Antecedents of Purchase Intention toward Organic Food in an Asian Emerging Market: A Study of Urban Vietnamese Consumers

Abstract

This study aims to investigate some factors influencing purchase intention toward organic food among urban consumers in Vietnam, an Asian emerging economy. The extended Theory of Planned Behavior was used as theoretical framework for this study. In order to test the proposed model and hypotheses, a survey was conducted on a sample including 572 consumers in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. The findings of structural equation modeling indicated that modern self, traditional self, health consciousness, organic-label trust, and subjective norm were significant predictors of attitude toward buying organic food, while environmental concern was not significantly related to attitude. In addition, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control toward organic food purchase were found to be positively related to purchase intention. The research findings were discussed and implications for marketers and policy makers were provided.

Food Innovation Adoption and Organic Food Consumerism—A Cross National Study between Malaysia and Hungary

“…Other findings from the region, such as Nguyen et al [86], reveal that organic foods label significantly contributed to buyers' favorable attitude to buying organic foods among urban Vietnamese consumers, while Fogarassy et al [71] found that highly educated young people who are very conscious and live on good incomes may be the target group for circular innovation in Hungary. The study found that young consumers, the internet savvy, and software users living in cities buy organic foods and follow healthy lifestyle trends.…”

Some Key Factors Affecting Consumers’ Intentions to Purchase Functional Foods: A Case Study of Functional Yogurts in Vietnam

“…The TRA has proved to be an effective model that can explain and predict consumer attitude, intention, and behavior relating to food products including functional foods [30][31][32][33]. Given that subject norm was found to be a weak determinant of intention, several authors have suggested to examine the linkage between subjective norm and attitude [19,34,35]. Our research model, therefore, sought to extend the TRA by positing that subjective norm has a positive influence on attitude.…”

“…Understanding the barriers to functional foods purchase and acceptance (e.g., price) is essential to increasing consumer demand for these products [30]. Given that subject norm was found to be a weak determinant of intention, several authors have suggested to examine the linkage between subjective norm and attitude [19,34,35]. Our research model, therefore, sought to extend the TRA by positing that subjective norm has a positive influence on attitude.…”

“…Subjective norm represents "the perceived normative expectations of relevant reference groups or individuals" to perform certain behaviors [28] (p. 5). Several studies examining food consumption claim that subjective norm significantly enhances attitude [19,35]. A possible explanation is that reference groups and opinions of people who are important to customers can play an integral role in their evaluation of products and/or the purchase of such products [56].…”

“…Vietnam with a population of 96.2 million [17] and rising consumer concerns about health and food-related issues [18,19] represents a colossal market opportunity for healthy food products such as functional foods. In fact, functional food is currently the largest health and wellness product category in the country [20].…”