Willingness to buy organic vegetable : a study in Bien Hoa City

Besides the demographic characteristics of consumers such as age, educational level, monthly expense for food, presence of children in the family, that affect their willingness to purcha

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business -

Nguyen Thanh Phuong

CONSUMER WILLINGNESS TO PURCHASE

ORGANIC VEGETABLE:

A STUDY IN BIEN HOA CITY

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business -

Nguyen Thanh Phuong

CONSUMER WILLINGNESS TO PURCHASE

Advantages of organic vegetable are indicated as good for health, more tasty for users while disadvantages are not easy to buy and not enough species for choices Given both the

motives and barriers of purchasing organic vegetable, the study aims to identify the most influence factors that affect consumers’ willingness to purchase towards organic vegetables

in Vietnam, precisely in Bien Hoa City

Besides the demographic characteristics of consumers such as age, educational level, monthly expense for food, presence of children in the family, that affect their willingness to purchase organic vegetable , the author has presented a model with number of items and factors proven to add explanation value concerning willingness to purchase organic

vegetable of Bien Hoa consumers Field interviews conducted in a random selected sample consisted of 230 family food buyers in August and September of 2014, through a self-

administered structured questionnaire Frequencies, descriptive statistics, principal

components analysis and multiple regression were used for data analysis to identify factors that affect people in preferring consuming organic vegetables The results revealed three factors having most influence on consumers’ willingness to buy organic vegetables: (1) Price, (2) Awareness of Benefits and (3) Subjective Norms While (2) Awareness of

Benefits and (3) Subjective Norms were indicated as buying motives, (1) Price was

indicated as buying barriers

TALE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 0

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 Background 5

1.2 Problem statement 6

1.3 Research objectives and aims 7

1.4 Thesis structure 7

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Theoretical review: Theory of Planned Behavior 9

2.2 Buying motives and buying barriers of organic vegetable 10

2.3 Research hypothesis and research model 12

2.3.1 Self-awareness 13

2.3.2 Health Concerns 14

2.3.3 Subjective Norms 14

2.3.4 Perceived Benefits 15

2.3.5 Perceived Convenience 15

2.3.6 Perceived Price 16

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHOD 17

3.1 Research method 17

3.2 Measurement scale 18

3.3 Data collection method 20

3.4 Data analysis method 20

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS 21

4.2 Scale validity and reliability 25

4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 28

4.4 Adjusted Research Model 31

4.4.1 Awareness of benefits 32

4.4.2 Subjective Norms 33

4.5 Testing the hypotheses 34

4.5.1 Regression 1 (Dependent variable: Willingness to Purchase) 36

4.5.2 Regression 2 (Dependent variable: Awareness of Benefits) 37

4.5.3 Testing hypotheses results 38

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS 43

5.1 Summary of research 43

5.2 Limitations 45

5.3 Suggestion for further researches 46

REFERENCES 47

APPENDIX 53

a Survey Questionnaire 53

b PP Plot and Scatterplot for Dependent Variable Willingness 55

c PP Plot and Scatterplot for Dependent Variable Awareness of Benefits 56

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Summary of scales used in survey questionnaire 18

Table 4.1 Respondent Demographic 22

Table 4.2 Age range * Using organic vegetable frequency 24

Table 4.3 EFA for individual scales 25

Table 4.4 Cronbach's alpha index 27

Table 4.5 EFA rotated component matrix - 1st 29

Table 4.6 EFA rotated component matrix - 2nd 30

Table 4.7 Factor Awareness of benefits 31

Table 4.8 Multiple Regression Analysis Model 35

Table 4.9 Pearson Correlation 35

Table 4.10 Willingness to Purchase Multiple Regression 36

Table 4.11 Awareness of Benefits Multiple Regression 37

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Theory of Planned Behavior 10

Figure 2.2 Beliefs connected to organic food 11

Figure 2.3 Research model 13

Figure 4.1 Using organic vegetable frequency 23

Figure 4.2 Relationship between organic vegetable using and number of children in the family and family food purchaser educational level 24

