Effect of consumer innovativeness and conspicuous consumption on healthy food consumption intention

In the 21st century, with the improvement of living standards in many countries, increased in life expectancy of humans along with the healthcare expansion, and the realization of the importance of healthy nutrition in staying healthy in later ages; consumers have started to be remarkably sensitive and conscious about the quality of the foods they purchase and their effects on their health. Despite increases in life expectancy, the rise in chronic and non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity etc. with the rise of the health expenpenses emphasized the choice of healthy food within the framework of the preventive approach for the prevention and control of these diseases, which are fundamentally related to nutrition. The aim of this study was to reveal personal, psychological, socio-cultural and demographic factors and their effects that influence on the healthy food consumtion intention. Modeling of the research was created with the variables obtained from the relevant literature and the effects of consumer innovativeness and conspicuous consumption on healthy food consumption intention were investigated. In this thesis, the mixed data collection method and in-depth interviews were conducted with dietitians and food consumers which was the qualitative value of the study. Then, an online questionnaire was used for 425 participants and 402 valid questionnaires were collected to be used as quantative data. As a result of the analyzes, it was determined that the perception of benefit towards healthy food products had a positive effect on both the appearance enhancement motivation and health protection motivation. Results also indicated that the appearance enhancement motivation affected consumer innovativeness and conspicuous consumption positively and also, health protection motivation had positive effects on consumer innovativeness, however, it did not show any significant effect on conspicuous consumption. While, consumer innovativeness positively affected the intention to consume healthy food products, conspicuous consumption was not found to have impact on it. It was also determined that barriers to consuming healthy foods such as dislike of the taste of healthy foods and the lack of knowledge about them had a negative effect on the intention to consume healthy food, while distrust, availability and price barriers had no effect. Keywords: Consumer innovativeness, conspicuous consumption, healthy food, health protection motivation, appearance enhancement motivation