Consumer Purchase Intentions towards Organic Food: Insights from South Africa

Abstract

Amid the global drive to promote environmentally less threatening food production methods, marketers have been exposed to many opportunities as well as challenges, in their desire to profitably satisfy consumers' ever-changing needs and wants. In South Africa today, the organic food drive is showing good signs of growth, with key hypermarkets stocking an ever increasing collection of such foodstuffs. Of late, interest and consideration towards organically produced foodstuffs and purchasing intentions thereof have been augmenting in importance amongst many consumers, in their response to concerns about the effects of conventional farming practices on human health, environment, and food safety among others. As consumers are increasingly becoming conscious about the positive benefits of non-conventional foodstuffs, marketers are forced to devise new strategies that effectively incorporate these highly sought organic produces. For this reason, organic farming has been regarded as the best and most attractive alternative to inorganic farming and has led to the production of 'new' foodstuffs. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine the antecedents of consumer purchase intentions for organic food in Johannesburg, South Africa. This study used a survey questionnaire for primary data collection and the gathered data was used to quantitatively test the hypotheses. Through Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) statistical software and by means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the significance of the variables of this study was determined from a sample of 305 respondents across Johannesburg. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to check model fit, reliability and validity of the measurement instruments while Path Modeling was used for hypothesis testing. The findings revealed that consumer attitude was the key antecedent that provided the highest level of explained variance in consumer purchase intention of organic food. It was observed that Woolworths was the most popular retail outlet for organic food. The results and insights from this study are likely to contribute to consumer attitudes and health consciousness

Factors Influencing The Purchase Intention in Online Organic Fruit and Vegetable Stores

“…Perceived behavioral control has an influence online purchase intention with a moderate influence. Thus, consumer attitude is a key factor that most influences the online purchase intention on the Sayur Box website, in accordance with the research conducted by Mhlophe (2016).…”

“…Meanwhile, in the research conducted by Irianto (2015), consumer attitudes and subjective norms are factors that positively influence the intention in purchasing organic food. Consumer attitude is a key factor that most influences the intention in purchasing organic food (Mhlophe, 2016).…”

Faktor yang mempengaruhi intensi mengonsumsi kopi organik di kalangan anak muda

“…Nilai ini membuat hipotesis ketiga ditolak yang artinya peduli kesehatan tidak mempengaruhi intensi mengonsumsi kopi organik. Hasil ini juga bertentangan dengan hasil penelitian sebelumnya yang memperlihatkan bahwa konsumsi produk ramah lingkungan dipengaruhi oleh peduli kesehatan (Effendi et al, 2015;Lockiea et al, 2004;Mhlophe, 2016;Paul dan Rana, 2012;Slamet et al, 2016;dan Yi, 2009). Hasil ini memperlihatkan bahwa tinggi rendahnya kepedulian konsumen terhadap kesehatannya tidak mempengaruhi intensi mengonsumsi kopi organik.…”

“…Uji hipotesis mereka tentang pengaruh manfaat kesehatan terhadap intensi membeli produk organik terbukti signifikan. Studi terkini yang berkaitan dengan produk organik dilakukan oleh Mhlophe (2016) di Afrika Selatan. Hasil penelitiannya menunjukkan bahwa alasan kesehatan merupakan faktor yang menentukan dalam pembelian produk organik.…”

Leadership Quality and Organisational Performance in Public Sector

“…The Cronbach's Alpha results indicated in Table 4.7, therefore, validate the reliability of measures used in the current study. The Composite Reliability test was also conducted in order to examine the internal reliability of each research construct, as recommended by Chinomona (2011: Mhlophe, 2016. A Composite Reliability index that is greater than 0.7 signifies sufficient internal consistency of the construct.…”