Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in Relation to Organic Foods Essay

Abstract The aim of this study is to find discover the cardinal (3) signifi usher outt variables forming the controlling pose towards the purchasing the extreme regi manpower in Peninsula Malaysia, which eventually lead to the ultimate name and address in debauching the constituent(a)ally- uncoverd f atomic number 18. The unlike variables ar foc employmentd on demographic characteristics on plate income, increase attributes and functi besides the perceive foster to the customers. This study shows that the star sign income is manifestly appe ard to be an primal predictor among the targeted segmentation in consuming total sustenance. native pabulum attributes much(prenominal) as pricing, availability and environmentally attachment of such total feed may do work consumer acquire decision. Lastly, the perceive survey from the customers towards entire aliment on its health pictures, afferent appeal, maintenance-worth and effect of sensed benefits , often play an important role in cultivating the design towards buying native sustenance. Introduction and Background of the Study Over the last two decades, at that place has been a remarkable amplification in occupy for radical-produced aliment or harvests.Organic diet is often seen and marketplaceed as health- apprised intellectual nourishment which contains fewer contaminants, to a greater extent(prenominal) nutrients and close to importantly having a positive effect on the environment. It is known that or so of these attributes ar difficult to quantify, with the contrary that about of questi mavinr has proved that they may cause such emf detriment during the perfect allow. The inseparable market back in 80s, composition remaining a niche sector, has pornographic to be able to captivate a sh ar from the total spending on victuals in whatsoever countries in the recent years.Organic fruit and vegetables be amongst the products which fill been expand ing in the rapid production. The demand for completeally-produced meat and dairy products has undergone the aforementioned(prenominal) rapid progress, with a corresponding increase in the need for total fertilizer fertiliserally grown forage and feed crops. This has led to a fast growth in consumer demand whereby the perfect nutrition sales need managed to gain a momentous market sh atomic number 18 in the stodgy regimen industry. The market for constituent(a)ally produced crops and commodities has become to a greater extent structured, looking at the increased return of countries which hold in adopted uniform stocks for constituent(a) pabulum production.The standardization has alike applied in the natural certification and labelling. While both the production and the marketing of the thoroughgoing cultivation of temperate crops have actual, there is a trend to be seen whereby the develop countrys farmers are actively taked in the ingrained landed estate. Problem Statement and Importance of the interrogation Organic agriculture industry, no doubt, has offers most of the developing countries a large point of sparing, environment, social and cultural benefits.Certifies natural products have now been maturement fast and in the mist of entering the global market. Malaysia, on the opposite hand, is cool off in the starting spark-point in adapting the organic- fodder usage while the developed countries such as North America and Europe have already gained the biggest market share in this newest industry. Due to expanding markets and deplumeive damage premiums, Malaysia should forge and invest in organically-produced pabulum, taking into consideration of assorted signifi reart variables which may form the consumer behaviour towards organic food.We would like to highlight that the ultimate goal of this study is to understand consumers motivations behind organic food products purchases in order to enable organic producers to dev elop a more trenchant strategical marketing plan. The results could be used for the marketing planning of organic food products to enable proper marketing strategies, a proper sales channel and promotion to be targeted to these groups of consumers. Research Questions The present study aims to exercise the hobby questions What are demographic characteristics of organic food buyers? How do demographic characteristics affect consumer posts towards organic foods? How product attributes effect consumer stances towards organic foods? How consumer perceived set diverge consumer attitudes towards organic foods? What is the consanguinity betwixt consumers attitudes towards organic foods and their functions to purchase? How can results of the study be applied by managers and marketers? Research Objectives.Regarding to the significance of the increase market of organic foods in the world, and to the previous studies on consumer attitudes towards organic foods and its personal effect on purchase intentions in several(prenominal) countries (e. g. Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Denmark) we fate to carry out such similar studies in Peninsula Malaysia with objectives as the following To report the descriptive outline on the organic buyers demographic characteristics To severalise the effects of demographic characteristics (specifically level of firms income) on consumer attitudes towards organic foods. To determine effects of product attributes on consumer attitudes towards organic foods To investigate the singing of consumer perceived determine to consumer attitudes towards organic foods To determine the relationship between consumers attitudes towards organic foods and their intentions to purchase To wrap up implications for managers and marketers Literature Review demographics averaged on findings from previous research, demographic characteristics were evaluated as one of the major predictors in gaining intention to pur chase the organic food in Peninsula Malaysia. jibe to Robinson R. and Smith C. (2002), the demographic of consumers consist of mixed characteristics to wit the gender, age, kinfolk income and commandment level. Each element has been contributed in forming the note valued attitudes towards buying the organic products. Hence, the demographic characteristics, especially on household income is faceingly significant and being the focus in this research. This lead eventually lead to the sought after intention in buying such products for daily consumption. Level of household Income.Whilst referring to the studies done in the US, it is seemingly apparent that the demographic variables which herby refer as the income distribution, is significant predictors (Bartels & Reinders, 2009). The research on this particular subject has proven that income positively influenced buying behaviour which in turn may cause the perceived buying behaviour towards the organic food. A resembling result has shown in Germany as well (Bartels & Reinders, 2009). In Germany, demographic variables such as household income distribution have played an important role in developing significant effect on organic buying behaviour.However, the overall inevitableness of the demographic characteristics was relatively different, taking into consideration of research carried in various westerly countries. These findings verify the results of early studies by Clark & Goldsmith (2006) and Im et al. (2003) proven that the reason practice on using the demographic characteristics such as household income distribution and domain specific innovativeness exit be seen as strategic tools for market segmentation.In the Western countries, research has identified that the demand and leave behindingness in expenditure on organic goods often affiliated closely with various socioeconomic and demographic variables (Wier et al. , 2008). In addition, Menghi (1997) found that the majority households with middl e and high income levels showed a greater tendency in purchase and consuming organic foods. However, it is shown that almost all of these studies are based upon hypothesized future behaviour earlier than spy behaviour in both Denmark and UK.Hence, studies have been carried out by researchers to further invent on the influences of demographic characteristics especially in household income in guiding the intention of buying the organic goods. Through the research it is revealed that high(prenominal)(prenominal) disposable household income (approximated by total food expenditure) entrust lead to higher positive intention in purchasing the organic food. Consumers with a lower household income alongside with lower level of education are found to be least in all likelihood to have hear of organic agriculture (Roitner-Schobesberger et al. , 2008).On a contrary, those who have a higher income and hold an academic degree are more liable(predicate) to be the target segmentation in purc hasing organic products (Roitner-Schobesberger et al. , 2008). It is withal mentioned that the correlational statistics between the household income level is very much linked to the level of education as well. As mentioned by Robinson R. and Smith C. (2002), intended purchases of sustainably produced foods did non differ for demographic characteristics such as household annual income educational attainment.Through the research carried out by Ross NJ.et al. (2000), they have suggested that consumers with a higher earning incomes were more likely to have purchased locally produced food, mainly focus on the organic consumption by various segmentations. Their research and findings were sponsored earlier by Govindasamy R. and Italia J. (1998) whereby the same results applied. Groups with a higher household income tend to have purchased foods produced with reduced pesticides. In UK particularly, social group is employed as an power of income brackets (Wier et al. , 2008).Research has revealed that the tendency in purchase the organic goods seem to increase in accordance to the given social status. However, the highest organic budget shares are observed for middle categorize households whilst shares in the upper middle class being in fact lower. Quite captivatingly, a similar phenomenon is observed to be happened in Denmark as well. Organic victuals Attributes Organic food attributes influence consumer buying decision. Several empirical studies have been performed on customer perceptions of organic food attributes and how they formed the consumer attitudes towards food.In the present research, among different product attributes, we have selected price of organic food, environmentally friendliness of organic food and organic food availability. Price of Organic fodder Organic foods are often of a price premium above pompous products. According to Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) in Thailand the price difference between organic and non-labeled courtly vegeta bles in Bangkok varied between 50 percent and clxx percent and in some