Understanding sustainable food choices: A category-relationship approach to vegan products
(A2025-125753)

AUTHORS

Mailin Struck, Warwick Busines School; Roland Kassemeier, University of Warwick; Hugh Wilson, Warwick Business School; Miaolei Jia, University of Warwick; Isabel Ding, Warwick Business School

ABSTRACT

Reducing the consumption of animal-based food is essential to meet climate change and biodiversity targets. Retailers and brand managers are looking to grow their share of the burgeoning market for vegan products. To market these products effectively, retailers must be aware of salient product attributes and how they shape behavior. Using qualitative consumer data on experiences with vegan products and a repeated survey design, a scale is developed enabling retailers to assess two product-related attributes and three sustainability-related attributes. To explore how these attributes influence relationships between customers and the category of vegan food and drink, the study builds on construal-level theory and suggests that sustainability-related attributes are predominantly processed via trust rather than via satisfaction. The findings evidence the differing roles of attributes with varying construal level in shaping consumers’ relationship with the vegan product category.