Factors influencing willingness to purchase safe vegetables evidence from vietnam

Further to the above discussion, this study aims to obtain following objectives: 1 To investigate some factors such as health consciousness, subjective knowledge, trust, price perception

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF TABLE 4

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 Introduction 5

1.2 Research problem 6

1.3 Research objectives 8

1.4 Methods and research scope 8

1.5 Contribution of the study 9

1.6 Structure of the thesis 10

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES 11

2.1 Fundamental Behavior Theories 11

2.2 Safe Vegetables 12

2.3 Attitude towards SafeVegetables (AtSV) and Willingness to Purchase (WtP) 14

2.4 Health consciousness 15

2.5 Subjective Knowledge 16

2.6 Trust 18

2.7 Convenience 19

2.8 Price perception 20

CHAPTER 3 METHODS 23

3.1 Research method 23

3.2 Research process 25

3.3 Scale of constructs 27

3.3.1 Health Consciousness 27

3.3.2 Subjective Knowledge 28

3.3.3 Trust 28

3.3.4 Convenience 29

3.3.5 Price Perception 29

3.3.6 Attitude towards Safe Vegetables 30

3.3.7 Willingness to Purchase Safe Vegetables 30

3.4 Main survey 30

3.5 Sampling 32

3.6 Data analysis method 33

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 35

4.1 Sample characteristics 35

4.2 Assessment scale of measurement 36

4.2.1 Reliability test 37

4.2.2 Validity test 38

4.3 Result of testing assumptions 41

4.4 Results of regression 43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 48

5.1 Summary of main results 48

5.2 Managerial implication 48

5.3 Limitation and future research 50

REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX 63

Appendix A: Vietnamese questionnaire 63

Appendix B: Results of EFA 68

Appendix C: Result of Regression (Model 1) 72

Appendix D: Result of Regression (Model 2) 75

LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.1 Timeline of research process 25

Table 3.2: Result of qualitative pilot research 26

Table 3.2 Result of collecting questionnaire 33

Table 4.1 Characteristic of Sample 36

Table 4.2 Result of Reliability test 38

Table 4.3 Rotated Component Matrix of Independent Variables 40

Table 4.4 Rotated Component Matrix of Mediating Variable and Dependent Variable 41

Table 4.5 Correlation of all constructs 43

Table 4.6 Regression of Model 1 44

Table 4.7 Regression of Model 2 45

Table 5.1 Result of indepth-interview for reason of not significant impact between Subjective Knowledge and Attitude towards Safe Vegetables 51

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction

A green economy gives the impression of an economy that is environmental-friendly, sensitive to the need of conserved natural resources Moreover, green economy minimizes pollution and emissions that damaging the environment while the production process is going on and makes products, services which is not harmful to the environment That means green economy is when low-carbon, resource used efficiently, and social concerned The key aim for a transition to a green economy is to enable economic growth and investment while increasing environmental quality and social inclusiveness (UNEP, 2011) Green economy is to get green growth, leading to social inclusiveness and culture inclusiveness There are over 120 countries apply green economy over the world (Đức Nhân & Việt Quốc, 2007)

In green economy, sustainable production and sustainable consumption are two essential sides Production and consumption of the economics, combine together in the cycle of producing-consuming goods This study focuses on sustainable consumption, especially agricultural consumption Sustainable consumption concept is summarized as the way that provides consumers chances for using products and services efficiently, with low-impact on environment, social and economics The final target of sustainable consumption is improving quality of life for generations; and the main idea is not less consuming, another word is intelligent consuming Indirectly way, this leads less natural resources, less waste and less polluted environment Sustainable consumption in agriculture means using agricultural foods with no chemicals Consumers’ health and environment according have benefit in direct effect This study mentions about sustainable consumption

on vegetables; because it is essential food every day for each person

In Vietnam, many farmers follow VietGAP criteria for supplying high-quality vegetables, whereas the amount of consume does not increase A lot of money for investment of growing, in contrast with situation of more not sold safe vegetables From enterprises and government, not worrying about quality products of customers causes this problem, according to Hồng Loan (2014) However, there is few comments of consumers about what they care about when deciding to buy vegetables

1.2 Research problem

As a contribution in economic growth, “agriculture represents the most important source of income for the majority of the world’s population” (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2011, p 15) And “key policy option to improve sustainability and resilience is agricultural production systems” (UNEP (2013, p 61) Vietnam is a country, which has strength point of agriculture Natural farming, in spite of new concept in sustainable production and consumption, appears ages ago in Vietnam By natural farming, there are very nutrients in foods, helping body of person healthy and no illness (Hoàng Hải Vân, 2014) Products of natural farming are natural vegetables with no chemicals However, concept of natural vegetables is not popular Most of citizens are familiar with concept “safe vegetables”, which is produced under VietGAP criteria Safe vegetables means there is limited chemicals inside the products, those are certified by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development However, how much of popularly safe vegetables used still is a big question Thus, habit of consuming safe vegetables is the general objective of this study