Figure 4.3 Adjusted research model 32

Figure 4.4 Awareness of Benefits combining 33

Figure 4.5 Multiple regression method results 38

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Vietnam weather condition is favorable to grow various kinds of vegetable in all seasons However, as the farmers focus too much on productivity, intensive cultivation, and increasing crops, they tend to fertilize plants and use insecticides, pesticides, growth

stimulants indiscriminately According to the report of Mr Nguyen Xuan Hong, Director General of Plant Protection Department, 80% of plant protection chemicals were used in the wrong way and Vietnamese farmers could reduce 50% amount of plant protection chemicals using without any affect to productivity (MARD, 2014) Not only environment pollution, time and money extravagance, the overuse of plant protection chemicals also cause food poisons and many diseases to human such as cancer, kidney dysfunction, toxicity to the nervous system, etc As a result, the safety of vegetable is a key issue in Vietnam and

becomes an objective of Foot Safety National Strategic Programme: “To 2015, 30%

planting farms would have applied VietGAP” (MOF, 2011)

Vegetables are considered as safe when the nitrate and heavy metals, pesticide, and microbial contamination levels are below the standard level which is issued by the MARD (2008) Nowadays, people get used to the term “Organic Vegetable” Organic vegetable is vegetable grown and processed by methods that do not use any synthetic materials, such as chemical pesticide, synthetic fertilizer and growth stimulants (FAO, 1999) More and more companies invest in organic food business such as An Hòa Co., Organic Farm, Golden Garden, Nông nghiệp GAP, Ánh Ban Mai, Homefood, Mr.Sạch, Tràng An, Bác Tôm,

Organica, Organic Roots, etc According to Ms Regina Loo – Marketing Director at Big C Vietnam in 2014, not only the increasing awareness on health, food safety and

environmental concerns that cause an increase in demand for organic foods, the income per capita in Vietnam getting higher is also a reason There is a rise in the number of

households who choose organic vegetables for their meals They are willing to pay a

premium for organic vegetables

1.2 Problem statement

However, the increasing demand of organic vegetable does not guarantee a

promising market for organic vegetables Preliminary observations revealed that high price

is the first disadvantage For example, according to State Management Information of Price and Valuation, in Feb 2014, the price of Cabbage (“Bap Cai”) in traditional market is around 12,000-15,000 VND/KG, while it is 25,000-30,000 VND/KG for organic vegetable, two times more expensive, while buyers are not sure that the higher price one is really safe

On other hand, limited supply caused by high cost cultivating as well as limited products availability and variability, customers cannot buy their favorite organic vegetable at the most convenience (Trinh, 2014) Those disadvantages make the demand of organic

vegetable still low against rising demand

Given this situation, the problem of concerns by managers and marketers in related organizations is how to increase the acceptance of Vietnamese consumers towards organic vegetable Thus, it is necessary to identify the key factors and measuring their influence on the willingness to buy organic vegetables This helps to clarify the buying motives and buying barriers, improve knowledge and understanding to draw managerial implications

Previous studies mainly focus on consumers awareness towards organic vegetables with research objectives are local Vietnamese in general (Truong et al., 2012; Mergenthaler

et al., 2009) Then, the results might not reflect the true image of organic vegetable

consumption and it is difficult to understand how willingness to purchase organic vegetable are affected by changes of other indicators such as price, convenience, consumption trend, etc

Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province is selected as a case to test the model The city is

new food stores, malls, supermarkets appeared The research will assess the level of family food buyers’ awareness of health, trust and perception of certificated organic vegetable, price consciousness and buying convenience influence on willingness to buy organic

vegetable in Bien Hoa City

The findings can benefit organic vegetable sellers and retailers in developing

appropriate sales and marketing strategies by improving understanding of potential

Vietnamese consumers – the family food purchaser It may also help government to design strategies for consumer education on the benefits of going organic

1.3 Research objectives and aims

The proposed model will be tested in the context of Vietnam, Bien Hoa City

specifically As problems stated above, the research objectives are indicated as to identify the key factors and measure their influence on consumers’ willingness to buy organic

vegetable Its aim is to guide future awareness raising, advocacy and marketing activities of the organic sector in Viet Nam

1.4 Thesis structure

The structure of this research is organized in five chapters

 Chapter 1 is concerned with the introduction of the thesis which includes research background, research problems and research objectives

 Chapter 2 reviews relevant literature regarding the Theory of Planned Behavior of Icek Ajzen and preliminary researches in organic vegetable Through the

discussion, the hypotheses and research model will be developed for the testing which is mention in the next chapter

 Chapter 3 introduces the design of the research This chapter starts with research validity and reliability and goes to stage of data collection in assessing the

perception and awareness of consumers as well as measuring the influence of the main factors on their willingness to purchase organic vegetable The discussion

on research population, research sample, data collection procedure and regression model for testing hypotheses are also included in this chapter

 Chapter 4 shows the strategy of data analysis and discusses the findings This chapter will provide a summary of testing results for hypotheses given in the chapter 2

 Chapter 5 relates to the conclusions, implications and limitation Suggestions of further research are also mentioned in this chapter

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

A detailed literature review was undertaken on Theory of Planned Behavior and findings of past studies in organic vegetables Through the discussion, the hypotheses and research model will be proposed

2.1 Theoretical review: Theory of Planned Behavior

In order to explore the factors drive consumer willingness to purchase organic

vegetable, it is necessary to identify the factor influence their intentions and trends As such, theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been applied (Ajzen, 1988)

The theory proposes a model which can predict human behavior with suggesting that

a person's behavior is determined by his/her intention to perform the behavior and that this intention is, in turn, predicted by attitudes about the behavior, the subjective norms (a

person’s perception of important others’ beliefs that he or she should or should not perform the behavior) encasing the execution of the behavior, and the individual’s perception of their control over the behavior

The TPB model is the successor of the similar Theory of Reasoned Action of Ajzen and Fishbein in 1980 The succession was the result of the discovery that behavior appeared not to be 100% voluntary and under control, which resulted in the addition of perceived behavioral control With this addition the theory was called the Theory of Planned Behavior (Rebecca et al., 2012)

Figure 2.1 Theory of Planned Behavior

Source: Ajzen, 1988

In many studies, only one or two rather than three of the cognitive attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control-significantly relate to intentions For example, a study of Budden and Sagarin (2008) examined whether attitudes towards exercise, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were related to intentions to exercise The study found attitudes to exercise and perceived behavior control were related

determinants-to intentions determinants-to exercise Subjective norms, however, did not uniquely contribute determinants-to these intentions

2.2 Buying motives and buying barriers of organic vegetable

Through preliminary researches, the author notices there are several factors which affect the willingness to buy organic foods among the consumers, such as income,

education, gender, size of family and presence of children in family Consumers with high income and high education are more likely to buy organic food to reflect on their awareness and status (Idda et al., 2008, Gracia and Magistris, 2007) Gender is also a critical factor, it

(Arvanitoyannis and Krystallis, 2004) Households with smaller family size are indicated to

be more willing to pay for organic purchase and presence of children in family positively influences the organic food purchase (Idda et al., 2008)

In other research of Baker et al (2004), consumer motivations to purchase organic food include health concerns, more nutrition than conventional food, environmental

concerns, food safety, sensory issues, ethical concerns or value structure While the

perceived barriers are price, availability, lack of trust and product appearance; perceived ability is income (financial resources) Building on a literature review published by

Hughneret al (2007), below summarizes the most important beliefs that have been

connected to organic food in previous studies and that contribute to forming an attitude towards organic food

Figure 2.2 Beliefs connected to organic food

Source: Hughneret al (2007)

On the other hand, in a research of Tran Tri Dung and Phan Hoang Ngan (2012), the demand of Vietnamese consumers for organic vegetable largely exceeds its supply though the price of organic produce is 1.5 to 2 times higher than market average Consumers of organic vegetable are well-educated and above average income, urban households who much concern about safety of food and family health These buyers do not pay attention to the premium prices of organic produce Their consumption relies on their belief that organic vegetable prevent their families from negative impacts of chemicals which are very often abused in ordinary cultivation They highly request for the best quality

2.3 Research hypothesis and research model

This study adapted literature reviews of the Theory of Planned Behavior in the

context of identifying key factors influence consumers’ willingness to purchase organic vegetable Willingness to purchase organic vegetable was designed as dependent variable Six factors - health concerns, subjective norms, self-awareness, perceived price, perceived benefits and perceived convenience - were chosen for this study because they commanded a majority found to affect customer willingness to purchase in prior studies The proposed research framework is presented in Figure 2.3

Figure 2.3 Research model

2.3.1 Self-awareness

The demand for organic foods has significantly increased due to increasing

awareness on health, food safety and environmental concerns (Briz and Ward, 2009;

Loureiro et al., 2001) The meaning of awareness is consciousness In term on marketing concept, awareness refers to consumer consciousness where purchaser’s knowledge of specific product and company, allows the consumers to obtain the greatest form what they purchase (Thomas, 2011) According to Kumar (2011) stated that awareness and knowledge has turn into a significant positive elements in consumer attitude and behavior towards buying organic foods

In this research model, self-awareness represented the consumers’ attitude, beliefs and knowledge toward organic vegetable

H1 Self-awareness impact on the Willingness to purchase organic vegetable

2.3.2 Health Concerns

Health consciousness best describes consumers “Who are aware and concerned about their state of well-being and are motivated to improve and/or maintain their health and quality of life, as well as preventing ill health by engaging in healthy behaviors and being health conscious regarding health Such individuals tend to be aware of, and involved with, nutrition and physical fitness.” (Kraft and Goddell, 1993)

There has been an extensive amount of research carried out into the relationship between organic food and health as a contributing factor towards attitudes and intentions to purchase organic food, the overwhelming majority of which find “health” to be one of the primary reasons consumers buy organic foods (Michaelidou et al., 2008, Molyneaux, 2007, Saher et al., 2006, Lockie et al., 2002, Fotopolous et al., 2000) To assess Health concerns, the questions revolved around whether health care is an important factor contributes to one’s willingness purchasing organic vegetable by increasing self-awareness

H1a Health Concerns impact on the Self-awareness

2.3.3 Subjective Norms

Subjective Norms refer to social individual, which affect the willingness to purchase vegetable, such as relatives, friend, or colleagues, condone, social media As current the situation of food consumption trend in Vietnam, which is more concentrate on health and food safety issue (Loo, 2014), this variable is likely to have a significant positive impact on self-awareness of organic vegetable To assess Subjective norms, the questions revolved around whether family, friends, colleagues and social media would encourage one to buy organic vegetable by increasing self-awareness

H1b Subjective Norms impact on the Self-awareness

2.3.4 Perceived Benefits

Perceived benefits of organic vegetables are indicated as healthy and tasty for users, fresher, cleaner, more nutritious and environment friendliness Idda’s study (2008) showed that 89% participants agreed that organic food is healthier, 72% agreed that organic food tend to safeguard environment and 39% agreed that organic vegetable is more tasteful Another research showed that the perceived quality and taste of organic food products were better than conventional products (Ulf, 2010) Hence, in this research, the author proposes a positive influence of perceived benefits on willing to purchase organic vegetable

H2 Perceived Benefits of using organic vegetable impact on the Willingness to

purchase organic vegetable

2.3.5 Perceived Convenience

Studies have shown that perceived convenience contributes significantly to

willingness to buy organic food Most consumers are pragmatic and do not go to several stores in order to get what they want They prefer to do the shopping in a convenient nearby supermarket and if this supermarket does not have a wide selection of organic food many consumers will end up buying non-organic food (Chryssohoidis & Krystallis, 2005) As such, organic products have to be available and variable for the purchase of organic foods is going to become a routine and ‘‘normal’’ part of shopping for the convenient consumer (Ulf, 2010) In this research, not only the perceived convenience in buying but also the perceived convenience in using organic vegetables is concerned Because the organic

vegetables are free from chemical pesticide, synthetic fertilizer and growth stimulants, the consumers will spend less time and work for washing, cleaning and cooking

