غذای پاک و سبز؟ بررسی انگیزه های تمایل مصرف کنندگان به سمت خرید مواد غذایی ارگانیک

Growing consumer concern for health and environment issues has resulted in increased attention towards the purchase and consumption of organic food. This has driven an increase in organic research, especially as marketers seek to understand the motivations behind consumer purchases of organic goods. This study explored the effects of health consciousness, environmental concern, organic knowledge, availability, quality, price consciousness, subjective norms, risk aversion, perceived control and familiarity on organic attitudes, organic purchase intentions and organic purchase behaviour. These variables formed the antecedents of the causal model which utilised Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) Theory of Reasoned Action as the framework of analysis. Results showed strong support for the relationship between organic knowledge, subjective norms and environmental concern on organic attitudes. While health consciousness, quality, subjective norms and familiarity were found to influence purchase intentions, familiarity was the only variable found to exhibit a significant relationship with organic purchase behaviour. This paper will discuss the implications of these results for marketers. It will also consider the limitations of the study and areas for future research.

‘Organic’ refers to products that are produced without the aid of fertilisers or pesticides (Hutchins and Greenhalgh, 1997). Burch (2001) explained that organic food is “food guaranteed to have been produced, stored and processed without the addition of synthetically produced fertilisers and chemicals” (as quoted in Lockie et al., 2002). Products classified as organic are produced in agreement with standards right through all aspects of production and are then certified by an industry body (Lyons et al., 2001). This review will specifically focus on produce that is certified organic; this also includes products that come under the label of biodynamic and excludes genetically modified foods. Research has estimated that the global organic industry is growing at a rate of 10–30% p.a. and is worth 33 billion dollars (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, 2006). In Australia there is little data on industry size as most agricultural research does not differentiate between conventional and organic produce. However, estimates put Australian industry sales at around 400 million dollars annually (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, 2006). The Australian organic industry is small in comparison to the global market, representing less than 1% (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, 2006). It is also underdeveloped in terms of the Australian agricultural production with estimates that it is only 1–1.5% of the total value (Organic Federation of Australia, 2001). The growth of the Australian organic industry, in terms of production, is largely influenced by overseas markets, especially Europe as they take around 70% of Australia’s organic exports (Baker, 2007). Annual growth estimates show that organic production is expanding at a rate of 16% per annum (Department of Primary Industries, n.d.). Organics is an emerging area of research (Huang, 1996). There have been several European studies that have looked at the consumer in regards to organic purchases (Chinnici et al., 2002, Davies et al., 1995, Grunert and Juhl, 1995, Hill and Lynchehaun, 2002, Hutchins and Greenhalgh, 1997, Magnusson et al., 2001, Makatouni, 2002, McEachern and McClean, 2002, Padel and Foster, 2005, Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005 and Tregear et al., 1994). This research has focused on consumer attitudes towards organic products (Davies et al., 1995, Magnusson et al., 2001 and Tregear et al., 1994) and consumer motivations for purchasing organic food (Chinnici et al., 2002, Grunert and Juhl, 1995, Hutchins and Greenhalgh, 1997, Makatouni, 2002, Padel and Foster, 2005 and Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005). However, there has been little of this research conducted within the Australian market and even less examining the youth market (Lea and Worsley, 2005, Lockie et al., 2004, Lockie et al., 2002 and Squires et al., 2001). Moreover, these studies have focused on consumer attitudes and demographics (Lea and Worsley, 2005 and Squires et al., 2001), with little research examining Australian consumers motivations for purchasing organic food products (Lockie et al., 2002). Consumer motivations with respect to organic produce are the emerging interest for researchers. As Lockie et al. (2002) advocate it is ‘clear that the future of organics will be very much dependent on the motivations of end consumers’. Therefore this study will examine consumer motivations and their purchase intentions towards organic produce, within an Australian context. As Grunert and Juhl (1995) suggest, research should look at different samples within countries to see if theories hold for all groups. This paper will focus specifically on the organic vegetable market. Organic vegetables are produced all year round in Australia and account for over half of all organic sales (Willer and Yussefi, 2006), making it an appropriate sector to examine. In addition, the purpose of this study is to discover the youth consumers’ motivation behind organic purchases and thus extend current knowledge in the area to a specific and unexplored cohort of consumers. This has in fact not been achieved in any past studies and represents a significant contribution to knowledge in the area. It also presents information valued by marketing practitioners

The interrelationships that may exist between the independent variables were not examined as this was beyond the scope of this study. Although these relationships may have significant impacts on organic purchase attitudes, intentions and behaviours and should therefore be investigated in further organic research. The generalisability of this study is also questionable. As the sample involved Victorian residents, their responses may not be representative of wider Australians. Also, as a convenience sample was used that only included university students, the sample is not generalisable to the whole population and may not be reflective of all young Australians due the reason discussed above. Overall consumers with different age ranges, education levels and incomes should be taken into account in future research. The fact that university students were involved may also distort the results as research indicates that education levels affect organic consumption. Research has shown that university educated individuals have more positive attitudes towards organics (Magnusson et al., 2001) and higher education levels are associated with higher levels of organic consumption (Lockie et al., 2004). As the participants of this study were university students, the level of education may have resulted in unexpectedly optimistic responses to organic food. This suggestion is consistent with Grunert and Juhl (1995) who suggest future studies should look at different samples within countries to see if the theories hold for all consumer groups.