Factors influencing the purchase intention of organic foods: A case study in fruits and vegetables

Abstract

The research topic “Factors influencing the purchase intention of organic food: A case study in fruits and vegetables” is conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on three areas namely Thu Duc City, District 1, and District 7. Sampling is consumers who are from 18 years old and have a history on purchase organic foods within the last 6 months. The research purposes are to point out the relationships between factors and organic food purchase intentions in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic and safety foods in the markets are still limited. The author has chosen the Theory of Planned Behavior to form the model and proposed six hypotheses that are the main factors that affect the organic food purchase intentions. They are (1) Attitude, (2) Subject norms, (3) Perceived behavioral control, (4) Health concerns, (5) Environmental concerns, and (6) Awareness of organic foods. Total 450 questionnaires sent out via Google Form, and face-to-face surveys took place in outstanding supermarkets such as Lotte Mart, Co.op Mart, and Vinmart together with popular organic stores namely Organica, Organicfood, and GoGreen. There are 336 responses chosen and qualified for further analysis. The author has used SPSS version 20 and Amos version 24 for the analysis of the results. In SEM results, the research model and six hypotheses are accepted. Perceived behavioral control is the highest influencing with β = 0.260 and the weakest influencing is Health concerns with β = 0.123. The influencing level of factors are descending as namely Subject norms, Environmental concerns, Awareness of organic foods and Attitude with respectively β = 0.181, β = 0.174, β = 0.155 and β = 0.139. The bootstrap is also significant in most concepts that confirm the reliability of measurements. Managerial implementations and limitations of the research are discussed at the end.