Wang Yong

(Endicott College,Woosong University,Daejeon Guangyu 34500)

Abstract:Consumers are the guides of business activities.Consumers’ willingness to consume is the basis of consumption behavior.Consumers’ willingness to consume plays a predictive role in consumer behavior.In this study,370 samples were collected in China to analyze the factors influencing consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products.A multivariate linear regression model based on the extended theory of planned behavior was established,and the regression equations were estimated and tested by SPSS statistical analysis software.The results showed that attitudes,safety awareness,perceived behavioral control and subjective norms had significant positive effects on consumers’ willingness to buy organic agricultural products and pay premium,while price awareness had no significant effect.

Key words:Organic agricultural products;Linear regression model;Planned behavior theory;Consumer’s purchase intention

I Introduction

In recent years,food safety incidents have occurred from time to time,which has led consumers to pay more and more attention to food safety and their own health.The high standard requirements and strict control of the organic agricultural product supply chain make organic agricultural products safer,and thus becoming increasingly popular with consumers (Chen,2014)[1].However,there are significant differences in consumers’ willingness to consume (Naeini et al.,2015).Although safe agricultural products benefit human health and some consumers have recognized it and are willing to consume safe agricultural products,there are still a lot of consumers who are reluctant to buy them (Markosyan et al.,2009).Planned behavior theory is a relatively mature theory for analyzing consumer behavior intentions,which is widely used in the study of human sociological behavior characteristics.Many successful studies abroad have shown that this theory can accurately predict human behavioral intentions and behaviors.However,research that applies planned behavior theory to study organic agricultural product consumption intentions is still relatively scant in China.This research mainly adopts empirical analysis methods,from the perspective of consumer purchase intention,collect and use consumer survey data to analyze the factors affecting consumers’ purchase intention.

2 Literature Review

Consumers’ personal characteristics and family characteristics affect their willingness to purchase safe agricultural products.The older consumers are,the more likely they are to trust organic agricultural products (Yin et al.,2016)[2].Families with higher incomes spend more on healthy food (French et al.,2010). Consumers’ awareness of the concept,quality and externalities of organic food,and the current supply situation will significantly positively affect the purchase decision of urban consumers of organic food (Chen,2014).Consumers’ perception of safe vegetables is subjective.The more positive an individual’s attitude is,the more likely the individual is to carry out certain behaviors (Yadav and Pathak,2016).Attitudes towards food have become the most important factor in determining consumers’ purchase intentions (Yadav and Pathak,2017).Consumers’ subjective[3]cognition of organic agricultural products positively affects their attitude (Wang,2021).Consumers’ trust in organic agricultural products affects their willingness to buy as well.A lack of trust is the main reason in refusing to buy organic produce(Yin et al.,2010).Consumers generally have low trust in organic agricultural products.Institutions,environment,purchase channels,and corporate and brand reputation are significant factors that affect the trust in organic agricultural products consumption (Yang et al.,2016).For consumers with high price awareness,the price discount can lead to higher purchase intention(Palazon and Delgado,2009).

In summary,scholars at home and abroad have reached a consensus.However,consumers’ demand for agricultural products has become higher and higher.Consumer psychology will also become immensely complex,and the influencing factors will increase.

3 Theoretical Basis and Hypothesis

3.1 Conceptual Framework

The theory of planned behavior is mainly used to explain and analyze how individuals make decisions(Ajzen,1991)[4].Among them,purchase intention and premium intention refer to consumers’ purchase intention and premium intention to organic agricultural products.Safety awareness refers to consumers’ cognition of whether the current common agricultural products are safe or not,price awareness refers to consumers’ perception of current agricultural product price levels and price fluctuations;Attitudes include consumers’ perception of organic agricultural products and their trust in organic agricultural product labels;Subjective norms refer to the social pressure perceived by consumers;Perceptual behavior control reflects consumers’ past experience in purchasing organic agricultural products and the expected obstacles to purchasing organic agricultural products in the future.

For consumers,if consumers have a positive attitude towards buying organic agricultural products,the greater the social pressure they will feel from relatives,friends,colleagues and other social groups,and their past experience in organic agricultural products consumption will be relatively good,and there are more opportunities and resources,so consumers will be more willing to consume organic agricultural products.Prices may affect consumers’ willingness to spend.At the same time,if consumers perceive that ordinary agricultural products are not safe enough,their willingness to buy organic agricultural products may be stronger.Therefore,this article introduces security awareness and price awareness into the theory,the conceptual model is shown in Figure 1.

3.2 Research hypothesis

The following hypotheses are proposed:

H1:Attitudes have a positive effect on consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products.

Fig.1 Conceptual model for the formation of consumption intentions of organic agricultural products

H2:Perceived behavior control positively and significantly affects consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products.

H3:The influence of subjective norms on consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products is positive and significant.

H4:Safety awareness positively and significantly affects consumers’ willingness of organic agricultural products.

H5:Price awareness has a positive effect on consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products.

4 Methodology

4.1 Data Collection

This study collected data through questionnaires distributed by the“Questionnaire Star”platform,and collected 370 valid questionnaires.Among them,226 are female,accounting for 60.92%,and 145 are male,accounting for 39.08%.Those aged 20 and below account for 4.85%,those aged 21-30 account for 67.12%,those aged 31-40 account for 20.75%,and those aged 41-60 account for 20.75%.6.47%,0.81% over 60 years old.

4.2 Variable Measurement

This article designs measurement items based on existing mature scales at home and abroad.In order to make the questionnaire items more readable and valid,the author examined and modified the first draft of the questionnaire before conducting the questionnaire survey,so as to ensure the respondents’ clear understanding of each item.Among them,safety awareness includes two measurement items,such as“I think organic produce is safer than regular produce”;Price awareness includes two items,such as“I think the current price of agricultural products is unstable”;Attitude includes three items,such as“I think organic agricultural products are different from ordinary agricultural products”;Subjective norms include two items,such as“I think buying organic agricultural products will be recognized by more people”;Perceived behavior control includes two Items,such as“I have bought organic agricultural products in the past and I feel good.”The questionnaire is measured by the Likert five-level scale scoring method,one means“strongly disagree”and five means“strongly agree”.

5 Empirical Resultsand Analysis

5.1 Reliability and Validity Test

SPSS statistical analysis software was used to analyze the reliability and validity of this data sample.For example,the reliability coefficient value in Table 1 is 0.817 (Cronbach α coefficient >0.8),the data in this study have high reliability.The validity of the study was verified by KMO test and Bartlett test.For example,the KMO value in Table 2 is 0.857 (KMO value>0.8),hence,the data is valid.

Table 1 Cronbach reliability analysis

Table 2 KMO and Bartlett test

5.2 Model Setting

According to the selected explanatory variables,a multiple linear regression equation between the willingness and attitude to purchase and pay premium for organic agricultural products,subjective norms,perceptual behavior control,safety awareness,and price awareness is initially established.The model can be set as:

CPI=β0+β1A+β2SN+β3PBC+β4SA+β5PC+ε

among them:

β——Regression coefficient;

CPI——Willingness to buy and pay a premium;

A——Attitude;

SN——Subjective norm;

PBC——Perceptual behavior control;

SA——Safety awareness;

PC——Price awareness;

ε——Random error term.

5.3 Model Estimation and Hypothesis Testing

In this study,SPSS statistical analysis software was used to estimate the regression equation.The model formula (as shown in the table) is:

CPI=0.062+0.247*A+0.277*SN+0.204*PBC+0.246*SA+0.045*PC

The model is meaningful,It can be seen from Table 4 below that the model passed F test (F=91.912,P=0.000 <0.05),At the same time,there is no collinearity in the model and no correlation between the data (VIF values are all less than 5 and D-W values are 2.054).

Table 3 Linear regression analysis results (n=370)

Table 4 ANOVA table (intermediate process)

Dependent variable:willingness to buy and pay a premium

D-W value:2.054

Fig.2 Model result diagram

According to the results of model operation,the regression coefficient of independent variable attitude was 0.247 (t=4.145,P=0.000<0.01).The regression coefficient of the independent variable perceptual behavioral control was 0.204 (t=4.589,P=0.000<0.01),indicating that perceptual behavioral control significantly positively affected consumers’ willingness and their willingness to pay premium.The regression coefficient of independent variable subjective norm was 0.277 (t=5.454),P=0.000 <0.01,indicating that subjective norm significantly positively affected consumers’ willingness to pay premium.The regression coefficient of independent variable safety awareness was 0.246 (t=5.633,P=0.000<0.01),indicating that safety awareness significantly positively affected consumers’ purchase intention and their willingness to pay premium.The regression coefficient of independent variable price awareness was 0.045 (t=1.322,P=0.187>0.05),indicating that price awareness positively affected consumers’ purchase intention and pay premium,but the effect was not significant.Therefore,hypothesis H1,H2,H3 and H4 are supported.

6 Conclusion

This study is helpful for organic agricultural products producers and operators to better engage in production and management activities.They should strengthen the publicity of organic agricultural products,to help consumers understand the production process and nutritional value of organic agricultural products,so that consumers are more familiar with and trust the certification mark of organic agricultural products,they will believe that organic agricultural products are safer and can provide us with better nutritional value.At the same time,they need to provide consumers with more accurate and more convenient organic agricultural products purchase channels.They need to pay attention to the stickiness of consumers,maintain the loyalty of former consumers,and encourage consumers to promote organic agricultural products to their relatives and friends,so as to enhance the impact of subjective norms on consumers.

Due to the limitation of research conditions,this research still has some limitations.First of all,the samples of this study are mainly aged between 21 and 40,and the number of middle-aged and above samples is relatively small.The limitation of sample selection may lead to the lack of generality of research conclusions.In the future research,the formation mechanism of consumers’ willingness to consume organic agricultural products in different age groups should be compared and analyzed.Secondly,there are many factors affecting the consumption intention of organic agricultural products,such as environmental factors and emotional value.The theoretical model of expansion planning behavior established in this paper does not take all the factors into consideration.Future research can further explore and summarize the influencing factors of the intention to consume organic agricultural products.