Deciphering consumer purchase intention towards red palm oil as functional food: evidence from Malaysia
Abstract
This study aims to identify the determinants influencing consumer purchase intention towards red palm oil as a functional food with the application of an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) among Malaysian consumers. A total of 370 data were collected via mall intercepts in Malaysia using convenience sampling. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used to evaluate the measurement and structural model of the study. The results demonstrated that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a positive and significant relationship with the purchase intention of red palm oil as a functional food. Additional variables like food involvement, environmental concern, perceived value, and perceived risk significantly affect consumers' purchase intention of red palm oil as a functional food. Surprisingly, there is no effect between food neophobia and healthy lifestyle purchase intention. The results showed that TPB constructs confirmed its explanatory influence on purchase intention and an extended TPB model with additional variables demonstrated a better explanatory interpretation of the purchase intention of red palm oil as a functional food. This paper concludes with implications of the study and the limitations and suggestions for future research.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The Theory of Planned Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Englewood Cliffs.
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (2010). Predicting and Changing Behavior: The Reasoned Action Approach. Taylor & Francis.
Ajzen, I. Fishbein, M., Lohmann, S. & Albarracin, D. (2005). The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior. The handbook of attitudes, 173-221.
Ajzen, I. & Madden, T.J. (1986). Prediction of Goal-Directed Behavior: Attitudes, Intentions, and Perceived Behavioral Control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22(5), 453-474.
Alphonce, R., Waized, B.M. & Larsen, M.N. (2020). Consumer preference for novelty in processed foods: a developing country perspective. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 10(4), 429-446.
Barclay, D., Higgins, C. & Thompson, R. (1995). The Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach to Causal Modeling: Personal Computer Adoption and Use as an Illustration Technology Studies, 2 (2),285-309.
Bell, R., & Marshall, D.W., (2003). The construct of food involvement in behavioral research: scale development and validation. Appetite, 40, 235–244.
Bhukya, R. & Singh, S. (2015). The effect of perceived risk dimensions on purchase intention. American Journal of Business, 30(4), 218 – 230.
Caber, M., Yılmaz, G., Kılıçarslan, D. & Öztürk, A. (2018). The effects of tour guide performance and food involvement on food neophobia and local food consumption intention. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(3), 1472-1491.
Chin, S.C. (2019). The war of palm oil carotenoids to be told in our history class someday. Malaysiakini, 19 April, available at: https://www.malaysiakini.com/knowmypalmoil/472949 (accessed 20 December 2020).
Chin, W. W., & Newsted, P. R. (1999). Structural equation modeling analysis with small samples using partial least squares”, In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Statistical strategies for small sample research (pp. 307-341). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.
Clemens, R. Hayes, A.W., Sundram, W. & Pressman, P. (2017). Palm oil and threats to a critically important food source: The chloropropanols—Caution, controversy, and correction. Toxicology Research and Application, 1, 1-9.
Elsohaimy, S.A., Refaay, T.M. & Zaytoun, M.A.M. (2015). Physicochemical and functional properties of quinoa protein isolate. Annals of Agricultural Sciences, 60(2), 297-305.
Farragher, T., Wang, W.C., & Worsley, A. (2016). The associations of vegetable consumption with food mavenism, personal values, food knowledge, and demographic factors. Appetite, 97, 29-36.
Febian, F.I., Syed Annuar, S.N. & Memon, M.A. (2021). Functional food consumption among older consumers in Malaysia: a Health Belief Model perspective. British Food Journal, 123(8), 2880-2892. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2020-0663
Ghvanidze, S., Velikova, N., Dodd, T.H. & Oldewage-Theron, W. (2016). Consumers' environmental and ethical consciousness and the use of the related food products information: The role of perceived consumer effectiveness. Appetite, 107(1), 311-322.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). A primer on partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM) (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA:Sage.
Haque, A., Sarwar, A., Yasmin, F., Tarofder, A.K. & Hossain, M.A. (2015). Non-Muslim consumers’ perception toward purchasing halal food products in Malaysia. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 6(1), 133 – 147.
