Online organic food reviews and attitude: a mediation perspective using SEM-ANN

Purpose The present study aims to study the impact of online organic food reviews (OOFR) on consumers’ organic food purchase intention based on stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model. Furthermore, it explored the mediating effects of consumer attitude towards OOFR. Gender wise group differences have also been studied. Design/methodology/approach Accordingly, the study has proposed a conceptual model. This model was validated after collecting data from 320 Indian consumers empirically. This study applied structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses. Artificial neural network is also used for cross validation of the proposed model. Mediation effect was examined by bootstrapping. Moderation was explored by using multigroup SEM. Findings The findings revealed that OOFR have significant impacts on organic food purchase intention via consumer attitude towards OOFR. The consumer attitude towards these reviews had been found to have mediating impact on the associations of OOFR with organic food purchase intention. Practical implications This study offers significant practical implications for organic food marketers. Organic food marketers are suggested to manage online reviews in an effective and efficient manner to enhance consumers intentions to purchase organic food. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is perhaps the first study that explored the role of various dimensions OOFR, namely, quantity, quality, valence and consistency in impacting consumers’ attitude that may influence their intention to purchase organic food based on the SOR model.