Factors influencing consumers’ intention to repurchase organic cosmetics

Particularly, this research will investigate the effect and understand the relationship between health consciousness, environmental consciousness, safety value, familiarity, expertise, a

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THI DINH

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMERS’ INTENTION TO REPURCHASE ORGANIC

COSMETICS

MASTER'S THESIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THI DINH

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMERS’ INTENTION TO REPURCHASE ORGANIC

to finish my thesis Their advice has helped me improve my skills and knowledge related

to problem logic thinking, synthesizing research, or analyzing data These experiences will be very valuable for me not only for my thesis but also for other issues in work and study

Moreover, during my master research, I received a lot of enthusiastic encouragement and support from family, friends, colleagues to overcome difficulties and achieve my goals

Last but not least, the two-year study period was really not easy for me, I want to express

my deepest thanks to the support from Vietnam Japan University, Yokohama National University, VJU officers, YNU IPO staffs, all Professors and kindly classmate

Thank you

Author Phan Thi Dinh

ABSTRACT Purpose of the study: In recent years, consumer demand for organic and natural

cosmetic products is increasing all over the world and especially in Vietnamese market This has created potential development opportunities for companies in the cosmetics sector However, this also creates a challenge for businesses in not only attracting new customers, but also maintaining customers who continue to be interested and ready to buy their products again in the future Maintaining customer repurchase intention will

be a strategy for cost-effectiveness and increasing the competitive advantage of the company My research aims to identify factors and their influences degree to repurchase intention towards organic cosmetics Particularly, this research will investigate the effect and understand the relationship between health consciousness, environmental consciousness, safety value, familiarity, expertise, attitude, and repurchase intention in organic cosmetics at Vietnamese market

Research Methodology/Design: A quantitative research is implemented using an

online and offline survey in order to collect primary data for hypothesis testing After collecting data from 150 respondents, SPSS and Smart-PLS 3.0 software are used to analyze data

Findings: The findings indicated the significant positive effects from health

consciousness, and safety value on attitude and the significant influence of environmental consciousness, attitude, familiarity, and expertise on repurchase intention organic cosmetics The analyses also found that that among three antecedents of repurchase intention, familiarity has the most substantial impact

Research Limitations: The main limitation of this research is excluding other important

factors that impact repurchase intention such as price, customer satisfaction, etc

Contribution: The study provides knowledge related to the factors which influence

intention to repurchase of consumer towards organic cosmetics in Vietnamese market

Keywords: Consumer’s repurchase intention, health consciousness, environmental

consciousness, safety value, attitude, familiarity, expertise

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES i

LIST OF FIGURES ii

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Research objectives 4

1.3 Subject and scope of the research 5

1.4 Structure of the research 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Organic cosmetics 7

2.2 Repurchase intention 8

2.3 Theory or Planned Behavior 9

2.3.1 Attitude 10

2.4 Health Consciousness 11

2.5 Environmental Consciousness 12

2.6 Safety Value 13

2.7 Familiarity 14

2.8 Expertise 15

2.9 Proposed research model 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research process 18

3.2 Research design 19

3.2.1 Instrument Development 19

3.2.2 Sample and Data collection 21

3.2 Analysis procedure 23

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 25

4.1 Descriptive analysis 25

4.2 PLS-SEM model assessment 28

4.3 Structural model assessment 31

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 35

5.1 Discussion 35

5.2 Implications 37

5.2.1 Theorical implications 37

5.2.2 Practical implication 38

5.3 Limitations and future research recommendations 40

REFERENCES 42

APPENDIX 50

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Measurement items for the survey 19

Table 4.1 Demographic information of respondents 25

Table 4.2 The codes of variables 26

Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of 150 respondents 27

Table 4.4 Items loading and composite reliability of the constructs 30

Table 4.5 Convergent validity among constructs 31

Table 4.6 Discriminant validity: Fornell-Larcker criterion 31

Table 4.7 Collinearity statistics (VIF) of exogenous variables 32

Table 4.8 Results of hypothesis testing from structural model 33

Table 4.9 Mediation test results 34

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Global market value for natural and organic cosmetics from 2018 to 2027