Imani, B., Allahyari, M.S., Bondori, A.M., Surujlal, J., & Sawicka, B. (2021). Determinants of organic food purchases intention: the application of an extended theory of planned behaviour. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 9(1),1-12.
James, M. X., Hu, Z., & Leonce, T. E. (2019). Predictors of organic tea purchase intentions by Chinese consumers. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 9(3), 202-219.
Kline, R. B. (2011), Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (3rd Ed.), New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Kumar, A. & Smith, S. (2017). Understanding Local Food Consumers: Theory of Planned Behavior and Segmentation Approach. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 24(2), 196-215.
Küster-Boluda, I. & Vidal-Capilla, I. (2017). Consumer attitudes in the election of functional foodsLa actitud del consumidor en la elección de alimentos funcionales. Spanish Journal of Marketing – ESIC, 21(1), 65-79.
Lim, C.C. & Goh, Y.N. (2019). Investigating the purchase intention toward healthy drinks among Urban consumers in Malaysia. Journal of Foodservice Business Research,
22 (3), 286-302.
Loganathan, R., Subramaniam, K. M., Radhakrishnan, A. K., Choo, Y. M., & Teng, K. T. (2017). Health-promoting effects of red palm oil: evidence from animal and human studies. Nutrition Reviews, 75(2), 98-113.
Loizou, E., Michailidis, A. & Chatzitheodoridis, F. (2013). Investigating the drivers that influence the adoption of differentiated food products: The case of a Greek urban area. British Food Journal, 115(7), 917-935.
Mak, A.H.N., Lumbers, M., Eves, A. & Chang, R.C.Y. (2017). The effects of food-related personality traits on tourist food consumption motivations. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 22(1), 1-20.
Markos, E., Labrecque, L.I. & Milne, G.R. (2018). A New Information Lens: The Self-concept and Exchange Context as a Means to Understand Information Sensitivity of Anonymous and Personal Identifying Information. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 42, 46-62.
Miklavec, K., Pravst, I., Grunert, K.G., Klopčič, M. & Pohar, J. (2015). The influence of health claims and nutritional composition on consumers’ yoghurt preferences. Food Quality and Preference, 43, 26-33.
Moons, I., Barbarossa, C. & De Pelsmacker, P. (2018). The Determinants of the Adoption Intention of Eco-friendly Functional Food in Different Market Segments. Ecological Economics, 151, 151-161.
Palm Oil Health. (2019). Primary Industries Minister tells gathering, palm oil helps keep her young”, Malaysia Palm oil, 12 April, available at: https://www.palmoilhealth.org/news/in-the-news/primary-industries-minister-tells-gathering-palm-oil-helps-keep-her-young/ (accessed 20 December 2020).
Pasko, P., Gdula-Argasinska, J., Podporska-Carroll, J., Quilty, B., Wietecha-Posluszny, R., Tyszka-Czochara, M. & Zagrodzki, P. (2014). Influence of selenium supplementation on fatty acids profile and biological activity of four edible amaranth sprouts as new kind of functional food. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 52(8), 4724-4736.
Pedersen, S., Grønhøj, A. & Thøgersen, J. (2015). Following family or friends. Social norms in adolescent healthy eating. Appetite, 86(1), 54-60.
Provencher, V. & Jacob, R. (2016). Impact of Perceived Healthiness of Food on Food Choices and Intake. Current Obesity Reports, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 65-71.
Quevedo-Silva, F., Freire, O., de Oliveira Lima-Filho, D., Brandão, M. M., Isabella, G., and Moreira, L. B. (2016). Intentions to purchase food through the internet: Developing and testing a model. British Food Journal, 118(3), 572.
Reaz, M., Bowyer, D., Vitale, C., Mahi, M. & Dahir, A.M. (2020). The nexus of agricultural exports and performance in Malaysia: a dynamic panel data approach. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 10(5), 545-556.
