The impact of health information seeking and social influence on functional food purchase intention

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to unprecedented transformation of consumer behaviors. Despite the abundance of research on this subject, less is known about why and how consumers processed health information and subsequently decided to purchase food during the pandemic. This study employed a survey questionnaire to collect the data. The sample size consisted of 590 consumers in China. The data were analyzed via SPSS and SmartPLS version 3.2.9 to explore the relationships among variables. The results showed that health information-seeking behavior has a significant impact on healthy food product purchasing intention. Similarly, health-related internet use also has a positive impact on health information seeking. Moreover, the impact of motivation for healthy eating on health information seeking is significant. The results indicate a significant moderating role of social influence (i.e., interaction between health information seeking and healthy food product purchasing intention). Multigroup analysis revealed differences between income and age in terms of health-related internet use and purchasing intention. This study assessed healthy food product purchasing intention in a timely manner by incorporating health communication. variables and social influence into consumer behavior research in the context of COVID-19. It thus expands the extant literature and provides insights into the knowledge and practices concerned.