2

Figure 2.1 Theory of planned behavior model (Ajzen, 1991) 9

Figure 2.2 The proposed theorical model 17

Figure 3.1 Research procedure by the author 18

Figure 4.1 The measurement model (PLS algorithm) 29

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

It cannot be denied that, the environment is having sudden changes under the influence mainly from human activities in recent years With warnings such as global warming or natural disasters happening with increasing frequency, this is affecting every living thing across the earth and it is also changing economic activities, human society According

to Haytko and Matulich (2008) indicated that environmental issues and their consequences for human health have become a significant concern for governments and organizations As a result, there has been a movement toward environmental sustainability, which has led to improvements in consumer demands and behavior (Mendelson & Polonsky, 1995) Many plans and initiatives to enhance and preserve habitats and natural resources have emerged as a result of increased awareness and concern about environmental issues Green product lines, organic products appear and are constantly being developed, such as organic food, organic cosmetics, renewable energy, … (Kim & Chung, 2011)

Natural and organic goods are becoming increasingly popular among consumers, who believe they are good for their health and the environment This trend indicates that consumers are becoming more responsible for their consumption habits (Maragon et al., 2015) Currently, the market for natural and organic cosmetic products is growing significantly in recent years Particularly, global market value for natural and organic cosmetics and personal care from 2018 to 2027 (in billion U.S dollars) which is shown

in the figure 1.1:

Figure 1.1 Global market value for natural and organic cosmetics from 2018 to 2027

(Units: billion U.S dollars) (Source: Statista.com) According to the statistics, organic cosmetics have a higher international growth rate than traditional cosmetics, which is more or less fluctuating Organic cosmetics are considered to be healthier, better quality and eco-friendly for environment because these products are manufactured under a rigorous process, the ingredients are grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or genetically modified substances With these outstanding features of organic cosmetics, consumers tend to use this product more than traditional cosmetics Therefore, organic cosmetics are creating many potential opportunities for businesses to take advantage of product development to meet consumer needs

On the other hand, Vietnam is emerging as one of the promising markets for cosmetic development in recent years in Asia The report of Mintel indicated that Vietnam cosmetic market has value at 2.3 billion USD in 2019 Revenue in the Cosmetics segment amounts to 506,9 USD in 2020 and the market is expected to grow annually by 5,3% (CAGR 2020-2023) The population of Vietnam has exceeded 97 million people

in 2020 (General Statistic Office, 2020) It is estimated that by 2020, the Vietnamese middle class will be the major consumers and payers for the rapidly growing cosmetic product consumption, growing to 33 million people This estimate is based on the results

of a high economic growth rate of over 6%-7% annually and a young generation

accounting for 60% of the population Therefore, it will create a variety of potential market for cosmetics companies especially in organic cosmetics sector

Although the consumer demand for organic cosmetics is greatly increased which is recognized by manufacturers, marketers or organizations, there are still some limitations

to scientific research For all consumer behavior, understanding the reasons and motivations for buying organic cosmetics from consumers is complicated Most of the research pay attention on only the factors that influence consumers’ intention or behavior of buying organic products Theory planned behavior (TPB) is a widely applied model in the field of research on customer behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Madden

et al., 1992) The theory has three main dimensions including attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control TPB is used to investigate the factors that influence the intention to buy organic food (Arvola et al., 2008) According to Tsakiridou et al (2010), consumers are becoming increasingly aware of environmentally sustainable production practices which affects their buying decision towards organic cosmetics In addition, there is only a handful of studies on the factors that influence the intentions of repurchasing organic cosmetics In the research of Ghazali et al (2017), this study extends TPB by including consumer’s perceived value dimensions (including health, safety, hedonic and environment) and product knowledge in order to examine the factor influencing the rebuying of organic personal care products However, in this research, factors that are more specific about consumer knowledge were not really addressed in this study Another study about repurchase intention towards organic cosmetics is studied by Nguyen et al (2019) In this study, in addition to the factors in the TPB model and the consumer values tested, satisfaction and green perceived value were combined

to study a rebuying intention in the Vietnamese market In the two most relevant studies that are the research of Ghazali et al (2017) and Nguyen et al (2019), the aspect of product knowledge is more focused than the knowledge of consumers Meanwhile, for repurchase intention, familiarity and expertise which are two major dimensions of consumer knowledge, is an important factor influencing consumers In addition, related

to consumer knowledge has not been implemented by many studies in the context of organic products, so the author would like to investigate this factor more deeply in the research Moreover, in the results of these two studies, health-related factors have

different impacts on attitudes towards buying organic cosmetics, so the author would like to reexamine again the impact of health-related factors on consumer attitudes

On the other hand, organic cosmetics are known to be safe for the skin and less harmful

to the environment, so in this study, two factors related to environmental awareness and safety will be investigated Under the context of organic products, in order to predict the intention to purchase organic personal care products, Kim and Chung (2011) used TPB with consumer value in their study, and the finding found that all variables in TPB have

an important relationship with purchase intention Van Loo et al (2013) discovered that attitude had a favorable and substantial link with organic consumption TPB in which focus only on attitude factor will be applied along with a combination of factors related

to perceptions of health, the environment, and safety value to learn about the dynamics and factors that influence the intention to rebuy organic cosmetics in this research Furthermore, in this study, a consumer’s knowledge factor which includes familiarity and expertise dimensions will be applied in order to investigate their influence on repurchase intention of the consumer

In terms of practical necessity, current businesses are trying to come up with effective strategies to meet the demand of current customers and create long-term relationships with that number of customers According to Kuo et al (2013), to maintain operations and gain a competitive advantage, it is critical to maintain consumer repurchase intent and minimize major switching behavior In addition, the cost to attract new customers will be much higher than maintaining with existing customers The market for cosmetics, especially with organic cosmetics, has great potential for development in Vietnam, and the competition between businesses is becoming more and more fierce Therefore, the strategy to retain customers to continue to buy the product or service of the business will

be very important in sustainable development As a result, this research will aid managers, marketers, and manufacturers in better understanding what motivates consumers to keep buying so that they may develop strategies that meet their demands

1.2 Research objectives

Currently, there is very little research on buying intentions for organic cosmetics of Vietnamese consumers so this study aims to contribute empirical research to identify driven factors for repurchasing intention organic cosmetics

In particularly, the research has the following sub-objectives:

- To investigate the effect of health consciousness, environmental consciousness, and safety value on attitude and repurchase intention in organic cosmetics

- To investigate the effect of attitude, familiarity, and expertise on repurchase intention in organic cosmetics

The research question will be investigated in this study as below:

1 What factors affect consumer repurchase intention of organic cosmetics?

2 To what extent these factors impact consumer repurchase intention organic cosmetics?

3 What factors affect consumers’ attitude toward organic cosmetics?

1.3 Subject and scope of the research

- The subject of the research will be the Vietnamese consumers who has at least one

experience of using or purchasing organic cosmetics

- The scope of the research: This research will be conducted in Hanoi City, Vietnam

This is the location of a large and diverse population of all ages Hanoi is one of the cities with a very high purchasing power and people have great awareness about new products, safe for health as well as for the environment The study is conducted from October 2020 to May 2021 The data collection time for this study from 23rd April,

2021 to 4th May, 2021

1.4 Structure of the research

The research includes five chapters, as detailed below:

▪ Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter will briefly introduce about the research background about the foundation

of theorical and practical problem in order to make clear about the motivation and objective of the study

▪ Chapter 2: Literature review

This part will give overview about theoretical relevance of the existing study to propose the hypothesis and conceptual model

▪ Chapter 3: Research Methodology

This chapter describe the research process, research design, pilot test, variable measurements, data collection

▪ Chapter 4: Data analysis

This chapter will analyze the results from data collection

▪ Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion

This part will discuss about the findings of research as well as give several recommendations The limitation of the research will be mentioned in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Organic cosmetics

Currently, there is no regulation or exact definition of the term “organic” when applied

to cosmetics, depending on the country there will be different standards and certifications when using this term for cosmetics

