Exploring Collaboration and Consumer Behavior in Food Community Networks and Constraints Preventing Active Participation: The Case of Turkey

• Main Authors: Yaprak Kurtsal, Davide Viaggi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: consumer behavior; food communities; food community networks; collaboration; governance challenges; co-producers
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3292

The term food community networks (FCNs) has been introduced to define a governance structure where consumers and producers integrate their functions to promote socially just, environmentally conscious, and healthier ways of food provisioning for communities. We use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore how consumers’ behavioral intentions are shaped to participate in FCNs in Turkey. We extend the theory by exploring if collaboration is a factor that influences consumer participation. We further identify the main challenges associated with active participation. The findings show that the extended construct in our study, that is collaboration, positively and significantly predicted consumers’ attitude, while attitude, along with subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) had significant and positive effects on consumers’ intention to participate (co-produce) in FCNs. Consumers regarded time constraints as the biggest issue preventing active participation, while lack of volunteers taking responsibility and lack of communication within the communities were suggested as governance challenges that need to be addressed. This research can contribute to the debate on the importance of collaboration in food communities, towards adopting collaborative governance structures on a local scale, and shed light on the relatively novel experience of FCNs in Turkey.