A study of factors influencing consumers’ willingness to purchase functional foods (protein enriched milk): The moderating effect of consumer innovativeness

Functional foods are food products that provide new benefits to consumers in addition to nutritional benefits and promote a healthy lifestyle by modifying or enriching the content of various food items. Even though the functional food market is quickly expanding due to its highly dynamic and inventive structure, research on consumer expectations and needs in this subject is still restricted. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to determine the variables that affect consumers' willingness to purchase functional foods, as well as to examine the moderating effect of consumer innovativeness. Protein-enriched milk products were chosen as the functional food category in the study. The descriptive research approach was employed to reveal the variables' relations. The questionnaire form, which was produced as a result of a literature study to determine the suitable variables and scales, was administered to 420 participants living in Turkey between May and August 2021. The participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique. The Smart PLS 3.3.2 software and least squares path analysis (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the research hypothesis. According to the findings, the propensity to live a healthy lifestyle and consumer innovativeness significantly and positively affect various dimensions of functional food purchase willingness. On the other hand, consumer innovativeness appears to have a moderating effect on the relationship between the propensity to live a healthy lifestyle and the trust in functional food sub-dimensions, as well as the relationship between the propensity to live a healthy lifestyle and the need for functional food sub-dimensions.