Misner and Florian [2] define organic food as food grown without using chemicals such as synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, genetic engineering, and/or pesticides. Meza and Park [8] define organic food as items produced and handled without the use of dangerous synthetic inputs or additives, irradiation, or genetically engineered organisms. Organic food is considered to have a higher dietary benefit compared to conventional food, as organic food is produced without using harmful pesticides or synthetic compounds [9].

There are two types of organic food: 1) fresh organic food: products containing 95% to 100% certified organic ingredients, known as the “true organic”, and 2) manufactured organic food: products containing at least 70% certified organic ingredients, labelled as “made with organic ingredients” [10]. Yet the word “organic” creates manifolds of confusion [11]. Even though many consumers are familiar with its key features, such that it is chemical free but there exist many who are still unfamiliar with the terms used to describe “organic food” [1]. Some of the organic labels on the packaging are:

Genetically Modified Organism-free (GMO-free): Food products that are not genetically modified by biotechnology method and are remaining in its original state.Natural: Food products are produced without preservatives or flavouring.Organic: Food products containing more than 70% of their components are organic. But, there are chances that other minor components might not be organic. On the other hand, poultry that is declared as organically bred means they are given organic feed and are not given growth hormones.100% organic: Food products are totally organic. This type of label is normally used for single-ingredient food like organic eggs, fruits and vegetables [3].

The organic food industry in Malaysia is worth RM20 million annually with demands expected to rise by 12.4% a year [12]. There are many organic food brands in Malaysia, such as Country Farm, Matahari Organic, Organic Forest, Radiant Whole Food, Agape Organic, D’Lonek, DQ Farm, etc. Besides that, consumers are able to purchase organic food products online—Organic Express, Grocer Express, Signature Market, Why Not Organic; or through local supermarkets such as Tesco, Jaya Grocer, Village Grocer, Hero Market and Aeon. Although organic food categories and retail outlets are expanding but the market for organic food remains small and the proportion of consumers who regularly consume organic food is low even though consumers are relatively interested in consuming organic food products [13]. This is relatable to Henryks and Pearson’s [14] finding which indicated that relatively small actual purchase despite positive attitudes towards organic food was due to discrepancies in understanding the actual use of organic food by consumers.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1010541/frequency-buying-organic-food-malaysia/.

Figure 1. Frequency of purchasing organic food among consumers in Malaysia as of September 2024.

The most purchased organic food by Malaysians is organic fruits and vegetables followed by bread, cereals and meat; organic rice [15]; organic vegetables followed by fruits and meat [12]; organic fruits followed by vegetables and meat [16]. This shows that the acceptance of organic food products in Malaysia is not restricted to fresh agricultural products only but extended to multiple food groups irrespective of frozen, dried or fresh. A survey on organic food consumption by Hirschmann [17] indicated that 31% of Malaysians are organic food product purchasers. In comparison, only 7% stated that organic food products are not something they would consider purchasing while 24% rarely purchase organic products and 38% are occasional purchasers (Figure 1Figure 1). These figures paint a picture of a market that remains at the periphery of everyday consumer behaviour, with habitual, committed organic food buyers shrinking.

This pattern raises a pointed question: if pandemic-era health anxiety was genuinely catalytic, where is the evidence of sustained adoption four years later? One interpretation is that the pandemic’s effect was always conditional driven by an acute and temporary fear stimulus rather than by a fundamental realignment of consumer values. Once that stimulus receded, so did the behaviour it had temporarily amplified. The low frequency of organic food purchasing observed in 2024 is consistent with this interpretation; it suggests that for the majority of Malaysian consumers, the crisis created awareness and momentary intent, but not durable habit.

Increasingly higher numbers of studies are investigating organic food consumption because of the rising interest in sustainable food, healthy lifestyles and effects of Covid-19 [18]. These studies report the influence of multiple antecedents on the increased buying behaviour for organic food products, including nutritional values [19]-[21], health consciousness [22]-[24] and environmental concerns [25]-[27].

