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Lee 2015
Lee 2015
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Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to investigate consumer choice motives for purchasing organic coffee by
applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) approach and how those are influenced by different
degrees of ethical concern and price sensitivity to gain a better understanding about consumer behavior
related to the rapidly growing demand for this unique product.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from consumers at cafés (n ⫽ 482) located in
seven metropolitan cities in South Korea using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed
using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Findings – Results documented that health and environmental protection were predictors of purchase
attitude and subjective norm. Environmental protection was found to be a predictor of perceived behavioral
control. TPB antecedents were significantly related to purchase intention. Ethical concern and price
sensitivity documented the significant moderating roles upon organic coffee purchasing behavior.
Research limitations/implications – Findings further contribute to a better understanding about
influential choice motives regarding organic coffee and their effect upon consumer purchase behavior.
Practical implications – Findings assist in understanding the roles ethical concerns and price
sensitivity play upon consumer behavior issues specific to purchasing organic coffee. New research
findings assist with marketing and promoting the social benefits associated with organic coffee while
also offering pricing strategies for café and restaurant businesses to optimize their organic coffee sales
revenue potential.
Originality/value – This study is one of the first to clarify consumer motives for purchasing organic
coffee, and to ascertain whether consumer purchase attitudes and intentions regarding organic coffee
are influenced by different degrees of ethical concern and price sensitivity.
Keywords Ethical concerns, Purchase behavior, Price sensitivity, Consumer choice motives,
Environment concern, Organic coffee
Paper type Research paper
organic coffee sales reached 148 million pounds in 2006, and more than 44 per cent of all
total organic coffee grown in 2008 was imported into North America to produce organic
coffee products (OTA, 2012). More recent trends document that international sales of
organic coffee in the USA grew nearly 30 per cent in just one year, jumping from $15.2
million in 2011 to $19.7 million in 2012 (OTA, 2013).
A wide range of organic coffee products is now on the market. Freshly roasted
organic coffee and coffee blends are being processed as decaffeinated, caffeinated,
flavored coffees and instant coffees. Coffee consumers can obtain these products at cafés
and retail outlets worldwide and may also purchase them from companies specializing
in roasting and distributing (selling) coffee beans direct to consumers via the Internet.
Organic coffee is also used for many dessert items and refreshments, including organic
coffee ice cream, yogurt, coffee sodas, hard candies and chocolate-covered beans (OTA,
2012).
Since coffee was first introduced in South Korea in the 1890s (Kang, 2013), instant
coffee has been produced and supplied widely as the favorite consumable coffee style.
Following the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and due to health trends, South Korean consumer
preferences for coffee styles and types changed to freshly brewed coffee. Increased
consumer consumption of brewed coffee accelerated with the launching of
Starbucks-Korea in Seoul in 1999. Over the past ten years, consumption of brewed coffee
has increased rapidly which has caused a demand for many domestic (e.g. Caffe bene,
Angel-in-us) and international (e.g. Starbucks, Coffee bean) café-style franchises to enter
the freshly brewed coffee and espresso business. Consequently, brewed coffee
(approximately $2.3 billion) ranked first among all coffee market sales in 2013
(approximately $5.6 billion) in Korea, followed by coffee mix, coffee beverage and
instant coffee (Korea Economic Daily, 2014). Accordingly, the amount of imported coffee
beans (raw beans from Vietnam and Brazil, roasted beans from the USA) increased from
102,086 tons in 2008 to 123,029 tons in 2011 (Korea Custom Service, 2013). In addition,
many Korean consumers now pay close attention to not only the quality and growing
conditions of the coffee but also to its brewing type. They enjoy the taste and flavor of
sustainably grown coffee which is regularly consumed at specialty coffee houses,
private homes and the workplace. Sustainably grown coffee styles include organic
coffee, shaded – grown coffee (protected from the sun during growth) and fair trade
coffee. Given the amount of imported organic coffee in recent years, it is expected that
consumers’ desire to purchase organic or fair trade coffee will continue to increase.
