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PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to determine the profile of dairy product consumers in the organic market.Design/methodology/approachThe study was based on a survey questionnaire developed by the author and administered to a total of 1,108 respondents. The statistical analysis (including descriptive statistics, the analysis of the discriminative function and the Chi2 test was performed with the use of Statistica 13.1 PL. The respondents' gender was the factor behind the differences in how they behaved.FindingsThe consumers indicated the channels they rely upon to find information on organic dairy products;in addition to trusting the opinions of their family members and experts, they also use web platforms. Further, they specified their preferred locations for buying favorite products during the pandemic: specialized organic food shops, large distribution chains and online stores.Practical implicationsThese outcomes will help in identifying target consumer segments and information channels for specific information and advertising messages. They also form an important resource for developing some potential strategies which the supply chain stakeholders could implement to promote organic consumption of dairy products.Originality/valueThis study identifies consumers' preferred dairy products;motives for purchasing organic dairy products;barriers that consumers believe exist in the market;sources of knowledge about products purchased by consumers;and consumers' preferred channels for purchasing organic dairy products. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study of dairy product consumers in the organic market in Poland.
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Este artigo tem por objetivo aprofundar o debate sobre a insegurança alimentar durante a pandemia da Covid-19, relatar a iniciativa social extensionista do Plantio Agroecológico Solidário (PAS) da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina e o consequente impacto no acesso e distribuição de alimentos orgânicos em Florianópolis, SC, Brasil. No contexto da crise sanitária, com mais de 645.000 mortos por Covid-19 no Brasil, aliada à crise econômica, acentuaram-se as desigualdades sociais que aprofundaram o cenário de fome no país. O atual cenário pandêmico indica um momento singular para que a nossa sociedade possa repensar o direito global ao acesso a alimentos saudáveis e sobre qual modelo de agricultura se espera fomentar. A agricultura agroecológica é um modelo viável e necessário para a produção digna e consciente de alimentos, fornecendo mecanismos para a promoção da Soberania e Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, através da democratização ao acesso a alimentos saudáveis e sem agrotóxicos.Alternate :This article aims it is contribute the debate on food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, to report on the social extension initiative of the Solidarity Agroecological Planting (PAS) of the Federal University of Santa Catarina and the consequent impact on the access and distribution of organic food in Florianopolis, SC, Brazil. In the context of the health crisis, with more than 645,000 deaths from Covid-19 in Brazil, allied to the economic crisis, social inequalities were accentuated that deepened the hunger scenario in the country. The current pandemic scenario indicates a unique moment for our society to rethink the global right to access to healthy food and on which model of agriculture it is expected to promote. Agroecological agriculture is a viable and necessary model for the dignified and conscious production of food, providing mechanisms for the promotion Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security, through the democratization of access to healthy and pesticide-free food.
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PurposeThis study explores Greek and Swedish consumers' attitude towards organic food consumption in order to demonstrate possible differences that can be identified based on health and ecological consciousness beliefs rather than demographic factors. The examination of an emerging and a more mature market allow the authors to provide more targeted marketing strategies that possibly increase organic food consumption in both countries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt an econometric approach to the analysis of consumer behavior in relation to organic food consumption in Sweden and Greece. More specifically, the authors examine the motivations and postexperiences of organic food consumers of different socioeconomic profiles in these two countries, one in northern and one in southern Europe. The authors apply an ordered logistic regression analysis model to map out the interaction between consumer attitudes and sociodemographic variables.FindingsThe authors results show that consumers in Sweden more frequently purchase organic foods than consumers in Greece. Environmental protection and ethical values increase the odds for Swedish organic food consumers to buy organic food products. Health consciousness and family well-being are perceived as factors that increase the odds for Greek organic food consumers to buy organic foods. Sociodemographic factors do not play a pivotal role for consumer behavior in relation to organic food in both countries.Originality/valueThis study distinguishes between organic food consumers in two countries with different levels of organic food production and export activity, size of organic market, national organic labeling system and legal definition and standards of organic food. Within these differences, the organic food industry could align its marketing efforts better rather focus on simplistic demographics. The current view unfolds the fact that there are limited studies comparing two European markets at different stages of development and the factors that influence organic food consumer behavior.