Safe vegetables concept appears some recent years in Vietnam It comes from overusing chemicals in order to get higher quantity of products Thus, amount of toxicity, which is inside vegetables makes customers’ health worse In recent years, along with trend

of sustainable consumption, customers take care more about what they buy and what they

eat According to Axist Research (2009), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ho Chi Minh City had “temporary regulations on the production of safe vegetables” before 1998; in period 1998 – 2001, the Ho Chi Minh City government had policy for approval of implementation program for clean vegetables; then, from 2001 to

2003, the Agricultural Department cooperated with the People’s Committee of districts to produce safe vegetables simultaniously; the land of production safe vegetables increased rapidly in following years

In line with increase of consumption of pure vegetables, such of organic products stores has appeared like chain stores of Ecomart, Organic Ecolife, Mr Sach, Organica, Vinagap, XanhShop for selling local clean vegetables and imported vegetables; moreover all supermarkets also sell VietGAP vegetables and Green Label vegetables However, the amount of clean vegetables is too little in comparison with total vegetables supplied, accounting only VietGAP vegetable, just 1% supplied products meets the need in Ho Chi Minh city (Xuan Huong, 2013)

Going with increasing of safe vegetables buying, some issues appear The impressed point is chaos of supplying in March, 2014, non-certified vegetables are sold under certified label Companies or stores just advertise that general production process with some pictures and no more information of ingredients, nutrition of products Even though some supermarkets sell not safe vegetables in recent months (Tú Anh & Thiên Minh, 2014) Moreover, there is no department is in charge of this issue That makes customers confuse about quality of safe vegetables and farmers worry about outcome of their products, according to Nguyễn Hạnh (2014) Actually, there are lots of famers are growing safe vegetables in Vietnam However, due to small size and not beautiful packaging, these suppliers could not co-working with supermarket to sell products; while consumers could not find out where selling safe vegetables In summary, some problems are customers’ trust

on quality of products, less provided information about process of growing, consumers themselves cannot differentiate between safe vegetables or not safe vegetables

As mentioned above, higher concern about safe vegetables leads to higher suppliers, thus much quantity of safe vegetables However, willingness to buy does not go up accordingly So that there is excess of safe vegetables unconsumed in the market, and a lot

of money is not returned as profit

1.3 Research objectives

In order to make customers have more believe on all kinds of safe vegetables, measurement of factors affecting willingness to purchase safe vegetables is necessary This study accordingly helps enterprises to raise resource for supporting marketing and brands for higher return The purpose of this study is to apply TPB model for assessing willingness

of purchasing safe vegetables in Vietnam with detail of explaining in part 2.1 of the next Chapter Consequently, CEO of enterprises could find out the way for pushing sales

Further to the above discussion, this study aims to obtain following objectives:

(1) To investigate some factors such as health consciousness, subjective knowledge, trust, price perception, convenience, affecting attitude towards safe vegetables

(2) To examine relationship between attitude towards safe vegetables and willingness to purchase

1.4 Methods and research scope

Two phases of this study were undertaken: a qualitative approach and quantitative approach Because fundamental theories and most of literature come from outside Vietnamese research, this phase is to modify the scales to be suitable for Vietnamese

context In-depth interview with whom bought safe vegetables at least one a month was taken to get response Software MP3 recorder was used due to difficulty of distance

The next phase is quantitative approach to test measurement and structural model Mail survey and paper questionnaire were delivered to consumers in Ho Chi Minh City to get response After getting database, SPSS version 16 was applied for analyzing, including EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) and regression

1.5 Contribution of the study

This study will show how much some factors affecting attitude towards safe vegetables, and how much attitude towards safe vegetables affecting willingness to purchase In total, this research provides the whole effect of factors that impacting behavior

on consumers towards buying safe vegetables and measures how much each element affects on willingness to purchase

Consequently, results of this study help enterprises know more about customers’ habit

of choosing vegetables in Ho Chi Minh City Therefore, companies could apply effective ways for increasing sales of safe vegetables, and increasing firms’ revenue accordingly Thus, managers do their businesses more effectively It is also good for both consumers and farmers Consumers get healthier due to fresh vegetables, and farmers get more income due to more selling products

There is little research about safe vegetables in Vietnam Result of Truong et al (2010) indicates that purchasing decision of organic foods of Vietnamese consumers depends on health and safety too much Other findings are perceived price and trust play as main points for purchasing intention safe vegetables (Nguyễn Thanh Hương, 2013) This research focuses on safe vegetables as an initial food everyday of citizens Due to steadily changing of situation of economy, this one tests whether some internal factors have still

significant or not Different scales from previous studies in Vietnam are applied, and two internal factors as convenience and knowledge are added in this research

1.6 Structure of the thesis

This thesis is structured into five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction to overview the study: research problems, research objectives and research method as well as benefit of this study

Chapter 2: Literature review to provide review of literature on all independent variables, mediating variable and dependent variable They all are health consciousness, subjective knowledge, trust, price perception, convenience, attitude and willingness to Purchase Moreover, hypotheses are given in this chapter for readers to follow the model Chapter 3: Method to indicate process of making questionnaire and doing measurement of each construct, from designing to implementing

Chapter 4: Results and discussion Data analysis will be discussed in there And some

of discussion will be mentioned

Chapter 5: Conclusion with limitation and potential way for future research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

The overall of this study is introduced in Chapter 1 This chapter introduces the theories, which are proposed by many scholars in academic field, related to each of factors

in the model and research model of this study Firstly, two types of behavior theories are introduced for analyzing which is suitable for this research Then, concept of safe vegetables is mentioned for clarifying what it is Thirdly, related theories of each construct are introduced, including attitude, willingness to purchase, health consciousness, subjective knowledge, trust, convenience and price perception Lastly, research model is proposed with hypotheses discussion

2.1 Fundamental Behavior Theories

There are two favorite theoretical models predicting attitude of customers to consume products: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) The technology acceptance model (TAM) adjusted by Davis (1986) from Theory of reasoned action (TRA) of Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) to “explain the causal relationship between users’ internal beliefs (usefulness and ease of use), attitude, intention, and computer usage behavior” (Yousafzai, Foxall & Pallister, 2007a) Some case applied TAM model as follow (according to Yousafzai et al., 2007a):

(1) IT-specific, with acceptance of systems and technologies including context (2) Using psychometric measurement scales

(3) Strong support for explanation of acceptance of technology

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), according to Ajzen (2005), “is based on the assumption that human being usually behaves in a sensible manner” Therefore, “TPB could predict and understand performance of specific action tendencies” (Ajzen (2005) TPB also has applied to know more about each individual behave in which way factors

influencing behavior control (Sommer, 2011) Following to TPB theory, intention or attitude of consumers towards product or service comes from factors affecting on, those could be internal factors or external factors, one personal in nature or one reflecting social influence TPB has fundamental beliefs based on a wide range of background factors Besides that, TPB also assumed that there are more important factors than the others

In comparison between two of them, TAM extents potentials adopters perceive intention of use products (Riemenschneider et al., 2002; Nour-Mohammad & Ebrahim, 2010) and (Ziqi & Xinping, 2007) and often be applied in IT field (Nguyen, 2007, p.362; and Riemenschneider et al (2002) Yousafzai, Foxall and Pallister (2007b) also claimed that TAM model mixed that evidence of behavior towards use technology; while TPB has provided support to predict a wide range of behaviors (Sommer, 2011) Ajzen (as cited in Jianyao et al., 2008) stated that “TPB has been widely adopted as one of the most powerful tools to test consumers’ behavioral intention” TPB represents distinct external and internal factors as separate constructs affecting intention of behavior to use products (Shirley & Peter, 1995, as cited in Riemenschneider et al., 2002) and TPB could be used for vary range of behavior, not using technology In addition, TPB was applied for many previous research with social behavior, likely attitude and intention factors in the study of Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) in Finland, or others research in Vietnam, likely Truong

et al (2010) Therefore, TPB model is applied in this study

2.2 Safe Vegetables

There are many concepts of vegetables nowadays: organic vegetables, pure vegetables, natural vegetables, fresh vegetables, or safe vegetables Vietnamese concepts have also very kinds of name: “rau sạch”, “rau xanh”, “rau an toàn” Natural vegetables,or organic vegetables is not new to Vietnamese farmers It is product of natural farming, under another name as traditional farming, which farmers do not use any chemical

fertilizers and no preservatives (Tran & Pham, 2012), as least earthmoving as possible However, Vietnamese people love fresh vegetable with big leaf, that leads to using chemical fertilizers Long time later, consequence of overusing chemical fertilizers and preservatives could see clearly daily, such as illness for farmers, deformed hands due to touch of chemicals, or lots of cancers appear, even though number of patients goes up due

to more not healthy people Then, urban citizens move to use organic vegetables

In the market, concept of safe vegetables is quite same as concept of pure vegetables Actually, they are different According to PGS Certificate (2014), pure vegetables, or organic vegetables are ones that no chemicals or preservatives used in whole process from growing to delivery, while safe vegetables are one that limited chemicals for using in whole process There is not specific definition of safe vegetables However, in general, safe vegetables are ones that has not over limited chemicals

Safe vegetables popularly mean all kinds of vegetables under VietGAP criteria and organic criteria (Brown, 2014; Simmons & Scott, 2007) VietGAP products are grown with limited chemicals enough for safety (according to Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, 2008) And types of vegetables are produced following technical procedure including good and fresh condition, limited pesticide, heavy metal content, and standard distribution Besides VietGAP vegetables, there is VietGAP Nhãn Xanh criteria This kind

of criteria is higher level than VietGAP According to FAPQDC (2013), VietGAP Nhãn xanh included quality control of standards for measurement, quality control of evaluator, and ensuring about benefit for farmers Concept safe vegetables of this study means all kinds of VietGAP, VietGAP Nhan Xanh (a higher level than VietGAP), and organic vegetables All types of them follow four criteria about technology of production, food safety, working environment and source of products

Vietnam Government also had rule 99/2008/QĐ-BNN for production, trade safe fruits and vegetables in 2008 Government in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces also have plan for safe vegetables production area (Sở nông nghiệp và Phát triển nông thôn TP Hồ Chí Minh, 2013) However, according to a report in Asia News Monitor (Xuan Huong, 2013) quantity for supplying of safe vegetables is much less than demand, just only 1% of fulfilling the needs

Due to nature production, natural farming can help to reduce the negative impact on the environment and increase sustainability (Organic Foods: What You Need to Know, 2011) In more specific, according to one research in Vietnam in 2005-2007, safe vegetables are tastier and more nutritious than normal ones, they are also more safety for users in advance (Quang & Hiền, Viện Nghiên cứu Rau quả, as cited in eco-green.vn website)

2.3 Attitude towards Safe Vegetables (AtSV) and Willingness to Purchase (WtP)

Attitude, according to Ajzen (2005, p.3), “is a hypothetical construct that, being inaccessible to direct observation, must be inferred from measurable responses”.“The concept of attitude has been the focus of attention in explanations of human behavior offered by social psychologists” (Ajzen, 2005, p.1) Those are some factors author want to explain in this study

Attitude is quite different from trait Trait explains dispositional factors (Ajzen, 2005) However, some factors of trait are difficult for measurement and indicating the reasons from inside the human Thus, this study focuses on attitude, inside factors to evaluate willingness to purchase safe vegetables, those collected by individuals Attitude, consequently, represents beliefs, feelings, and action tendencies And other studies like Chen (2007a, b) and Poelman et al.(2008) (as cited in Magistris & Gracia, 2008) mention that attitude is the most important to explain consumers’ decision-making process

There is verbal and nonverbal behavior towards attitude Thus, it is very difficult to evaluate how much consumers like or intent to use specific product, especially safe vegetables Due to limited resources, this study just focuses on nonverbal behavior that affecting attitude

Willingness to purchase concept is defined as the maximum price a buyer is willing to pay (Didier & Lucie, 2008; Franke & Schreier, 2008; Voelckner,2006; Wertenbroch & Skiera, 2002) (as cited in Barber et al., 2012) Willing to purchase is the first stage indicates more engagement than attitude towards specific product

Willingness to purchase plays an important role in consumers’ commitment in consuming safe vegetables, a higher level in comparison with attitude According to Krystallis and Chryssohoidis (2005), willingness to purchase can be a good predictor of safe vegetables demand Moreover, attitude of consumers is very good predictors to their willing to purchase, according to Laroche et al (2001) (as cited in Krystallis & Chryssohoidis, 2005)

Attitude mentions on attention to safe vegetables, while willingness to purchase mentions about maximum potential for buying safe vegetables There are many researches over the world about willingness to purchase food, from vegetables to meat, in America likes in UK (Gerrard et al., 2013), Africa likes in Greece (Krystallis & Chryssohoidis (2005), Egypt (Mohamed, Chymis & Shelaby, 2012), Asia likes Taiwan (Huang, Kan & Tsu-Tan, 1999)

Therefore, H1 is proposed as followed:

H1: Attitude towards safe vegetables has positive impact on willingness to purchase safe vegetables

2.4 Health consciousness

Health plays a key point for doing anything Thus, health consciousness is first cared element before people decide to work or study Health consciousness represents the willingness people to do something for their health (Schifferstein & Ophuis, 1998, as cited

in Wen & Li, 2013) Due to be healthy, people often choose good foods for their family, especially safevegetables And they believe that safe vegetables are safer than normal ones (Padel & Foster, 2005; Schifferstein & Ophuis, 1998, as cited in Wen & Li, 2013) Vegetables are in specific, food is in general, they all concerned before the other elements for choosing foods, from developed economy likes in UK (Pearson, Henryks & Jones, 2010) to developing economy like in Egypt (Mohamed et al., 2012), in Asia (Chen, 2009)

as same as customers’ care in Vietnam (Truong et al., 2010) Pearson et al (2010) claimed that most people who faced illness concern more about healthy diet This is more important

in recent years due to more epidemics In summary, health consciousness often plays a key role when choosing foods

Researchers also found out that health reason is important in buying safe vegetables like Smed et al (2013); Wen and Li (2013), even though Fotopoulos and Krystallis(2002) claimed that it is the central motivation or health consciousness is the most important reason In addition, Mohamed, Chymis and Shelaby (2012) indicate that health concern is the first motivation for buying safe vegetables with an extra price due to more value customers receive Accordingly,

H2: Health consciousness has a positive impact on safe vegetables

2.5 Subjective Knowledge

Information, widely under name as knowledge, is a factor influencing to consumers in choosing any product Information plays as input for raising consumers’ knowledge and reducing risk or minimizing uncertainty when consuming product Thus, information in consumers’ own knowledge intent the manner they behave another thing (Barber, 2008)

Knowledge has defined as content information about an object, product or issue (Gamble & Blackwell, 2001, chapter 1) Before making decision to buy something, people have foundational knowledge for analyzing whether they decide to buy goods or not Thus, consumers’ knowledge is important both to theoretical models of consumer behavior and to marketing practice There are three types of knowledge: objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and usage experience According to Selnes and Gr°nhaug (1986), while objective knowledge measure a person’s evaluation of one piece of knowledge, subjective knowledge measures consumer’s interpretation of what he or she knows And usage experience measure how much consumers evaluate quality amount of product they consumed before In another shorter words, objective knowledge could explained as general information he or she knows, subjective knowledge means how much a person examines whether one product good or not good based on her or his information, and usage experience means how much a person evaluate goods after purchasing