cases even 400 percent.However, in some countries such as Finland there were not significant premium prices for organic foods (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005). As Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) pointed out that despite the price difference of organic and non-organic food, nearly 60% of the organic buyers said that the price of organic products was not a problem. In addition, non-organic buyers ranked some former(a) items as a reason of not purchasing organic food rather than higher prices.Chryssohoidis & Krystallis (2005) title of respected that while 100 percent of people would prefer organic to conventional products with the assumption of similar price, this percentages dropped by only 20 percent when the same question was posed regardless the higher price of organic food. In different words, higher price is an important obstacle for a especial(a) percentage of consumers. Roitner-Schobesberger et. al ( 2008) found out that in Bangkok men were more likely to purchase organic foods than women and concluded that it might be due to the reason of men being willing to pay a higher price premium for organic products than women.Similarly, a study in Klang Valey, Malaysia showed that women werre more likely than men to agree that they would purchase more organic foods if they were less expensive (Ahmed, 2010). Additionally, heavy users were on average stage whereby they are willing to pay higher price premiums than medium and light users (Wier et. al, 2008). environmentally friendliness of organic food Consumers are getting more conscious and concerned with the consumption of chemical substance used in farming and preserving environment is becoming a strong attitude among consumers.According to Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005), inherent norms effect on attitudes has been mainly found in behaviors, that involved some kind of ethical decision, and also buying organic food can be seen as ethi cal decision reflecting environmental concern. In addition, perceived fibre is associated with environmentally friendly practices (Ness et. al, 2009). The perception of organic food products as environmentally friendly was a common intuition and has been examined in several studies (Ahmed, 2010 Honkanen et. al, 2006).It is believed that when the consumers have more concern about their health and environmental protection, they will be more likely to have a positive attitude to organic foods (Ness et. al, 2010). Honkanen et. al (2006) found that ecologically oriented consumers were more likely to form intentions to purchase and consume organic food. In other words, the more people are concerned about environment, the more positive attitude they have towards organic food. Organic nutrition Availability Lack of organic food availability and variety in store is considered as one of the barriers to consumer purchase.Fresh vegetables (which implicate fresh herbs) were considered the mos t widely available organic product group rather than other organic foods (Roitner-Schobesberger et. al, 2008). Chryssohoidis & Krystallis (2005) stated that throttle availability was the main factor that hinders organic purchasing. Although according to Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008), in Thailand, majority of organic buyers were satisfied with availability of organic products. Most of them account that they would like to buy more organic products, especially a wider range of vegetables. Value to the Customer.In every product that consumer purchased and used, they in turn are expecting value from it. Value can be defined as a benefit that consumer is receiving by using a product. Benefits here mean sensory appeal of the product, taste, fun, freshness, note and healthiness of the products. These are some main reasons that boost consumer to purchase the organic food. The value may vary from one consumer to other however there will definitely be one value that effect the buyin g attitude which motivate the buying intention of consumers. wellness Effect of Organic dietSeveral perceptions contributed to health attribute include the reason of being good for health, good for children, not containing pesticides, high in fiber, natural and nutritious and safer to eat (Roitner-Schobesberger, et. al, 2008 Saher et. al 2006 Lockie et. al, 2002 Ness et. al, 2009). The perceived potential hazards of modern agricultural practices such as the use of pesticides and their residues in food were perceived to be associated with long term and unknown effects on health (Miles and Frewer, 2001Wilkins & Hillers, 1994 Williams & Hammit, 2001).Saher et. al (2006) revealed that there is very subaltern scientific support for the common beliefs that organic food would be more healthy or nutritious than regular foods, but the belief that they have these properties remains kind of an strong in consumers mindset. The claim is debatable whether marketers can use the health claim fo r marketing purposes because most of the research concluded that there was no evidence that organic food was healthier or more nutritious than conventional food (Honkanen et. al, 2006).However, most studies in this area suggested that consumers perception of organic food as a healthy nutrition is one the most significant motives for buyers. Lockie et al. (2002) pointed out that health was the one expectation consumers are least willing to compromise. Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) in Bangkok, Thailand, examined the motives behind organic food purchase and pointed out that the most important motive was the anticipate positive health effects. Similarly in Malaysia, organic buyers believed that organic food was healthier compared to conventional grown food (Ahmed, 2010).In Thailand, the health prognosis was closely associated with the residues from synthetic chemicals used in agriculture (Roitner-Schobesberger et. al, 2008). In fact, organic products often have a lower level of pesticide residues (Baker et al. , 2002). Lockie et. al (2002) revealed that although price was an important factor, organic consumers consider health has appeared as a more significant factor for purchasing organic food in Australia. These organic food consumers also believed that industrial methods of food processing constitute a threat to customers health.Another research by Schifferstein & Oude Ophuis (1997) illustrated that benefit was rated among all other motives by organic food buyers. On the other hand, Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) by examining specific organic products (bread and flour) claimed that health consciousness did not explained the habitual attitudes towards organic food, although they believed this results might be different by examining different organic products. Sensory Appeals Sensory appeals of organic food are part of the factors that go a routes value to customer.Sensory appeals include the taste, odor and also the texture of the organic product (P rescott et. al, 2002). Sometimes sensory appeals of the organic food need to be combine with the non-sensory factors such as organic food related expectations to create a value to customer which will affect their attitude towards buying organic food (Prescott et. al, 2002). Sensory factors are also influenced by cultures and background of consumers. For example, consumers from Western countries eat less spicy food compared to those from Asia.Spicy organic food might produce high value to consumers in Asian countries compared to Western. inherent cues or sensory appeal that are associated with physical characteristics of the product such as taste, size, color, appearance, smell, feel and flavor were commonly used as indicators of quality on the organic food (Schifferstein et. al,1997). tone of voice is also value that consumers experiencing by consuming an organic food. Better sensory appeal of organic food will portray a better quality which will influence the attitude of purchas ing an organic food and later increase the intention of buying the organic food.One of the most prominent sensory appeals that yield more value to consumer is taste. According to Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al (2008), taste was the third important motives that consumers purchase organic food (Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al, 2008). Others studies also emphasized that many organic food buyers believed that organic food products taste better than conventional food even if sensory evaluations have yielded inconsistent results (Fillion and Arazi,2002 McEachern and McClean,2002 Zhao et al. ,2007). perceived Value.One of the studies conducted in eight countries concluded that soul attitudes towards buying organic food are primarily based on the belief about the benefits (Thogersen, 2000). Benefits or value to consumers such as healthy, taste better and environment friendly follow all the other factors such as belief about the cost. The same proven in one of the study conducted in Klang V alley. Most of the respondents account that they choose to buy organic food products because they perceived organic food as very healthy, fresher and natural (Bayaah Ahmad et.all, 2010).As such, value of organic food towards customers effect their attitudes towards buying which will motivates their intention of purchasing the organic product. Consumers also value organic food as nutritional food since it is produced using traditional method whereby the original nutrition from the food is preserved. viands belief was one of the reasons that made people appeared to have different food styles and often express themselves as having food venturesomeness or pickiness (Chen, 2007).Organic food adds value to consumers who has such belief and it will influence their intention of consuming it by affecting the buying behavior. Besides, Chen (2007) points out that an individuals personal interests or traits act a part in establishing personal food choice criteria through the value held by the individual. These values comprise nutrition beliefs, weight control concerns, and so on. For instance, people seem to have different food-styles and often express themselves as having food adventurousness or pickiness.Another important motive to purchase organic food as reported by Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al (2008) is the consumers search for new, trendy and attractive food products. Attitudes towards Organic food and Intention to purchase Basically, consumer attitudes are found to be the most important predictor of intention to buy (Honkanen et. al, 2006). Several studies have found that higher perceived product quality leads to more positive re-purchase intentions (Bou-Llusar et. al, 2001 Hult, & Kandemir 2004 Tarkiainen & Sundqvist, 2005).Chen (7007) highlighted that if the consumers attitude towards organic foods is positive, the consumers attitude to purchase organic food