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During the evolutionary phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers' eating habits and spending behaviours have progressively shifted to the pursuit of the safer and healthier food products, such as organic food. Therefore, this study investigated the factors affecting Chinese buyers' organic food continuous purchase intentions (CPI) during the post-pandemic era. To better adapt to the current consumption context in China, this study proposed a modified TPB framework (M-TPB), by replacing subjective norms with Chinese cultural variables, such as face consciousness and group conformity, and adding constructs of perceived value of organic food (PVOF), health consciousness, and the impact of COVID-19 (IOC). Convincingly, experimental results from a structural equation model analysis of 460 usable responses indicate that M-TPB has superior explanatory power (R2 = 65%) compared with the TPB model (R2 = 40%) for explaining organic food CPI during the post-pandemic period. The path analysis demonstrated that perceived behavioural control, attitude, face consciousness, group conformity, health consciousness, IOC, and PVOF had substantial positive effects on CPI, while subjective norms were not significantly related. Moreover, IOC exhibited a positive and significant relationship with health consciousness and PVOF. These findings can be useful for stakeholders in the Chinese organic food industry to generate timely promoting strategies during the post-pandemic period.
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The consumption of organic food is increasing globally due to heightening awareness of its benefits in terms of nutrients such as antioxidants and minerals as compared to conventional food. Organic food is also safer to consume as it is farmed without using human-made or artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones or regulators and feed additives. Nevertheless, very few studies have been conducted to understand the demand side in purchasing organic foods, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the underlying factors that drive consumers' willingness to purchase organic foods during the inevitable challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the two underpinning theories;Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). A questionnaire-based survey was distributed using WhatsApp messaging to 100 respondents as this method was deemed safer compared to the face-to-face method during the pandemic. PLS-SEM was employed to test the structural relationship of the constructs proposed in the model. The results indicated that response efficacy, attitudes, and subjective norm had a significant influence on consumers' willingness to purchase organic food. The remaining constructs based on the PMT model had no impact on willingness. Further investigation revealed that response efficacy was the most important factor driving consumers to purchase organic food during the COVID-19 pandemic.Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources.
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After the covid-19, pandemic people of India were more focused on health challenges. Customers looking for better clean and organic products without the usage of any chemical or artificial content. Results suggest that the organic market growing at a very rapid speed. The customer does not take this selection of organic products under the influence of near ones but various psychological, and behavioral aspects affect to such a decision. This regular practice catches the attention of researchers, regarding the predication purchase intention of organic products. This study aims to target the customers who are inclined to buy organic products or those who are already purchasing organic foods products. The study adopts the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical tool and multiple regression as an analytical tool to predict the buying intention of organic food products. The outcomes of 381respondentst revealed that attitude and environmental concern were the most influential factors of purchasing organic food products. © 2023
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This study aims to analyse the factors responsible to change the attitudes, intentions, and actual purchasing behaviour of customers toward organic food products in Indian and Nepalese consumers. In the current situation of COVID-19, we are more conscious about our food consumption. Organic food has become very famous at this time because of its use of natural and non-harmful factors of production. This study focuses on changing food habits and consumption patterns of consumers toward more healthy organic food. The sample size of this study is 600. Smart PLS and Mann-Whitney test are used to analyse the data. Safety, awareness and attributes have a positive impact on trust formation towards green organic food. Results of the study shows that perceived health, hedonic and social value positively influence consumers' attitudes, which leads to positive intention, which finally leads to green purchase behaviour of consumers.
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PurposeThis study aims to identify and describe the relationships among different consumption values, anxiety and organic food purchase behaviour considering the moderating role of sustainable consumption attitude from the viewpoint of the theory of consumption values.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a structured questionnaire survey in first-tier cities in China. A total of 344 consumers of organic foods participated in the study. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis were employed for data analysis.FindingsThe results indicated the significant association of functional value-price, emotional value, social value and epistemic value with purchase behaviour. Anxiety had a positively significant influence on functional (quality), functional (price), emotional, social, conditional and epistemic values. In addition, the results indicated that functional (price), emotional, social and epistemic values played mediating effects in the relationships between anxiety and purchase behaviour. Moreover, sustainable consumption attitude had a positive moderating effect on functional value-price and purchase behaviour.Practical implicationsThe research not only provides novel and original insights for understanding organic consumption but also provides a reference for organic retailers to develop sales strategies and policymakers to formulate policies to guide organic consumption that are conducive to promoting sustainable consumption.Originality/valueFor the first time, this research attempts to explore the relationships among different consumption values, anxiety and purchase behaviour. It may improve the gap of inconsistency in attitude and behaviour in organic consumption, and provide a new perspective for the study of organic consumption.
