Motives Underlying Organic Food Consumption in Turkey: Impact of Health, Environment, and Consumer Values on Purchase Intentions

Abstract

Raising ecological awareness and health concerns create question marks about healthiness and sustainability of conventional foods in customers' minds. Due to augmented mass media coverage of environmental problems, health concerns related to consumption of genetically modified food and/or chemical contaminants in food, and consumers' increasing interest in healthy nutrition and environmental protection, there is a growing interest for organic foods in all over the world. Growing interest for organic foods, and increasing production and demand in organic food market has made organic food consumption a significant topic of research. Although organic food market and demand for organic foods have also been growing in Turkey, literature regarding organic food consumption is not very extensive. Therefore, this study aims to understand the underlying motives for organic food consumption in Turkey, and to explore the factors affecting Turkish consumers' attitudes towards organic foods and the behavioral intention of Turkish consumers to purchase organic food by the help of the theory of reasoned action (TRA). The results of 622 successful surveys used for this empirical research indicate that Turkish consumers' attitudes towards organic foods are determined by perception of organic foods, consumer values, and price perception, while their purchase intention is determined by health consciousness, perception of organic foods, consumer values, price perception, and environmental concerns.