Research has also considered the predictive effect of product-related attributes such as affordability [28][29], product experience [30] and perceived value [29][31][32]. Additionally, studies have explored the influence of emotional health [33][34] social values, social pressure [35][36], social motives [37]-[39] and trust [22][40] on individuals’ intent to purchase organic food products.

Another critical notation about prior research relates to the investigated dependent variable which indicates enhanced emphasis on purchase intention [41][42] and attitude [43]-[45]. Purchase intention is an individual’s conscious plan to purchase a product [46] consisting of attitudes and behaviours that are required to implement the behaviour [47]. Shamsi et al. [48] and, Singh and Verma [41] posit that intentions may be a preceding factor to actual consumption, and it may not fully explain consumers’ decision-making processes for organic food products. To address this gap, Ishak [49] called for research focused on the motives affecting actual consumer behaviour. The present study attempts to address this, by using TBP to investigate the antecedents that facilitate actual organic food consumption in Malaysia.

The Theory of Planned Behaviour [50] posits attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control as the principal determinants of behavioural intention. However, the original conceptualisation of subjective norm as a unitary construct reflecting undifferentiated social pressure [51] has attracted sustained theoretical criticism for collapsing qualitatively distinct normative mechanisms into a single dimension. This reductionism is particularly problematic in consumption contexts where multiple, structurally dissimilar sources of social influence operate concurrently. To address this limitation, the present study draws on Taylor and Todd’s [52] decomposed TPB framework, disaggregating subjective norm into peer influence, reflecting expectations from social equals, and superior influence, reflecting expectations from authority figures. This decomposition enables more precise examination of how hierarchically differentiated social referents shape purchase intentions [53].

The second normative incorporates Schwartz’s [54] norm-activation theory, conceptualising moral norms as internalised ethical obligations distinct from both interpersonal expectations and evaluative attitudes. Such moral norms have demonstrated incremental predictive validity across pro-environmental and ethical consumption domains [51][55].

A third normative extension incorporates lifestyle-congruence norms, derived from Cialdini et al. [56] injunctive-descriptive distinction, representing perceived behavioural typicality within an identity-relevant lifestyle community. Unlike peer or superior influence, this dimension operates through identity-based motivation rather than direct social approval, exerting normative pressure independently of specific interpersonal expectations.

In this research, health consciousness, environmental concern, organic product knowledge, and perceived food safety and quality constitute attitudinal antecedents; personal social pressure operationalises subjective norm; perceived cost categorised as behavioural control; and additionally perceived personal values (norm-activation theory) and perceived social lifestyle congruence (injunctive-descriptive) function as extended subjective norm components. Perceived trust is introduced as a moderating variable between these antecedents and organic food purchase intention among Malaysian consumers, hence, in this study perceived trust will be moderating the antecedents and organic food purchase intention among Malaysian consumers.

Trust is considered a predictive element in explaining individual purchase intention [57]. Trust is related to risks and uncertainty, where the individual’s mental state enables the individual to disregard uncertainty and act in a way where the situation is rationally possible without undesired outcomes. In general, trust plays a pertinent role in influencing consumer decision-making process on food purchase, hence positively contributing to behaviour in action [40][58]. This element is especially critical in view of food scandals, food safety, and other negative issues such as greenwashing practices, leading to skepticism among consumers. This is attributable to trust’s role as one of the psychological factors guiding consumers in their organic food products purchase decision [57]. Moreover, it is critical to understand the effect of the “new norma” lifestyle caused by COVID-19 as the pandemic has affected social life. In this context, positive influence from one’s social circle will build their trust in organic food products, thus leading to shifting purchase intentions [24] (see Figure 2Figure 2).

Source: Framework adapted for the current study from Ajzen (1991), Schwartz (1977), Conner & Armitage (1998) and Carfora et al. (2019).

Figure 2. Theoretical framework of the study.

