Food traceability and sustainable consumption: the role of perceived authenticity and value co-creation in shaping green purchase intention

The concept of food traceability systems has risen significantly in recent years and is increasingly viewed as an important mechanism for establishing sustainable consumption. However, the psychological mechanisms through which traceability perception affects green purchasing behavior remain poorly understood. Utilizing signaling theory and the service-dominant logic, this study framed a dual-mediation model. Accordingly, this model examined how food traceability perception shapes green purchase intention through perceived authenticity and value co-creation. Environmental concern was incorporated as a moderating variable. A mixed-methods design was employed: Study 1 involved secondary data analysis of China’s green food market and food traceability infrastructure; Study 2 involved a questionnaire survey administered to 468 Chinese consumers. The hypotheses were tested through PLS-SEM. The results confirmed that food traceability perception enhances green purchase intention through two parallel mediating pathways—perceived authenticity and value co-creation. The two pathways proved statistically indistinguishable in magnitude, suggesting that how consumers verify product authenticity and how they engage with traceability platforms matter in roughly equal measure. Environmental concern positively moderates the value co-creation–purchase intention relationship, with the effect among high-concern consumers being approximately twice that observed among low-concern consumers. The model explained 52.4% of the variance in green purchase intention. These findings advance theoretical understanding of traceability system mechanisms and provide evidence-based guidance for precision marketing—segment-specific communication strategies calibrated to consumer environmental concern levels.