Effect of perceptual differences on consumer purchase intention of natural functional food

Abstract

Purpose The concept of functional foods is not new to the Malaysian people. Functional foods as traditional medicine have made tremendous contributions over the past couple of centuries. The growth in the economy, coupled with a strong desire among the Malaysian consumers to maintain a healthy lifestyle has made functional foods an alternative medicine among the populace. Although the consumption of functional foods is increasing in Malaysia, relatively little is known about the factors which affect consumer purchase intention toward natural functional foods. The purpose of this paper is to determine Malaysian consumer intention to purchase natural functional foods. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted in the country where 2,004 household were interviewed using structured questionnaires. The theory of reasoned action (TRA) and health belief model were adopted and modified in this study. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the collected data. Findings The results have shown that the data set was normal, valid and reliable. Attitude has a partial mediating effect on perceived barriers, perceived susceptibility and perceived benefits which influence consumer intention to purchase natural functional foods. Nevertheless attitude had no mediation effect on subjective norms for consumers to form their intention to purchase natural functional foods. In other word, subjective norms had a direct influence on consumer intention to purchase natural functional foods. Research limitations/implications The main concern of this paper is about the factors which affect consumer purchase intention toward natural functional foods. However the results from this paper are limited in terms of determining consumer purchasing behavior for natural functional foods. Originality/value The paper expands on the TRA and health belief model to examine the factors which influence Malaysian consumer purchase intention toward natural functional foods.

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“…Subjective norms represent group influence or social pressure to perform the behavior [27][28][29]. 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].…”

“…Subjective norms represent group influence or social pressure to perform the behavior [27][28][29]. 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].…”

“…Moreover, price perception was included in our research model since the price of functional foods can play a negative role in the formation of attitude and purchase intention [16,39,40]. 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].…”

“…Moreover, price perception was included in our research model since the price of functional foods can play a negative role in the formation of attitude and purchase intention [16,39,40]. Understanding the barriers to functional foods purchase and acceptance (e.g., price) is essential to increasing consumer demand for these products [30].…”

“…This is confirmed by O'Connor and White [57] who report that subjective norms encourage consumer willingness to trial functional foods. In addition, while Sukboonyasatit [8] asserts that subjective norm increases consumer intention to eat/drink functional foods, Rezai et al [30] highlight that subjective norm has a direct impact on intention to buy natural functional foods. Based on the aforementioned discussion, we have proposed the following hypotheses:…”