From Geographical Indication (GI) Signals to Purchase: Layered Trust and the Price Bottleneck

Drawing on an extended TPB-value perspective, this study conceptualizes GI perception as a higher-order formative construct (perceived quality, perceived health benefits, and perceived knowledge) and theorizes a layered trust mechanism in which trust in quality spills over into trust in safety.

Survey data from Vietnam and Taiwan (N=584) were analyzed using PLS-SEM; MICOM supported measurement invariance, enabling PLS-based multi-group comparisons. GI perception strengthens both trust layers, the quality-to-safety spillover is robust, and trust in safety is the dominant driver of purchase intention. However, perceived price emerges as a post-intention bottleneck that weakens intention-to-(self-reported) purchase conversion, with a sharper constraint in Vietnam than in Taiwan.