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BFJ
121,2
590
Received 3 April 2018
Revised 22 August 2018
Accepted 5 September 2018
British Food Journal
Vol. 121 No. 2, 2019
pp. 590-602
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0007-070X
DOI 10.1108/BFJ-12-2017-0683
Consumption values and physical
activities: consumers’ healthy
eating choices
Karim Marini Thomé and Guilherme Mata Pinho
University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil, and
Alexia Hoppe
Independent Researcher, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which consumption values and physical
activities influence consumers’ healthy eating choices.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey with 292 participants was analysed by means of bilateral
factor analysis and structural equation modelling to study the consumers’ healthy eating choices based on
consumption values and moderation effect of physical activities.
Findings – Consumers’ healthy eating choices are strongly linked to epistemic and emotional values.
Physical activities act as a moderator of the emotional value and functional value price.
Originality/value – This paper adds to the literature on consumption values and raises new insights of
value for the health and wellness food industry.
Keywords Consumption values, Healthy food, Eating choice, Physical activities
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The prevalence of obesity is growing worldwide, and it has almost tripled in the last four
decades. Similar trends are being observed for a number of non-communicable diseases
including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. They are in part related to obesity and the
absence of physical activities. In this sense, the World Health Organisation and the Food
and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations have stated that supportive policies
lead to changes in dietary and lifestyle patterns, like regular physical activities, which are
crucial to reduce risk factors (WHO, 2015a, b, 2017).
Identification of the determinants of consumers’ food purchase intentions for health and
wellness has recently attracted a great interest from scholars. Several studies have
attempted to explain how intention and behaviour to purchase health foods works (Baglione
et al., 2012; Cannuscio et al., 2014; Hur and Jang, 2015; Kang et al., 2015; Stel and van
Koningsbruggen, 2015).
This topic was also highlighted by Kihlberg and Risvik (2007), emphasising that
understanding consumer behaviour regarding healthier food products, and the
value structure underlying this consumption has great importance for marketers and
policy-makers. Furthermore, Kang et al. (2015) stated that for healthier choices at
restaurants, the expectations, whether regarding outcomes or hedonic aspects, are keys to
answering the question as to why consumers make healthy food choices, and their habit
values have an impact on their perspective of healthy choices.
Cannuscio et al. (2014) approached the same theme via social dynamics: they examined
the social interactions and whether the choices were induced by these interactions. Their
findings suggest that every aspect of food shopping and interactions are tightly interwoven
with social rules and relationships, thus, these relationships influence food shopping,
purchasing and consumption.
 However, the studies do not concern consumer values as a dimension that can explain Consumption
consumers’ eating choices. According to Giampietri et al. (2016), studying consumers’ values and
behaviour in relation to purchasing has primary importance because attitudinal variables physical
play a key role in consumer choice. Thus, this paper aims to analyse to what degree
consumption values influence consumers’ eating choices and the moderation effect of activities
physical activity habits at these values. We applied the consumption values theory
(Sheth et al., 1991) and consumers’ habits literature as background. The health value, like a 591
healthy lifestyle, is expected to interact within consumer choice (Tudoran et al., 2009; Hur
and Jang, 2015; Kang et al., 2015).

