Consumer’s Attitude towards Organic Food Products buying Decision in Vellore City: Structural Equation Modeling – Using Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) approach

 

Uma R¹, Dr. V. Selvam²

¹Ph.D External Part-time Research Scholar, Department of Commerce- SSL, VIT University, Vellore 6320014, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Professor, Department of Commerce- SSL, VIT University, Vellore 6320014, Tamil Nadu, India.

 

ABSTRACT:

The main purpose of this paper is to examine consumer’s attitude towards buying decision of organic food products in Vellore city. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 200 consumers at organic food stores in Vellore city from May 2017 to June 2017.  The proposed model in PLS-SEM explained consumers’ purchase decision towards organic food products. The study results confirmed that the proposed model examined that combined past consumer behavioral theories to ascertain the factors that commence in the purchase of organic food products. The findings of this present study have research implications to both academicians and marketing executives. Thus, it discloses the attitude towards purchase of organic food products and to accept organic products by consumers in future.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Organic food production and attitude towards purchasing organic food product has increased among consumers. The increased environmental consciousness has a major impact on purchase behavior with reference to organic food product market which is rapidly expanding at a remarkable rate (Bhaskaran et.al, 2006). The marketing trends have been emerging and seen a notable growth of organic food before making a final purchase decision. The organic product demand reflects in allied proportion of income usually spent on food consumption (Tsakiridou et.al, 2008). The children in the household are considered to be an influencing factor, which positively impacts consumer’s attitude towards organic food and its buying behavior as well (Essoussi and Zahaf, 2008).

 

India is considered to be a potential market for marketing organic food products. During the past decades, environmental concern has been regarded to be the rising issue as environmental protection becomes significant in the marketplace (Kalafatis et.al, 1999). Eco- labels were considered as attractive instruments to inform consumers’ since it impacts environmental concerns on purchase decisions (Nik Abdul Rashid, 2009). Consumers’ place higher level importance on perceived value and health consciousness whereas food safety and religious factors were placed at lower level of importance on purchase of organic food products (Shaharudin, 2010). Organic product sales show a paradigm shift due to consumers’ awareness and accessibility. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware but due to cost factor and range of products available in the market they find it difficult to purchase (Umamaheshwari and Chandrasekar, 2015).

 

Consumers tend to get more involved in the process of buying and for making well informed choices through reasoned and active processing of information (de Boer et.al, 2007). Organic products are produced to preserve food integrity, preservations, and irradiation and to prevent artificial colors (Yi, 2009). The study figured out that it has indirect influence on impacting PBC, norms, attitudes regarding environmental behavior but cannot have direct correlation with intention to purchase (Bamberg et.al, 2007). In this study, it is important not only to determine the factors that affect the consumers’ attitude to purchase organic food products but also to ascertain their purchase decision.

 

2. Attitude and Consumers’ Purchase Decision:

Consumers’ attitudes towards organic food products are determined mainly due to expectation of environmentally friendly and healthier means of production. Buyers of organic food products tend to be highly educated and older than those who do not buy those products (Parichard Sangkumchaliang and Wen – Chi- Huang, 2012). Attitude and consumers’ behavior towards organic food products can be traced to the following factors such as: health, environmental concern, animal welfare and local economy support act as major drivers of organic food consumption (Effithima Tsakuidou, 2007). The theory of reasoned action is the extension of theory of planned behavior by making necessary restrictions in dealing with behavior over half-done violation control (Azjen, 1991). The actual behavioral intentions are formed by subjective norms, attitudes and perceived behavioral intention. The first factor subjective norm is shaped by motivation to comply and normative belief. The second factor attitude towards purchase of organic products leads to behavioral beliefs and outcome evaluation. And the third factor perceived behavioral control leads to perceived ability of work influence successfully. Therefore, this study identifies three variables from the literature available and develops a proposed model of consumes’ attitude of purchase decision towards organic food products as shown on Figure 1.

