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AbstractThe green concept and green foods are developing

and are still at their infancy stage in Malaysia. Therefore, there is a need to examine Malaysian consumers attitude, perception and intention towards green food consumption. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the extent to which selected socio-economic/demographic characteristics and attitudes influence the consumers intention to purchase green foods in Malaysia especially since there are emerging global issues concerned with the environment, food safety and animal welfare. A survey was conducted in Peninsular Malaysia where 1,355 respondents were interviewed using structured questionnaires to gather important information on their perception and intention to purchase green food in Malaysia. A binary logistic model was used to obtain the coefficients applied to the calculations of the marginal effects and probabilities. The results indicate that educational level, income and other factors such as food safety and environmental friendliness significantly influence Malaysian consumers green foods purchasing intention.

Index TermsBinary logistic model, consumers intention,

demographic variables, green foods

I. INTRODUCTION During the past decades, the food industry in Malaysia

has experienced many significant changes. Malaysia is a multi-cultural society which consists of Malays, Chinese and Indians. This has resulted in a wide range of processed foods being produced to cater the needs and wants of the different ethnic groups. The changes in demographic and economic structures have also influenced the Malaysian food industry directly and indirectly in answering the question of what to produce and for which segment of the market to produce it for. Similarly, the steady changes in consumer lifestyle, tastes and preferences, the standard of living along with higher purchasing power and technical advancement in agriculture and marketing have led to an increase in the

Manuscript received September 29, 2011; revised October 12, 2011. Golnaz, R. is with Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems,

Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. (email: [email protected]).

Zainalabidin, M. is with the department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. (email: [email protected]).

Mad Nasir Shamsudin is with Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. (email: [email protected])

Phuah. K. T. is with Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. (email: [email protected]).

demand for manufactured food, convenience food and health food. An increase in the consumer awareness of the health and nutritious value of food has increased the demand for functional food, organic food, green food and natural food. Besides, studies have shown that the three most concerning factors of consumers in food consumption are food safety, the protection of the environment and animal [8]. From the publics point of view, these three most concerning factors are linked together [3]. It is also natural for consumers to think that an improvement in animal rearing methods will result in better, healthier and safer food, which reduces the impact on the environment and improves the level of animal welfare [24]. Therefore, the growing concern of these three factors has led people to choose green foods [21]. It can be seen by the increasing demand for green products which is healthier, safer, fine quality, concern about the environment and animal welfare [33].

One good example that can be cited in this paper is a case which happened in early 1987 when Singapore rejected the import of vegetables from Malaysia due to the belief that they contained a high dithiocarbarnate residue [23]. Three million ringgit (RM 3 million) worth of vegetables was destroyed during two week time. Brunei also reacted in the same way towards vegetables from Sabah and Sarawak in 1993 [14]. Thus producers have realized that consumers purchasing behaviors have a strong relationship with environmental problems. Such events have shown that there is an increasing number of consumers who are starting to seek and buy environmentally friendly products and are willing to pay more for the products [17].

In consumer purchasing decision making, food safety has become increasingly important over the past two decades [16].Todays consumers tend to focus on the food processing method, innovative food technologies and chemical substances which are contained in foods such as pesticides, toxins, food addictives and so on [31]. There was an incident which happened in April 2008 where the Malaysian government self banned its seafood export to the European Union (EU) because the EU found out that some Malaysian companies were lacking in health standards and practices that were set by the EU [4]. Therefore, food safety should be an important agenda among food producers, processors, manufacturers and marketers since consumers are increasingly concerned about health, food safety and high food products as these factors can affect consumer behavior.

Besides products like vegetables and fruits consumers also think that animal welfare is an important factor to consider while making their purchasing decisions [24].

Demographic and Attitudinal Variables Associated with Consumers Intention to Purchase Green Produced Foods

in Malaysia Golnaz Rezai, Zainalabidin Mohamed, Mad Nasir Shamsudin, and Phuah Kit Teng

International Journal of Innovation Management and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 5, October 2011

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Animal welfare is used by most of consumers as an indicator of other product attributes such as food safety, nutritional benefits and the quality of food [12]. Consumers are concerned about animal welfare especially the improvement of animal welfare in animal production, transport and slaughter [27].