2. Previous studies and conceptual framework

2.1 Consumption values
The value concept is a topic central to social sciences, especially for marketing. In general,
values are considered beliefs, which refer to an individual’s abstract objective (Vieira et al.,
2013). For Schwartz (1992, 2012), values are composed of concepts or beliefs, which pertain
to desirable end states or behaviour, transcending specific situations, guiding selection or
evaluation of behaviour and events; they are ordered by relative importance, and the
relative importance of multiple values guides action. Thus, for contemporary definitions
of the term “value”, the idea often used is that value is derived from product or service use
(Sparks et al., 2008), and such values are central beliefs that guide behaviour (Flint et al.,
1997). They have importance in influencing the degree of a person’s decision-making
behaviour (Thomé et al., 2016).
In the marketing literature, the concept of consumer value has generally been
discussed in the context of exchange or return on something, presenting the notion of
trade-off between cost or sacrifices incurred and experienced or expected values, which
have led to multidimensional conceptualisations being developed by several researches
(Perrea et al., 2015). Values are standards or criteria that drive consumer decision-making
(Schwartz, 1992; Lee et al., 2014), and, as other studies have mentioned, consumer
behaviour depends on consumer values, which are the beliefs of what is important to
achieve in life (Thomé et al., 2016).
The consumption values theory was used in previous research works about consumer
choice behaviour, and it is useful to explain the standards and criteria chosen by consumers
that drive their decision-making (Sheth et al., 1991). According to this theory, there are five
types of value, and they are classified as follows:
(1) Functional value, which has the ability to fulfil the function for which a product was
created, and this may include attributes, such as texture, taste, freshness and overall
quality in the case of new food products (Perrea et al., 2015).
(2) Social value, which includes the association of a person’s product choice with the
expected choice of a specific social group (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Pihlström
and Brush, 2008; Cheng et al., 2010; Perrea et al., 2015), and it may be based on the
belief that consumers make a connection between a particular social class or
referential group membership and new food products (Perrea et al., 2015).
(3) Emotional value, which arouses feelings or affective states that a product generates
(Sheth et al., 1991; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001) and may have a link with the hedonic
value, given that a consumer’s own pleasure, liking and comfort may give rise to this
value (Perrea et al., 2015). Thus, when an affective state occurs, consumption by
emotional value arises. Sometimes food choices, affective and emotional responses
exert powerful influences (Lease et al., 2014).
BFJ (4) Epistemic value, which is related to the arousal of curiosity, novelty and desire for
121,2 knowledge (Sheth et al., 1991). When consumers encounter a new product, there is an
evaluation based on a combination of incoming information regarding the new product
and some familiarity with another known product (Lai, 1991; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001).
(5) Conditional value often depends on the specific situation or set of circumstances faced
in the choice. Thus, an alternative acquires conditional value (Sheth et al., 1991).
592 Thus, the constructs from the consumption values theory are applied in this research in
order to help to explain consumers’ choice behaviour towards healthier food products.
Following this, the literature review regarding consumers’ habits is presented, since it also
comprises the conceptual model proposed in this paper.
As values have their importance in consumer choice behaviour, health habits, such as
physical activities, may interfere with consumers’ goals. They may change the degree of
influence that consumption values exert on their choice behaviour related to healthier food
products. Consumers have their own health value, which is the degree to which they value
their health. In addition, their concerns about health questions and determination to do
everything possible to maintain or improve their health are another conjecture that is
composed in the health value (Tudoran et al., 2009). So, it is supposed that the individual’s
health value interferes directly with consumption values. As the consumer has a health
intention, his/her value perception about healthy foods could be different, and the choice
behaviour towards healthy food products may impact differently from consumption values.
Thus, attitudes towards healthier food products may be influenced by health values
(Tudoran et al., 2009).

2.2 Consumers’ habits

Verplanken and Aarts (1999) define habit as “learned sequences of acts that have become
automatic responses to specific cues, and are functional in obtaining certain goals or end
states” ( p. 104). Thus, health habits could be associated with health choices. As stated by
Kang et al. (2015), consumers with a healthy lifestyle intend to maintain a healthier diet,
leading to the idea that habit is an important feature in understanding consumer demand for
healthier food products. The habit of practicing physical activities may help to explain the
health value and choice.
According to Verplanken and Melkevik (2008), to understand the habit of exercising, it is
necessary to pay attention to the degree to which the decision to exercise has turned into a
habit. Healthy behaviour models (e.g. Tudoran et al., 2009; Kang et al., 2015; Lally et al., 2008;
King et al., 2009) lack the repetition component.
After behaviour first occurs, it is necessary to strengthen it before it becomes habitual
(van’t Riet et al., 2011). A habit comes automatically, but repetition and frequency may affect
future behaviour and fortify or create a strong habit (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993; Ji and Wood,
2007; van’t Riet et al., 2011). As behaviour becomes habitual, it may be less guided by
conscious attitudes and intentions (Ouellette and Wood, 1998; Verplanken et al., 1998; Ji and
Wood, 2007; Verplanken and Melkevik, 2008). It becomes automatic.
Another relevant attribute is intention. For Ajzen and Madden (1986), there is intention
prior to any behaviour, as suggested by the theory of reasoned action (TRA). Besides, the
authors specify two independent determinants of intention. The first predictor is the
personal factor, named attitude towards behaviour, which refers to the degree of assessment
the person has in relation to the behaviour. The second predictor of intention is a subjective
norm. It refers to the perceived social pressure to perform certain behaviour or not, which is
a social factor. The TRA also deals with the antecedents of attitudes and subjective norms.
Similarly, Verplanken and Orbell (2003) have developed the Self-Report Habit Index
(SRHI). The instrument is a generic 12-item self-report instrument that measures the
perceptions of habit strength for a particular behaviour with respect to frequency, Consumption
automaticity and efficiency. SRHI was developed on the basis of features of habit, that, values and
according to Verplanken and Orbell (2003) are, a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of physical
control and awareness, efficiency) and expression of identity. Specifically using the SRHI on
physical exercise, Verplanken and Melkevik (2008) show that the habit of exercising can be activities
reliably measured, is stable over time, and can be distinguished from mere exercise frequency.
According to the authors, the impact of intention on behaviour has diminished and habit 593
strength has increased. These findings highlight the relevance of integrating habit into
behaviour change theory and practice, as shown by Gardner et al. (2011). Creating physical
activity habits may offer the means to maintain this behaviour. Moreover, disrupting
sedentary habits may depend on breaking underlying cue-response associations.