Rezai, G., Teng, P.K., Shamsudin, M.N., Mohamed, Z. & Stanton, J.L. (2017). Effect of perceptual differences on consumer purchase intention of natural functional food. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 7(2), 153-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-02-2015-0014
Saleki, R., Quoquab, F., & Mohammad, J. (2019). What drives Malaysian consumers’ organic food purchase intention? The role of moral norm, self-identity, environmental concern and price consciousness. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 9(5), 584-603.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Shin, Y.H. and Hancer, M. (2016). The role of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and moral norm in the intention to purchase local food products. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 19(4), 338-351.
Simmering, M.J., Fuller, C.M., Richardson, H.A., Ocal, Y. & Atinc, G.M. (2014). Marker Variable Choice, Reporting, and Interpretation in the Detection of Common Method Variance: A Review and Demonstration. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3), 473-511
Stratton, L.M., Vella, M.N., Sheeshka, J. & Duncan, A.M. (2015). Food neophobia is related to factors associated with functional food consumption in older adults. Food Quality and Preference, 41, 133-140.
Teng, C.C. & Wang, Y.M. (2015). Decisional factors driving organic food consumption: Generation of consumer purchase intentions. British Food Journal, 117(3), 1066-1081.
Vabo, M. & Hansen, H. (2016). Purchase intentions for domestic food: a moderated TPB-explanation. British Food Journal, 118(10), 2372-2387.
Verbeke, W. (2015). Profiling consumers who are ready to adopt insects as a meat substitute in a Western society. Food Quality and Preference, 39, 147-155.
Wang, Y. & Hazen, B.T. (2016). Consumer product knowledge and intention to purchase remanufactured products. International Journal of Production Economics, 181, 460-469.
Yadav, R. & Pathak, G.S. (2016). Intention to purchase organic food among young consumers: Evidences from a developing nation. Appetite, 96(1), 122-128.
Yang, Q., Pang, C., Liu, L., Yen, D.C. & Tarn, J.M. (2015). Exploring consumer perceived risk and trust for online payments: An empirical study in China’s younger generation. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 9-24.
Yangui, A., Costa-Font, M., & Gil, J.M. (2016). The effect of personality traits on consumers’ preferences for extra virgin olive oil. Food Quality and Preference, 51, 27-38.
Zeratsky, K.A. (2020). Expert opinion, Mayo Clinic, Retrieved on 20 September 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/functional-foods/faq-20057816
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Englewood Cliffs.
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (2010). Predicting and Changing Behavior: The Reasoned Action Approach. Taylor & Francis.
Ajzen, I. Fishbein, M., Lohmann, S. & Albarracin, D. (2005). The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior. The handbook of attitudes, 173-221.
Ajzen, I. & Madden, T.J. (1986). Prediction of Goal-Directed Behavior: Attitudes, Intentions, and Perceived Behavioral Control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22(5), 453-474.
Alphonce, R., Waized, B.M. & Larsen, M.N. (2020). Consumer preference for novelty in processed foods: a developing country perspective. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 10(4), 429-446.
Barclay, D., Higgins, C. & Thompson, R. (1995). The Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach to Causal Modeling: Personal Computer Adoption and Use as an Illustration Technology Studies, 2 (2),285-309.
Bell, R., & Marshall, D.W., (2003). The construct of food involvement in behavioral research: scale development and validation. Appetite, 40, 235–244.
Bhukya, R. & Singh, S. (2015). The effect of perceived risk dimensions on purchase intention. American Journal of Business, 30(4), 218 – 230.
Caber, M., Yılmaz, G., Kılıçarslan, D. & Öztürk, A. (2018). The effects of tour guide performance and food involvement on food neophobia and local food consumption intention. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(3), 1472-1491.
Chin, S.C. (2019). The war of palm oil carotenoids to be told in our history class someday. Malaysiakini, 19 April, available at: https://www.malaysiakini.com/knowmypalmoil/472949 (accessed 20 December 2020).
Chin, W. W., & Newsted, P. R. (1999). Structural equation modeling analysis with small samples using partial least squares”, In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Statistical strategies for small sample research (pp. 307-341). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.