The existing body of knowledge appearing in scholarly academic literature
addressing consumer attitudes, intentions and motives associated with purchasing
organic products is very limited and, as a result, it is not well understood and highly Consumer
controversial with respect to empirical research findings (Newsom et al., 2005). Results motives
from one group of prior studies that focused primarily on the effects motives had upon
consumer purchasing behavior regarding organic foods identified health and
nutritional motives as the most dominant for purchasing organic foods (Lockie et al.,
2004; Lea and Worsley, 2005). Some consumer purchase organic food because of their
perceptions of positive gains upon to their well-being resulting from eating healthier 1159
products (Williams and Hammitt, 2001) and foods that are safer because they are
produced without the use of synthetic chemicals (e.g. pesticides, fertilizers) and genetic
modification (Miles and Frewer, 2001). Environmental concern has also appeared as a
strong motive for purchasing organic products (Magnusson et al., 2003), but this motive
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is not as strong as the motive associated with health (Huang, 1996). Additional research
findings have reported mixed results (Baker et al., 2004). For example, Tarkianen and
Sundqvist (2005) insisted that environmental concern was a dominant motive for
purchasing organic products. These gaps demonstrate that beyond studies focusing
upon motives related to safety and environmental concerns for purchasing organic food,
other motives exist including ethical self-identity (Shaw and Shiu, 2002), personal values
(Lea and Worsley, 2005) and beliefs that organic food tastes better than conventionally
produced food (Padel and Foster, 2005). One particular study on Swedish consumers
reported that taste was the most important motive for purchasing food (Magnusson
et al., 2001), supporting much earlier research from Norway that concluded similar
results (Wandel and Bugge, 1997).
More recently, ethical concern about coffee production and fair trade has increased
due to perceptions about child labor used to produce coffee and other issues related to
the effects coffee-growing practices have upon environmental sustainability. The
attitude that the development and growth of fair trade is ethical, and especially for
beverage items (e.g. coffee, tea), has received much support by UK and European
commerce sectors. This is especially true for coffee as it was the first trade product to
raise ethical production concerns following the 1970s when fair trade products first
appeared (Cailleba and Casteran, 2009).
Ethical trading, which is now mainstream trading, is an essential element for the
sustainability of livelihoods. The goals of sustainable and organic agriculture are
closely related, as they are similar forms of farming (Padel and Foster, 2005). Thus,
organic trading is increasingly seen to overlap ethical trading. As the organic movement
continues to evolve toward social rights and fair trade, organic coffee now represents 59
per cent of all fair trade coffee imported into the USA (OTA, 2013).
Social responsibility and sustainability have been important topics in recent
hospitality marketing research (Lee et al., 2014; Yoo et al., 2011). In general, consumers
who feel an ethical responsibility toward society express this feeling through their
purchasing behavior. Consumers appear to be more willing to pay extra for ethically
produced goods, especially when they are perceived to improve the livelihood of
producers (Dipietro et al., 2013). However, consumer purchasing behavior does not
always correspond to their positive attitudes (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007). Several
studies have indicated consumer sensitivity to price when buying organic coffee
(Pelsmacker et al., 2005b), which can be 15-30 per cent more expensive than
conventionally produced coffee. While consumers’ behaviors are clearly influenced by
their perceptions and attitudes (Vitell et al., 2001), attitude alone is not always a good
IJCHM predictor of purchasing behavior in the actual purchase situation, suggesting a gap
27,6 between attitudes and behaviors (Wandel and Bugge, 1997). Therefore, an increasing
emphasis on obtaining a better understanding of consumers who purchase organic
coffee is very important.
The complexity of food choice behavior has been explored through various models
(Furst et al., 1996; Chen, 2007); however, no studies have investigated the potential
1160 influences of motives regarding choice and organic coffee purchasing behavior. Thus,
this study attempts to clarify what motives determine consumers’ purchase attitude and
intentions regarding organic coffee and ascertain whether consumer purchase attitude
and intentions related to organic coffee are influenced by different degrees of ethical
concern and price sensitivity (Figure 1).
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The TPB has been applied in numerous studies to examine a variety of social behaviors
in the individual’s decision-making process (Ajzen, 2001; Armitage and Conner, 2001),
including alcohol consumption (Conner et al., 1999), the adoption of information systems
and the Internet (Kim et al., 2009), hoteliers’ technology adoption (Lim, 2009) and travel
Figure 1.
A proposed model of
choice motives and
the TPB toward
organic coffee
destination choice intention (Hsu and Huang, 2012). From accumulated evidence, many Consumer
scholars have concluded that the TPB may be the most useful theory in predicting a motives
wide range of intentions and behaviors that are under volitional control, and appropriate
for applying to most people, although the sufficiency of TPB is still being questioned.
Most importantly, because Ajzen’s (1991) TPB successfully elucidates consumers and
their food selecting behavior (Chen, 2007), it was deemed the most appropriate theory for
exploring consumer choice motives regarding the purchase of organic coffee. Therefore, 1161
the TPB was chosen as the theoretical framework used for this study. Since certain
choice motives for organic coffee may have salient impacts on consumer attitudes,
subjective norms and PBC pertaining to the purchase of organic coffee, which in turn
influence the subsequent purchase intention, the study hypotheses were developed
based upon these assumptions.
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organic coffee.
H3b. Trust is a positive contributor to perceived behavioral control regarding
organic coffee.
H3c. Sensory appeal is a positive contributor to perceived behavioral control
regarding organic coffee.
H3d. Environmental protection is a positive contributor to perceived behavioral
control regarding organic coffee.
when considering those associated risks and benefits. Ajzen (1991) theorized that people
who perceive themselves as having more behavioral control, also have a greater
intention to perform that behavior. Godin and Kok (1996) reported that PBC contributed
to the prediction of intentions regarding health-related behaviors. Chen (2007)
demonstrated that consumers’ PBC significantly enhances their intention to purchase
organic foods. Thus, the following hypothesis is offered:
H6. With more perceived behavioral control over the purchase of organic coffee,
consumers are more likely to intend to purchase organic coffee.
scale was used for trust and a four-item scale was used for environmental protection,
which were developed by Magnusson et al. (2001) and Lindeman and Vaananen (2000),
respectively. Ten-item measurement scales for purchase attitude, subjective norms and
PBC were adapted from Bredahl (2001) and the four-item scale used for purchase
intention was based on Bredahl (2001), for which items were adapted from Pliner and
Hobden (1992). A three-item scale was used to measure ethical concern based on You
and Park (2012) and Michaelidou and Hassan (2008). A three-item scale was used to
measure price sensitivity based on Chen (2007).
A seven-point scale was used to measure how important respondents considered the
purchase of organic coffee based on the statements presented in Appendix (not at all
important [strongly disagree] ⫽ 1, extremely important [strongly agree] ⫽ 7). Some
items regarding socio-demographic characteristics were measured. For an appropriate
translation of the questionnaire that could be fully understood by Korean respondents,
the original English questionnaire was translated into Korean. After two bilingual
speakers cross-checked the Korean questionnaire, several modifications were made
(Choe and Cho, 2011). A pilot test using 100 consumers conveniently sampled at various
cafés was carried out in South Korea in October 2012. After modifying several questions
for reliability in measurement, the final survey instrument consisted of 35 items.
4. Results
4.1 Profiles of the samples
Demographic characteristics of respondents found that about 65.6 per cent were female,
between 20 and 29 years (59.8 per cent), with 22.4 per cent earning $2,000- $3,000, and
having received a university education (70.9 per cent). Respondents were daily coffee
drinkers (92.7 per cent) consuming coffee 1-3 times a day, having consumed organic
coffee (63.7 per cent) for which a higher premium was paid.
These findings contrasted with those of Cailleba and Casteran (2009) who concluded
that fair trade coffee purchases were related to consumers’ education level and standard
of living rather than age or gender. Results of this study’s chi-square tests demonstrated
that organic coffee drinking experience differed significantly according to gender, age,
income level and education level, showing a higher consumptive frequency for females
(p ⬍ 0.000***), 20-29 years of age (p ⬍ 0.05*), having low incomes (less than $1,000, p ⬍
0.000***), with somewhat low educational levels (p ⬍ 0.05*). Price sensitivity (low/high)
depended upon gender (higher in males, p ⬍ 0.01**) and income level (higher in less than
$1,000, p ⬍ 0.05*), whereas level of ethical concern was not significantly different among
the demographic characteristics.
Notes: 2 ⫽ 1179.825 (df ⫽ 508), p ⬍ 0.001; 2/df ⫽ 2.322; goodness of fit index (GFI) ⫽ 0.876; normed
fit index (NFI) ⫽ 0.897; Tucker Lewis index (TLI) ⫽ 0.927; comparative fit index (CFI) ⫽ 0.938;
Table I. incremental fit index (IFI) ⫽ 0.938; root square error of approximation (RMSEA) ⫽ 0.052; a CCR:
Reliabilities and CFA composite construct reliability; AVE: average variance extracted; *** p ⬍ 0.001
higher than the recommended 0.90. As presented in all the statistics, the quality of this Consumer
measurement was assured. According to previous studies (Podsakoff et al., 2003), motives
possible common method variance was tested to check the potential concern of common
method bias in using a survey. Exploratory factor analysis of 29 items proved eight
factors, which explain 76.699 per cent of the variance (first factor 31.323 per cent, last
3.993 per cent), with Eigen values higher than 1.00. Because no single factor explained
most of the variance, common method bias was not a threat. 1167
Table II shows the means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients between
constructs. According to Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) suggestion, the discriminant
validity is acceptable when the values of all AVEs are higher than those of all squared
correlations for each pair of constructs. In this study, as all AVEs (0.544 to 0.770)
exceeded all squared correlations of each pair of constructs (0.001 to 0.241), the
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27,6
1168
IJCHM
Table II.
deviations
and standard
Correlations, means,
Constructs H ⫾ SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
H1 Partially supported
Health ¡ Purchase attitude 0.125* 2.506* Supported
Trust ¡ Purchase attitude 0.172*** 3.491*** Supported
Sensory appeal ¡ Purchase attitude 0.059 1.214 Not supported
Environmental protection ¡ Purchase attitude 0.353*** 6.337*** Supported
H2 Partially supported
Health ¡ Subjective norm 0.039 0.802 Not supported
Trust ¡ Subjective norm 0.184*** 3.826*** Supported
Sensory appeal ¡ Subjective norm 0.111* 2.296 Supported
Environmental protection ¡ Subjective norm 0.286*** 5.556*** Supported
H3 Partially supported
Health ¡ Perceived behavioral control 0.054 1.057 Not supported
Trust ¡ Perceived behavioral control ⫺0.064 ⫺1.302 Not supported
Sensory appeal ¡ Perceived behavioral control 0.017 0.340 Not supported
Environmental protection ¡ Perceived behavioral control 0.197*** 3.713*** Supported
H4
Purchase attitude ¡ Purchased intention 0.380*** 3.774*** Supported
H5
Subjective norm ¡ Purchased intention 0.392*** 9.077*** Supported
H6
Perceived behavioral control ¡ Purchased intention 0.160*** 8.130*** Supported
Goodness-of-fit statistics 2 ⫽ 1,128.541 (p ⬍ 0.000) 2/df ⫽ 3.179 GFI ⫽ 0.854, NFI ⫽ 0.884,
CFI ⫽ 0.917, RMSEA ⫽ 0.067
Notes: GFI: goodness-of-fit index; NFI: normed fit index; CFI: comparative fit index; RMSEA: root mean square error of approximation; * p ⬍ 0.05,
***
p ⬍ 0.001
estimates
Table III.
1169
motives
Consumer
Structural parameter
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27,6
and H8)
1170
IJCHM
Table IV.
H1
H1a 0.148* 0.117 0.036 0.033 0.253*** 4.239*
H1b 0.118 0.196** 0.719 0.206** 0.124* 0.480
H1c 0.109 ⫺0.050 2.201 0.170* ⫺0.022 3.253
H1d 0.314*** 0.276*** 0.246 0.202** 0.458*** 1.619
H2
H2a 0.020 0.081 0.348 ⫺0.061 0.155* 3.801
H2b 0.165* 0.196** 0.379 0.234** 0.140* 0.775
H2c 0.194** ⫺0.013 3.569 0.190* 0.050 1.791
H2d 0.280*** 0.222** 0.259 0.157* 0.384*** 1.403
H3
H3a ⫺0.068 0.199** 5.550* ⫺0.035 0.142* 2.855
H3b ⫺0.049 ⫺0.060 0.026 ⫺0.037 ⫺0.079 0.249
H3c 0.206** ⫺0.199** 15.179* 0.013 0.012 0.000
H3d 0.244** 0.067 2.382 0.233** 0.150* 0.293
H4 0.332*** 0.380*** 0.140 0.364*** 0.359*** 2.019
H5 0.437*** 0.350*** 0.189 0.300*** 0.471*** 5.779*
H6 0.195** 0.133* 1.255 0.220** 0.120* 0.147
Notes: 2/df ⫽ 2.118; GFI⫽ 0.828; NFI ⫽ 0.843; CFI ⫽ 0.909; RMSEA ⫽ 0.048, * p ⬍ 0.05, ** p ⬍ 0.01, *** p ⬍ 0.001; 2/df ⫽ 2.227; GFI ⫽ 0.813;
NFI ⫽ 0.845; CFI ⫽ 0.907; RMSEA ⫽ 0.051, * p ⬍ 0.05, *** p ⬍ 0.001
0.05, Sensory appeal ¡ PBC; ⌬2df ⫽ 1 ⫽ 15.179; p ⬍ 0.05). Therefore, H7 was partially Consumer
supported. motives
In Table IV, the moderating effects of price sensitivity are displayed. The
unconstrained model for tenure fit the data reasonably well (2 ⫽ 1,581.289; df ⫽ 710;
p ⬍ 0.001; GFI ⫽ 0.81; NFI ⫽ 0.85; CFI ⫽ 0.91; RMSEA ⫽ 0.005). In the relationships
between health and purchase attitude, and between subjective norm and purchase
intention, the 2 differences between the two models (constrained and unconstrained) 1171
were significant (Health ¡ Purchase attitude; ⌬2df ⫽ 1 ⫽ 4.239; p ⬍ 0.05, Subjective
norm ¡ Purchase intention; ⌬2df ⫽ 1 ⫽ 5.779; p ⬍ 0.05). Therefore, H8 was partially
supported. Several relationships between motives for choosing organic coffee and TPB
were greatly influenced by ethical concern and price sensitivity, even though the
moderating effects were not significant.
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Sundqvist (2005) suggested that consumers’ attitude predicted their purchase intention
regarding organic foods. However, according to Wen’s (2009) review of the literature on
theories affecting consumers’ online purchase intention regarding travel products, the
influences of attitude sub-factors is not clear.
With respect to the influence of subjective norms on intention, some researchers have
argued that the subjective norm construct is the weakest predictor of intentions and
have removed it from analysis (Sparks et al., 1995). Contrary to this finding, the
subjective norm construct in our study, as well as attitude, were found to be strong
predictors of intention regarding the purchase of organic coffee. Because the majority of
TPB studies have used single-item measures for subjective norms, Armitage and
Conner (2001) pointed out that the weakness in predictive power of subjective norms
may be partially due to inadequate measurement. Their meta-analysis showed that
multiple-item measures of subjective norms had significantly stronger correlations with
intention than single measures. However, the PBC construct in this study had a
relatively weak predictive power with regard to the intention, showing results
contradictory to Armitage and Conner’s (2001) meta-analysis in which the
PBC-intention correlation was strong and PBC independently predicted intentions and
behavior in multiple contexts. Ajzen (1991) argued that the extent to which PBC affects
intention depends on the type of behavior and the nature of the situation. Under
volitionally controllable conditions, BI should only predict behavior. Therefore, one can
assume that respondents in our study may not feel any obstacle to purchasing organic
coffee and can volitionally control the purchase of organic coffee. If such is the case, it is
natural that the PBC construct in this study did not show a higher impact on consumers’
purchase intention.
Finally, several significant moderating effects of consumers’ ethical concern and
price sensitivity existed in the relationships between motives for choosing organic
coffee and TPB. When consumers had a high level of ethical concern, their health motive
had a significant positive effect, but sensory appeal had a negative effect on perceived
behavioral control. In contrast, among consumers with a low level of ethical concern, the
health motive did not have a significant effect on perceived behavioral control; however,
sensory appeal had a significant positive effect on it. This means that, among those with
a high level of ethical concern, consumers’ behavioral control to purchase organic coffee
is influenced by the consideration of social impacts on their health, while among those
with low ethical concern, behavioral control will be more influenced by sensory
attributes as a personal value. These results are similar to those of Magnusson et al.
(2001) and Wandel and Bugge (1997).