The general objective of this study is measuring some internal factors of consumers influencing on attitude and willingness to purchase safe vegetables, which pertains to a more actual amount of knowledge that person stores in his or her memory, thus subjective knowledge is focused In addition, most of Vietnamese consumers have not confidence in evaluating the quality of safe vegetables or differentiate whether the vegetables are safe or not (Ho & Dao, 2006) and how much perceived knowledge becomes knowledgeable Consequently, subjective knowledge element is analyzed in this research

In reality, there are many ways to get knowledge about safe vegetables, from website

of The Ministry of Agriculture, website of Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute or published article And one popular way is information on product label Another type of subjective knowledge is consumers’ knowledge about standard of quality control There are some of quality criteria in Vietnam: VietGAP, VietGAP Nhãn Xanh, Organic vegetables

Subjective knowledge also means understanding how to evaluate one product is enough quality or not

In other results, Ellen (1994, as cited in Aertsens et al., 2011) also noted that subjective knowledge has a positive relationship with attitude towards a product Therefore, subjective knowledge, in specific as knowledge and measurement of safe vegetables, has positive relationship with attitude towards safe vegetables Accordingly,

H3: Subjective knowledge positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

2.6 Trust on producers

In process of production and delivery from farm to table, there are many potential risks could appear Thus, in each stage, the producer or the retailer has the quality assurance system for ensuring the quality of products When product came to ending-consumer, they just know about information that is on the label and provided by retailers However, most of ending-consumers who use safe vegetables do not how to evaluate the quality of product (Ho & Dao, 2006) They just believe in producers or retailers that supplying quality products Therefore, trust plays an important role in consumption of safe vegetables

Belong with process of providing vegetables, from farming, through storing, then distributing, trust factor could be put on two categories: producers and retailers Producers,

in another word, suppliers are who grown vegetables If they are towards natural farming and care about quality of products, output will be very good Retailers who are in charge of storing and distributing, plays also an important role in flow of goods If retailers are towards sustainable consumption and production, they do not use any preservative, the quality of product accordingly is good

More specific, trust in suppliers indicates customers believe in the way that products were made meet enough criteria (Choe et al., 2009), in information on the label of products (Smed et al., 2013), even though they do not know how to measure the quality of products that producers provide (Nguyễn Văn Thuận & Võ Thành Danh, 2011) According to Choe

et al (2009, as cited in Venugopal & Kaundinya, 2014), trust between ending-consumers and suppliers helps to improve agriculture process due to less asymmetric

Trust in retailers indicates consumers believe on that retailer sells quality products, for both private-label vegetables and other quality vegetables from another suppliers (according to Perrini et al., 2009) After facing many potential risks from farming, consumers also face the asymmetry information exists between buyer and seller In specific, it could be quality products of input at farmer, but there is not enough quality of output at retail for selling to ending-customers This issue may from not enough provided information about quality assurance of retailers (Choe et al., 2009) Therefore, customers’ trust on retailers also is a factor impacting on making decision to buy safe vegetables Nowadays, even supermarkets sell not safe vegetables under safe vegetables name The consumers are more difficult to identify which are safe vegetables and which are not ones They just have information regarding how is vegetables produced Information about how is vegetables processed and delivered are not provided The most popular way for testing is consumers’ feeling when feeding vegetables Thus, this study just mentions on trust on suppliers, specific in quality of the way producers did, quality logo criteria on the label, information supplier provides, while does not mention on trust element of retailers Accordingly,

H4: Trust on suppliers has a positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

2.7 Convenience

In an emerging economy, citizens take more time for working, and focus on multitasking For instance, buying foods by ordering on the website, and paying via internet banking, then goods will be delivered at their home Results of Padel and Foster (2005) indicate that limited convenience influencing on intention to buy organic food, and convenience is an important factor for setting up new outlets In addition, regular consumers are willing to trade-off value against the convenience for buying healthy foods They are willing to buy vegetables nearly their house instead of going further distance for better goods Thus, convenience strongly influences on attitude of buying safe vegetables More and more convenience store appears in recent years to serve the availability for consumers In addition, result of Jabir et al (2010) in emerging economy likes India also shows that consumers prefer market place that is comfortable Thus, the more conveniently

of buying is, the more value for consumers receive and more revenue for retailers

To adapt with changing habit of customers’ consuming, there is shopping online for buying safe vegetables such as XanhShop.com, Vuonrau.com and so on The increasing number of shops in few years indicates that consumers like convenience more In addition, according to Hà Nguyễn (2014), there is rapid increase from 27% to 58% of using smart phones for online purchasing between 2013 and 2014 This figure shows Vietnamese consumers are likely to take availability as soon as possible Consequently,

H5: Convenience positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

2.8 Price perception

Price perception is a sensitive factor when choosing products, especially new label Vegetables are an essential food every day, thus amount of money that consumers pay for vegetables accounts for huge percentage of total expenditure Consequently, higher price could be an obstacle for choosing safe vegetables, according to Shepherd et al (1996), as cited in Saleki, Seyedsaleki & Rahimi, 2012) and Revoredo (as cited in Baourakis, 2004)

Besides that, Cottingham and Winkler (2008) agree that price is the most important for not

to buy green foods This means consumers intent to buy safe vegetables if they perceive price of those products

