The present study attempts to investigate the young consumers’ motives to purchase organic food in a developing nation (Malaysia). Four key motives of food safety concern, health consciousness, affordability and environment concern are examined in this study. Consumers’ purchase behaviour is represented by purchase intentions and actual purchase. The questionnaires used was administered to a convenience sample of 398 young consumers from Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, through a self?administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modeling and five hypotheses were tested. The findings reported that food safety concern, health consciousness, and environment concern have significantly influenced purchase intentions of organic food. Purchase intentions is positively correlated to the actual purchase of organic food. There was no significant effect of affordability on purchase intentions. Based on the findings, strategies to enhance the quality, long-term health benefits, environment friendliness, and reduce in pricing of organic food should be undertaken.
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Agapito, D., Valle, P., & Mendes, J. (2013). The Cognitive-Affective-Conative Model of Destination
Image: A Confirmatory Analysis. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(5), 471-481.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2013.803393
Australian Organic LTD (2018). Australian Organic Market Report 2018. Retrieved September 20,
2018 from https://austorganic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AustOrganicMarketReport
2018_spreads_digital.pdf
Aryal, K. P., Chaudhary, P., Pandit, S., & Sharma, G. (2009). Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for
Organic Products: A Case from Kathmandu Valley. The Journal of Agriculture and Environment,
10, 15-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/aej.v10i0.2126
Barrett, P. (2007). Structural equation modelling: Adjudging model fit. Personality and Individual
Differences, 42, 815-824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.018
Basaran, U. (2016). Examining the Relationships of Cognitive, Affective, and Conative Destination
Image: A Research on Safranbolu, Turkey. International Business Research, 9(5), 164-179.
DOI:10.5539/ibr.v9n5p164
Basha, M. B., Mason, C., & Shamsudin, M. F. (2015). Consumers Attitude towards Organic Food.
International Accounting and Business Conference, 31, 444–452.
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In: K.A.
Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS (2nd ed.). New York: New York.
Chan, K., & Zhang, C. (2007). Living in a celebrity-mediated social world: The Chinese experience.
Young Consumers, 8, 139–152. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17473610710757509
Chen, M. F. (2009). Attitude toward organic foods among Taiwanese as related to health
Consciousness, environmental attitudes, and the mediating effects of a healthy lifestyle. British
Food Journal, 111(2), 165-178. http://dx.doi:10.1108/00070700910931986
Chitty, W., Barker, N., Valos, M., & Shimp, T. A. (2011). Integrated Marketing Communications, 3rd
ed., South Melbourne, Vic: Cengage Learning.
Dardak, R., Abidin, A., & Ali, A. (2009). Consumers' perceptions, consumption and preference on
organic product: Malaysia perspective. Economic and Technology Management Review, 4, 95-
107.
Dubé, L., Cervellon, M., & Han, J. (2003). Should consumer attitudes be reduced to their affective
and cognitive bases? Validation of a hierarchical model. International Journal of Research in
Marketing, 20, 259-272.
Euromonitor (2018). Organic Packaged Food in Malaysia. Retrieved September 28, 2018
http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.ezproxy.taylors.edu.my/portal/analysis/tab
Fill, C. (2013). Marketing Communications: Brands, Experiences and Participation. Harlow, England:
Pearson.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable
Variables and Measurement Error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3151312
Furlow, N. E., & Knott, C. (2009). Who’s reading the label? Millennials’ use of environmental
product labels. The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 10, 1–12.
Gil, J. M., Gracia, A., & Sanchez, M. (2000). Market Segmentation and Willingness to Pay for Organic
Products in Spain. The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 3(2), 207-26.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010). Multivariate Data Analysis: A global
perspective (7th Ed.). New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Harper, G. C., & Makatouni, A. (2002). Consumer perception of organic food production and farm
animal welfare. British Food Journal, 104(3/4/5), 287-299.
https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700210425723
Hassan, S. T., Loi, W. Y., & Kok, J. R. (2015). Purchasing I
In-Text Citation: (Lian & Yoong, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Lian, S. B., & Yoong, L. C. (2019). Assessing the Young Consumers’ Motives and Purchase Behavior for Organic Food: An Empirical Evidence from a Developing Nation. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(1), 69–87.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
