Functional food consumption behaviour: the role of self-efficacy

In social cognitive theory, self-efficacy has emerged as an important factor in behavioral change. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of self-efficacy on the consumption behavior of functional food product among adults’ consumers. A survey was conducted in Malaysia with the sample of 452 respondents by using the self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that self-efficacy positively influences the consumers to consume functional food. Despite the positive relationships, the explanatory power of self-efficacy to predict functional food consumption behavior was low. This indicated that there are other variables were also important in predicting functional food consumption behavior that needs to be addressed in future research. The results from this study would be valuable for the marketers in the healthy food industry to formulate effective marketing communication strategies focusing on encouraging the internal motivation of self-efficacy in order to facilitate favorable attitudinal change towards healthy food consumption among consumers