2.3 Conceptual framework

Dietary habits have a major influence on information processing in relation to food products
and habits are recognised as important factors in eating behaviour (Gardner et al., 2011;
van’t Riet et al., 2011), consumers who like to maintain a healthy diet are most likely to value
a healthy lifestyle (Sualakamala and Huffman, 2010; Kang et al., 2015). Hence, health
activities may be linked with consumption values and the way that consumers see their own
eating choices.
To achieve the goal of this study, the authors have adapted the theoretical model
proposed by Sheth et al. (1991). This model was operationalised by Sweeney and Soutar
(2001) through the consumer perceived value (CPV ) scales. Physical activity is represented
by the SRHI, since habit is considered a psychological construct, rather than a past
behavioural frequency (Verplanken and Orbell, 2003; Verplanken and Melkevik, 2008).
Choice behaviour is called eating choices. The research framework is presented in Figure 1.
Based on the literature review and research on eating habits, we hypothesised that
functional value price, social, conditional and epistemic values would significantly predict
eating choices and physical activities that moderate this relationship. Further, the
moderation effect was divided into high and low, to explore a possible distinction between
consumers who are aware that eating choices impact their health. The methodology is
explained in the following section.

3. Methodology
3.1 Sample and data collection
To determine the size of the sample, we used the method proposed by Hair et al. (2006),
which suggest a minimum of five cases for each item of the questionnaire to proceed with

Functional Value Price

Social Value

Eating choices

Conditional Value

Epistemic Value

Physical activity Figure 1.

Emotional Value Conceptual framework
BFJ the structural equations modelling. Considering that there are 34 questions in the
121,2 questionnaire, the minimum number of cases should be 170 respondents.
The questionnaire was posted in a social media concerned people who live in Brasilia,
Brazil’s capital. The survey had 310 participants and was applied during the first semester of
2015. The questionnaire was devised in Portuguese and pre-tested with seven respondents,
checking validity, wording and clarity.
594 The initial analysis of the data was on missing data, outliers, normality,
multicollinearity, homoscedasticity and linearity, following Kline. Regarding the
missing data, we opted for the elimination of 12 respondents, since they did not
respond to at least one of the items in the questionnaire. Six other respondents were
excluded in the data analysis of multivariate outliers. As a way of checking for normality,
the bootstrapping technique (Hair et al., 2006) was used to reduce the existence of
non-normality in the data. According to the Pearson test, the multicollinearity analysis
revealed that there are no values above the recommended (0.85) for the statistical test
procedure. Thus, the correlation between variables is adequate for factor analysis. Finally,
the homoscedasticity and linearity were checked through the analysis of the dispersion
graphs and based on Hair et al. (2006), they are adequate.
After the first analysis, the final sample count with 292 participants, representing a wide
variety of different socio-demographic backgrounds (see Table I) with a slight
over-representation of men (53.8 per cent). The participants’ age consisted of between
20 and 29 years old (32.8 per cent), followed by 30–39 (27.4 per cent), 40–49 (18.5 per cent)
50–59 (15.5 per cent), over 60 (3.4 per cent) and under 20 (2.4 per cent). In terms of highest
education, 64.7 per cent have bachelor’s degree, 30.1 attended high school, 3.7 per cent have
master’s degree and 1.5 per cent have PhD degree.

