Exploring young consumers’ trust and purchase intention of organic cotton apparel
ISSN: 0736-3761
Article publication date: 9 November 2018
Issue publication date: 22 November 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation, product price and organic label on consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchase intentions of organic apparel products by surveying American young consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
An intercept survey approach was used to administer a written questionnaire to a sample of college students. The experiment is a 2 (CSR reputation: poor vs good) × 2 (price: low vs high) × 2 (organic label: absent vs present) factorial design.
Findings
The results of our study suggest that retailers’ CSR reputation had a significant positive effect on perceived quality, consumer trust and purchase intentions, and price had a negative impact on consumers’ purchase intentions. Results also revealed a significant three-way interaction among the three independent variables on perceived quality and consumer trust.
Originality/value
This research is the first empirical effort to investigate the key factors that may influence young consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchase intentions of organic products by considering joint use of CSR reputation, product price and an organic label, which represents a realistic buying condition. Consequently, the findings of this study represent an important step forward in better understanding consumers’ buying behavior toward green products.
Keywords
Citation
Tong, X. and Su, J. (2018), "Exploring young consumers’ trust and purchase intention of organic cotton apparel", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 522-532. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-04-2017-2176
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited