Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in relation to organic foods in Taiwan: Moderating effects of food-related personality traits

There is an increasing emphasis on understanding the consumer's motives for the choice of food types. Meanwhile, an individual's food-related personal traits are suspected of playing a moderating role in influencing personal food choice. This study aims to understand what motives determine the consumer's attitude to organic foods in Taiwan, which in turn influence the subsequent purchase intentions. Moderated regression analysis (MRA) is used to ascertain the personality traits of food neophobia and food involvement separately in the behavioral intentions model. The results vindicate the use of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in explaining the consumer's organic foods choice behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that the food-related personality traits of food neophobia and food involvement exert moderating effects on the relationships between some of the food choice motives and the consumer's attitude to organic foods. However, only food involvement exerts moderating effects on the relationships between the consumer's intentions to purchase organic foods and the antecedents of the TPB except for the subjective norm in this case. Based on the empirical results and findings, some suggestions are provided to the institutions concerned so as to facilitate this organic sector's on-going expansion in Taiwan's food industry. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.