3.2 Measures
3.2.1 Eating choices. The questionnaire items were adapted from previous researches
(Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Sheth et al., 1991). Minor wording changes have been made to fit
the food for health and wellness context. A total of 22 items were asked (see Table III) to
measure dimensions as follows: functional value price (three items), conditional value
(three items), epistemic value (three items); social value (four items) and emotional value

Total number of participants Percentage

Gender
Male 157 53.8
Female 135 46.2
Age
o20 7 2.4
20–29 96 32.8
30–39 80 27.4
40–49 54 18.5
50–59 45 15.5
W60 10 3.4
Highest education
High school 88 30.1
Bachelor’s degree 189 64.7
Table I. Master’s degree 11 3.7
Sample characteristics PhD degree 4 1.5
(five items). For all of them, a five-point Likert scale was applied, ranging from 1 ¼ strongly Consumption
disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree. values and
3.2.2 Physical activities. Physical activities were measured by the SRHI, following the physical
Verplanken and Melkevik (2008) and Verplanken and Orbell’s (2003) guidelines.
The instrument was converted from a continuous to a categorical scale. Habit was activities
measured by a self-reported exercise frequency: “How often did you exercise during […]”.
The alternatives were: last week, last month, last semester and last year, as described by 595
Verplanken and Melkevik (2008).
Habit strength was measured by a five-point Likert scale ranging from agree totally
to disagree totally. Proposing that exercising is something between automatic
and difficult to do; involving the degree of desire to practice physical activity
during the next month; referring to the degree of difficulty in practicing physical
activity during the next month, also measuring behavioural intention, habit and perceived
behavioural control. To perform this conversion, the mean of the SRHI was used to
determine the lower and higher coefficients, so all the lower ones became 1 and all the
higher ones became 2. After grouping, other models were formed, and the group
differences were found based on the z-score between the SRHI–low and SRHI–high.

3.3 Measures validation

Data were analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS. In order to
develop the SEM, relations and correlations among variables were specified either departing
from an exploratory factor analysis to determine which observable variables load on which
latent variables. Those loads are then backed up through a confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA). The CFA was performed to test for convergent validity of the model. Table II shows
the CFA results.
The composite reliability (CR) values for the dimensions are 0.748, 0.889, 0.853, 0.786,
0.821 and 0.809, considering the higher the value, the higher internal consistency of
variables. The Cronbach’s α coefficients for the dimensions are 0.744, 0.888, 0.838, 0.783,
0.808 and 0.799. The average variance extracted (AVE) values for the dimensions are 0.501,
0.667, 0.538, 551, 0.608 and 0.517.
The CR, AVE and Cronbach’s α coefficients have reached the standard suggested by
Byrne (2010), CR and Cronbach’s α coefficients are supposed to be higher than 0.7, AVE is
higher than 0.5. CR, AVE and Cronbach’s α coefficients are provided in Table III.
The parameters have been estimated by maximum likelihood, and model fit indexes are
guided by Byrne (2010) and Kline’s (2011) suggestions. The observed data of the overall
model reaching the recommended level were CMIN/DF ¼ 1.702, RMR ¼ 0.027, GFI ¼ 0.978,
AGFI ¼ 0.953, CFI ¼ 0.987, IFI δ2 ¼ 0.987 and RMSEA ¼ 0.049, indicating that the internal
structure of the model had a good fit.