Clemens, R. Hayes, A.W., Sundram, W. & Pressman, P. (2017). Palm oil and threats to a critically important food source: The chloropropanols—Caution, controversy, and correction. Toxicology Research and Application, 1, 1-9.
Elsohaimy, S.A., Refaay, T.M. & Zaytoun, M.A.M. (2015). Physicochemical and functional properties of quinoa protein isolate. Annals of Agricultural Sciences, 60(2), 297-305.
Farragher, T., Wang, W.C., & Worsley, A. (2016). The associations of vegetable consumption with food mavenism, personal values, food knowledge, and demographic factors. Appetite, 97, 29-36.
Febian, F.I., Syed Annuar, S.N. & Memon, M.A. (2021). Functional food consumption among older consumers in Malaysia: a Health Belief Model perspective. British Food Journal, 123(8), 2880-2892. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2020-0663
Ghvanidze, S., Velikova, N., Dodd, T.H. & Oldewage-Theron, W. (2016). Consumers' environmental and ethical consciousness and the use of the related food products information: The role of perceived consumer effectiveness. Appetite, 107(1), 311-322.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). A primer on partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM) (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA:Sage.
Haque, A., Sarwar, A., Yasmin, F., Tarofder, A.K. & Hossain, M.A. (2015). Non-Muslim consumers’ perception toward purchasing halal food products in Malaysia. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 6(1), 133 – 147.
Imani, B., Allahyari, M.S., Bondori, A.M., Surujlal, J., & Sawicka, B. (2021). Determinants of organic food purchases intention: the application of an extended theory of planned behaviour. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 9(1),1-12.
James, M. X., Hu, Z., & Leonce, T. E. (2019). Predictors of organic tea purchase intentions by Chinese consumers. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 9(3), 202-219.
Kline, R. B. (2011), Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (3rd Ed.), New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Kumar, A. & Smith, S. (2017). Understanding Local Food Consumers: Theory of Planned Behavior and Segmentation Approach. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 24(2), 196-215.
Küster-Boluda, I. & Vidal-Capilla, I. (2017). Consumer attitudes in the election of functional foodsLa actitud del consumidor en la elección de alimentos funcionales. Spanish Journal of Marketing – ESIC, 21(1), 65-79.
Lim, C.C. & Goh, Y.N. (2019). Investigating the purchase intention toward healthy drinks among Urban consumers in Malaysia. Journal of Foodservice Business Research,
22 (3), 286-302.
Loganathan, R., Subramaniam, K. M., Radhakrishnan, A. K., Choo, Y. M., & Teng, K. T. (2017). Health-promoting effects of red palm oil: evidence from animal and human studies. Nutrition Reviews, 75(2), 98-113.
Loizou, E., Michailidis, A. & Chatzitheodoridis, F. (2013). Investigating the drivers that influence the adoption of differentiated food products: The case of a Greek urban area. British Food Journal, 115(7), 917-935.
Mak, A.H.N., Lumbers, M., Eves, A. & Chang, R.C.Y. (2017). The effects of food-related personality traits on tourist food consumption motivations. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 22(1), 1-20.
Markos, E., Labrecque, L.I. & Milne, G.R. (2018). A New Information Lens: The Self-concept and Exchange Context as a Means to Understand Information Sensitivity of Anonymous and Personal Identifying Information. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 42, 46-62.
Miklavec, K., Pravst, I., Grunert, K.G., Klopčič, M. & Pohar, J. (2015). The influence of health claims and nutritional composition on consumers’ yoghurt preferences. Food Quality and Preference, 43, 26-33.
Moons, I., Barbarossa, C. & De Pelsmacker, P. (2018). The Determinants of the Adoption Intention of Eco-friendly Functional Food in Different Market Segments. Ecological Economics, 151, 151-161.
Palm Oil Health. (2019). Primary Industries Minister tells gathering, palm oil helps keep her young”, Malaysia Palm oil, 12 April, available at: https://www.palmoilhealth.org/news/in-the-news/primary-industries-minister-tells-gathering-palm-oil-helps-keep-her-young/ (accessed 20 December 2020).
