Muthuri & Elizabeth Kimani-Murage & Nathaniel , 2021. "Urban physical food environments drive dietary behaviours in Ghana and Kenya: a photovoice study," Post-Print hal-03360804, HAL.
    5. Cannuscio, Carolyn C. & Hillier, Amy & Karpyn, Allison & Glanz, Karen, 2014. "The social dynamics of healthy food shopping and store choice in an urban environment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 13-20.
    6. Pantano, Eleonora & Dennis, Charles & De Pietro, Michela, 2021. "Shopping centers revisited: The interplay between consumers’ spontaneous online communications and retail planning," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    8. Jessica Fanzo & Claire Davis, 2021. "Global Food Systems, Diets, and Nutrition," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-72763-5, March.
    9. Esfandiari Bahraseman, Sasan & Firoozzare, Ali & Jamali Jaghdani, Tinoush & Dourandish, Arash, 2024. "Intervention strategies for the safe use of semi-treated wastewater by Iranian farmers: An approach for safe food production in the circular economy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 96(1), pages 1-31.
    10. Camila Aparecida Borges & Kamila Tiemann Gabe & Patricia Constante Jaime, 2021. "Consumer Food Environment Healthiness Score: Development, Validation, and Testing between Different Types of Food Retailers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Chenarides, Lauren & Jaenicke, Edward C., 2016. "Store Choice and Consumer Behavior in Food Deserts: An Empirical Application of the Distance Metric Method," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235925, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Craig A. Bond & Dawn Thilmany & Jennifer Keeling Bond, 2008. "Understanding consumer interest in product and process-based attributes for fresh produce," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 231-252.
    13. Bond, Jennifer Keeling & Thilmany, Dawn & Bond, Craig, 2009. "What Influences Consumer Choice of Fresh Produce Purchase Location?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 61-74, April.
    14. Shefrin, Hersh M & Thaler, Richard H, 1988. "The Behavioral Life-Cycle Hypothesis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 609-643, October.
    15. Nagaraj, Samala, 2021. "Role of consumer health consciousness, food safety & attitude on organic food purchase in emerging market: A serial mediation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Tripathi Sanjeev & Sinha, Piyush Kumar, 2008. "Choice of a Retail Store and Retail Store Format: A Hierarchical Logit Model," IIMA Working Papers WP2008-04-03, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chad M. Baum, 2013. "The Missing Link between Research and Reality: the significance of the relationship between retail format and organic food consumption," Jena Economics Research Papers 2013-049, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    2. Nketiah, Emmanuel & Song, Huaming & Cai, Xiang & Adjei, Mavis & Adu-Gyamfi, Gibbson & Obuobi, Bright, 2022. "Citizens’ intention to invest in municipal solid waste to energy projects in Ghana: The impact of direct and indirect effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    3. Aaqib Younas & Jawad Ahmed & Marc Audi, 2025. "Financial Inclusion or Financial Vulnerability? The Dual Effects of Digital Payment Platforms on Consumer Behaviour," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 14(3), pages 1-12.
    4. Onyango, Benjamin & Govindasamy, Ramu, 2013. "Uncovering Success Attributes for the Direct Farmers Markets and Agritourism: Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 44(01), March.
    5. Stewart, Hayden & Dong, Diansheng, 2018. "How strong is the demand for food through direct-to-consumer outlets?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 35-43.
    6. Catarina Roseira & Sandrina Teixeira & Belem Barbosa & Rita Macedo, 2022. "How Collectivism Affects Organic Food Purchase Intention and Behavior: A Study with Norwegian and Portuguese Young Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, June.
    7. Rey-Ares, Lucía & Fernández-López, Sara & Castro-González, Sandra & Rodeiro-Pazos, David, 2021. "Does self-control constitute a driver of millennials’ financial behaviors and attitudes?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Zaid Altaf & Farooq Shah, 2025. "Effects of credit score literacy and psychological traits on borrowing behavior: evidence from India using PLS-SEM," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    9. Meiwen Guo & Liang Wu & Cheng Ling Tan & Jun-Hwa Cheah & Yuhanis Abdul Aziz & Jianping Peng & Chun-Hung Chiu & Rongwei Ren, 2023. "The impact of perceived risk of online takeout packaging and the moderating role of educational level," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Chao-Jung R. Chen & Tun-Hsiang Edward Yu & Rachel J. C. Fu, 2021. "Strategic Management for Community-Based Markets: From Consumers’ Perspectives and Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Brian Lee & Jhih‐Yun Liu & Hung‐Hao Chang, 2020. "The choice of marketing channel and farm profitability: Empirical evidence from small farmers," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 402-421, June.
    12. Mohammed Abdullah Ammer & Theyazn H. H. Aldhyani, 2022. "An Investigation into the Determinants of Investment Awareness: Evidence from the Young Saudi Generation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-25, October.
    13. Lijun Angelia Chen & Bruno Varella Miranda & Joe L. Parcell & Chao Chen, 2019. "The foundations of institutional-based trust in farmers’ markets," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(3), pages 395-410, September.
    14. Woods, Timothy A. & Tropp, Debra, 2015. "CSAs and the Battle for the Local Food Dollar," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 46(2), pages 1-13, July.
    15. Selim, Hassan & Eid, Riyad & Agag, Gomaa & Shehawy, Yasser Moustafa, 2022. "Cross-national differences in travelers’ continuance of knowledge sharing in online travel communities," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Md. Abdur Rouf & Md. Asaduzzaman Babu & Md. Jahangir Alam Siddikee & Md Rohibul Islam & Mst. Sadia Afrin & Md. Mehedi Hasan & Shekh Md. Sahiduj Jaman, 2025. "The careful consumer: effects of altruistic and egoistic motivation on the purchase intention of green products," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 3353-3375, August.
    17. Chhaya Devi & Manoj Sharma & Yogesh Gupta, 2025. "Analyzing the influence of economic and non-economic determinants on willingness to save in financial institutions: a study using structural equation modeling (SEM)," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 16(8), pages 2702-2719, August.
    18. Lili Jantyik & Jeremiás Máté Balogh & Áron Török, 2021. "What Are the Reasons Behind the Economic Performance of the Hungarian Beer Industry? The Case of the Hungarian Microbreweries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    19. Julius Wenzig & Tim Gruchmann, 2018. "Consumer Preferences for Local Food: Testing an Extended Norm Taxonomy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-23, April.
    20. Yin, Zhengqing & Li, Bo & Li, Shufei & Ding, Junqi & Zhang, Lingxian, 2022. "Key influencing factors of green vegetable consumption in Beijing, China," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:86:y:2025:i:c:p:2070-2094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.