Prospective effects of food safety trust on brand evangelism: a moderated-mediation role of consumer perceived ethicality and brand passion.

BACKGROUND: The current study integrates brand management literature with food consumption research and develops an integrative framework by combining food safety trust, consumer perceived ethicality, brand evangelism, and brand passion into a single conceptual model. METHOD: This quantitative study included 228 ready-to-eat consumers in China using purposive sampling. Data were collected at two periods in time, resulting in a time-lag study in which respondents provided data on independent and moderating variables at time 1 and mediating and dependent variables at time 2 with the same respondents from time 1. The hypothesized correlations were tested using SEM and PROCESS Macro techniques. RESULTS: According to the findings, trust in food safety has a significant impact on brand evangelism and passion. Furthermore, consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) found to have a substantial moderating role between food safety-FS and brand passion. Moreover, we validated the brand passion role as a mediator between brand evangelism and food safety trust, and investigated whether consumer perceived ethicality conditionally affects the strength of the indirect relationship among food safety trust and brand evangelism through brand passion, indicating a moderated-mediation mechanism. ORIGINALITY: Drawing on Sternberg theory of love, current study is the first of its kind to evaluate the boundary role as well as the conditional indirect influence of customer perceived ethicality among the study's variables and provides useful information for ready-to-eat food brand managers on how to keep them interested in their risk-free food products.

Assessing the role of organic food supply chain traceability on food safety and consumer wellbeing: A mediated-moderation investigation.

Introduction/Purpose: Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, this study offers a comprehensive framework for examining the relationships between organic food supply chain traceability, consumer wellbeing, and food safety trust based in organic food sector. The study also explores how consumer awareness of organic food influences the relationship between consumer wellbeing and food safety. We also look at a mediated moderation mechanism in the relationships stated earlier. Methods: Using a survey as the primary data collecting method, a total of 221 usable responses were collected. To test the hypothesized relationships between all variables, SPSS PROCESS Macro 3.3 is utilized. Results: The findings show that the organic food traceability OFSC affect food safety trust and food safety and consumer wellbeing are positively associated, while consumer awareness of organic food acts as a moderator on the relationship between food safety trust and consumer wellbeing. Also consumer awareness conditionally influences the strength of the indirect relationship between OFST and consumer wellbeing via food safety, thereby indicates a mediated moderation mechanism among the study variables. Discussion/Implications: This study clarifies how consumer food safety trust and organic food traceability can enhance their wellbeing. It contributes to the theory of dynamic capabilities as well as organic traceable product marketing strategies.