Therefore, green marketing is one of the major trends in modern business [15]. It is use to satisfy the consumers wants, needs, protect the environment and benefits to the society in a more environmental friendly way [32]. Green marketing is to market the products or services in a more sustainable way and it involve many activities such as changes to the production process, packaging changes and mortifying advertisement [25]. Due to the social pressure, many firms in Malaysia have adopted green marketing strategies and exploited the environmental issues as a source of competitive advantage. However, in reality, the companies which adopted green marketing have encounter a number of challenges which include the variability of demand, majority of the consumers are not aware of the green products and their uses, unfavorable consumer perception of green products, high cost invested in developing green products which require huge investment in research and development and majority of the consumers are not willing to pay a premium for green products [11].

Studies on green marketing are relatively new in the Malaysia contact comparing to the Western countries [18]. Does Malaysia support the green marketing? Yes, Malaysia is strongly adapting the green concept to the entire firm that involve in the food industry. The Ministry of Agriculture in Malaysia had introduced the good agricultural practices (GAPs) program to crops, livestock and fishery producers in order to enhance the objectives of sustainable agriculture and to improve foods quality and productivity. The Malaysian Farm Accreditation (SALM) was first developed for fresh fruits and vegetables sector which operated in a more environmental friendly way, yield products that are safe and higher quality to consume [9]. Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) is establish to provide an environment which can support the development of green technology through both monetary and physical structures and raise the awareness of green technology among the public. Malaysia government also introduce Malaysia Organic Scheme (SOM) which provide guidelines on the production, processing, labeling and marketing of plant based on organically produced foods [6]. On the other hand, Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) in Malaysia also introduces Veterinary Health Mark (VHM) for meat processing industry and Good Animal Husbandry Practices (GAHP) for livestock production to ensure the sustainability, safety, public health and environmentally production systems for livestock industry [7]. Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) are applicable to the firm that involve in food industry such as preparation, processing, manufacturing, packaging, storage, transportation, distribution, handling or marketing of foods. HACCP will involve in the whole supply chain of food products to ensure the food products is safe to be consume. Therefore, most farmers, food manufacturer, processor, producer and marketer in Malaysia are already aware about sustainable

agriculture and good practices in production of food products. The question is do all the player involve in the food industry in general care about the green concept in their production practices? The green concept will not be successful in Malaysian scenario unless there is pressure from the consumer.

Green purchase behavior is different from country to country and now it is getting more popular in the whole world. As in [34], a survey have done in Beijing shows that most consumers are aware about the green label in China and 60% of the consumers belief that green foods are more expensive than conventional foods. The result show that the consumers in Beijing generally show great consciousness on food and majority of the household are familiar with green foods and green label. On the other hand, another research done in Beijing, China [19] shows that consumer in Beijing concern on food additive and food safety is very high. According to a research done) in Columbus, 70.5% of the respondents believe that it is good for restaurants to protect the environment and green foods which grow locally are slightly more important than organic foods [10]. There is another research which is done in Malaysia shows that government role and personal norms are the factors that affect the consumers attitude on green products [30]. Another research shows that consumers have a low level of importance on food safety concern but they have a higher level of health consciousness in Malaysia [28]. Moreover, consumers who are concern about their health and environment will most likely have positive attitude towards green foods in Malaysia [2]. Consumers socio-demographic variables such as race, geographical area, age, educational level and income influence the consumers awareness towards green concept in Malaysia [26]. The study also show that consumers who have higher education level, income and consumers who care for health consciousness and food safety were more intent to purchase green foods in the near future [26].

A. The Green Concept and Food Consumers who are increasingly aware of and concerned

about the main environmental issues are known as green consumers [29]. These people are willing to change their purchasing and consumption behavior to a more environmental friendly way and are willing to pay more for the products. Consumers purchase green products when their primary needs and wants which are quality, availability, convenience, performance, and affordability were met and when these consumers realized that green products can help to solve environment problem, food safety issues, animal welfare and are healthy to consume [22].

Green foods refer to foods that are safe to be consumed, are of fine quality, are concerned with humane animal treatment are nutritious foods and are produced under the principle of sustainable development [20]. Green food can be divided into two groups. The first group allows using a certain amount of chemicals or pesticide and the second group is known as organic food which refer to the foods that grow without pesticides, insecticide, herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, radiation and fertilizers which made by synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge. Green foods are becoming increasingly popular with consumers due to the humane


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animal treatment concern, environmental friendliness and the perception that green foods are healthier and safer to consume. Therefore, green food consumers are steadily increasing in number in the whole world. This can be seen by the increasing number of green food products or environmentally friendly food products sold in food markets. However, the green food concept can be more popularized among consumers in Malaysia if the society becomes more aware of the issues concerning food safety, health, animal welfare and the environment. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate the determinants that are most likely to influence consumers intention to purchase green foods in Malaysia.

