A study of customers’ willingness to purchase organic fresh milk in Thailand

Abstract

Nowadays, most consumers often are care about health due to the COVID-19 and personal needs. Dairy products are specific products that are generally consumed by every age group, from children, teenagers, adults, to the elderly. Organic milk could provide an advantageous alternative for health conscious consumers as it must be certified by government agencies prior to market launching. There are many studies supported that organic milk is more beneficial than conventional milk. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was applied to study the factors affected consumers' willingness to purchase organic fresh milk in Thailand. Through the questionnaire method and analysis by using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling, the result collected from 418 consumers reveals that there are seven significant factors as follows: 1) Attitudes toward behavior significantly affect the willingness to purchase 2) Subjective norms significantly affect the willingness to purchase 3) Information on product labels significantly affects the attitudes toward behavior 4) Ethics and animal welfare affects the attitudes toward behavior 5) COVID affects attitudes towards behavior 6) Social media affects subjective norms and 7) Price of goods affects perceived behavioral control respectively. Moreover, it shows the price of customers' willingness to purchase is varied from THB 12.18 to 21.18 for a 200 c.c. bottle of organic fresh milk.