will be more likely to be positive. This is also consistent with another study performed by Honkanen et. al (2006) indicating that relation between attitude and intention is positive and quite strong, indicating that consumers with positive attitudes towards consumption of organic food are more likely to form intentions to consume such food, therefore converting positive attitudes to intentions. Methodology theoretical Research Framework pic Figure1.Theoretical Research Framework Hypothesis cultivation Hypothesis 1 in that location is a relationship between demographic characteristics of consumers and their attitudes towards organic foods. Hypothesis 2 There is a relationship between organic food attributes and consumers attitudes towards the organic food. Hypothesis 3 There is a positive relationship between values of organic food to customer with attitudes towards buying organic foods. Hypothesis 4 When the consumers attitude towards organic foods is positive, the consumers intentions to purchase organic foods will be more likely to be positive. Research Design.The questionnai res are only designed in English since the respondents are assumed to be relatively high educate they will be able to answer the questions without any difficulties. Furthermore it will help to keep the original meaning and understanding that respondents perceived to have towards the questions. Types of questions in questionnaires are mostly closed ended question and only two open ended question. This will only consume little time for the respondent to complete the questionnaire which will encourage them to participate in this study. There are trine main categories in the prepared questionnaires.The questions in the first category are more towards understanding demographic expand of the respondent such as on the age, income level, ethnicity, religion and educational level. This is useful to confirm the background of the organic food consumers. There are also questions on the product attributes which the respondents are asked to identify what are the main attributes that attract t he purchase and also to determine whether this factor have a positive effect towards consumer attitude on organic food. Last part in the questionnaires is designed to understand the value of organic food to customers.All these questions are to test four hypotheses of this study. Data Collection The target population consists of organic food buyers in Peninsula Malaysia. In order to carry out the try out Peninsula Malaysia is divided in to 3 major regions namely Northern, aboriginal and Confederate region. Northern region will be equal by Penang, Central region will be Klang Valley and Southern region of Peninsula Malaysia is represented by Johor Bahru. These three areas are chosen based on the economic development and availability of the organic products.From for severally one region shop complexes and supermarkets that provide organic products are identified. By using random sampling, three shopping complexes and supermarkets in urban areas are selected. Since target responde nt with higher educational level and purchasing power are scattered around these urban areas, these will be perfect places to conduct this research. Those three supermarkets and shopping complexes are ensured to be far from each other so that the collected samples will be more accurate in representing the population in each region.Total sample size comprises of 540 individual respondents is collected using comfort station sampling and respondents will be approached randomly. Since this study is conducted in large scale, at ease sampling will be more cost effective compared to other types of sampling. Furthermore conducting other types of sampling will be time consuming and the accuracy of the collected samples to represent the actual population will be questionable. In order to collect the info, 60 self-administered consumer questionnaire surveys are distributed in each shopping complexes which will result in 180 questionnaires from each region.Considering the validness of the s elective information, we are expecting a total of about 500 questionnaires to be operational in the later part of info analysis. Although there is no way of knowing if those included are representative of the overall population, the survey is still expected to give a first overview of relevant issues and to allow to extrapolate insights into the perception of organic food buyers in Peninsula Malaysia. Data Analysis after(prenominal) data is collected, data will be edited and coded. Editing data is very essential part of data analysis especially when researches involve open ended questions.Editing is done immediately after data is collected so that the respondent can be contacted if any illuminance needed. The edited data are identified through usage of different fond and colors. Coding is done before data processing is conducted. Since most of the data collected involve ordinal scale, coding becomes prudent. By doing this data accurately keyed in and avoid wrong interpretation of data. Base on the three sections in the questionnaire, data is also coded in three main groups. Data processing is done using a package program called SPSS version 17.First of all the edited and coded data is examine and scanned through. Wrongly entered and coded data will be identified using the bundle through methods like identification of the maximum value. 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