How Do Food Safety Knowledge and Trust Affect Individual’s Green Considerations During The COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia?
Muhammad Safuan Abdul Latip
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA
Farhana Tahmida Newaz, Ravindran Ramasamy
Graduate School of Business, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak
Siti AisyahTumin, Ismayaza Noh
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019, henceforth abbreviated as COVID-19, was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11th March 2020, leading to the emergence of a ‘new normal’ life throughout the society and business practices alike. However, a full understanding of consumer preferences and purchasing decisions of products and services remains untouched till date Therefore, this study aimed to address consumer purchase intentions of organic food in the ‘new normal’ practice, wherein a total of 320 valid surveys were received for further analysis. It was conducted in Malaysia using an online questionnaire approach due to the current social distancing practices and concerns. The finding subsequently revealed that food safety knowledge influenced the elements of personal attitude, perceived social pressure, perceived autonomy, and perceived green trust embedded in study respondents. Meanwhile, personal attitude, perceived social pressure, and perceived autonomy were specifically found to correspondingly impact customer purchase intention of organic food. However, perceived green trust did not mediate the relationship between personal attitude, perceived social pressure, and perceived autonomy with organic food purchase intention during the pandemic and ‘new normal’ life. Accordingly, the study is notably useful for market players in understanding the ‘new normal’ of one’s life post-COVID-19. Thus, it is hoped that much more efforts to disseminate knowledge on food safety among consumers will be encouraged in promoting consumer’s purchase intention of organic food, besides opening up more opportunities for related research to be conducted in the future.
Keywords: COVID-19, Food safety, Individual’s green consideration, New normal, Green trust