This study found that consumers having high levels of price sensitivity were affected Consumer
by the health motive which was shown to have a significant positive effect on their motives
purchase attitude, while no significant affect was found with consumers having low
levels of price sensitivity. This implies that consumers who are sensitive to organic
coffee prices and do not want to pay a higher premium for it, will actually pay higher
prices because of the health impact’s affect upon their purchase attitude. They will
actually be more concerned about health than with paying a high premium for organic 1173
coffee. However, organic coffee consumers having low price sensitivity were found to be
more willing to pay a higher premium without the influence of health concerns on
purchase attitude. The moderating effect of consumers’ price sensitivity on the
relationships between subjective norms and purchase intention was significantly
positive. This finding can be explained by the fact that, as organic coffee is also
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produced for the benefit of society, such as environmental protection, the effect of
subjective norms on purchase intention was significantly positive. However, this effect
can be more influenced by increasing consumer price sensitivity. More specifically,
when consumers cannot pay or are not willing to pay a high premium for organic coffee,
their subjective norm will affect the intention to purchase organic coffee; therefore, their
willingness to pay will change. Without any price-resistance, the influence of subjective
norms will be reduced.
The market share for fair trade coffee dramatically increased by 375 per cent from 1999
to 2004 in the five European major markets (Cailleba and Casteran, 2009), and the
organic coffee market in the USA has continuously increased. Today, as various types of
food service establishments provide organic coffee and offer it on their menus, organic
coffee has become the beverage of choice in many cafés and restaurants in the USA.
Particularly, organic coffee is more available than ever on university campuses.
University members (e.g. benefactors, faculties and students), who are conscious of
world hunger and sustainability, have requested that food service offerings be “green”,
encouraging college and university food service businesses to provide organic coffee
despite economics associated with higher costs and students having less discretionary
spending potential. Several brands of coffee-roasting companies (e.g. Caffe Ibis, Green
Mountain Coffee S&D Coffees) have expanded their sales into hundreds of college and
university food service organizations nationwide and now provide certified organic and
fair trade coffee (OTA, 2014).
The organic sector of the overall coffee industry is expected to grow globally as
consumers’ demands for this product increase because of their individual values and the
perceived social benefits for doing so. These findings will facilitate a much more
heuristic understanding about consumers’ explicit considerations between the two
moderators involving ethical concern vs paying higher premium for organic coffee.
These findings will be very helpful in marketing organic coffee by using social benefits
for promotional purposes and also for developing pricing strategies for featuring
organic coffee in those hundreds of thousands of cafés and restaurants.
Koreans’ love of coffee makes these study findings particularly meaningful and
special within the Korean culture. The amount of imported coffee beans and the number
of newly opened specialty cafés have increased rapidly over the past few years. As
shown in the analysis of respondents’ demographic characteristics, many Koreans drink
coffee two to three times a day, in the morning and/or after meals. Young people visit
cafés not only to drink high-quality coffee but also to enjoy the atmosphere within cafés
as a cultural space. In contrast, middle-aged and older adults usually drink coffee by
brewing freshly roasted coffee beans or coffee capsules in their homes or offices instead
of visiting cafés. They do not care to spend money to purchase expensive coffee
machines and capsule coffee products. However, awareness of sustainable coffee, why
we should drink them and what kind exist, seems to still be lacking in Korean coffee
consumers to a greater extent. Thus, organic and fair trade coffee marketers can
increase their sales by promoting the social and individual benefits of purchasing
organic and fair trade coffee. For younger people who visit cafés more frequently and
have less income, the promotion of organic coffees in cafés and restaurants using a price Consumer
strategy will increase sales. Introducing organic and fair trade coffee to college and motives
university food service organizations, as is happening now in the USA, also may be
effective in increasing sales because students with high level of education may soon
become major consumers of those organic coffee products. For middle-aged and older
adults, promotion of capsule coffee produced by organic or fair trade coffee businesses
will help to increase organic and fair trade coffee sales. As Cailleba and Casteran’s (2009) 1175
findings demonstrated, fair trade coffee purchases shared similar educational levels and
standards of living. The premium for purchasing organic or fair trade coffee will not
affect consumers who are willing to pay a higher price for good quality, value and
convenience associated with capsule coffee products.