 

Figure 1. Proposed Conceptual Model underneath in this study

 

 

2.1 Organic Knowledge:

Consumer’s organic knowledge has become the major reason for consumers to protect the environment. Demeritt (2002) ascertained that low knowledge is regarded as the prime reason for non purchase of organic food products as consumers’ do not posses adequate knowledge. Consumers’ awareness consumers’ increases due to organic labels also as availability of wide range of organic food products to increase market share awareness. Thongersen and Bredhal (2004) examined that regular uses of organic food productions shows much knowledge on organic food than non consumers, thus ascertained with different users. Therefore, it can be presumed that consumers’ who are really concerned about environment will have a strong influencing factor to purchase organic food products. Organic knowledge acts as a vital factor in changing the attitude of organic food products among consumers’. Hence, the following hypothesis proposed:

 

H1: Organic knowledge significantly affects the consumers’ attitude to purchase organic food products.

 

2.2 Healthy Lifestyle:

Consumers’ perceive organic products have much better health benefits than conventional food products. The frequent buying motives for organic food have been consumers’ perception to health consciousness. The present study includes health consciousness as a control variable. Health benefits are considered as motivator to several studies (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005), some studies do not regard organic food to be healthier (Michaelidou and Hassan, 2008).

 

H2: Healthy lifestyle significantly affects the consumers’ attitude to purchase organic food products.

 

2.3 Environmental Concern:

The most prominent factor in purchasing organic food products is environmental concern. Nemcscisne Zsoka (2005) analyzed that ecological awareness by understanding the environmentally associated problems. These factors have higher impact on behavior of human beings. Consumers’ attitude and ecological concern has influence on gender differences in purchase behavior of green products (Mostafa, 2007). Consumers are ready to change to organic products due to polluted environment and ecological reasons (Fraj and Martinez, 2007). Due to steady increase in environmental consciousness, Organic products have emerged and they are moving to become a mainstream issue. In 2012, the estimated U.S global turnover is 64 US$ billion and annual growth rate has continued to increase at 6.4% during the slowdown of economy since 2008 (Sahota, 2014). Thus, organic food products are considered to be the most environmentally successful model and regarded to be produced ethically.

 

H3: Environmental concern significantly affects the consumers’ attitude to purchase organic food products.

 

Both in developed and developing countries, majority of the consumers perceive that organic food products are safer to consume as modern society is concerned. The decision to purchase organic food products depends on development of positive attitude, social status and credibility of the consumers. Society plays a vital role to influence their purchase decision of organic food products. Hypotheses in this study are framed based on the literature and examined among consumers of Vellore city, Tamil Nadu. The methodology applied by the researchers and the results found are summarized in the following segments of this article.

 

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Previous reviews on consumers’ attitude on decision to purchase organic food products focused on the evaluation of behavioral aspect based on the structured questionnaire. Self-structured questionnaire helps to effectively allow the researchers to collect responses from the consumers. The associations between dependent and independent variables assessed a questionnaire based approach. The items applied in this study with little modification from past literature. The first part of the study deals with socio-demographic factors and the second part deals with data related to both independent and dependent variables that are used for hypothesis testing. Five- point Likert type scale was used in this study to develop questionnaire. Random samplings were designed based on the study. This method was applied in attitude towards purchase decision of organic food products in Vellore district, TamilNadu. The respondents were approached and consumers were willing to participate in the survey. The study collected data from May 2017 to June 2017. A total of 200 consumer responses were collected for the study. Socio- demographic respondents were analyzed using SPSS Version 21 is shown in table 1.