2.5.1. Health Consciousness

Health consciousness refers to the concern people have about their health, that motivates to improve or maintain their quality lifestyle as well as preventing illnesses by engaging in healthy activities [59]. Today, the pandemic had created a health fear and inadvertently to stay healthy and prevent illnesses, consumers are becoming concerned about their food choices. Although the awareness of organic produce in Malaysia is relatively low [60] but health concerns could lead to higher demand of the organic food compared to conventional food. Consumers perceive organic food to contain higher nutrient in context of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals as compared to conventionally grown food [26]. Purchasing organic food because of the reduced presence of artificial ingredients and other harmful residue is a step towards a healthy lifestyle [13]. In addition, the consumption of organic food does not just bring benefits to those who are concerned about their own health, but also the well-being of their children [61], as it is safer and healthier than conventional food. As Malaysians are concerned about their health and perceive organic food to be nutritional than conventional food; therefore, organic food is seen as a mean to stay healthy and combat illnesses.

2.5.2. Organic Food Knowledge

The amount of product knowledge can influence the way consumers perceive the product attributes and understand the full potential of the product [62]. Knowledge pertaining to organic food can be sourced from many places such as the familiarity of the product, the information label, the certification of the organization and word-of-mouth from family, relatives and friends [30][45]. Consumers are interested in “natural” food and are searching for information about the certification and labelling to ensure the food they consume is safe. Md Jusoh and Mohamad Zailani [23] discovered consumers’ willingness to purchase organic food is due to the acquired health knowledge of organic food which had increased their confidence. Such knowledge would lead to stronger individual beliefs and contribute to the intention of purchasing organic food products during the COVID-19 pandemic [22]. However, insufficient information on agricultural processes may deter consumers from purchasing organic food [63]. According to Hassan et al. [25] consumers do not purchase organic food for two reasons—1) lack of knowledge and 2) their inability to distinguish the unique attributes of organic food products from the conventionally grown due to insufficient information.

2.5.3. Food Safety Concern

The increase of growth hormones and antibiotics residues in animal, pesticide residues in food, artificial additives, fear of the agro-biotechnology and Covid-19 have alerted consumers on food safety. Consumers are worried regarding the impact of agro-chemicals in animal production as well as genetically modified fruits and vegetables; hence they believe that organic produce are safer than non-organic produce. Similarly, Michaelidou and Hassan [59] pointed out food safety as one of the most important motivators that affects consumers’ attitude towards organic produce. The usage of correct labelling of organic produce, logo, safety certification relating to organic produce’s quality, no hazardous chemicals and its nutritional value is able to strengthen consumer’s confidence in the safety of organic food [64]. Contrarily, Ishak et al. [49] revealed that during the pandemic Malaysian consumers perceive food safety as least important in their intention to purchase organic food products because their priority was to obtain food. However, the knowledge of food product safety can potentially influence individual perception and purchase decision, especially when health issues.

2.5.4. Organic Food Quality

Alamsyah and Angliawati [65] elucidated quality as the degree of superiority possessed by a product. The quality of organic products can be subdivided into several categories, such as the nutritional value, health value, sensory properties and the organic properties available. According to Braga et al. [66], quality of the organic product is important towards consumers’ judgment and perceptions, and it affects their decisions to purchase or not. However, the perception of quality can be affected by several factors including their past experience, education and the perceptions of surrounding individuals [65]. Onurlubas and Ozturk [13] state that consumers perceive organic food as high quality due to lower level of pesticide residues. Therefore, consumers perceive that organic food products are natural and are of good quality, fresher, tastier, safer and have more nutritional value compared to the conventionally produced food products [25]. As the COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis, consumers perceive by consuming organic food it diminishes their exposure to diseases [63].