Pasko, P., Gdula-Argasinska, J., Podporska-Carroll, J., Quilty, B., Wietecha-Posluszny, R., Tyszka-Czochara, M. & Zagrodzki, P. (2014). Influence of selenium supplementation on fatty acids profile and biological activity of four edible amaranth sprouts as new kind of functional food. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 52(8), 4724-4736.
Pedersen, S., Grønhøj, A. & Thøgersen, J. (2015). Following family or friends. Social norms in adolescent healthy eating. Appetite, 86(1), 54-60.
Provencher, V. & Jacob, R. (2016). Impact of Perceived Healthiness of Food on Food Choices and Intake. Current Obesity Reports, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 65-71.
Quevedo-Silva, F., Freire, O., de Oliveira Lima-Filho, D., Brandão, M. M., Isabella, G., and Moreira, L. B. (2016). Intentions to purchase food through the internet: Developing and testing a model. British Food Journal, 118(3), 572.
Reaz, M., Bowyer, D., Vitale, C., Mahi, M. & Dahir, A.M. (2020). The nexus of agricultural exports and performance in Malaysia: a dynamic panel data approach. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 10(5), 545-556.
Rezai, G., Teng, P.K., Shamsudin, M.N., Mohamed, Z. & Stanton, J.L. (2017). Effect of perceptual differences on consumer purchase intention of natural functional food. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 7(2), 153-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-02-2015-0014
Saleki, R., Quoquab, F., & Mohammad, J. (2019). What drives Malaysian consumers’ organic food purchase intention? The role of moral norm, self-identity, environmental concern and price consciousness. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 9(5), 584-603.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Shin, Y.H. and Hancer, M. (2016). The role of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and moral norm in the intention to purchase local food products. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 19(4), 338-351.
Simmering, M.J., Fuller, C.M., Richardson, H.A., Ocal, Y. & Atinc, G.M. (2014). Marker Variable Choice, Reporting, and Interpretation in the Detection of Common Method Variance: A Review and Demonstration. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3), 473-511
Stratton, L.M., Vella, M.N., Sheeshka, J. & Duncan, A.M. (2015). Food neophobia is related to factors associated with functional food consumption in older adults. Food Quality and Preference, 41, 133-140.
Teng, C.C. & Wang, Y.M. (2015). Decisional factors driving organic food consumption: Generation of consumer purchase intentions. British Food Journal, 117(3), 1066-1081.
Vabo, M. & Hansen, H. (2016). Purchase intentions for domestic food: a moderated TPB-explanation. British Food Journal, 118(10), 2372-2387.
Verbeke, W. (2015). Profiling consumers who are ready to adopt insects as a meat substitute in a Western society. Food Quality and Preference, 39, 147-155.
Wang, Y. & Hazen, B.T. (2016). Consumer product knowledge and intention to purchase remanufactured products. International Journal of Production Economics, 181, 460-469.
Yadav, R. & Pathak, G.S. (2016). Intention to purchase organic food among young consumers: Evidences from a developing nation. Appetite, 96(1), 122-128.
Yang, Q., Pang, C., Liu, L., Yen, D.C. & Tarn, J.M. (2015). Exploring consumer perceived risk and trust for online payments: An empirical study in China’s younger generation. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 9-24.
Yangui, A., Costa-Font, M., & Gil, J.M. (2016). The effect of personality traits on consumers’ preferences for extra virgin olive oil. Food Quality and Preference, 51, 27-38.
Zeratsky, K.A. (2020). Expert opinion, Mayo Clinic, Retrieved on 20 September 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/functional-foods/faq-20057816
Published
2022-04-15
How to Cite
Tai, P.-T., Goh, Y.-N., & Ting, M.-S. (2022). Deciphering consumer purchase intention towards red palm oil as functional food: evidence from Malaysia. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 10(2). Retrieved from http://www.thefutureoffoodjournal.com/index.php/FOFJ/article/view/527
Section
Research Articles
