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Top1. Introduction
The development of the responsible consumption was clearly triggered about a decade ago (Chessel, 2003, Gallais, 2003, Dubuisson-Quellier, 2009, Mars et al., 2015). The latter aims to combat several environmental problems, in particular pollution, the exhaustion of certain resources, the deterioration of fauna and flora, etc. Several marketing research attempts (Chessel, 2003, Dufeu and Ferandi, 2013, Herault-Fournier, Merle and Prigent-Simonin, 2012) have better study the notion of ethical consumption and its consequences on health,.
Gonzalez et al. (2009), Newholm (2000), Feldmann and Hamm (2015), Merle et al. (2012) have shown that shoppers are more and more conscious of what they consume and buy. In the food sector, they become more vigilant about the quality of products and less confident especially in the era of certain food scandals (horse meat, cucumber, ...). In this line, researchers (Bergadaà and Del Bucchia, 2009, Dufeu and Ferandi, 2013, Herault-Fournier, Merle and Prigent-Simonin, 2012) state that consumers are more confident in the category of food products when they have more information about its production and marketing process. This type of product is generally the local or regional products that are now required in the process of purchasing products concerned with health and environmental issues (Herault-Fournier, 2012,2014, Toti and Moulins, 2014). In this sense, consumers' purchasing behaviors evolve towards an increased demand in terms of proximity and ease in the act of purchase while feeling increasingly involved and responsible for the consequences of their purchases.
In the present investigation, we will investigate the effect of consumer confidence on the engaged consumption while testing the mediating role that price sensitivity can play in this causal relationship. This, to our knowledge, is rarely treated by previous research in marketing especially in the Tunisian context. Then, our investigation seeks to examine the impact of confidence in a local food product in stimulating engaged or ethical consumption while testing the mediating role of product price sensitivity. Indeed, in many cases trust in a product leads to its purchase. However, this relationship is not automatic for consumer since it is influenced by several factors, namely its ability to pay a more expensive price to make an engaged consumption.
This relationship still deserves to be specified in the context of local organic food consumption.
From a managerial point of view, the testing of these different causal links between confidence, and engaged consumption to Tunisian consumers is still very rarely treated by previous research. Similarly, the study of the impact of consumer the sensitivity to product prices in this relationship seems very interesting for professionals in this sector, especially those who market local or regional food products. This will enable them to better understand certain variables that may influence the process of consumer engagement.