4. Results
We tested the hypothesised relationships performing SEM to demonstrate the relationship
between response items and their underlying latent dimensions.
Table III introduces the six dimensions and their respective items. All the items have a
great significance in their respective dimension, enabling the application of all the items that
had been involved and were still present in the proposed framework.
Following, Table IV shows the covariances among the dimensions. These data
enable analysis of whether there is an important bond between these covariances and the
choice behaviour.
The higher significances and positive estimates of all the covariances are of great value
in explaining how the dimensions behave towards choice behaviour, as the highest
BFJ Dimension/items Estimate p
121,2
Functional value price
Healthy food is a good product for the price 0.734 ***
Healthy food offers good value/cost-benefit 0.669 ***
Healthy food is reasonably priced 0.711 ***

596 Social value

Buying healthy food would give its consumer social approval 0.841 ***
Buying healthy food would make a good impression on other people 0.809 ***
Buying healthy food would improve the way that I am perceived 0.816 ***
Buying healthy foods would help me to feel acceptable in a group 0.800 ***
Emotional value
Consuming healthy food gives me a feeling of pleasure 0.732 ***
Buying healthy food instead of conventional products would make me feel like a better person 0.736 ***
Consuming healthy food makes me feel good 0.804 ***
Buying healthy food instead of conventional products would feel like the morally right thing
to do 0.673 ***
Buying healthy food instead of conventional products is something I would like 0.717 ***
Conditional value
I would buy healthy food instead of conventional products when there is a subsidy for
healthy food 0.793 ***
I would buy healthy food instead of conventional products when green products are available 0.732 ***
I would buy healthy food instead of conventional products when there are discount rates for
healthy food or promotional activity 0.698 ***
Epistemic value
I like to search for new, different healthy food 0.773 ***
I am willing to seek novel information about healthy food 0.889 ***
Before buying the food, I would obtain substantial information about the nutritional
differences and models of products 0.661 ***
Eating choices
I have avoided buying a product because it had potentially harmful health effects 0.654 ***
I make a special effort to buy healthy food that is beneficial to my health 0.847 ***
When I have a choice between two equal products, I purchase the one less harmful to
Table II. my health 0.714 ***
Confirmatory factor I buy healthy food for health reasons 0.642 ***
analysis results Note: ***p o0.01

Dimension CR AVE Cronbach’s α

Functional value price 0.748 0.501 0.744

Social value 0.889 0.667 0.888
Emotional value 0.853 0.538 0.838
Conditional value 0.786 0.551 0.783
Epistemic value 0.821 0.608 0.803
Table III. Eating choices 0.809 0.517 0.799
Model adjustments Notes: AVE, average variance extracted; CR, composite reliability

covariance estimate is between emotional value and epistemic value. These results may
be justified by study, related to consumers’ hedonic expectations of healthy food. The
functional value price has the lowest covariance. Table V presents the significances of the
consumption value dimensions on eating choices and their respective estimates.
 As observed in Table V, there are four significant dimensions: epistemic value, emotional Consumption
value, conditional value and functional value price. The emotional and epistemic values values and
have the highest positive estimates. The social value dimension is not significant. physical
Table VI presents the moderation effect of physical activities. It shows the estimates and
significances of value dimensions related to eating choices, split into high habit (SRHI–high) activities
and low habit (SRHI–low).
Observing the SRHI–low in Table VI, the dimensions with significance were the same as 597
for the analysis with the entire sample, as previously mentioned (emotional value, functional
value price, conditional value, epistemic value). Moreover, in SRHI–high, the epistemic value

Estimate p

Functional value price ↔ Social value 0.138 ***

Functional value price ↔ Emotional value 0.095 **
Functional value price ↔ Conditional value 0.125 ***
Functional value price ↔ Epistemic value 0.066 0.140
Functional value price ↔ Eating choices 0.018 0.655
Social value ↔ Emotional value 0.244 ***
Social value ↔ Conditional value 0.215 ***
Social value ↔ Epistemic value 0.150 ***
Social value ↔ Eating choices 0.116 ***
Emotional value ↔ Conditional value 0.343 ***
Emotional value ↔ Epistemic value 0.404 ***
Emotional value ↔ Eating choices 0.370 ***
Conditional value ↔ Epistemic value 0.280 ***
Conditional value ↔ Eating choices 0.206 ***
Epistemic value ↔ Eating choices 0.366 *** Table IV.
Notes: **p o0.05; ***p o0.01 Covariances

Estimate p

Eating choices ← Functional value price −0.072 **

← Social value −0.055 0.153
← Emotional value 0.585 *** Table V.
← Conditional value −0.102 ** Degree of influence of
← Epistemic value 0.374 *** consumption values
Notes: **p o0.05; ***p o0.01 on eating choices