2.5.5. Environmental Concerns

Environmental concern shows the extent of consumers’ awareness towards environmental issues and their willingness to take part in resolving these issues [67][68]. Environmental concerns and perceived environmental benefits influence the purchase decisions of organic food products [31]. Basha et al. [26] and Çabuk et al. [69] claim that the desire to protect the environment creates a positive attitude leading towards the preference to purchase organic food products. According to Zanoli and Naspetti [70], organic food is perceived as more environmentally friendly and less harmful to the environment. Salleh et al., [60] and Irianto [71] proved that those who are involved and concerned regarding environmental issues are the ones likely to consume organic food products. In addition, according to Hassan et al. [25] as consumers’ knowledge and environmental awareness increases, this concern is influencing their intention to purchase organic food products. Furthermore, previous studies by Zsuzsa [72], and Saleki et al. [24] demonstrate that customers with a higher concern and interest for the environment are inclined to purchase and consume products that reflect this interest.

2.5.6. Perceived Social Pressure

Perceived social pressure reflects an individual’s social influence that governs his/her purchase intention, whereby one’s social weight will influence them to either perform or not to perform a specific behaviour in mind. A number of studies have underlined the relationship between social pressure and organic food purchase intention [24][73] is due to Malaysia’s collectivistic culture, which indicates that society’s perception and approval is much desired by its people [74]. However, social pressure is also influenced by potential barriers, such as food adulteration [75], access to quality food [76], and availability factor [77]. Social pressure will potentially shift consumers’ desirability towards the product championed [37]. In the context of this study, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting “new norma” caused various restrictions, including the availability of food which rendered it essential to examine the perceived social pressure impact on purchase intention of organic food products.

2.5.7. Perceived Social Lifestyle

Social lifestyle factors relate to how peers and the people surrounding a person affect his or her decision. Organic food has a social value [34]. Consumers who have been convinced of these social values have adopted organic lifestyle and were able to accept the higher price [36]. Organic food is seen as more of a “luxury good”, where higher price tag gives the purchaser a feeling of higher quality and social esteem [35]. Additionally, organic food products are seen as representing status symbols or an affluent lifestyle [35][63]. Social status and self-esteem were often found to be a determinant influencing people’s decision to consume organic products rather than their non-organic counterparts. Saleki et al. [24] explained that by purchasing organic food products, Malaysians are demonstrating that they are environmentally conscious consumers; thus, making them feel like a “good person” who cares about the environment.

2.5.8. Perceived Personal Values

According to Schwartz Value Inventory [54], values can be categorized into conservatism, self-enhancement, self-transcendence and openness to change. Self-enhancement focuses on consumers who prioritized social status as their motives to purchase organic food. Conservatism refers to the belief to support stability of society and social relationships, such as supporting the growth of local organic food industry. Self-transcendence advocated universalism by focusing on contributions towards environmentally friendly, ecology and protecting animal welfare. Openness to change relates to the desire to change their lifestyle, practice healthier eating habits, or try new innovative organic food. Several studies [26][68][78] have asserted that environmental concern was a major determinant of purchasing organic food. According to Basha et al. [26], the increasing awareness of environmental degradation has changed consumer attitude to purchase more environmental-friendly and organic products. Saleki et al. [24] reported that Malaysians perceive by purchasing organic food would help save the environment and the more environmentally concerned they are, the more positive their attitude towards purchasing organic food products.

2.5.9. Organic Food Price

According to Ahmad [31] price is considered one of the barriers when deciding to purchase organic food, affecting purchase intention. Organic food is often associated with higher prices as compared to nonorganic products because of its high quality and the strict farming standards that are imposed on organic food producers [32]. Consumers are really concerned about money when they need to spend more to buy organic products that are expensive. The most important characteristic of quality aspects that are given attention by consumers are credence values such as healthiness, environmental friendliness, animal welfare and sensory value including taste and freshness [79]. These considerations on environmental well-being is driving them to purchase organic products. However, the high prices of organic food products may limit their ability to buy those products. Chen et al. [80] explain that highly educated consumers are willing to pay premium price for organic product and older consumers are not willing to pay such price due to their limited disposable income. Contrarily, Md Jusoh and Mohamad Zailani [23] expound that Malaysian women are willing to pay higher for organic food as their concern for their health and well-being during the pandemic was dominant. Consumers on the west coast were concerned about the money spent on organic products. But if the quality of the organic products is good, then it was considered worthwhile buying them. However, consumers from the east coast were price conscious and therefore, they could not afford to buy organic food, which was usually sold at much higher prices, regardless of its abundance benefits [29]. Consumers have pointed out that premium price was the main problem in their decision not to purchase organic food. Yet Song [30] confirmed that price has no significant effect on consumers’ perceived value of organic food.