II. METHODOLOGY Various models have been used to explain consumer

purchasing behavior towards food. The theory of Planned Behavior is a leading framework that has been used to examine consumers behavior. It postulates that there are three independent determinants of behavioral intention which are attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control [1]. In this study, the theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used to assume the attitude of consumers towards a particular behavior, their subjective norms and perceived behavioral control in determining the intention of the consumers to purchase green foods. The attitudes of consumers to purchase green foods are made up of their beliefs and awareness towards the concept of green foods which they accumulate from their lifetime. Consumers attitude and their buying behavior may also be based on external factors such as socio demographic profiles and influenced by their knowledge, information and awareness. All these factors will build up consumers confidence and trust towards purchasing green foods and lead him or her to have a positive attitude in these food products (Figure 1).

Source: Adapted model from Ajzen (2002) Figure 1: Conceptual framework of the theory of planned

behavior applied to green food consumption among consumers in Malaysia.

Randomized samples of 1355 respondents were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire to gather information regarding their perception and purchasing behavior towards green foods. A random sampling method was used and the survey was done in supermarkets such as Jusco, Tesco, Carrefour and Cold Storage because consumers from all walks of life usually shop at supermarkets. The questionnaire was divided into two sections and contained straightforward questions. Respondents socio-demographic characteristics were asked in the first section (e.g. gender, area, marital status, age,

education level and income). The second section consisted of questions concerning the consumers attitude, perception and intention towards green food consumption.

Descriptive statistics were used to identify the respondents socio-demographic variables and a binary logistic model was used to determined the extent to which selected socio-demographic characteristic and attitudes influences consumers intention to purchase green foods. In this model, all the explanatory variables have the value 0 or 1, in order to discover the effect of the categorical explanatory variables on the intention to purchase green foods (Table 1). The equation of the model is shown below:

1

TABLE I: EXPLANATORY VARIABLES TO MEASURE THE CONSUMERS INTENTION TO PURCHASE GREEN FOODS

Explanatory Variables

Coding Systems

Gender 0. Male 1. Female

Income 0. Low income 1. Middle and high income

Education level

0. Diploma 1. Tertiary

Age 0. Below 35 1. Above 36

Marital Status 0. Single 1. Married

Environmental protection

1. Green Foods are concerned about the environment 0. Green Foods are not concerned about the environment

Animal welfare

1. Green Foods are concerned about animal welfare 0. Green Foods are not concerned about animal welfare

Food safety 1. Green Foods are concerned about Food safety 0. Green Foods are not concerned about Food safety

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Descriptive Statistic Analysis Table 2 shows the respondents demographic profile. In

this study, most of the respondents were females 728 (53.7 percent) as compared to male 627 (46.3 percent). The majority of the respondents were Malays (57.1 percent), followed by Chinese (30.6 percent) and Indians (12.3 percent) and the numbers of respondents from urban and


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log 1 The dependent variable, Y represents the Intention to

purchase green foods which has two categories namely Consumers have intention to purchase green foods coded as one and otherwise coded as zero. The variable irepresents the different attributes and demographic variables which influence the consumers intention to purchase green foods. In this regression model, the vectors i consist of the following variables; animal welfare, environmental protection, food safety, gender, age, marital status, education level and income. Specifically the binary logistic model can be stated as below:

suburban areas were 976 persons (72.0 percent) and 379 persons (28.0 percent) respectively. More than half of the respondents were married (60.7 percent) and the majority were aged between 26-40 years (45.8 percent). The education level of the respondents was categorized into seven categories. 1.5 percent of the respondents had never been to school, 2.9 percent had completed primary school, 11.4 percent were secondary school graduates, 25.5 percent of the respondents had completed a diploma, 45.8 percent of the respondents had graduated with a bachelor degree, 10.0 percent had completed their masters and 3.1 percent were PhD holders. About 42.4% of the respondents have an income between RM3,001- RM4,500 per month, and a smaller percentage of the respondents (6.4 percent) have incomes above RM6,001, while 9.3% of the respondents have an income between RM 500 - RM 1,500. As shown in table 2, most of the respondents were from a a household with between 4 to 6 people (62.0 percent) while only 2.2 percent were from a household with more than 10 people.