H3 Perceived Convenience impact on the consumer’s Willingness to purchase

2.3.6 Perceived Price

In the health product market, there are existing contradict opinions of the influence of price on the consumer’ willingness to buy A widely held belief in the organic trade circle is that price and income do not necessarily track organic sales (Fromartz, 2006; Hartman

Group, 2006); while other believed that personal income is important for the organic

consumer because organic food is often more expensive than non-organic food (Ulf, 2010)

A theory explained this phenomenon as in the early development of the organic food

market, the sales only concentrated in niche markets, such as natural and specialty food

stores The organic food is listed as a functional food and serves affluent consumers They place a high value on the health and environment benefits of organic food and thus, may be willing to pay a premium price However, as organic food/ agriculture is fast developing,

they become available to a much larger consumer base of less affluent, price conscious

customers The result is the roles of price and income in organic sales may have evolved

(Travis et al., 2009)

H4 Perceived Price impact on the willingness to purchase

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHOD

The discussion on research method, measurement scales, research population,

research sample, data collection procedure and regression model for testing hypotheses are included in this chapter

3.1 Research method

This research was approached as a quantitative study because it was more efficient, less costly and it enabled the researcher to make inferences of a larger population by using a small number of the representative sample Moreover, it allowed the researcher to test

hypotheses, related variables and use standards of validity and reliability of the current approach (Creswell, 2003)

There were two main phases in the present study: pilot study and main study

 The pilot study was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the

instrument before the questionnaire was distributed Initial data was collected using face-to-face interview with 10 target participants Respondents of the pilot study were individuals who had experience in buying organic vegetable The pilot study helped ensure that the final questions would be well understood and

attempted to predict an appropriate sample size and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project Simultaneously, Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to test

measurement scales

 The main study was conducted using prepared questionnaire survey The

purposes are to confirm the measurement scales, to test the hypotheses and to confirm the research model

3.2 Measurement scale

A paper-based questionnaire was developed to collect data to validate the constructs and theory pointed in the research framework This questionnaire was firstly developed in English, and was translated into Vietnamese later It was divided into three parts The first part of the survey instrument was designed to select the proper respondents (screening part) The second part contains questionnaire items that measure seven constructs in the proposed model These questionnaire items are measured using a five-point Likert scale (from 1- strongly disagree to 5- strongly agree) These items were developed from previous related research and subsequently modified to fit the organic vegetable willingness to purchase The third part of the survey included questions regarding demographic and social economic status

Table 3.1 Summary of scales used in survey questionnaire

HEALTH CONCERNS: Relating

to the interviewees’ concerns of

health

(Health01) You always care about health

(Health02) You are interested in getting health information (Health03) You will immediately stop using a product if you find out it is harmful for your health

SUBJECTIVE NORMS: Refer to

social individual, which affect the

willingness to purchase vegetable,

such as relatives, friend, or

colleagues, condone, social media

To assess Subjective norms, the

questions revolved around whether

family, friends, colleagues and social

media would encourage one to buy

organic vegetable by increasing

self-awareness

(SuNorm04) You buy organic vegetable because people around you use it (colleagues/ friends/ relatives)

(SuNorm05) You buy organic vegetable because doctor said

it is good for health

(SuNorm06) Relatives/ friends think organic vegetable is good for your health

(SuNorm07) Using organic vegetable is modern trend (SuNorm08) You buy organic vegetable because TV/newspapers warn about lots of vegetable over fertilized with chemical synthetic

SELF-AWARENESS: The demand

for organic foods has increased

sharply due to increasing awareness

(Aware09) You believe organic vegetable do not have harmful chemical synthetic

on health, food safety and

environmental concerns (Briz and

Ward, 2009; Loureiro et al., 2001)