According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), if a cosmetic contains or is made up of agricultural ingredients, it can meet the standards of production, processing, processing and the stamp of the USDA / NOP (United States Department of Agriculture / National Organic Program), the product is considered eligible for organic certification under the regulated NOP In addition, the production and processing of organic agricultural ingredients and the factory that produces the final product must be certified by a USDA accredited organic certification body

The USDA’s general framework of standards for organic farming and production processes in 2000 is followed by many organic certification organizations around the world, specifically:

- The used water source must be clean and not polluted

- The production area must be isolated from sources of pollution such as factories, industrial parks, export processing zones, areas under construction, …

- Prohibit the use of all chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, genetically modified ingredients, human manure, compost from waste or preservatives during storage

- Use only inputs that are registered and approved by the organization

- Prohibit sterile irradiation

There was a consolidation in Europe that resulted in the development of a standard procedure known as the Cosmetics Organic Standard – COSMOS According to COSMOS standard in 2020, an organic cosmetic has to contain at least 95% organic ingredients Especially, rinse-off products, non-emulsified aqueous products, and

products containing at least 80% minerals or minerals-derived ingredients must contain

at least 10% organic content

A product is considered organic when it is produced, manufactured, or processed in compliance with organic standards, according to the National Organic Standards set published in Vietnam in 2017

There are a variety of certifications available around the world, each with its own set of criteria for organic cosmetics certification In short, organic cosmetics are understood

as products that contact the external parts of the human body to clean, beautify, increase the attraction and change the appearance and appearance These products are made from natural ingredients and have 95 percent agricultural origin ingredients that must be approved by reputable organizations

2.2 Repurchase intention

Repurchase intention is considered to be the chance or willingness of consumer who already purchased the product and continues to purchase from the similar suppliers or company (Fornell, 1992) Repurchase intention is a customer behavioral intention that shows a consumer’s willingness to remain, proceed, or leave a current supplier’s service Chiu et al (2009), Hellier et al (2003), and Kuan et al (2008) found that repurchase intention is influenced by the individual customer’s potential situation and current condition, implying that repurchase intention acts as a dependent variable in a complex system of relationships that can be used to improve service delivery, management insight, and strategic planning In addition, the person’s possible to carry out desired conduct is determined by the intensity of their purpose (Ajzen, 1991) Specifically, when humans have the ability or resources such as money, time, and skills to raise their intentions, they tend to conduct the actual act than those with a lack of resources As the result, in terms of capabilities or resources, when consumers have a bigger repurchase intention, they are more likely to engage in real repurchase behavior (Ajzen, 1991) According to Spreng et al (1995), finding a fresh customer is far more expensive than keeping an existing customer, therefore effective strategies to retain old customers are crucial in many companies Since that would be an important competitive advantage for any company in the business environment when it maintains its customer repurchase

intent and limits switching behavior (Kuo et al., 2013) According to Chang et al (2014), companies always want to keep good relationships with old consumers and come up with effective strategies to increase rebuy intentions because retaining old consumers is much easier and more economical than attracting a new one Coming up with effective strategies to keep customers interested in a product or service for repeat purchases will create a competitive advantage for businesses, significantly reducing costs (Filieri & Lin, 2017; Ilyas et al., 2020) The process of forming consumer repurchase intent is really complicated, understanding the process and the factors that increase consumer acquisition intent will be a sustainable competitive advantage for every company

2.3 Theory or Planned Behavior

Theory of Planned Behavior model is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1988) Ajzen (l985) defined behavioral intention as the expression of each person's willingness to perform a specified behavior, and it is considered a premise that directly leads to behavior According to TRA, the most important factor determining human behavior is the intention to carry out that behavior Intention to implement behavior is governed by two factors: one's attitude towards behavior and subjective norms related to that behavior Ajzen afterwards added another element (perceived behavioral control) and from that behavioral intention is estimated based on: attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control TPB model has been widely used to predict the intentions and human behavior (Shin et al., 2018) TPB

is illustrated in below Figure 2.1

Figure 2.1 Theory of planned behavior model (Ajzen, 1991)

