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INTRODUCTION
Public awareness of the benefits of eating organically has caused an increase in organic food consumption. As consumers become more conscious of their decisions, the more important it is for distributors and growers to understand the behaviors driving their decisions. The generation of young adults, specifically, is unexplored and divided in perceptions. This seeks to understand how eighteen to twenty-five years olds in West Michigan perceive organic food and how those perceptions influence what they consume.
LIteRATURe review
LIteRATURe review
Preservatives are needed for food to maintain freshness during production, storage, selling, and consumption. However, artificial preservatives, chemicals, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have harmful effects on the environment and human health. It is important to know who is consuming these organic foods because it can provide insight for people of interest like growers, distributors, marketers, and governments (Hughner et al., 2007) .
According to studies, consumers have a variety of interpretations of what “organic” means, leading to confusion about differentiating between types of food. Companies capitalize on this confusion to market to more buyers (Hughner et al., 2007). In addition, there seems to be a gap between people's generally positive attitude toward organic food and the low turnout of those who actually purchase organic food (McEachern, & McClean, 2002).
Research has shown that attitudes toward buying organic food result from an ideology. Amongst young people, ideologies are formed from a combination of egocentric, biospheric, and altruistic rationales.
research question:
research question:
What perceptions do 18-25-year-olds in West Michigan have about organic food and what factors influence their decision to purchase and consume organic food?
DECOMPOSED THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR
DECOMPOSED THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR
This study will be done utilizing the decomposed theory of planned behavior. This theory is the best fit for the research question. It utilizes three main constructs that will be beneficial in analyzing consumer behaviors. The three main constructs below, are broken into parts that will lead to the behaviroanl intention, and ultimately the behavior of purchasing or not purchasing organic food.
Attitude - percieved usefulness, perceieved ease of use, and compatability
Subjective Norm - interpersonal influence and external influence
Perceived Behavioral Control - self efficacy and facilitating conditions
REFERENCES
Conner, D. S., & Christy, R. D. (2004). The organic label: How to reconcile its meaning with consumer preferences. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 35(1), 40–43. Retrieved from https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/27135/?v=pdf
Hughner, R. S., McDonagh, P., Prothero, A., & Shultz, C. J., II. (2007). “Who are organic food consumers? A compilation and review of why people purchase organic food” Journal of Consumer Behavior ResearchGate. Https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227643117
Klöckner, C. A. (2012). Should I buy organic food? A psychological perspective on purchase decisions.In M. Reed (Ed.), Organic food and agriculture: New trends and developments in the social sciences (pp. 39-57). InTech.
McEachern, M. G., & McClean, P. (2002). Organic food: What we know (and do not know) about consumers. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 17(1), 3-10. Https://doi.org/10.1079/RAFS200211
Naspetti, S., & Zanoli, R. (2009). Organic food quality and safety perception throughout Europe. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 15(3), 249–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/10454440902908019
Pham, T. H., Nguyen, N., Phan, H., & Nguyen, N. T. (2018) “Evaluating the purchase behaviour of organic food by young consumers in an emerging market economy.” Journal of Strategic Marketing, vol. 27, no. 6, 16 Mar. 2018, pp. 540–556, https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2018.1447984.
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