In Vietnam, price of safe vegetables, especially organic vegetables is usually double than normal ones in local market (Trần Mạnh, 2014) due to no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, no genetically modified organism, and more nutrients Large of people often just see the price instead of seeing more the benefit safe vegetables bring to them Therefore, price is an obstacle for buying safe ones In total, people consume safe vegetables due to benefit they receive, in comparison with amount of money they pay for Average income of Vietnamese reached 1,960 USD per year in 2013 (according to Bích Diệp, 2013), especially Ho Chi Minh Citizens reached 4,513 USD per year (Liên Phương, 2013), approximately 8 million VND per month Accounting for 34% of expenditure for foods, and the most of consuming is fresh food (according to Thúy Hải, 2011) However, the habit of demand of fresh food towards decrease due to increasing price few months (Trần Thúy, 2013) If the price of safe vegetables rises, the amount of money for consumption fresh food accordingly goes up, amount for other parts like education, entertainment, saving and so on has to decrease To balance percentage of consuming for safe vegetables against others, more people choose to eat less fresh ones or buy sale products Thus, H6 is proposed that:

H6: Price perception has positive impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

All of hypotheses in this study are summarized as below to be easier to follow the model:

H1: Attitude towards safe vegetables has positive impact on willingness to purchase safe vegetables

H2: Health consciousness has a positive impact on attitude towards safe vegetables H3: Subjective knowledge positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

H4: Trust on suppliers positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

H5: Convenience positively impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

H6: Price perception has positive impact on attitude towards safe vegetables

In summary, this chapter presents literature review of each concept in this study, each factor, including independent variables, mediating variable and dependent variable, and six hypotheses for whole

The model of this study is represented as below:

Willingness to Purchase Safe Vegetables

Convenience

CHAPTER 3 METHODS

Chapter 2 gives detail about the literature review and the model of this study This chapter mentions about method for measuring construct and examining the hypotheses in the model There are five parts in this chapter: (1) research method, (2) research process, (3) scale of constructs, (4) main survey, and (5), sampling

3.1 Research method

In order to dress a design for research, the researcher considered the kind of model and measures were suitable for all constructs of the study The focus of this research is to examine:

(1) Some factors affecting attitude towards safe vegetables

(2) Effect of attitude towards safe vegetables on willingness to purchase safe vegetables Accordingly, this study including two phases: (1) qualitative approach, and (2) quantitative approach

Qualitative approach was done in July, 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City by in-depth interview, via skype with record mp3 software This stage was undertaken in order to review and revise scale for measurement all the constructs in this study

The quantitative approach was done from August to September in 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City by main survey, using google docs and paper questionnaire This stage was done

to measure the hypotheses mentioned in Chapter 2

Overall, this study process is summarized as below:

Figure 3.1 The research process

3.2 Research process

The timeline of process of research as mentioned in Table 3.1 below

Table 3.1 Timeline of research process

Method Tool Size of sample Time Location

questionnaire 170

Step 1: Build the scale for each construct

This step based on literature review mentioned in Chapter 2, and scale including researches in other countries Detail of measurement of each construct will be discussed more detail in next part

Step 2: Qualitative approach

Due to difference of culture among countries, scales from researches could be not suitable for the context of Vietnam, purpose of this phase is revising the original statement into be appropriate with Vietnamese context, and modifying scales to be comprehensible and make sure that no statement appeared more than once After the in-depth interview, the author received significant feedbacks and suggestion to make the improvement for the official questionnaire Based on the literature review of previous research about the impact

of health consciousness, subjective knowledge, trust, price perception and convenience on

attitude towards safe vegetables, those are presented in Chapter 2, the researcher adjusted the model and selected the preliminary scale for final questionnaire of the study

When finishing the preliminary questionnaire, the author took an in-depth interview with seven persons via online method, using skype with MP3 skype Recorder software Among interviewees, there was one person could not take an discussion due to error network Thus, there were six results from six persons Result of in-depth interview is presented in Table 3.2 below

Table 3.2: Result of qualitative pilot research

Original

statement Concept

Vietnamese statement

Comments from in-depth interview

Revised statement

Tôi cho rằng mình

hy sinh nhiều thứ cho sức khỏe bản thân

The meaning is same as last item of this concept (My health is so valuable to me that I am prepared to sacrifice many things for it)

And this statement is too hard for translating into Vietnamese than the other

So sánh với người bình thường, tôi biết rất nhiều về rau an toàn

The meaning of first clause

is not clear We do not know about what level of knowledge of average person

I know a lot about safe vegetables

an toàn ở mức

The meaning is same as the first statement of this concept (I think the nutrition level of safe vegetable is) Besides that,

“information provided” in this statement has not clear meaning

Delete

After doing the in-depth interview, the items for measurement were revised to reach final questionnaire, detail of Vietnamese questionnaire in Appendix A The researcher began to move on the next step

Step 3: Main survey

The final questionnaire was delivered to 247 persons in Ho Chi Minh City To be clear the sample size, all the paper questionnaires were issued to students who were not author’s friends; while link of google docs was sent to friends of author All scales were examined again by reliability test and validity test Cronbach coefficient Alpha was applied for assessment reliability test For validity test, EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) was applied Items would be removed from model if the index bellowed 0.25 After factor analysis, items were used for examining relationship among constructs in the model

