determinants of of consumption: case study on czech consumers jan urban, milan Ščasny, iva...

Determinants of OF consumption:

Case study on Czech consumers

Jan Urban, Milan Ščasny, Iva Zvěřinová

Charles University Environment Center

8th International Conference of the European Society for Ecological EconomicsUniversity of Ljubljana, Slovenia30 June 2009

Outline of the presentation

Organic food consumption in the Czech Republic

The model and method Hypotheses The survey Results Conclusions

Organic food consumption in the Czech Republic

Source: BÖLW 2009

Organic food turnover per capita in the European Union in 2007 (€)

P/C expenditures in the CZ on OF (€)

Source: Václavík, 2008

2005 2006 2007

Knowledge and purchase of organic food in the Czech Republic

5% of households purchase organic food regularly 28% of households purchase organic food

occasionally 54% of households know organic food but do not

purchase 13% of households have not heard about organic

food

Source: Shopping Monitor (2008)

Reasons of organic food preference

57%52%

23%17%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

health reasons withoutchemicals

better quality environmentalreasons

%

Source: Póč 2006

The model and method

Theory of planned behavior

Perceived Behavioral

Control

Behavioral Beliefs

Attitudes toward the Behavior

Intention Behavior

Control Beliefs

Normative Beliefs

Subjective Norms

Real Control over Behavior

Backgroundvariables- Socio-demographics- General attitudes etc.

Ajzen (1991)

Critique of TPB

Social influences are adressed insuficiently in TBP (only as perceived social pressures from significant others)– Social values, altruism

TPB does not address habitualisation

Method

Structural equation modelling (SEM)– Testing of assumed theoretical matrices of interrelationships

(variance-covariance matrix) against its empirical counterpart

– Advantages Can be used to test substantive theories (TPB model) Alows us to work with latent variables Explicitly takes into account measurment errors

– Disadvantages Theoretically sound model is needed Risk of data-mining Difficult to model discrete choice data

Survey and results

Data collection and corroboration

Original survey conducted in 2008 Adult population of Prague and Znojmo region in the

Czech Republic Structured interviews Prague (N=333), Znojmo region (N=355) Quota sampling (age, education, gender and size of

the place) Samples representative of the two regions Merged data file (N=688)

Characteristics of the samples and target populations

  Prague (%) Znojmo region (%)

Gender        

male 47 47 49 49

female 53 53 51 51

Education        

elementary 11 11 27 27

high school without leaving examination 30 30 43 43

high school 33 33 22 22

college 6 6 3 3

university 20 20 6 6

Age        

18-39 41 41 44 44

40-59 39 39 36 36

60-79 20 20 19 19

Reasons of organic food purchase

Reasons of organic food purchase %

Healthier than conventional food 59

Taste better than conventional food 22

I like testing new things 19

Environmentally friendlier production 9

Organic food is „in“ 2

Other reasons 7

100%=92 respondents (bought organic food in last 2 weeks), multinominal choice, ≠100%

Purchase of OF by the household

Did you buy OF this year?

Did you buy OF over the last 2 week?

29 % #

13 % #

Expenditures/ 14 daysAverage all 1.37€ #

Average buyers 10.96 #

Structure of organic food expenditures

Household bought

organic food this year (%)

Household bought organic food in last two weeks

(%)

Average organic food expenditures in

last two weeks /€/

beef 4 0,7 10

poultry 4 1 6

milk 8 6 89

cheese 9 5 3

yoghurts 16 10 4

butter 3 2 3

eggs 4 2 2

fruit and vegetables 8  

bread 6  

pastries and rise 12  

100%=688 respondents (the whole sample), multinominal choice, tj. ≠100%

Model of TPB

Perceived Behavioral

Control

Behavioral Beliefs

Attitudes toward the Behavior

Intention Behavior

Control Beliefs

Normative Beliefs

Subjective Norms

Real Control over Behavior

Backgroundvariables

- Socio-demographics

- General values etc.

(Ajzen 1991)

Tested model

Backgroundvariables

- Socio-demographics

- General values etc.

(Ajzen 1991)

Perceived Behavioral

Control

Behavioral Beliefs

Attitudes toward the Behavior

Intention Behavior

Control Beliefs

Normative Beliefs

Subjective Norms

Real Control over Behavior

Habitualisation

BARRIERS

ATTITUDE

SOCNORMS

INTENTIO

BIO_RATI

0;

e1

1

0;

e2

1

MODEL 1

BARRIERS

ATTITUDE

SOCNORMS

,21

INTENTIO

,17

BIO_RATI

,09

,19

,42

e1

e2

,26

,05

-,03

,33,34

MODEL 1

BARRIERS

ATTITUDE

SOCNORMS

INTENTIO

BIO_RATI

0;

e1

1

0;

e2

1

HABIT

MODEL 2

BARRIERS

ATTITUDE

SOCNORMS

,47

INTENTIO

,18

BIO_RATI

,03

,13

,35

e1

e2

,26

,05

-,03

,23,34

HABIT

,53

,11,17

,19 ,27

MODEL 2

INTENTIO

BIO_RATI

0;

e1

1

0;

e0

1

0

attitudes

0;

