The Effect of Consumer’s Quality of Life on the Intention to Purchase Organic Cucumber in Tabriz City

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Rural Extension and Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz

2 PhD. Student of Agricultural Development, Department of Rural Extension and Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of the quality of life on the purchase intention of consumers in the city of Tabriz. A statistical sample of 224 individuals was chosen based on stratified random sampling and Cochran's formula. Data were gathered through field study and completing World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) in 2017. In order to understand the consumer’s preference for purchasing organic or conventional cucumbers, choice experiment method (CEM) was used and to examine the relationships between variables, the structural equation modeling was applied. Findings indicate that physical health, psychological health and environmental health variables are able to explain 52% of the variation in the behavioral intentions with regard to purchasing organic food. Also, social relationship variable had no significant effects on predicting the purchase intention of consumers. Consumer’s preferences showed 77.2% selected the organic cucumbers and 22.8% selected the conventional cucumbers as their first choice. Based on the t-test results, in the individuals that have selected the organic cucumbers as their first choice, the total average of quality of life is much more than those who selected the conventional cucumbers. Therefore, improving consumer's quality of life in three aspects of physical health, psychological health and environmental health is suggested to encourage them to purchase organic food.

Keywords


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