SRHI–Low SRHI–High
Estimate p Estimate p z-score

Eating choices ← Functional value price −0.126 0.003 −0.003 0.965 1.667*
← Social value −0.055 0.152 −0.039 0.407 0.252
← Emotional value 0.614 0.000 0.420 0.000 −1.732* Table VI.
← Conditional value −0.148 0.010 −0.027 0.754 1.186 Moderating effect of
← Epistemic value 0.306 0.000 0.360 0.000 0.582 physical activities on
Note: *po 0.1 eating choices
BFJ and emotional value were the only ones with statistical significance. As can be observed, the
121,2 significant z-scores were in the functional value price and emotional value, which means that
their differentiations were significant. More specifically, functional value price was not
significant in SRHI–high, but, in SRHI–low, it was negative.

5. Discussion
598 The main purpose of this study was to examine consumption values and the moderation effect
of physical activities on consumers’ eating choices. In the following paragraphs, we will
discuss the relevance of each value in the food domain and the impact of exercising on the
choice behaviour. Implications of these findings for the food industry will be presented last.
Epistemic and emotional values have the highest estimates and significances, so they are
the main reasons for consumers’ healthier eating choices. Also, with great significance, the
emotional value shows the highest estimate. So, if healthy food is tasty, delicious, appetising
and therefore linked with positive emotions, such as pleasure and excitement in anticipation,
it is likely that consumers will be attracted to this product category, in accordance with
Kang et al.’s (2015) results related to hedonic expectations. Several papers (Steptoe et al.,
1995; Saba et al., 2010; Lease et al., 2014) have also mentioned the existence of a link between
the expectations and the likelihood of healthy food consumption. Hedonic and positive
outcome expectations enhanced consumer intentions to make healthier choices.
Thus, the benefits of eating healthier food products could promote healthy tastes as
pleasure. When food is presented as natural or healthy rather than creamy, glazed or
battered, the hedonic aspects are supposed to occur, so these consumers are likely to be
interested in healthy foods, which will lead them to expect the hedonic aspect of tasting
healthy food (Kang et al., 2015).
The epistemic value also shows a significant positive estimate. It provides evidence that
healthier eating choices are influenced by curiosity, novelty and desire for knowledge about
healthy food. In a previous paper, which analysed the influence of consumption values on
the organic market, Finch (2006) also found positive estimates between epistemic value and
choice behaviour. However, the epistemic value dimension proposed by the author is based
only on curiosity items. The other items, which comprise the knowledge and novelty criteria,
were not combined in the factorial analysis. So, differently from Finch (2006), we found that
the informational aspects of the epistemic value dimension are significant. The main
justification is based on the greater amplitude of the healthy food concept when compared to
the organic food concept. For instance, healthy food demands a specific interest and/or
knowledge about this issue (e.g. food ingredients and nutritional value) to allow consumers
to judge the food product as healthy or unhealthy (Carels et al., 2006).
The conditional value and functional value price are significant, although these dimensions
show a negative estimate, i.e., less perception of the conditional value and functional value
price, greater choice behaviour occurs regarding food for health and wellness.
Regarding physical activities, the results suggest that, for consumers with higher
physical activity habits, the SRHI–high does not impact on choice behaviour; whereas for
consumers with low physical activity habits, the functional value price has importance
for choice behaviour, albeit with a negative estimate.
The habits of practicing physical activity as a moderating effect on the influence of the
functional value price on choice behaviour regarding health food is a significantly positive
estimate, as highlighted by the z-score (see Table VI). Price adversely affects the choice
behaviour of some consumers of healthy food with low physical activity habits. In general,
healthy food is priced higher than conventional food (see Aschemann-Witzel and Zielke, 2017).
However, the results show that people with different physical activity habits perceive a
significant difference in functional value price. The consumption values approach, sustain
that when perceived prices exceed consumers’ willingness to pay in a specific product
category, price becomes a barrier, even more so if it is a food that evolves into a healthy Consumption
category, like the organic food described by Aschemann-Witzel and Zielke (2017). Consumers values and
with low physical activity habits do not recognise the great values, functionality and relation physical
to the higher price of healthy foods, and avoid buying such foods. On the other hand, the
functional value price is not significant to consumers with high physical activity habits. activities
The contrast of the emotional value based on the moderating effect of habit is significant
with a negative estimate. When the emotional value is taken into account, consumers with 599
low physical activity habits are more disposed to having choice behaviour regarding