 

Table 1: Socio- Demographic profile of the respondents

Demographic characteristics	Frequency	Percentage
Gender (n=200)
Male	102	51
Female	98	49
Age (n=200)
Below 20	44	22
20-30	55	27.5
30-40	42	21
40-50	41	20.5
Above 50	27	13.5
Education Level (n=200)
Secondary School	30	15
Bachelor Degree	69	34.5
Master Degree	81	40.5
Doctorate	20	10
Profession (n=200)
Student	48	24.0
Private sector	79	39.5
Government undertakings	38	19
Self employed	35	17.5

4. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:

The proposed conceptual model tested the attitude towards organic food products using SPSS version 21 and SMARTPLS 2.0 by the researchers. The result of conceptual model used in the study has been presented in Figure 2. The conceptual model for reflective construct is measured on consumer’s attitude towards organic food products along with health consciousness, environmental concern and consumer awareness. The measured weight/item loadings, composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) and of the reflective construct are indicated in Table 2.

 

Loadings:

The measured items signify that high factor loadings congregate on a same point of the construct. The estimated loading for PLS must be equal to 0.70 or higher (Hair et. al., 2010). All measured weight/items of the loadings in the study must be greater than 0.70 (Ringle, Srstedt and Straub, 2012 Tenenhaus, Vinzi, Chatelin, and Lauro, 2005), pointing measured items of the convergenece validity.

 

Composite Reliability:

The estimates of the composite reliability are a set of measured items in the construct. The composite reliability must be equal to or greater than 0.70 (Hair et. al., 2010). Present study found that all the composite reliability values are greater than 0.70 thus indicates acceptable range of reliability.

 

Average Variance Extracted (AVE):

The thumb rule for average variance extracted indicates that convergenece is adequate for each construct (Hair et. al., 2010). In the similar way, the average variance extracted and if measured items are less than 0.50 indicates error. Thus, in this study all the average variance extracted values are greater than 0.50, implying the convergence validity of the construct.

 

Discriminant Validity:

This validity deals with the differences between the constructs. Discriminant validity can be determined by comparing correlation of each construct with square root of a construct average variance extracted (AVE). The square root of average variance extracted (AVE) must be greater than the correlation constructed in table 3. Discriminant validity indicates adequate for all constructs.

 

Figure 2. Outcome of the conceptual model using SEM – PLS

 

Table 2. Measurement Properties of the constructs

Construct and Measured Items	Factor Loading (> 0.70)	Composite Reliability  (> 0.70)	AVC
Organic Knowledge OA1: I am consciously aware of organic food products OA2: Absence of contaminants dimension OA3: I get enough information from websites/television	0.768 0.857 0.900	0.823678	0.856543
Healthy Lifestyle HL1: High nutritional composition HL2: Motivation due to health issues HL3: Health Impact	0.750 0.873 0.963	0.876490	0.790965
Environmental Concern EC1: Organic food products preserves the environment EC2: Local and traditional production EC3: Environmental friendly consumption	0.815 0.867 0.721	0.925618	0.789432
Attitude to purchase AP1: I always strive to purchase organic food products AP2: I consider organic products as my first choice while purchasing AP3:I encourage others to purchase organic products	0.878 0.743 0.905	0.9031367	0.849214

 

Table 3. Construct correlations

 

As far as attitude towards organic food product construct is concerned, the researchers examined the measured item, Discriminant validity and multi-colinearity. The properties of measurement construct are indicated in table 4. The loadings for all the items are > (greater) than 0.70. Hence, it indicates the convergent validity.

Measurement Items/Weights. In table 4, it is shown that all the measured items for attitude towards purchase of organic food products are greater than 0.10 and thus consistent with the recommended value.

 

Table 4. Measurement properties of the attitude towards purchase of organic food products

Source: SEMPLS Output

Variance Inflation Factor (VIF):

In table 4, all the values of VIF indicate are less than 0.30. Thus, indicates the multicollineary does not exist in the formative measured items.

 

Structural Model:

The attitude towards purchase of organic food products and also their associations among them were determined. The researchers examined the relationships between organic food knowledge, healthy lifestyle and environmental concern. The structural model proposed for the study represents the attitude towards organic food products purchase. In Figure 2 the SEM PLS results indicates path analysis and all 3 hypothesis (H1, H2, and H3) were measured.

