The impact of agricultural product traceability from the food supply chain perspective on consumer cognition and purchase intention

In the complex and information-opaque modern food supply chain, establishing a traceability system is a key strategy for ensuring food safety and rebuilding consumer trust. However, whether the traceability information constructed with upstream investment can be effectively transmitted to the terminal to influence consumers’ purchase decisions remains a focus of academic and industrial attention. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, this study, from the terminal perspective of the food supply chain, constructs a mediation model with “cognition level—trust—purchase intention” as the core, aiming to analyze the impact path of agricultural product traceability as a quality signal on consumer psychology and behavior. Taking 380 consumers in Guilin, China—a city characterized by a dual consumer structure of “local residents + tourists”—as the survey subjects, this study conducts an empirical analysis and finds that consumers’ cognitive level of traceable agricultural products not only directly and significantly positively affects their purchase intention but also indirectly promotes purchase decisions by enhancing trust, meaning trust plays a key partial mediating role. This study reveals the transmission process through which traceability information in the supply chain is converted into purchasing behavior via consumer psychological mechanisms, providing an important theoretical basis and practical insights for supply chain managers to optimize information transmission strategies and for the government to build a collaborative governance system.