Young consumers’ purchase behaviour of sustainably-labelled food products. What is the role of scepticism?

This paper aimed to investigate consumer scepticism towards third-party sustainability labels in the context of food products, evaluating its role formation customer’s buying behaviour. A covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) was developed, and it included socio-environmental concern, toward labels, reported use commitment declared by producer, purchase behaviour sustainably-labelled products. The tested on a sample 311 Italian high-educated young consumers, group sustainability-conscious individuals. findings highlight that is positively influenced two reciprocally-related variables: concern producer. While other studies have ascertained an antecedent behaviour, this study can also be considered mediator relationships between antecedents model. In addition advancing purchasing decisions for drawing signalling theory, provides insights practitioners policymakers, highlighting absolute necessity reassure consumers about credibility providing them with instruments needed distinguish truth from fluff communication.