healthy food, and this should be related to the relationship between the notion of not
practicing physical activities and eat healthily, justifying not practicing physical activities
by a balanced eating (choosing healthy foods), and this will be pleasurable and satisfactory.
Otherwise, for consumers with higher activity habits, the emotional value of choice
behaviour showy a significant lower estimate when compared with the other consumer
category. However, this dimension is significant in both consumers’ categories, revealing that
health consciousness and healthy taste provide a strong emotional value and these positive
responses will increase consumers’ intentions to choose healthier food products. The results
reveal that the physical activity habits did not significantly affect the other values.
It was inferred that the emotional value and the epistemic value exert the greatest
influence on healthy food choice behaviour. These dimensions influence the choice
behaviour in a positive relation. However, other dimensions, such as functional value price
and conditional value, also influence health food choice behaviour, but have a negative and
less significant coefficient, i.e., the lower the consumer sensibility to these values, the lower
the impact on healthy food eating choice.
Moderation effect of the physical activity habit presents effects on the functional value
price and emotional value. Besides this, it was concluded that, for the low activity habit
consumers, the price is a negative attribute in choice behaviour, as it disrupts the choice
behaviour for healthy foods. So, when it is taken into account, consumers tend not to have
choice behaviour for healthier food products. However, for these same consumers,
the emotional value is stronger, as they do not practice physical activities, but they do need to
stay healthy in some way, and eating healthily may be the chosen alternative. Their choice
behaviour may be based on emotional feelings related to the balance between not practicing
physical activities and eating more healthily; as they do not do one, they need to do the other.
Subjects related to healthy foods have been explored by researchers, but they did not
make a link between value perceptions and physical activity habits. Thus, this paper adds
to the literature integrating consumer marketing and health and well-being study areas.
Some suggestions for future research are induced: explain why the Emotional Value has so
much weight in both groups, understand why the conditional value negatively
influences healthy food choice behaviour, analyse why the Social Value does not
have significance in healthy food choice behaviour, and test other habits, such as the
moderation of consumption values in the health food market.
A few limitations to the current study must be noted. The first one is about the sample,
placed in Brazil, that when compared with another country’s samples may show differences,
as commented in Perrea et al. (2015). The last one is that, although four value dimensions
can significantly capture most variance of consumers’ healthy eating choices, some
underlying factors (e.g. mediator effect) may contribute to the unexplained variance in the
model were not explored, and could be further examined.
For food marketers and food policy-makers, information about consumer’s personal
values is useful. It may enable the formation of a basis for food product marketing strategies
when targeting specific customer consumers (Lee et al., 2014). The authors argue that there
is a reason why consumers choose products, namely, that they believe that the specific
attributes of the product can help them to fulfil the desired values.
BFJ Both academic and business areas could use the results from this paper for future
121,2 research and/or for their marketing activity. For the Brazilian food industry, it is clear that
this study provides an opportunity for the food segment focussed on health and well-being
to add value to conventional products.

6. Conclusions
600 This study adds rigorous empirical evidence to the CPV literature and provides a series of
implications concerning the consumption of healthy foods and physical activity practices.
It can be concluded that consumers, in general, consume healthy products for epistemic and
emotional reasons. Consumers feel good consuming and in a way, pleasure, adding up the
search for different food experiences. However, when considering financial or conditional
situations, these factors are negatively associated with the consumption of healthy foods,
making it difficult.
The willingness to buy healthy food decreases and is much lower for consumers with low
habits of physical activity, but these have a much stronger value emotionally when
consuming a healthy food compared to the usual in the practice of physical activities.
The perceived values related with the intention to consume healthy food and perceived
values for eating choices are different, and consumers of healthier food products have their
own value perceptions.
We believe that the food industry can benefit from the results of this study. For instance,
the moderation effect of physical activities and its relation to eating choices may support
food regulatory policies to improve health in different cultural contexts.

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Corresponding author
Karim Marini Thomé can be contacted at: thome@unb.br

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