According to Kumar (2011) stated

that awareness and knowledge has

turn into a significant positive

elements in consumer attitude

towards buying organic foods

Relating to perceived benefits of

interviewees toward organic

Relating to perceived convenience in

buying and using organic vegetables

(Conven16) You can easily buy organic vegetable

(Conven17) Organic vegetable have the species you need (Conven18) Using organic vegetable help you save time from washing compare to other vegetables

PERCEIVED PRICE: Relating to

perceived price of interviewees

toward organic vegetables

(Price19) You think price of organic vegetable is too much higher than normal vegetable

(Price20) Price of organic vegetable is cheap

(Price21) Price of organic vegetable is worth

WILLINGNESS TO PURCHASE:

The questionnaire provides several

further actions for the consumers By

assessing their level of agreement

toward these hypotheses, we can

understand their willingness to

purchase organic vegetable, thus

help to predict their future buying

behavior

(Willing22) You will surely buy organic vegetable

(Willing23) You will buy safe vegetable which may contain

a determined amount of chemical synthetics, but price is cheaper

(Willing24) You will continue buying vegetables sold at traditional markets

(Willing25) You made buying decision without caring it is organic vegetable or not

(Willing26) You will introduce organic vegetable to your relatives, friends and colleagues

3.3 Data collection method

Sample statistics need to be reliable It should represent the whole population

parameters as much as possible Hair recommends that for factor analysis, the minimum sample size should be at least five times the number of items that are to be analyzed (Hair,

et al., 2006) For this study, there were 26 items that need to be analyzed Therefore, at least

130 completed questionnaires should be required A sample rule is that a larger sample size

is better (Field, 2005) but “big” is not necessarily beautiful in survey design (Bell, 1991), and it is not always practical (Field, 2005; Fink, 2003)

Based on these findings and suggestions, it is reasonable and reliable to collect data from around 200 individuals for the present study with the sampling method is convenience The research would be undertaken around Bien Hoa City with objects are the decision makers in buying food for the family, including male and female from 18 years old

3.4 Data analysis method

The database after cleaning and reversing would be analyzed via two steps:

 Firstly, descriptive statistics analyses (frequencies/descriptive) were used to evaluate the current status of organic vegetables consumption in Bien Hoa City This method will provide some general information of consumers, such as: age, education, job, family characteristics, monthly food expense, etc

 Then, to measure consumer willingness to pay for organic vegetables, the

regression method will be applied

All analyses will be conducted using SPSS software

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

To test the proposed model, the researcher recruited a sample of 230 respondents who were the family decision makers in buying food There were 202 valid respondents, accounted for 87.8% Based on the questionnaire, there were five reverse items: Price20, Price21, Willing23, Willing24 and Willing25

4.1 Profile of respondents

The study sample consisted of 190 female (94.1%) and 12 male (5.9%), which revealed that most families, female was the buying food decision maker Popular age range were 41-50 (33.7%) and 31-40 (31.7%) The age range 21-30 accounted for 23.8% and 50 years old accounted for 7.4% Only 3.5% was under 20 years old

In terms of educational level, the respondents comprised of high school (37.6%), college (35.1%), bachelor or higher (22.3%) and class 9 or under (5.0%) In terms of job classifications, workers (36.1%), office staffs (32.2%), house-wife/husband (16.8%), business-man/woman (11.9%), student (2.0%), and other job (1.0%)

Table 4.1 Respondent Demographic

Demographic

Percentage (%)

and monthly expense for food more than 5 million (at least 78.4% within this range had

used organic vegetable more than 1 time/week)

Also, from the table above, there were one third of the families had not used organic vegetable before, nearly 50% of them were families with 3-5 members and monthly food expense fall in category 3-5 million/month Another one third used organic vegetable 1-3 times/week, one fifth (19.3%) used more than 3 times/week and one seventh (13.4%) used less than 1 time/week For those who had already used organic vegetable, more than 50% of them used 1-3 times/week, 29% used more than 3 times/week and only 20% remain using 1 time/week This implied a trend of increasing frequency of using organic vegetable by time

