Scarcity and Sustainability: Moderating the Green Consumption Gap for Organic Eggs in a Developing Market

While numerous studies have examined consumers’ purchase intentions for green products, including various organic foods (organic eggs), significant gaps persist in understanding the complex factors that drive actual consumption behavior. Notably, limited empirical work has examined how product availability constraints (e.g., unavailability of organic eggs) influence the translation of green intentions into behaviors, particularly within developing market contexts where supply chain challenges are prevalent. We address these gaps by integrating TPB, Value-Basis Theory, and Intention-Behavior Gap into a single research framework. Through this framework, we examine the direct effects of environmental knowledge and environmental concern on both the intention to consume and the actual consumption of organic eggs. To bridge this gap, we propose an integrative framework that synthesizes the Theory of Planned Behavior, Value-Basis Theory, and the Intention–Behavior Gap. Specifically, we examine how environmental knowledge and environmental concern influence both the intention to purchase and consume organic milk/organic eggs and its actual consumption, while also testing intention as a mediating variable and unavailability of these organic products as a potential moderating factor. Using data from a convenience sample of 717 Haitian consumers, the findings reveal that both environmental knowledge and environmental concern are significant predictors of intention and actual consumption of organic eggs. Intention also emerges as a strong mediator. However, the unavailability of organic eggs does not moderate the proposed relationships. These results offer valuable insights for both theory and practice, particularly in advancing understanding of sustainable consumer behavior in emerging market contexts.