TABLE 2: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS (N =1355)

Characteristic Percentage Characteristic PercentageGender Education level Male 46.3 Never been to school 1.5 Female 53.7 Primary school 2.9 Ethnic(Race) Secondary school 11.4 Malay 57.1 Diploma 25.5 Chinese 30.6 Bachelor 45.8 Indian 12.3 Master 10.0 Area PhD 3.1 Urban 72.0 Income Suburb 28.0 Below 1500 9.3 Marital Status 1501-3000 34.5 Single 39.3 3001-4500 42.4 Married 60.7 4501-6000 7.3 Age Above 6001 6.4 Below 25 16.7 Household size 26-40 45.8 1-3 21.8 41-60 31.7 4-6 62.0 Above 60 5.9 7-9 13.9 10 above 2.2

B. Respondents perception and attitude towards green foods consumption Table 3 shows the mean scores and percentages of the

components included in the TPB framework using a seven-point scale (1 to 7). The results show that consumers are concerned about their food safety, the protection of the environment and animal welfare. Moreover, most of the respondents agree that green food is easy to access in Malaysia. The majority of the respondents state that the green movement makes them aware of the green concept in Malaysia. Overall, the analysis indicates that the respondents have a positive perception and purchase intention towards green foods in Malaysia.

C. Binary logistic regression A binary logistic model was used to determine the extent

to which selected socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes influence the consumers intention to purchase green foods. The estimated parameters and statistical significance levels are shown in Table 4. The dependent variable; intent to purchase green food had two categories which are respondents intent to purchase green food

coded as one and otherwise was coded as zero. The result of this study found that out of the eight variables, four variables were positive and statistically significant. Thus, the socio-demographic factors and consumers perceived behavioral control are relevant in explaining the consumers intention to purchase green foods.

TABLE 3. RESPONDENTS PERCEPTION AND INTENTION TOWARDS GREEN

FOODS CONSUMPTION IN MALAYSIA Statement Likert Scale Score* (Percentage) Mean

1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* I intend to purchase green foods because they are more concerned about food safety.

0.4 1.4 4.4 17.1

28.8

33.7

14.2

5.30

I want to purchase green foods because they are more environmentally friendly.

0.7 1.2 3.9 16.6

27.3

36.6

13.7

5.33

I plan to purchase green foods because I am concerned about animal welfare.

0.8 3.1 6.3 22.2

28.0

28.2

11.4

5.04

I believe green food is available and easy to access in Malaysia

3.0 11.6 16.6

16.6

24.4

17.9

10.0

4.41

The green movement makes me aware of the green concept.

1.5 3.7 4.1 17.4

26.1

32.8

14.5

5.19

*1 = Strongly Disagree; 7 = Strongly Agree Based on the statistically significant coefficients, the level

of environmental friendliness is an important determinant for consumer intention to purchase green foods and the effect is positive (Table 4). This finding indicates that consumers who have high environmental concerns were 1.625 times more intent to purchase green foods than consumers who do not think that green food is concerned with the environment. The estimated coefficient for food safety is positive and significant at the 95 percent level of confidence. This shows that when the respondents are concerned more about food safety, the likelihood of level of intention increases 1.507 times compared to respondents who are less concerned about food safety. Education level and income were the only socio-demographic characteristics which had a positive sign and were significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. The results show that respondents who have a higher education level have 1.847 times more intention to purchase green foods than that of respondents who have a lower education level. Similarly, for the respondents who have a higher income, the likelihood of their level of intention to purchase green foods increases 2.665 times that of respondents with a low income.


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The logit model has three important determinants which are intention, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Perception towards green foods, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (environmentally friendly and food safety) are the significant predictors of the consumers intention to purchase green foods.