Figure 4.1 Using organic vegetable frequency

For analyzing the relationship between age ranges and using organic vegetable, the author notice the older the consumers were, the more likely they would choose organic

vegetable for family’s meals Majority of organic vegetable users were in the age range

41-50 years old (25.2%) and 31-40 years old (20.8%)

Respondents

33.7% had not used

organic vegetable

before

66.3% had already used organic vegetable

21% used 1 time only

or less than 1 time/week

At least 79.8% continued using organic

vegetable

63.6% used 1-3 times/week

36.4% used more than 3 times/week

Table 4.2 Age range * Using organic vegetable frequency

Age range

Using organic vegetable frequency

Total

% had used organic vegetable

% had used organic vegetable within 134 families using

% had used organic vegetable within age range Never

< 1 time/

week

1-3 times/

week

> 3 times/

week Under 20 years old 6 1 0 0 7 0 0 14.3% 21-30 years old 21 9 15 3 48 13.4% 20.1% 56.3% 31-40 years old 22 8 23 11 64 20.8% 31.3% 65.6% 41-50 years old 17 9 23 19 68 25.2% 38.1% 75.0% Over 50 years old 2 0 7 6 15 6.4% 9.7% 86.7%

The presence of children was positively influenced the using organic vegetable

frequency with 84% families having children had used organic vegetable, much higher compared with 60.5% of families having no children Especially, 37% had used organic vegetables was one-child-families, 28.4% two-children-families, 19.4% no-child-families, 14.9% more-than-two-children-families In terms of education, 82.2% consumers with

bachelor degree or higher had used organic vegetable The lower the educational level was, the lower the percentage of families had used organic vegetable tended to be

Figure 4.2 Relationship between organic vegetable using and number of children in the

family and family food purchaser educational level

4.2 Scale validity and reliability

To check the validity and reliability of the scales, the method employed by Flynn et

al (1994) was followed Firstly, unidimensionality of the seven measures were assessed via principal component analysis The analyses should result in one factor only qualify the following criteria to indicate that the scales were validity:

 Prior to the extraction of the factors, the test of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Measure of Sampling Adequacy (Kaiser, 1974; 1970) and Bartlett's Test of

Sphericity (Bartlett, 1950) were used The Kaiser-Meyer-Okin measure of

sampling adequacy (KMO) can signal in advance whether the sample size is large enough to reliably extract factors (Field, 2009) The KMO index ranges from 0 to

1, with 0.50 considered suitable for factor analysis (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007; Haier et al, 1998) The Bartlett's Test of Sphericity should be significant (p<0.05) for factor analysis to be suitable (the items do not correlate too lowly)

 On the other hand, all items loaded strongly (0.5) on their appropriate factors which supported their unidimensionality (Hair et al., 1998) The strong factor loadings also indicate convergent validity for the three scales (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988)

 The cumulative percent of variance extracted must > 50% (Hair et al., 1998) Final results of scale validity tests were reported in the table below

Table 4.3 EFA for individual scales

Scales Items

KMO index

Factor Loadings

Total Variance Explain

SuNorm08 0.795 Self-

During the validation process, the item Conven18 was deleted as loading factor < 0.5

and the scale Willingness to Purchase was splitted into two factors: <Willing22,

Willing25_rev, Willing26> and <Willing23_rev, Willing24_rev> The author temporarily

called the factor of <Willing23_rev and Willing24_rev> was Alternative Products, which

presented for consumers’ willingness to purchase safe vegetable and normal vegetable sold

at traditional market

Next, given the scales were unidimensional and convergent as proven above, the scales reliability were tested via Cronbach’s alpha index, a measure of internal consistency

A scale was considered sufficiently reliable if Cronbach’s Alpha was at least 0.7 (Nunally &

Bernstein, 1994) As such, the scale Alternative products was removed from the analysis for

resulting Cronbach’s alpha = 0.515

Table 4.4 Cronbach's alpha index

Scales Items

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Cronbach’s Alpha if Item Deleted

Decision

Health Concerns