The whole model was divided into two phases to be easy for analyzing First small model is among all independent variables with mediating variable, and the second one between mediating variable and the dependent variable Hypotheses assessment were taken

by two steps of regression for two small models

3.3 Scale of constructs

As mentioned in previous part, scale of each construct based on existed research in many countries They were all revised to be adaptable with context of Vietnamese culture, using in-depth interview There are seven concepts in this study

3.3.1 Health Consciousness

As mentioned in Chapter 2, health consciousness evaluates how much of importance consumers take care about their health before they decide to buy safe vegetables Thus, scale for measurement has to assess these contexts The researcher used scale based on research of Chen (2009), items were previous tested in Taiwan The original scale has six

items After revising to adapt to Vietnamese culture by in-depth interview, this construct has five items, coded as from Health1 to Health5 Detail of deleted items is presented in Table 3.2

Health1: I try to eat as healthy as possible

Health2: I consider myself very health conscious

Health3: I think that I take health into account a lot in my life

Health4: I think it is important to know well how to eat healthy

Health5: My health is so valuable to me that I am prepared to sacrifice many things for it

3.3.2 Subjective Knowledge

Subjective knowledge measures how much of knowledge towards safe vegetables customers have Thus, scale for measurement this construct ought to have items to evaluate this meaning Items were applied for measurement subjective knowledge based on research

of Aertsens et al (2011) testing in Belgium The original scale has three items After depth interview, one item was modified to be easier to understand, and there were still three items They all coded as from Know1 to Know3 Detail of revised item is presented in Table 3.2

in-Know1: I know a lot about safe vegetables

Know2: I know a lot about how to judge the quality of safe

Know3: People who know me, consider me as an expert in the field of safe vegetables

3.3.3 Trust

Trust concept in this study is focused on producers, including trusting on the way producers applied and information they provided Scale of Choe et al (2009) tested in

Taiwan market was applied totally with no revised after in-depth interview There were four items of measurement, coded as from Trust1 to Trust4

Trust1: I trust that those selling safe vegetables are honest about the safety of their products

Trust2: I trust that local producers of safe vegetables are practicing safety in farming Trust3: I trust the certification logo on safe vegetables labels

Trust4: I trust the information on safe vegetables labels

3.3.4 Convenience

Convenience indicates how much consumers could access where safe vegetables appear Therefore, scale for measurement of this construct has to show this context The researcher used original scale which was tested in Malaysia from research of Voon et al (2011) After in-depth interview, no item had to be revised, thus there were three items as much as in original All items were coded as from Conve1 to Conve3

Conve1: Buying safe vegetables is highly inconvenient

Conve2: Safe vegetables are only available in limited stores

Conve3: The stores that I frequently shop do not sell safe vegetables

3.3.5 Price Perception

Price perception concept in this study mentions about how much customers value safe vegetables in comparison with no-labeled safe vegetables, and their hope in the future There were three original items of scale for measurement this construct They were come from Srivastava and Lurie (2004) that the scale was tested in America, with seven-point Likert scale After in-depth interview, there was no item for revising All items were coded

as from Price1 to Price3

Price1: The overall prices of safe vegetables are most likely

Price2: In comparison with normal vegetables, the price of safe vegetables is

Price3: Your general expectation about the overall price level at

3.3.6 Attitude towards Safe Vegetables

Attitude towards safe vegetables shows how much consumers like or intent using safe vegetables in their meal Thus, scale from Aertsens et al (2011) was applied with little revising after in-depth interview Original scale had four items, there was one deleted due

to same meaning with other one in translating into Vietnamese context (Appendix A shows specifically) Therefore, three items were applied for measurement, with type-Likert scale They all coded as from Atti1 to Atti3

Atti1: I think the nutrition level of safe vegetables is

Atti2: How important would safe vegetables be as a part of a healthy diet?

Atti3: For health, safe vegetables are

3.3.7 Willingness to Purchase Safe Vegetables

Willingness to purchase safe vegetable concept in this study indicated higher level of intention consumers willing to pay for safe vegetables Thus, scale from research of Grewal

et al (1998) was applied for measuring that meaning Number of items applied were three,

as much as number of items in original one All items were coded as from Will1 to Will3 Will1: If I were going to buy vegetables, the probability of buying safe vegetables is Will2: The probability that I would consider buying the safe vegetable is

Will3: The likelihood that I would purchase the safe vegetable is

3.4 Main survey

The quantitative approach was applied with main survey, conducted widely by using convenience sample from consumers in Ho Chi Minh City Process followed these steps:

Step 1: Translating questionnaire into Vietnamese

Because of collecting data from Vietnamese people, the text of questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese language to be easy to follow

Step 2: Defining the sample size of the study

According to Tabachnick and Fidell (1991), the sample size should be more than 8m+50 (where m is number of independent variables) This study has five independent variables, thus the amount of number collected should be more than 90

Step 3: The researcher delivered the questionnaire to the interviewees

This research used primary data collected from consumers in Ho Chi Minh City who acknowledge about safe vegetables and go to market or supermarket for buying safe vegetables at least once a month The researcher used online approach via email and offline approach via paper questionnaire

Step 4: The author received the questionnaire and checked again for suitable input of data analysis