e10

1

ATT_AVAI

ATT_FOOL

ATT_MOCK

ATT_TREN

ATT_ENVI

ATT_HEAL

ATT_QUAL

ATT_TAST

0;

e21

0;

e31

0;

e41

0;

e51

0;

e61

0;

e71

0;

e81

0;

e91

1

0

social norms

0;

e111

SOC_PART SOC_PARE SOC_KIDS SOC_FRIE SOC_COWO

0;

e12

10;

e13

10;

e14

10;

e15

1 0;

e16

1

0

barri

BAR_PRIC

BAR_ASSO

0;

e181

0;

e191

1

0;

e21

1

BAR_GROC

BAR_SUPE

0;

e231

0;

e221

1

MODEL 3

,23

INTENTIO

,16

BIO_RATI

,40

e1

e0

,00

attitudes

e10

,00

ATT_AVAI

,30

ATT_FOOL

,11

ATT_MOCK

,01

ATT_TREN

,38

ATT_ENVI

,65

ATT_HEAL

,34

ATT_QUAL

,27

ATT_TAST

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6

e7

e8

e9

,03

,55

,33

,11

,62

,80

,58

,52

,43

,00

social norms e11

,90

SOC_PART

,66

SOC_PARE

,77

SOC_KIDS

,91

SOC_FRIE

,73

SOC_COWO

e12 e13 e14 e15 e16

,18

,81 ,88

,00

barri

,13

,23

BAR_PRIC

,39

BAR_ASSO

e18

e19

,62

e21

,96 ,86,95

,01

,58

BAR_GROC

,47

BAR_SUPE

e23

e22

,76

,69

,48

MODEL 3

INTENTIO

BIO_RATI

0;

e1

1

0;

e0

1

0

attitudes

0;

e10

1

ATT_AVAI

ATT_FOOL

ATT_MOCK

ATT_TREN

ATT_ENVI

ATT_HEAL

ATT_QUAL

ATT_TAST

0;

e21

0;

e31

0;

e41

0;

e51

0;

e61

0;

e71

0;

e81

0;

e91

1

0

social norms

0;

e111

SOC_PART SOC_PARE SOC_KIDS SOC_FRIE SOC_COWO

0;

e12

10;

e13

10;

e14

10;

e15

1 0;

e16

1

0

barri

BAR_PRIC

BAR_ASSO

0;

e181

0;

e191

1

0;

e21

HABIT

1

BAR_GROC

BAR_SUPE

0;

e231

0;

e221

1

MODEL 4

,42

INTENTIO

,16

BIO_RATI

,33

e1

e0

,00

attitudes

e10

,00

ATT_AVAI

,30

ATT_FOOL

,11

ATT_MOCK

,01

ATT_TREN

,38

ATT_ENVI

,65

ATT_HEAL

,34

ATT_QUAL

,27

ATT_TAST

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6

e7

e8

e9

,04

,54

,33

,11

,62

,81

,58

,52

,29

,00

social norms e11

,90

SOC_PART

,66

SOC_PARE

,77

SOC_KIDS

,91

SOC_FRIE

,73

SOC_COWO

e12 e13 e14 e15 e16

,13

,81 ,88

,00

barri

,07

,23

BAR_PRIC

,39

BAR_ASSO

e18

e19

,63

e21

HABIT

,56

,11

,96 ,86,95

,00

,57

BAR_GROC

,47

BAR_SUPE

e23

e22

,76

,69

,48

MODEL 4

Fit of the models

  df chi-square P (chi-test) NFIRMSEA LOW P(RMSEA)

AIC (default)

AIC (saturated)

model 1 2 .552 .759 .999 .000 .946 36.552 40.000model 2 2 .591 .744 .999 .000 .942 50.591 54.000model 3 149 885.527 .000 .856 .079 .000 1005.527 418.000model 4 166 987.490 .000 .849 .080 .000 1115.490 460.000

• „Simple“ model based on TPB fits the data reasonably well • Including habitualization in the model does not worsen its fit 

 habitualization plays an important role in the model of OF consumption

• The model with latent variables provides some exploratory insights into mechanism driving organic food consumption• However, this model fits the data rather poorly

Conclusions /1/

Conceptual model of TPB is a usefull tool for exporing organic food consumption– Attitudes seem to have highest impact on intent– Perceived barriers seem to have lowest impact

both on intent and behavior– Only relatively small proportion of variability of

behavior is explained (cca 18%)

Conclusions /2/

Including habitualisation in the model is sound

Habitualisation increases proportion of explained varibility of intent by as much as explain 20%

Habitualisation has minimal effect on behavior (which we would expect)

Conclusions /3/

TBP elaborated… Attitudes

– Health-related attitudes by far the most important; envi-att. play a secondary role

Social norms– Social norms related to partner and friends have the highest effect– Social norms related to parents and kids are relatively secondary

Perceived barriers– Most important: insufficient availability of OF in grocery stores and

supermarket– Price is a secondary barrier

Acknowledgement

This research has been supported by National Czech Foundation GAČR No. 403/08/1694, Application of the model of environmentally significant behavior in the Czech Republic. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Grant No. 2D06029 "Distributional and social effects of structural policies" funded within National Research Program II. Also this support is gratefully acknowledged.

Thank you for your attention

Jan Urban

E-mail: jan.uban@czp.cuni.cz