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5.3 Limitations
Despite its several contributions, this study is not without some limitations that should
be mentioned. The main limitation is that the findings cannot be generalized to
customers in other categories. Because this study was administered in cafés, the target
population was limited to younger consumers found to be mainly 20 years of age or
slightly older. Also, due to the application of convenience sampling, this study can
contain unknown systematic and variable errors. In addition, no study has used a
consumer survey with questionnaire items for organic coffee, so our survey applied
questionnaire items by extracting them from previous research designed for organic
foods. Thus, the possibility exists that differences were ascertained in accordance with
each research trait. Measures of the variables in this study are based on self-report
methods, so the results may also be somewhat inflated.
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visiting scholar in Florida State University. She received her Doctorate in the Department of Food
and Nutrition from Kyung Hee University. Her recent publications include “Conjoint analysis the
consumer preference with the addition of brown rice and black rice in triangular Gimbop” and
“The effect of foreigner’s ethnic food attitudes on purchasing Korean foods”.
Mark A. Bonn is a tenured Full Professor in the Dedman School of Hospitality, Florida State
University. He received his Doctorate from Texas A&M University, and his research focuses upon
hospitality and tourism marketing, consumer behavior, wine tourism, sustainability and
economic value. His recent publications include “Do Sustainable Practices of Organic Wine
Producers and Retailers, and Organic Wine Attributes Influence Purchase Intention? The
Moderating Role of Trust”, “Wine Attributes, Perceived Risk and Online Wine Repurchase
intention: The Cross-Level Interaction Effects of Website Quality” and “A Constraint-Based
Approach to Wine Tourism Market Segmentation”. Mark A. Bonn can be contacted at:
mbonn@fsu.edu
Meehee Cho, PhD, is a Research Scholar in the Dedman School of Hospitality, Florida State
University. She received her Doctorate from KyungHee University, and her research focuses upon
restaurant management, beverage marketing, wine tourism, sustainability and online consumer
behavior. Her recent publications include “Wine Attributes, Perceived Risk and Online Wine
Repurchase intention: The Cross-Level Interaction Effects of Website Quality”, “A
Constraint-Based Approach to Wine Tourism Market Segmentation” and “Do Sustainable
Practices of Organic Wine Producers and Retailers, and Organic Wine Attributes Influence
Purchase Intention? The Moderating Role of Trust”.
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IJCHM
Table AI.
Measure of variables
Factors Items Sources
Appendix
Health Coffee should be produced considering human health Steptoe et al. (1995)
Coffee has the least harmful ingredients
Coffee helps to enhance health and well-being
Sensory appeal The coffee has a good color Steptoe et al. (1995)
It has good body
It tastes good
It is fresh
It smells nice
Trust Credible production & distribution process Dwyer et al. (1987), Magnusson et al. (2001)
Trust in the official coffee certification system
Credible coffee in stability and quality
Environmental protection Produced without breaking the balance of nature Lindeman and Vaananaen (2000)
Environmentally friendly packing procedure
Environmentally friendly production
Produced with considering environmental protection
Attitude to organic coffee purchase Purchasing organic coffee is useful Adapted from Bredahl (2001)
Organic coffee offers better quality than conventional coffee
I am strongly in favor of buying organic coffee
Subjective norm Those who are influential on what I do and think recommend my buying organic coffee Adapted from Bredahl (2001)
The majority of people who are important to me will help me purchase organic coffee
Most people who are important to me think positively of my buying organic coffee
Perceive behavioral control I can afford time and money to purchase organic coffee Adapted from Bredahl (2001)
Purchasing organic coffee depend mostly upon to me
If I wanted to organic coffee, I could access it any time
Purchasing organic coffee is easy
Purchase Intention I definitely intend to buy organic coffee Bredahl (2001), Pliner and Hobden (1992)
I recommend that others buy organic coffee
I will try to purchase organic coffee in the forth coming months
I would purchase organic coffee if I could find it easily
Ethical concern Consider the moral implication before purchasing organic coffee You and Park (2012), Michaelidou and Hassan (2008)
Coffee products that pay fair price to coffee producers
The coffee is produced by companies that consider and care about the social environment
Price The coffee is not expensive Chen (2007)
It is cheap
It offers a good value for the money