The Antecedents Of Consumers' Purchase Behavior Towards Organic Foods Via The Moderating Role Of Environmental Concern - Case Study Of Annam Gourmet Market, Vietnam

Abstract

Nowadays, with the increasing quality of life, health values are more and more concerned. In particular, organic foods are interested by consumers. In general, consumers' attitudes towards organic foods become positive compared to other choices. However, reports show that the demand of organic products consumed in markets is still relatively low, especially in emerging economies like Vietnam. This has led to an urgent need to study the factors that drive consumer behavior in purchasing and consuming organic foods. Therefore, this study attempts to conduct an empirical investigation of a particular case study to assess the potential influence of motivational factors on consumer attitudes and behavior towards organic foods. For that, the conceptual framework of the study is built and developed based on the theoretical foundation of self-determination theory (SDT) in order to test the proposed research hypotheses through the quantitative research methodology. The quantitative data comprising 304 responses of the participants to the self-administrated questionnaires based on 5-point Likert scales were collected through purposive and convenience sampling method and analyzed by the approach of structural equation modeling (SEM). The results provide statistical evidence of a positive influence between the driving forces on consumer attitudes and behavior towards organic food in which environmental concerns act as a moderator. This suggests that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can be used to promote consumer attitudes and behavior in order to increase the frequency of organic food shopping and consumption through emphasizing values that reflect specific motivations such as environmental ethics, green consumerism, health and social benefits, etc. From that, the developers and suppliers of organic food products can use the results of this study to improve the factors that motivate consumers' attitudes and behaviors to increase the frequency and volume of household consumption of organic food products.