This study proposes a conceptual model to explore the relationship between research, health consciousness, environmental concern, organic product knowledge, and perceived food safety and quality constitute attitudinal antecedents; personal social pressure, perceived personal values and perceived social lifestyle operationalise subjective norm; perceived cost categorised as behavioural control; and moderated by trust (see Table 1).

Table 1. Hypothesis.

Source: Author’s own work adapted for the current study.

The reliability of the measurement model was examined based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and composite reliability (CR). As illustrated in Table 2, the factor loading for all items exceeded the threshold value of 0.70 [84], and composite reliability for all constructs surpassed the acceptable value of 0.60 [85]. Construct validity was assessed based on convergent validity and discriminant validity. Convergent validity was measured using Dijkstra-Henseler’s rho (rhoA), Cronbach alpha (CA) and average variance extracted (AVE) [86]. As shown in Table 2, the values of AVE and CA of all constructs exceeded the recommended value of 0.50 and the values of rhoA of all constructs exceeded the recommended value of 0.60 [85][87]. This ascertains the reliability of measurement model at the construct and item level, as the result confirms a high level of internal consistency for all the items.

Table 2. Measurement model.

In evaluating the structural model, the overall fit of the estimated model, the path coefficient estimates, their significance and the coefficient of determination (R²) were examined [84]. R² is used to assess the extent of variance that all exogenous constructs explained in the endogenous constructs. Table 3 indicates the R² value in this model is 53.5% for HC, 37.5% for OFS, 53.5% for OFQ, 34.5% for EC, 35.5% for PSP, 21.5% for PSL, 20.4% for PPV and 47.7% for PI.

Table 3. R Squared.

Table 4.Goodness of fit model.

SRMR and Normed Fit Index (NFI) Normed Fit Index (NFI) is a goodness of fit measure to avoid model misspecification. SRMR shows a value of 0.026, which postulates the path model as acceptable model fit (less than 0.08) whereas NFI with a value of 0.875 is posited acceptable (closer to one, better the fit); hence the proposed model is well suited for confirming and explaining the impact of Covid-19 on organic food purchase intentions (Table 4).

As one of the most prosperous areas in Malaysia, Klang Valley was selected as the main cluster to analyze the consumption behaviour towards organic food products. There were 363 males (51.9%) and 337 females (48.1%) who had participated in the survey (Table 5).

Table 5. Gender of respondents.

Source: Data collected by author from November 2024 to November 2025.

Several studies have been conducted to understand the profile of organic consumers particularly in terms of sociodemographic. According to studies by Wong et al. [16], Song [30], Luqman et al. [29] and Md Jusoh and Mohamad Zailani [23] support that consumption of organic food is more commonly found among female consumers compared to males. The current study found that both gender is equally involved in the purchase and consumption of organic food products. Is this a direct impact of Covid-19? Organic food consumers were also reported to be among older people [30][88] as they were more concerned about their food consumption which may affect their health status. However, the studies conducted during the pandemic has shown a swift change, whereby it is the younger people who are showing a higher concern for the type of food consumed [22][24][49]. The current study found that the younger consumers aged 26 to 36 years are very concerned about what they need, the nutrient level consumed, the level of pesticide content and whether the food they eat is healthy to fight unseen illness. As organic food is commonly associated with premium priced food products, the majority of organic consumers in Malaysia were reported to be from higher income groups [23][29]. The target respondents for this study were “The Developers” [83] who are technologically savvy, has obtained higher education and currently have a well-paid job. Moreover, studies by Sia et al. [78], Saleki et al. [24] and Shafie et al. [20] found that the consumers’ attitudes towards organic food products were influenced by education level. During the pandemic, Malaysians regardless male or female, ultimate concern were to stay healthy as to prevent Covid-19. Hence, they became cautious of what they ate and what they bought to cook their food, and they were willing to pay for this benefit.

