Consumers' Trust in The Food Supply Chain: The Role of Growth Mindset
(A2024-119648)

AUTHORS

Kim Penias, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Liat Levontin, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology; Richard Bennett, University of Reading

ABSTRACT

Consumers’ trust is essential for any social exchange behavior in the market. Actions to promote consumer trust might not always be effective, and distrust can have adverse consequences, such as lower willingness to purchase a food product. The current research takes a consumer (vs. actors) focused approach and shows that consumers’ growth mindset, their belief about the changeability of attributes, is positively associated with their trust in the food supply chain. As a growth mindset and trust are related to the tendency to accept changes in brands and products, we further show that both are positively associated with openness to innovations in food. Data (N1 = 2198, N2 = 1220) from consumers in 6 countries (Israel, Finland, Italy, Poland, Spain, UK) indicates that consumers' growth mindset was positively related to trust in the food supply chain. Also, both growth mindset and trust were positively associated with openness to innovations in food. Since a growth mindset can be primed using product claims, policymakers and food supply chain actors can use growth language to foster consumers' trust and, ultimately, increase consumers' acceptance of innovations.