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This study investigates consumers' intention to purchase organic foods in Vietnam after social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we established and explained the relationship between the factor "perceived value" and buying organic food intentions along with the lens of TPB. The sample included 362 MBA students from three prominent universities in Ho Chi Minh. Latent structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze this reliability and confirm these relationships. The results stated that factors "age" and "perceived value," including functional, economic, social, and emotional value, have effects on "subjective norms" and "attitude toward buying organic food." With "perceived behavioral control," these factors had a positive impact on the purchase intention for organic food. The study's originality extends TPB to explain intention in the organic food field with two new constructs, "age" and "perceived value." Because the intention factor had a strong positive impact on purchasing behavior, results help marketers and managers have a sustainable policy to encourage people to buy organic foods during and post-pandemic. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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This study systematically assess the paradigm shift in consumer behavior during Pre-COVID and COVID scenarios using social media (data collected from Facebook, Twitter, Pin Interest, YouTube, Reviews & Forums, and Google Plus) platforms. The study analyzed 523,764 and 1,054,794 social media responses in Pre-COVID and COVID eras respectively. Due to the large volume of the data, for Pre-COVID era, responses from August to December 2019 were considered. For COVID era, responses from January to June 2020 were taken into the account. The organic food categories, considered in the study were Snacks, Fruits, Vegetables, Beers & Alcohol, Meat, Flour, Dairy, Cereals & Savories, Health Drink, Noodles & Fast Food, Dessert and Pizza & Pasta. In the study three-stage filtering for Sentiment Analysis was performed (86.4% accuracy achieved) using Natural Language Processing, Manual analysis of sentiment and Bi-Directional Encoder Representations from Transforms based model. It was concluded that in Pre-COVID era, people were less aware about the health benefits of organic food but in COVID era, the awareness level of consumers rose exponentially about various organic food categories, especially about processed organic food categories and benefits of raw organic food categories. In Pre-COVID Era, consumers were mainly focused on fresh fruits and vegetables. In COVID Era, food categories like Dairy, Meat and Vegetables were at the top. Fruits, snacks, beer and alcohol were also in high demand. While analyzing the Pre-COVID and COVID scenarios, we observed a shift in consumer behaviour from raw organic food categories towards processed and semi-processed organic food categories. Organic noodles & fast food, dessert and health drinks still remained as the least preferred food categories. The study is unique since it provides a macro and micro view of shift in consumer behavior preferences in Pre-COVID and COVID eras using social media at various geographical locations worldwide. This research will help manufacturers of organic food to reshape their existing consumer behavior and market penetration strategies. It will also help in new product designing and increasing the consumer base both at the local and global levels. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to determine the profile of dairy product consumers in the organic market.Design/methodology/approachThe study was based on a survey questionnaire developed by the author and administered to a total of 1,108 respondents. The statistical analysis (including descriptive statistics, the analysis of the discriminative function and the Chi2 test was performed with the use of Statistica 13.1 PL. The respondents' gender was the factor behind the differences in how they behaved.FindingsThe consumers indicated the channels they rely upon to find information on organic dairy products;in addition to trusting the opinions of their family members and experts, they also use web platforms. Further, they specified their preferred locations for buying favorite products during the pandemic: specialized organic food shops, large distribution chains and online stores.Practical implicationsThese outcomes will help in identifying target consumer segments and information channels for specific information and advertising messages. They also form an important resource for developing some potential strategies which the supply chain stakeholders could implement to promote organic consumption of dairy products.Originality/valueThis study identifies consumers' preferred dairy products;motives for purchasing organic dairy products;barriers that consumers believe exist in the market;sources of knowledge about products purchased by consumers;and consumers' preferred channels for purchasing organic dairy products. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study of dairy product consumers in the organic market in Poland.
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PurposeOrganic food consumption decreases the risk of becoming obese or overweight. This study intends to see the influence of customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort and natural content on the intention to purchase organic food (IPOF) that leads to the actual purchase of organic food (APOF). Moreover, organic food availability is a moderator between IPOF and APOF.Design/methodology/approachPLS-SEM is used for hypothesis testing. A purposive sampling technique was followed to gather data from organic food consumers in Lahore, Gujranwala and Islamabad and a total of 479 questionnaires were part of the analysis.FindingsThe outcomes show that customer perceived value, effort and natural content is positively related to IPOF. Despite this, COVID-19 fear and food neophobia are negatively associated with IPOF. IPOF and organic food availability are positively related to APOF. Finally, organic food availability significantly moderated between IPOF and APOF.Practical implicationsThis study outcome reveals that companies of organic food can recognize customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort, natural content and organic food availability in their decision-making if they determine the actual purchase of organic food. This study offers a valuable policy to companies of organic food to enhance customer's behavior in purchasing organic food in Pakistan. Besides, practitioners and academicians can benefit from this study finding.Originality/valueThis initial research integrates customer perceived value, COVID-19 fear, food neophobia, effort, natural content, IPOF and organic food availability to determine APOF in the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, consumption value theory is followed to develop the framework.