TPB has been useful in predicting customer intentions and behavior in a various field such as green/pro-environmental areas (Han et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2013), green product (Chan & Lau, 2002), organic products (Kim & Chung, 2011; Ghazali et al., 2017) These studies have proven the applicability and robustness of TPB in many fields, especially in organic cosmetics

Regarding organic products, Arvola et al (2008) used TPB to predict purchase intentions, and their results revealed that attitude and subjective norms can explain variances in purchase intentions Another research of Yadav and Pathak (2016) showed that all variables in TPB had significant impact on consumer intention to buy green products It has been proven that attitude has a high association with behavior and behavioral intention (Shaw et al., 2000; Shaw & Shiu, 2002a; Choo et al., 2004) In the research of Nguyen et al (2019), the researchers found that attitude play an important role in predicting the intention to repurchase of consumer towards organic cosmetics This study applies the theory of planned behavior model with a focus on the attitude variable to consumer intent and extend the model by adding potential factors that influence attitudes

2.3.1 Attitude

According to Ajzen (1991), attitudes that lead to behavior are an individual's assessment

of the results obtained from performing that behavior It also is the degree to which that individual judges the behavior to be positive or negative According to TPB, attitudes are created through behavioral beliefs, which can be turned into beliefs related to the expected outcome of behavior A positive attitude refers to the expectation that the behavior will result in a positive outcome, while a negative attitude refers to the belief that the behavior will result in a negative outcome This means that attitudes are evaluative responses to an object or behavior based on knowledge about the behavior that an individual has (Fennis & Stroebe, 2016) The important relationship between attitude and intention have been supported in buying organic products (Smith & Paladino, 2010; Tarkiainen & Sundqvist, 2005) The finding is consistent with other studies on organic personal care products, these studies show that a consumer’s attitude substantially predicts a portion of their purchasing intention (Kim & Chung, 2011) Furthermore, Gracia and De Magistris (2007) suggested that in term of organic

consumption behavior, environmental and health-related attitudes are particularly significant, which are incorporated in this attitude variable In Malaysia market, consumers are more likely to have a positive attitude toward green food when they are more concerned about the environmental issues and health consciousness (Ueasangkomsate & Santiteerakul, 2016) According to repurchase case, the study on the repurchase intentions of Korean cosmetics in Thailand (Wangwiboolkij, 2012), attitude plays an important role in driving customer repurchase intentions Another research by Ghazali et al (2017) and Nguyen et al (2019) also found that a positive connection between attitude and re-buying intention with organic cosmetics Therefore, the first hypothesis is that:

H1: Attitude positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic cosmetics

2.4 Health Consciousness

According to Becker et al (1977), health consciousness refers to the extent to which consumers are willing to take healthy actions Consumers who care about their health and desire to maintain their quality of life are more inclined to engage in healthy behavior (Newsom et al., 2005) Previous research has shown that health consciousness

is considered the most important reason to buy and consume organic foods because consumers believe that organic foods will provide more health benefits than conventional foods (Chu, 2018) Consumers who are concerned about their health may examine if a product is safe for their bodies and skin when purchasing organic cosmetics, therefore they may pay more attention to ingredients in organic cosmetics than consumers who are less concerned about their health (Johri & Sahasakmontri, 1998) Nevertheless, Kim and Chung (2011) found that health consciousness was the least significant factor in predicting consumer’s attitude towards organic products Moreover,

in term of Vietnamese market, Nguyen et al (2019) also found that health consciousness had a negative impact on the attitude of consumer in the case of organic cosmetics Besides, relied on the relevant literature of organic product consumption, a growing number of studies has shown that health concerns are the main driver for consumers in terms of attitudes, intentions, and buying organic produce (Magnusson et al., 2001; Chen,

2009) In the study of Tsakiridou et al (2008), health awareness plays a role as a strong motivator of Greek consumer awareness, attitudes and consumption towards organic product In another study of organic personal care product by Ghazali et al (2017) showed that consumer concerns regarding health are the key driving force in relation to the attitude of organic product consumption Furthermore, previous studies have also shown that the more health-conscious consumers are, the more motivated they will be too intent purchase organic products (Grankvist & Biel, 2001; Lockie et al., 2002) According to Magnusson et al (2003), health-related factors are considered as the most impact on attitude and intention to buy organic food products This has an important role

to play in enhancing intention to continue to purchase in the future Relied on the review

of the past studies, the following research hypothesis has been proposed:

H2a: Health consciousness positively affects to the consumers’ attitude toward repurchasing organic cosmetics

H2b: Health consciousness positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic cosmetics

2.5 Environmental Consciousness

Regarding to Chan et al (2000), environmental consciousness is defined as the level of awareness and understanding about environmental issues, consumers tend to pay more attention to product ingredients as well as production processes in their consumption behavior Organic cosmetics produced in a rigorous process without the use of pesticides, synthetic chemicals, organic cosmetics are considered an environmentally friendly product (Van Loo et al., 2013) Consumers who pay attention on the environment can alter their purchase habits to help save the environment (Chase, 1991) Awareness of the negative effects chemicals in conventional cosmetics can have on the environment (either through drainage systems or from manufacturing plants) are increasing (Boxall

et al., 2012)

A variety of studies found that consumer attitudes and behaviors about green products are strongly influenced by environmental consciousness (Paladino, 2005; Mostafa, 2007; Essoussi & Zahaf, 2008; Ishaswini & Datta, 2011) In the research of Chen and Tung (2014), in order to predict the intentions of customers visiting a green hotel, this

study extended the TPB model by adding environmental consciousness, and they found that environmental consciousness had a significant effect to three variables in TPB model Moreover, in the context of organic personal care product, both Kim and Chung (2011) and Ghazali et al (2017) also showed that environmental consciousness had an important influence on predicting the consumers’ attitude Besides, there have also been numerous studies that suggest that environmental consciousness has a considerable impact on the intention to buy eco-friendly or green products Mostafa (2007) found that environmental consciousness is a variable that has a strong impact on consumers’ attitudes and intentions in purchasing green products According to Pagiaslis and Krontalis (2014), environmental consciousness had a substantial impact on the consumer intention to purchase toward electric vehicle (eco-friendly products) Environmental consciousness is not only a prerequisite for the use of green products (Van loo et al., 2013) but also plays significant role in determining consumer behavior towards organic products (Paladio, 2005) The review of previous studies will be the basis to help promote the effect of the environmental consciousness on the intention of repurchase organic cosmetics The following hypothesis can be proposed:

H3a: Environmental consciousness positively affects to the consumers’ attitude toward repurchasing organic cosmetics

H3b: Environmental consciousness positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic cosmetics

2.6 Safety Value

Perceived safety value refers to the degree to which consumers consider the use of the product to be non-hazardous because it does not contain chemical ingredients (Bauer et al., 2013) Furthermore, consumers can alter their purchasing habits in order to mitigate the hazards they are aware of (Yeung & Morris, 2001) Traditional cosmetic products normally include a variety of chemicals such as parabens, lead, and other toxic elements, this leads to an increase in the risk of cancer, allergies, or respiratory diseases One example demonstrates the negative effects of personal care products, a category known

as cosmetics According to Bross and Feeley (2016), daily use of shower gel or baby powder from Johnson can cause ovarian cancer, which will be a wake-up call for consumers in choosing safer products Meanwhile, organic cosmetics are produced

without the use of chemical fertilizers, synthetic chemicals, and genetically modified substances, these regulations will increase the safety for consumers in using the product

In several studies, safety valve has been found to be one of the variables that positively influences consumer attitudes toward organic products (Nguyen et al., 2019; Paksoy et

al., 2014) Moreover, a study on consumer behavior in Korea also found a connection

between food safety and the purchase of ecologically friendly agricultural products (Kim, 2007) The research results of Yin et al (2010) showed that over 50% of consumers responded that the reason that motivated them to use organic food for the first time was that organic food contains no chemicals In addition, the study of Ghazila et al (2017) demonstrated the positive effect of organic cosmetics ‘perception of safe value on consumers’ intention to repurchase organic cosmetics Therefore, a hypothesis is proposed as below:

H4a: Safety value positively affects to the consumers’ attitude toward repurchasing organic cosmetics

H4b: Safety value positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic cosmetics

2.7 Familiarity

Familiarity with a product or service over a period of time plays an important role in consumer decision-making (Desai & Hoyer, 2000; Tam, 2008) According to Alba and Hutchinson (1987), familiarity as ‘‘the number of experiences related to a product that have been accumulated by the consumer” (p.411) Consumer will become more familiar with the product if they use it more often, the result of which will increase their buying intent in the future (Flavia´ n et al., 2005) Furthermore, increased product or service familiarity leads to a more “elaborated cognitive framework” with them (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987; Mitchell & Dacin, 1996) Hence, consumers tend likely to rebuy the same products or use the same services they did before

According to previous research, product type familiarity, also known as previous experience with a product category, has an impact on intentions to purchase (Kim &

Chung, 2011; D’Souza et al., 2006) According to Kim and Chung (2011), past

experience of consumer influences their purchase intention of organic shampoo and

body lotion This is similar with many studies that suggest that past experience, particularly frequent past conduct, has a considerable impact on future behavior or behavior intentions because past behavior leads to learning, which influences future behavior (Mullen et al., 1987) Moreover, another previous researcher also confirmed that when consumers have a high degree of familiarity with a certain product, they respond more positively to their intention to repurchase that product (Soderlund, 2002) Thus, hypothesis 5 is proposed as below:

H5: Familiarity positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic cosmetics

2.8 Expertise

Expertise is another major dimension of consumer knowledge (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987) According to Alba and Hutchinson (1987), expertise is defined “as the ability to

perform product tasks successfully” (p.411) Expertise is present through knowledge

categories such as product types, features, product usage, and product purchase information

Experts will judge the quality of products based on expert knowledge of internal characteristics, internal cues On the contrary, consumers will evaluate product quality through product use so that they can accumulate knowledge about product features and functions that they have been used Consumers judge product quality differently than experts in a product Consumers will rely more on experience, familiarity with the product to evaluate As a result, the more specialized knowledge consumers have about the product, the easier they will be to make purchasing decisions When making product choice decisions, the higher a consumer’s level of expertise, the more likely he or she is

to trust a product quality assessment (Golder et al., 2012) As of yet, no study has been conducted on the association between consumer expertise in a product category and repurchase intentions in that product category, and so no conclusions have been formed

As product familiarity increases, consumers’ expertise about the product also increases (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987) Furthermore, expertise is one of the dimensions of consumer knowledge, it can influence consumer repurchase intentions of the respective product category Therefore, hypothesis 6 is proposed as below:

H6: Expertise positively affects to the consumer’s repurchase intention toward organic

cosmetics

2.9 Proposed research model

Based on the reviews of previous studies on factors affecting consumers intention to repurchase organic cosmetics, the author would like to propose a research model framework Some specific intentions and reasons that the author would like to do research for this model which will be briefly summarized below Research on consumers' intention to rebuy organic cosmetics is focused on two aspects: value and knowledge that customers can accumulate after using the product Organic cosmetics are known to be a safe and healthy product to use because the ingredients used in the product are of organic and natural origin and do not contain preservatives, synthetic chemicals In addition, the eco-friendly factor is a prominent feature of organic cosmetics Therefore, the value that consumers can perceive in organic cosmetics focused by the author is: health consciousness, environmental consciousness, and safety value Consumers' perception of the value that they will receive after using the product,

it will be an important factor to evaluate the influence of these values on their intention

to continue buying In previous studies on both the intention to purchase and repurchase organic products, the researchers only focused on the influence of health consciousness, environmental consciousness, and safety value on consumers' attitudes, thereby assessing the influence on intention In this study, the author not only studies the influence of three values on attitude but also investigates in more detail the direct influence of these three values on repurchase intention which has not been studied before

