THE INFLUENCE OF Mhealth APPS' AFFORDANCE ON CONSUMERS' FOOD NEOPHILIA

Mobile health apps (mHealth apps) offer dietary guidance to consumers, and they often include recommendations for novel foods. While research has examined consumers' acceptance of novel foods, the role of mHealth apps in influencing consumers' decisions to accept novel foods is still unclear, given the novelty and uncertainty surrounding them. Based on the affordance theory, this paper explores how the affordances of mHealth apps influence consumers' perception of food novelty and food neophilia, and the moderating effect of novel food market availability on consumers' food neophilia. This study combines PLS-SEM with fsQCA to obtain a nuanced understanding of their role. The PLS analysis reveals that the two affordances of mHealth apps (i.e., food customization and food guidance) significantly influence consumers' formation of food neophilia. The results also indicate that the market availability of novel foods has a positive moderating effect on the shape of food neophilia. The fsQCA analysis identifies three configurations that lead to high food neophilia, with food novelty being an indispensable condition for the formation of high food neophilia. The findings of this paper enrich the theory of technology affordance and food neophilia and provide practical guidance for mHealth app development.