Consumer Behaviour regarding purchasing decision of Organic Food

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The topic that is selected for this research to be focused upon is consumer behaviour regarding purchasing decisions pertaining to organic food. Twentieth century heralded numerous advancements across diverse fields, with the most prominent change being registered in the field of technology. With this technological revolution, production of fertilizers and pesticides increased and along with that increase in the production of genetically modified food was also recorded. This rose to be an issue of significant concern for the consumers opting to use organic food rather than genetically modified food. This particularly emerged as one of the major trends in the agricultural industry in the last two decades, along with the increase in diseases pertaining to food as Mad-cow (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) and Bird Flu (Essoussi and Zahaf, 2008). Thus the need for the organic farming emerges and considering the impact of above mentioned issues that are currently driving agricultural industry, the significance of organic farming cannot be denied.

Statement of the problem

This research study is undertaken to understand the dynamics of consumer behaviour by understanding consumer behaviour towards organic food. Understanding consumer behaviour towards organic food is important so as to effectively position it in the market, which is imperative to have people shift towards organic food as opposed to genetically modified food or food produced through conventional farming. In addition to the increased health and nutritional value organic food adds to one's diet, this is particularly important under the circumstances discussed above where diseases pertaining to food illustrated by Mad-cow and Bird Flu are significantly increasing (Lampkin, 1999). The market for organic food is not as developed as that of the genetically modified food and in the development and establishment of the industry and the market, the customer plays a pivotal role. This precisely explains the need to understand consumer behaviour towards organic food. To trigger demand for the organic food is the primary and hence necessary step to induce sustainability in organic agriculture. This can only be done through understanding consumer behaviour regarding purchasing decision about organic food.

Background of the problem

There are numerous factors that come into play when a consumer looks into taking purchasing decisions, and when it involves purchasing decisions pertaining to organic food, there are numerous complex factors that define consumer behaviour. Studies have indicated that numerous psychological and contextual factors and relationships overall significantly impact purchase decisions made by consumers, at specific points in time in a particular context. Factors such as availability of time, location of the market, purchasing power of the consumer are of immense value in defining and shaping consumer behaviour towards organic food. These factors are particularly of value when consumers decide to purchase organic food rather than conventionally produced or genetically modified food, thereby directly responsible for a boost or decline in sales of organic food. Considering this, organic food is most of the time unavailable in the market as compared to the conventional food which could be easily obtained, and ...