Based on Table 6, the respondents (Developers) consider organic food products to have fewer chemical residues, natural and fresh, hence packed with nutrients; and this is seen as quality product. Due to the pandemic, consuming organic food has also become a trend, and everyone is jumping the organic bandwagon. Yet not many considered organic food products to be cheap, easily available or tastier than conventional food products; at the same time, by purchasing organic food products they never felt they were being environmentally friendly, nor did they feel morally pressurized to purchase it either. The respondents have high awareness on the variety of organic food and the required safety labelling due to their educational background. Moreover, the pandemic has increased their health consciousness, their need to ensure the well-being of their family and shield them from Covid-19 by providing healthy organic food full of nutrients. The high content of vitamins and minerals in organic food will lead individuals to form favourable attitudes towards organic food products. Respondents agreed that purchasing organic food products means they are providing healthier food for their family and improving their quality lifestyle.

Table 6. Consumers’ perceptions of organic food perceptions toward organic food.

Source: Data collected by author from November 2024 to November 2025.

The analysis of direct relationships between antecedent constructs and organic food purchase intention (Table 7) yielded a substantive insight into the motivational architecture underlying consumer behaviour within the Malaysian Developer cohort.

Table 7. Direct antecedents of organic food purchase intention.

Source: Data computed by author using PLS-SEM.

Health consciousness (H₁) was confirmed as a significant positive predictor of purchase intention, consistent with a substantial body of literature across organic food consumption contexts [23][24][29]. This finding is theoretically coherent within the norm-activation framework [54], wherein heightened awareness of health consequences activates internalised personal obligation norms that subsequently channel behaviour toward health-protective consumption choices. The COVID-19 pandemic functioned as a significant contextual amplifier of this relationship: pandemic-era anxieties elevated the subjective salience of personal health maintenance among working-age consumers, intensifying dietary scrutiny and restructuring the motivational salience hierarchy such that health protection displaced competing considerations as the primary driver of organic food purchase.

Organic food safety (H₃) similarly received empirical support, with respondents systematically prioritising safety certification and regulatory compliance as foundational decision criteria. This finding reflects the characteristic dynamics of credence good markets, wherein consumers are structurally unable to independently verify product attributes prior to or even following consumption, rendering third-party certification a critical heuristic for quality inference [69][70][80]. However, this finding simultaneously raises important questions regarding consumer vulnerability to certification fraud.

Organic food quality (H₄) was confirmed as a significant predictor of purchase intention. Respondents demonstrated robust associations between organic food and perceived superiority across multiple quality dimensions, including nutritional value, freshness, taste, and freedom from chemical contamination. This finding is consistent with established literature documenting consumers’ quality-based organic food perceptions [69][80]. Notably, the salience of quality perceptions within this sample may partly reflect a price-quality heuristic effect: elevated organic food prices within the post-pandemic Malaysian market may have reinforced quality attributions and a norm among purchasers if it is on the shelf then it has fulfilled all safety requirements of the country.

Organic food price (H₉) emerged as a significant positive predictor of purchase intention, a finding that contradicts Song [30] who indicated that price has no significant effect. Supply chain disruptions and logistical constraints associated with the COVID-19 pandemic elevated organic food prices considerably within the Malaysian retail environment. Contrary to conventional price sensitivity predictions, this price elevation did not deter purchase; rather, consumers appeared to employ price as a surrogate quality signal, interpreting higher prices as indicative of greater organic integrity and reduced pesticide exposure [23][29][31].