TABLE 4. ESTIMATED LOGIT MODEL FOR CONSUMERS INTENTION TO

PURCHASE GREEN FOODS Variables Estimated

Coefficient Standard

Error Significant

Level Exp (B)

Gender -0.049 0.125 0.697 0.953Age -0.016 0.171 0.924 0.984Marital status 0.088 0.174 0.613 1.092Education level 0.614 0.160 0.000*** 1.847Income 0.980 0.160 0.000*** 2.665Environmentally friendly 0.486 0.190 0.011** 1.625

Food safety 0.410 0.184 0.026** 1.507Animal welfare 0.265 0.175 0.129 1.303Constant -2.755 0.394 0.000 0.064-2 Log Likelihood 1544.764 Nagelkerke R Square 0.169Cox and Snell R Square

0.121 Hosmer and Lemeshow Test

0.524

***Statistically significant at the 0.01 level, **at the 0.05 level and *at the 0.10 level

IV. CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to investigate the intention

to purchase green foods among Malaysian consumers. Apparently, the intention to purchase food products is different among the various types of foods. The theory of Planned Behavior was used in this study to investigate the consumers perception and intention to purchase green food in Malaysia. This study shows that the intention of consumers to purchase green foods is determined by having a positive perception, subjective norms (green movement) and perceived behavior control (green foods are concerned about the environment and food safety). However, the perceived behavioral controls like animal welfare do not influence the consumers intention to purchase green foods. Animal welfare is still not the most important aspect which affects consumers purchasing behavior towards food products in Malaysia. It is still only in the beginning stages where consumers are showing a concern for animal welfare when purchasing food products. Although animal welfare is not a significant factor, it will become increasingly important in the future. Similar behavior was also found in [13]. Furthermore, as in [5] the findings of this study indicated that external variables such as education level and income are significant socio demographic determinants of consumers intention to purchase green foods. Consumers who have a higher income and education level are more likely to be concerned about the environment and therefore tend to purchase green products

In addition, green food is still a new concept in Malaysia but it can become more popular among Malaysian consumers if the society is made to be more aware of the issues concerning the environment, food safety and animal welfare. Therefore, improving public awareness and perception towards the green concept and green foods will increase consumers intentions to purchase green foods. It is

important for the food producers, food processors, food manufacturers or food marketers to understand consumers behavior and intention towards purchasing green foods so that all of the business channels involved in the food industry can increase their awareness and knowledge on green foods in order to satisfy consumers needs and wants.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank University Putra

Malaysia (UPM) for granting a Research University Grant (RUGS) to undertake the study for the period of 2 years (June 2010 present).

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Golnaz Rezai is a senior lecturer at the Department of Agribusiness Marketing and information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture and Information Systems, Universiti Putra Malaysia since May 2010. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Food Engineering from the Science and Research University Azhad Tehran, Iran in October 2002. She pursued her postgraduate studies in the field of agribusiness at Universiti Putra Malaysia and

obtained her Master of Science (Agribusiness) and Ph.D. (Agribusiness) in 2004 and 2008 respectively. After receiving her PhD, she joined one of the FDAs Pharmaceutical Research in Riverside, CA as a research fellow (Integrated Research Group, 2008-2010). Her research interest is in the field of consumer behaviour and supply chain management in agribusiness. She has authored and co-authored 8 publications in journal articles, and conference proceedings, and presented about 20 papers in both local and international seminars in her area of expertise.

Zainal Abidin bin Mohamed is a professor at the Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia since 1986. He holds a B.Sc (Animal Science) and M.Sc (Agricultural Economics) from University of Wyoming, USA and Ph.D. (Agricultural Economics) from Oklahoma State University, USA in 1985. Currently he is heading the

Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems which offers Bachelor and Master of Science in Agribusiness and Master of Science and PhD. in Agricultural Economics. His research interest is in the area of agribusiness marketing management, market model and livestock economics. He has published articles in journals, proceedings and occasional papers. He has been teaching Agribusiness and Agricultural Marketing courses to both graduate and undergraduate programs.

Mad Nasir Shamsudin is a Professor of agricultural and resource economics, and dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He received his B.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Louisiana State University, and PhD in Agricultural Economics and minor in statistics from Mississippi State University, USA. Professor Nasir has been teaching primarily in International Agricultural

Trade, Development Economics, Environmental Economics, and Managerial Economics. His research areas of interest include International Agricultural Trade Policy, Commodity Market Analysis, and Agro-environmental Economics. He has authored and co-authored more than 140 publications in books, book chapters, journal articles, and conference proceedings, and presented more than 100 papers in both local and international seminars in his area of expertise.

Phuah Kit Teng was born on 13 November 1987 in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. She obtains her undergraduate degree in Bachelor Science (Agribusiness) from Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia at October 2010. Currently, she continue her study on Master of Science (Agribusiness) in University Putra Malaysia.


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