On the other hand, consumer experience is also one of the important factors in driving repurchase intention In previous studies on organic products on repurchase intention, consumer experience has not been focused much in the research direction In this study, the author wants to further investigate the influence of consumer familiarity and expertise on repurchase intention Familiarity and expertise are two main dimensions of consumer knowledge In the study of Kim and Chung (2011), the researcher used the past experience factor with organic products to assess the impact on consumers' purchase intention However, the consumer experience used in the study by Kim and

Chung (2011) is also based on the number of organic products they have used or purchased Consumer familiarity with a product will be based on the quantity of the product that they have purchased and used Because when customers are familiar with the outstanding features of the product, they will be more motivated to continue buying this product With regard to consumer expertise with respect to intention to repurchase, expertise here will be accumulated through the consumer's use of the product When consumers use organic cosmetics, they learn what salient features of the product make them happy and make them intend to continue using that product more in the future Therefore, the two factors including familiarity and expertise that the author would like

to emphasize will be measured based on the use of the product, the consumer's experience of the product in order to evaluate the influence of these two factors on the purchase intention of consumers The proposed research model is presented in Figure 2.2

Figure 2.2 The proposed theorical model

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research process

The study was performed following the procedure below:

Figure 3.1 Research procedure by the author

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Instrument Development

Building scales for model variables is an important tool in building bridges between theory and theoretical testing (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) The research uses the five level Likert scale which ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree to evaluate the level of consent for each observed variable Measurement items in the study are obtained and adapted based on the previous related studies which is shown in Table 3.1

Table 3.1 Measurement items for the survey

3.2.2 Sample and Data collection

3.2.2.1 Sampling design

According to research of Hair et al (1998), minimum number of samples is at least equal

to the total number of measurement variables multiplied by 5 In the study of factors affecting the intention to repurchase organic cosmetics with a total of 25 measurement variables, the total number of samples should be at least 125

Regarding how to choose the proper sample for this survey, the author chose the site for the survey in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam The reason is that Hanoi is one of the cities with a vibrant market economy in Vietnam, so demand for new products to meet consumer needs will be higher than in other locations Moreover, there are many shopping centers and supermarkets in Hanoi where the author can collect data for this survey Due to limited time and resources, convenience sampling will be used for this study The line of conventional cosmetics will be quite popular with everyone, but for organic cosmetic products this is a new product line in recent years Furthermore, this research is about the factors influencing the intent to repurchase organic cosmetics so the appropriate respondents should know about organic cosmetics and have bought this product at least once In the questionnaire sent to the respondents, the author gave a screening question so that he could identify suitable samples for the survey

execution, pilot testing was conducted to examine the consistency between items, avoiding misunderstood questions in the questionnaire The questionnaire was sent to

10 people who are highly educated such as university students, graduate students, and university lecturers All pilot responses were recorded and the questionnaire was adjusted to be more reasonable Besides, to minimize the time and effort for respondents, the questionnaire is designed to ensure response time within 10 minutes

3.2.2.3 Data collection

Choosing a method of data collection is key in the study design process (Aaker et al., 2004) When researchers know exactly what they're doing and how to quantify research variables, questionnaires are a good technique to collect data (Cavana et al., 2001) Specifically, this method can be applied in research, including goals that require appropriate descriptive design Using survey questionnaires also helps to verify large-sized samples with relatively low costs, increases the ability to replicate results, distinguish small deviations, and facilitates the management of questions and adopting advanced statistical analysis, exploiting non-measurable factors and relationships (Aaker et al., 2004; Cavana et al., 2001) Not only that, questionnaire surveys are being considered the most widely used method in collecting market research data, particularly

in strategic marketing documents The questionnaire consisted of 2 main parts Part 1 contains information related to demographics (gender, age, education level, income) and screening questions Part 2 contains the main questions related to the measurement items for the variables The questions are randomly arranged in order to avoid response bias The data collection time is conducted from 23rd April, 2021 to 4th May, 2021

The survey on factors affecting the intention to repurchase organic cosmetics is collected

by both online and offline channels specifically:

• 100 questionnaires were distributed online by google form via social media (Facebook, Instagram, Zalo)

• 110 questionnaires were distributed at locations in Hanoi by the author such as Vincom Center shopping mall, Lotte shopping center, supermarket like Big C, Mega Market