Factors affecting the intention to buy organic food under the conditions of COVID-19 corona virus pandemy

ABSTRACT

Paying attention to the needs and wants of consumers is the first step to develop the market of organic products, because recognizing consumer behavior and examining the factors affecting it has a very important role in the success of any economic system. Therefore, this study aimed at examining the intention to buy organic food in the critical situation of the existence of the corona virus and risk perception posed by it as one of the factors affecting the consumer's intention to buy using the theory of planned behavior. For this purpose, the required data and information were collected in 2020 through field surveys and completing a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study included all the organic food consumers in Torbat-e Heydarieh county of Iran. Based on Cochran's formula, the sample size consisted of 210 people. Stratified random sampling method was used for sampling and selecting the individuals in the studid community and structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results showed that the correlation coefficients of the organic food consumers' risk perception of corona virus with their attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and anticipated fear were 0.222, 0.65, 0.625 and 0.592, respectively and the consumer's attitude (0.452), risk perception (0.268) and anticipated fear (0.101) had the greatest impact on the intention to buy organic food. Therefore, by introducing the benefits of organic products through mass media, people's attitudes towards organic products can be changed;also, by informing the people of the society about the risk of the corona virus, it is possible to create the intention of placing organic products in the consumption basket of the household.