Perceived social pressure (H₆), perceived social lifestyle (H₇), and perceived personal values (H₈) all demonstrated significant positive effects on purchase intention. The significance of perceived social lifestyle provides empirical support for the lifestyle-congruence norm construct derived from Cialdini et al.’s [56] descriptive norm framework. Most of the respondents reported that they choose to purchase organic food products because their social circle perceives organic food as very healthy, fresh and natural. This finding is consistent with the findings of earlier studies, which stated that, generally, consumers perceive organic food to be more nutritious and safer than conventionally produced food products [32][63]. This finding shows that Malaysian consumers have a good Perceived Personal Value of organic food, and this could bring insights to market practitioners. To portray a social lifestyle, consumers feel the need to conform to social pressure by consuming natural, organic pesticide free products to be healthy.

By contrast, two hypotheses within the direct antecedent dimension were rejected. Environmental concern (H₅) failed to reach significance, a null finding that challenges prevailing myths that consumers tend to purchase organic food because organic farming methods are known to have a lower impact on the environment compared to the conventional agricultural practice that might use chemical substances, has been proven to be not true during the pandemic. Since the multiple lockdowns, Malaysian Developer cohorts were more concerned about their health and safety; hence the environmental concerns or issues were the least of their concerns.

Organic food knowledge (H₂) similarly yielded a non-significant direct effect on purchase intention. Within this well-educated cohort, awareness of organic food’s nutritional superiority, pesticide-free cultivation, and safety standards appears to have achieved a degree of normalisation such that knowledge no longer functions as an active differentiating motivator at the moment of purchase; hence this factor has become irrelevant.

The present study examined a series of hypothesised structural relationships among the antecedent constructs themselves (Table 8), offering a more nuanced and theoretically enriched account of the pathways through which organic food-related beliefs, values, and perceptions interact and mutually reinforce one another within the consumer decision-making system.

Table 8. Antecedents between dimensions.

Source: Data computed by author using PLS-SEM.

Organic food knowledge was confirmed to positively predict organic food safety perceptions (H_2A), a finding consistent with the theoretical proposition that greater product knowledge enables consumers to appreciate and evaluate safety-related attributes more accurately and confidently. Organic food quality was confirmed to positively predict health consciousness (H_4A), suggesting a cognitively coherent pathway through which quality perceptions reinforce health-oriented motivational orientations. Consumers who perceive organic food as nutritionally superior and free from hazardous chemicals appear more likely to maintain or intensify health-conscious attitudes, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which quality belief and health motivation mutually strengthen one another over time.

The significant H_7A relationship suggests that broader social pressure from authority shapes the lifestyle norms that consumers perceive as characteristic of their identity communities, indicating that top-down normative influence may be partially mediated by identity-based lifestyle congruence mechanisms. The significant H_8A relationship similarly suggests that social pressure from authoritative referents reinforces the internalisation of health and ethical values as personal normative standards, consistent with social learning and norm-internalisation accounts of value formation [54].

Perceived social pressure was also found to positively predict environmental concern in two tested pathways (H_6A, H_8B), suggesting that normative influence from peers, superiors, and social lifestyle communities extends beyond health-specific domains to encompass broader ecological orientations. This finding is noteworthy given that environmental concern did not emerge as a significant direct predictor of purchase intention, raising the possibility that social normative influence activates environmental attitudes that, while genuinely held, remain motivationally subordinate to health-protective concerns within the specific purchase decision context.

Organic food prices demonstrated significant positive relationships with perceived social lifestyle (H_9A) and perceived personal values (H_9B), consistent with the broader price-quality heuristic interpretation advanced in the direct antecedent analysis. These between-dimension findings suggest that price elevation does not merely influence purchase intention directly but operates through attitudinal and normative pathways: higher prices appear to signal lifestyle-congruent consumption identity and to reinforce personal value orientations centred on health and quality, creating indirect pathways through which price influences purchase intention beyond its direct effect.

Organic food price also demonstrated a significant positive relationship with organic food quality (H_9C), corroborating the price-quality heuristic mechanism at the construct level: consumers who perceive organic food as more expensive also perceive it as higher in quality, a relationship that reflects the inferential reasoning characteristic of credence good evaluation. The further significant relationship between price and health consciousness (H_9D) extends this logic, suggesting that elevated price signals not only quality but health-protective attributes specifically, thereby reinforcing the salience hierarchy in which health motivation dominates purchase decision-making within this cohort.