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A major advantage of online organic produce shopping is the fact that it saves energy and reduces emissions otherwise generated by customers during their time spent on the road and while shopping. Organic products in general positively impact sustainability, the environment, and the regions of their origin along with the social changes in these regions and further rural development. Moreover, these products positively impact the perceived health benefits and quality of food labeled as organic. The Czech Republic has currently seen a rise in organic food purchasing and supply trends. This study maps the factors possibly influencing consumers' decision to go shopping for organic food online. Observed factors include the following demographic characteristics of consumers (respondents): gender, age, education, household income, number of children in the household and number of household members. A total of 757 respondents from the Czech Republic from September 2020 to December 2020 took part in the research. Logistic regression, used for data processing, identified the statistically significant effects of education, income and number of household members on online purchases. These conclusions were confirmed by a detailed contingency tables analysis, including the almost monotonous trend of the dependencies, with only minor deviations in a maximum of one category. The strongest influence of some categories on the emergence of partial dependencies was found by residue analysis. The research confirmed that the frequency of online grocery shopping increases significantly with increasing education and income of respondents and decreases with increasing the number of household members. Most respondents apparently shop for groceries online because of time savings, better product choice and more convenient and easier search.
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COVID-19 , Food Preferences , Child , Humans , Supermarkets , Czech Republic/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics , Consumer BehaviorABSTRACT
In this ailment situation, a necessity for people is health, which effectuates to escalate in the consumption of healthy organic products. The study analyzes the importance and consumption of quality-based organic products towards spending on purchasing and over purchasing, clues scarcity in products were influenced by the role of media including panic buying, consumer psychology, especially on children’s immunity power that might be for the third wave. By applying Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), correlation, KMO, and Bartlet’s with 112 respondents the present data were gathered with the assistance of purposive and snowball sampling, the results revealed that GHI and NEP have a positive association with PS and strongly influenced organic products buying process. It will assist in raise of sales and evolving advanced green strategies for the green marketers.
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In this article, we provide a new insight into overcoming resistance to emerging green technologies through mobile app users' environmental engagement. The use of a mobile recycling application is evaluated with regard to its media richness with a sample of 12 539 users in Italy. The research is developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when users have become more environmentally conscious and aware of plastic pollution. This time period has also seen an increase in the use of mobile applications, which provide social engagement and other benefits. Although it has encouraged new research on recycling behavior and how environmental messages are spread, as far as we know, no research has included a specific technology, such as mobile applications. Through the lens of consumer social media engagement behavior, it has emerged that media richness has a positive correlation with user engagement and recycling behavior. Theoretically, the research offers a novel technological tool worthy of further exploration in the fields of management and engineering. New practical insights are offered in terms of best practices for strengthening the relationships between companies and their clients. As users become more accustomed to social technologies, those technologies may help to establish responsible consumption patterns.
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Many consumers have shown positive attitude towards green consumption;nevertheless, these attitudes do not necessarily translate into intention and or behaviours. Human consumption patterns are responsible for approximately 40% of environmental challenges;therefore, consumer decisions and behaviours have a big impact on the environment. Food consumption is known to have an important impact on public health, individuals, and the environment. Organic food purchase is widely known to promote sustainable attitudes and lifestyles. The disparity between green concern (having a positive attitude and or intention) and green behaviour (the act of purchasing and consuming organic food) is known as the attitude-behaviour inconsistency or green gap in the scholarly sphere. To explore the attitude-behaviour inconsistency, this study employs exogenous influences such as motives and barriers which extends the original theory of planned behaviour. This qualitative study which was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic involved 22 key respondents’ residents in the Klang Valley, Malaysia (KVM) using key informant interviews and interpretive phenomenological analysis. The findings indicated motives and barriers to purchase, coexist with a positive attitude (endogenous influence) and favourable intentions, resulting in real behaviour or purchase not being possible;therefore, the attitude-behavioural inconsistencies. To band the attitude-behaviour inconsistency, it is proposed that decision makers such as government agencies create a national environmental certification procedure and logo that verifies companies' environmental claims. Assisting the government, the private sector should be more proactive in implementing green lifestyle initiatives in their corporate policies and when conducting business.
