Understanding the Connections Between Consumer Motivations and Buying Behavior: The Case of the Local Food System Movement

Local and organic food systems represent some of the many food sector innovations of the past decade that signal that consumers are increasingly diverse and have heterogeneous preferences that reflect their unique values and preferences (Thilmany, Bond and Bond, 2008). Yet, regardless of the significant attention and growth surrounding sustainable foods, there is still a demand for research investigating the intersection of economic and psychological factors that can aid in predicting and explaining consumer behavior. This paper uses an attitude-behavior framework, the Theory of Planned Behavior, to explore the predictive ability of psychological concepts of willingness to pay for different attributes associated with sustainable foods. Consumer attitudes toward organic, fair trade and local labeled food as well as their level of "effectiveness" are measured in an effort to understand behavioral intentions. This study uses approximately 1000 responses from a 2008 nationwide survey of consumers to investigate the role of public benefits assigned to sustainable food products manifesting in a potential increase in willingness to pay.