6. Discussion
Driven by a shift in consumer preference, the organic product
market has emerged as a crucial opportunity for the retail business.
Despite useful insights from previous studies, research gaps
regarding a lack of attention to an important consumer group (i.e.,
older consumers) and a psychological motivation (i.e., self-presentation)
in understanding key motives of organic product-buying
intention still remain. The present study incorporates the role
of psychological motivation, along with other motives, in the
context of older consumers' purchase intention regarding organic
foods.
As the starting point for our model, the self-presentation motive
plays an important role in increasing older consumers' purchase
intention of organic foods. Self-presentation aims for impression
management of the self in social settings, which is often
contextual (Goffman, 1959; Wiley, 1994). The results indicate that
older consumers utilize organic food consumption as a tool to
portray the self in the social environment to which they belong. In
so doing, the impression older consumers want to present is themeaning of organic foods, which is understood by members of
society (e.g., healthier, more ethical, contributes to the well-being
of society). The significant finding adds to the empirical evidence
gathered in previous research, in that food can be used as a means
of self-presentation in a social environment (e.g., Bäckström et al.
2003; Mori et al., 1987). Moreover, compared with younger consumers,
the impact of self-presentation on purchase intention was
significant for older consumers. Of note, the older consumers actually
exhibited a weaker self-presentation motive than did the
younger consumers, but had stronger motives with regard to all
other variables (food safety concerns, environmental concerns,
and ethical consumer-identity). This result suggests that little
possession of the self-presentation motive to portray the selfconsistent
with the image and meanings of organic foods plays a
powerful role in enhancing older consumers' intention to purchase
organic produce, which is a novel insight that deserves greater
attention in future