Two conditions for filtering responses are: consumers are acknowledging about safe vegetables and going for buying safe vegetables at least once a month If response does not have enough two categories, it would be removed from database which used as input of data analysis

Step 5: Data analysis

SPSS software version 16 was used for analyzing data in this study In some tools, the author uses Excel for merging tables output from SPSS output

Firstly, reliability test for each construct was done with Cronbach’s Alpha criteria Then, EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) method was applied for validity test, for independent variables, mediating variable, and dependent variable After that, in order to test hypotheses, regression was done with two small models by using SPSS.The first model

is all independent variables impacting on attitude towards safe vegetables And the second one is relationship between attitude towards safe vegetables and willingness to purchase safe vegetables

3.5 Sampling

In order to be more convenient for respondents, the questionnaires were issued via the internet by google docs By this way, the author sent the survey link to respondents via gmail and facebook Then respondents click on the link and key their answers, then submitting the link to the researcher To make sure all respondents clear about safe vegetables, the author insert sample of photo for clearly understanding There is

77 responses were collected via online approach

On the other hand, the hard copies of questionnaire were issued to bachelor students and master students in the Economics University in Ho Chi Minh City The amount of delivered hard copies is 170, and the number of returned responses is 157

In total, collected responses were 234, 77 responses were collected via online approach and 157 responses were collected by hard copy approach

Table 3.2 Result of collecting questionnaire

Channel Number of

delivered questionnaire

Number of received response

Number of valid response after cleaning data

3.6 Data analysis method

The first step is testing validity each construct, by using Cronbach’s alpha scale Then author tested the validity, by using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) After doing those, regression was applied for testing the relationship In this study, the researcher divided whole into two models for analysis

“Multiple regression is one type of complex associational statistical method”, which

“is based on a correlation matrix of all the variables to be considered in a problem.” (Leech

et al., 2005) Regression is used for predicting a dependent or criterion variable from several independent or predictor variables

In summary, Chapter 3 indicates research method that was done for measuring all constructs and models This study used two phases: qualitative approach and quantitative approach Qualitative approach was done by in-depth interview with six responses And qualitative approach was done by main survey with delivered questionnaire via google docs and hard copies In addition, scale for measurement each construct and sampling also be detailed in this Chapter

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In Chapter 3, research method and result of qualitative approach were mentioned Purpose of Chapter 4 is indicating result of data analysis of quantitative approach, including result of factor analysis: reliability test and validity test Then result of testing two models as well as hypotheses will be mentioned

4.1 Sample characteristics

A sample of 209 responses includes about 75% female, 25% male It is reasonable that female is who often goes to market or supermarket to buy safe vegetables for her home Most of age is in range 20 – 29, accounts for 95% It could be the sample that author communicates with is not evenly distributed Vegetables are initial foods; however there was nearly a half of persons in the sample buying safe vegetables less than once a week In opposition to above elements, three ones: number of member in household, income of household, and frequency of buying safe vegetables have not significantly different among groups More detail about characteristics is presented in Table 4.1

Table 4.1 Characteristic of Sample

4.2 Assessment scale of measurement

All scales applied in this study were revised by in-depth interview to be adaptable with Vietnamese context Thus quantitative research was undertaken first for measurement

hypotheses Before doing that, factor analysis was done with Cronbach’s Alpha index and EFA method

4.2.1 Reliability test

This is the first test of the data analysis process According to Phelan and Wren (2005), “test-retest reliability is a measure of reliability obtained by administering the same test twice over a period of time to a group of individuals.”

This kind of test is from Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) (as cited in Nguyễn Đình Thọ, 2013), claimed that Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is equal or above 0.25, the scale is acceptable If scale is not reliable, measurement of that construct could not move on any further test This means the construct has Cronbach’s Alpha below 0.25 has to be removed from model

According to results of SPSS at table 4.2, most of variables have high Cronbach’s alpha Health consciousness had Cronbach’s alpha at 0.941, the Cronbach’s alpha of subjective knowledge was 0.877, the number of Cronbach’s alpha of trust was 0.930, Convenience had Cronbach’s alpha at 0.805; attitude towards safe vegetables and willingness to purchase have respectively Cronbach’s alpha at 0.831 and 0.39 Excepting price perception factor had Cronbach’s Alpha at just 0.087, and the third item (price perception 3) of this construct had Corrected Item-Total Correlation at 0.572, it was too low for reliability Thus, price perception 3 item was removed from the model, and the Cronbach’s alpha of Price perception construct is 0.57; this figure was acceptable for moving to the next step of analysing

The end, there was one item deleted from model, that was price perception 3 The total items used for next step were 23 items

Table 4.2 Result of Reliability test

Reliability Statistics Item-Total Statistics Variables Cronbach's

Alpha

N of Items Items Corrected

Item-Total Correlation

Health

Consciousness .941 5

Health consciousness 1 806 Health consciousness 2 875 Health consciousness 3 850 Health consciousness 4 843 Health consciousness 5 836 Subjective

Subjective knowledge 1 737 Subjective knowledge 2 818 Subjective knowledge 3 763

4.2.2 Validity test

“Internal consistency reliability is a measure of reliability used to evaluate the degree

to which different test items that probe the same construct produce similar results” (Phelan

& Wren, 2005) According to Williams, Brown and Onsman (2010), EFA “allows the