Several between-dimension hypotheses were rejected. Organic food safety did not emerge as a significant predictor of health consciousness (H_3A), suggesting that safety perceptions and health consciousness, while conceptually related, operate as functionally independent attitudinal dimensions within this sample. This non-significant finding may reflect the previously noted normalisation of safety knowledge: for Developer-cohort consumers, organic food safety has become a taken-for-granted baseline assumption. Similarly, H_7B—the hypothesised relationship between perceived social lifestyle and environmental concern—was not supported, further reinforcing the interpretation that environmental motivation occupies a peripheral rather than central position within the normative structure governing organic food consumption in this context. The rejection of H_9E, the hypothesised positive relationship between organic food price and environmental concern, is similarly consistent with the broader pattern of environmental concern’s motivational marginality within this cohort.

The third analytical dimension examined the moderating role of perceived trust across all antecedent-purchase intention relationships (Table 9). The overarching pattern of results was striking and theoretically consequential: with a single exception, perceived trust failed to moderate any of the hypothesised antecedent-intention relationships, a finding that diverges substantially from prior literature identifying trust as a critical boundary condition in organic food consumer behaviour.

Table 9. Moderating effects of trust.

Source: Data computed by author using PLS-SEM.

Perceived trust did not significantly moderate the relationships between purchase intention and health consciousness (H_1A), organic food safety (H_3B), organic food quality (H_4B), environmental concern (H_5A), perceived social pressure (H_6B), perceived social lifestyle (H_7C), perceived personal values (H_8C), or organic food price (H_9F). The breadth and consistency of these null moderation effects cannot reasonably be attributed to measurement artefact or statistical power limitations; rather, they suggest a theoretically meaningful shift in the structural role of trust within post-pandemic Malaysian organic food consumer culture.

This pattern is best interpreted through the lens of pandemic-induced epistemic normalisation. The Malaysian Developer cohort experienced multiple consecutive lockdown periods during which public health messaging consistently and prominently associated dietary health with organic food consumption. Sustained exposure to this messaging, combined with the heightened salience of personal health during a period of significant public health threat, appears to have transformed trust from an actively evaluated prerequisite for organic food purchase into a normatively embedded cultural assumption. In other words, within this cohort, the question of whether organic food is trustworthy appears to have been effectively resolved—not through a deliberative trust assessment process, but through a form of enforced acceptance in which repeated exposure under conditions of health anxiety produced internalised convictions that organic food is inherently safe, healthy, and beneficial.

This conceptualisation—trust as normalised acceptance rather than active evaluation—has profound implications for how trust is theorised and operationalised in organic food research. Traditional trust measurement instruments, developed in pre-pandemic contexts where organic food represented a novel or niche consumption category requiring active credibility evaluation, may lack construct validity when applied to post-pandemic populations for whom organic food has achieved mainstream legitimacy. The apparent redundancy of trust as a moderator in this context suggests that trust, in its conventional operationalisation, may have undergone a qualitative transformation: from a variable that modulates the strength of antecedent-intention relationships to a stable contextual background assumption that is uniformly held at sufficiently high levels to preclude meaningful variation.

The sole exception to this pattern—perceived trust was found to significantly moderate the relationship between organic food knowledge and purchase intention (H_2B). This isolated significant moderation effect is theoretically interpretable as follows: organic food knowledge, having lost its direct predictive utility through normalisation, may retain conditional relevance under circumstances where trust provides a context within which knowledge-based elaboration is reactivated. For consumers whose trust is relatively lower or more contingent, organic food knowledge may serve a reassurance function, supplementing trust where it is insufficiently established. This interpretation implies a compensatory interaction structure—in which knowledge and trust function as partial substitutes in the formation of purchase confidence—a dynamic with precedent in information processing literature on credence attribute evaluation.