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Purpose>This study aims to examine the impact of consumption values on consumers’ purchase of organic food and green environmental concerns. Additionally, the relationships between green environmental concerns and consumers’ purchase of organic food are investigated.Design/methodology/approach>A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 500 consumers with experience in purchasing organic food in Pakistan. The covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) technique was used for the data analysis using the Analysis of Moments Structure software version 23. The CB-SEM technique allows for the simultaneous estimation of all relationships.Findings>The CB-SEM technique reveals that of the 11 hypotheses tested, social value heavily influences consumers’ green environmental concerns. Moreover, consumers’ purchase of organic food is greatly impacted by conditional value. Consumers purchase organic food for their daily needs because they feel responsible for preserving and protecting the environment against global warming and its associated threats. This green purchasing behavior actually leads to better social approval, through its ability to impress others.Practical implications>Organizations and business owners should address green environmental concerns by seriously applying organic methods in the process of production, processing, packaging and selling of organic food products. Such organic practices would enable organizations and business owners to produce organic food products that are free from chemicals.Originality/value>The inclusion of consumption values strengthens the explanatory power of the proposed model in the context of Pakistani consumers’ purchase of organic food and green environmental concerns simultaneously. This study therefore adds new and substantial insights into the marketing theory.
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Inserted in an increasing production and consumption of organic food context, the world faced to a great adversity, the COVID-19 pandemic, causing a great impact on the lives of people worldwide, also including shopping and consumption process. Thus, the study aimed to identify the changes that occurred in the process of purchase and consumption of organic foods consumers, as well as the changes that occurred in the influences of this process during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative research was conducted in which twelve consumers of organic products were interviewed through online interviews. The main results found in the study were changes regarding to situational influences due to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also shows that regarding to the stages of the purchasing decision-making process, it was identified that changes occurred in all stages, and the stage in which the most changed occurred was the purchase and consumption stage.
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Purpose>Organic food market has grown rapidly on a global level and so is the interest of customers. The present paper ranks the factors and sub-criteria which are taken into consideration while making organic purchase decisions resulting in understanding the behaviour of consumers.Design/methodology/approach>The present paper considered a sample of 550 respondents in the area of Punjab. Fuzzy AHP technique was applied to understand the key factors and sub-criteria which play a major role in organic food purchase decisions. The paper is empirical and descriptive in nature. The factors considered for the study include price, consumer knowledge, trust, attitude, behavioural intentions, subjective norms, perceived personal relevance and perceived consumer effectiveness.Findings>The three major influential factors include price, trust and attitude ranked in the same order of preference which majorly affects the purchase decisions and talking about sub-criteria the three major criteria to purchase organic food include: “Price plays a significant role in purchase decisions (P2)”, “Organic food keeps me fit and healthy (A1)” and “Organic food intake makes me feel energetic (A2)”.Research limitations/implications>The present paper is limited to the area of Punjab and majorly eight factors have been taken into consideration. Further research can be explored on broader geographical and cultural areas with new dimensions in criteria and sub-criteria.Practical implications>The findings of this paper will surely help the marketers to understand the behavioural intentions and preferences of the customers. Accordingly, they will strategize the policies to convert organic food market into a niche market with a high growth rate.Originality/value>The existing literature explored various key factors. However, the present study comes up with ranking to the factors according to their priority in purchase decisions. This will definitely help marketers, business houses, practitioners and academicians about the key factors which affect purchase decisions, and it will surely add incredible knowledge into the existing database.
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The main goal of this paper is to measure and compare the awareness and preferences of consumers in relation to local products in three countries: Albania, Bulgaria, and Poland. (1) Background: The analysis focused on consumer choices when presented with local products, specifically knowledge as to their environmentally friendly status. The study was evoked by the need to recognize and evaluate changes in consumer behavior as a result of the pandemic and the global challenges related to climate change and the widespread call for nature preservation. (2) Methods: An online survey was conducted with 300 respondents from Poland, 262 from Albania, and 250 from Bulgaria. Statistical analysis was applied. (3) Results: The study answered research questions about consumer readiness to pay a premium price and awareness about the impact of regional products on the environment and livelihood of rural communities. (4) Conclusions: The study proved that consumer perceptions and behavior are influenced by a variety of factors and driving forces in the three countries surveyed depending on socioeconomic characteristics and relevant policies. COVID-19 accelerated the demand for products derived from nature-friendly production systems. Products with geographical indication (GI products) are a better choice from the perspective of sustainable consumption.