 

The first hypothesis, H1 indicates that organic knowledge has a higher impact on attitude towards purchase of organic food products. The positive significant effect can be marked between the organic knowledge and attitude towards purchase of organic food products (PC=0.1567, T-statistic = 2.1234, CI= 0.092, 0.781 and p=0.000). Therefore, H1 hypothesis can be accepted

 

The second hypothesis, H2 indicates that healthy lifestyle has significant effect on attitude towards of organic food products purchase. The positive effect can be manifested between healthy lifestyle and attitude towards organic food products (PC=0.6754, T-statistic = 11.1264, CI= 0.062, 0.683 and p=0.000). Hence, H2 can be accepted.

The third hypothesis, H3 indicates environmental concern has major effect on attitude towards purchase of organic food products. Hence, positive significant effect can be marked between environmental concern and attitude towards organic food products (PC=0.3567, T-statistic = 4.544, CI= 0.157, 0.782 and p=0.000). Therefore, H3 can be accepted

 

Table 5. Estimation of the structural model

Path	PC	t-stat (>1.96)	95% CI	Beta	P value
OK-> AP	0.1567	2.1234	0.092	0.781	0.000
HL->AP	0.6754	11.1267	0.062	0.683	0.000
EC->AP	0.3567	4.544	0.157	0.782	0.000

Source: SEMPLS output

 

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

The rising concern about environmental impact has driven society to look for information on consumers’ purchase decision on organic food products. Due to progressive development of consumers’ attitudinal studies among researchers across the world, studies have focused on the cosnumers’ purchase decision. This current study has made an attempt in better understanding of attitudinal aspect and its future action to purchase. Questionnaire responses were traced from Vellore consumers. Therefore, it is understood that attitude influence the consumers to purchase organic food product.

 

The study assessed the relationship of reflective constructs that offers a positive contribution to attitudinal aspects and organic food purchase decision. It is necessary to understand the marketing strategies implemented in marketing organic food products to meet the needs of the consumers effectively. Therefore, future adoption of organic food products enhances consumers to live in a sustainable environment. The relationship between consumers’ organic food knowledge, healthy lifestyle and environmental concern is found to be significant with attitude on purchase of organic food products. Therefore, this study clearly indicates that sufficient information and exposure on organic food products have become relevant so as to build a greater impact on the purchase decision.

 

6. CONCLUSION:

The present study constructed a conceptual model for attitude towards purchase of organic food products in Vellore city. Thus, the study is concluded that consumers of organic food products in Vellore city are well informed and aware of organic food products availability. Though organic food products are at infant stage, still consumers purchase it due to health consciousness and environmental concern issues. As consumers are becoming more environmentally friendly and have increased health concern, consumers consciously seek information on organic products to purchase. It can be seen that influence of society to some extent attracts the consumers to move towards organic food products. With right strategy and vision of the government, Organic food market can segment their product and thus effectively position them. The study findings conclude that the main driver that acts in consumer’s attitude in purchase of organic food products are: consumers’ awareness along with health consciousness and environmental concern.

 

6.1 Limitations:

The data collected for this study are only from selected organic stores in Vellore city, TamilNadu. The research findings are relevant only to the selected city mentioned above. The generalizability of the study to the whole region may not hold good. Hence, this study is able to derive logical generalization of the study to ensure a positive contribution.

 

6.2 Future Research Implications:

Studies on behavioral aspect of consumers towards organic food products are more equipped to understand the reasons for purchasing organic food products. Studies in different regions are relevant due to the broad spectrum range. Hence, understanding about the attitude towards purchase of organic food products can be a challenging task and interesting observational area to endeavor. Further studies should also examine the behavioral changes can change the next course of action. Consumers of organic food products are enormously growing. Therefore, researchers and academicians validate various models to create belief on organic food products and their consumers’ purchase decision. Hence, belief helps to explore on purchase decision of organic food products among consumers’ across the globe.

 

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Accepted on 22.08.2017      © RJPT All right reserved

Research J. Pharm. and Tech 2017; 10(12): 4333-4338.