The Effect Of Novel Foods And Environmentally Friendly Foods On Consumer Attitude And Behaviour
Abstract
The awareness of veganism or vegetarianism in Vietnam has been increasing
recently. Research found that 49% of Vietnamese residents had tried plant-based meat
alternatives (Rakuten, 2021) and 32% of them had tried vegan egg substitutes. This leads
to a higher demand in a variety of vegan food which targets Vietnam into a bull market of
vegan industry. Regardless of how this wave has been rising, there is a small group of
people who have a lack of understanding about this diet and a vague background of
plant-based meat suppliers, which creates the companies when entering the vegan market
a lot of challenges. This research is aiming to find out how consumer behaviour is
affected by novelty foods and environmentally friendly foods. There are five hypotheses
integrated by one value-attitude-behavior model. Regarding qualitative research, a sample
of 20 vegan-aware people and 30 vegan business owners were chosen by snowball
sampling method to answer the group interview. Regarding quantitative research, a total
of 259 responses with 203 vaid ones were certainly completed by simple random
sampling method. Random respondents were selected in vegan-aware groups in Vietnam
to answer questionnaires. Selected respondents' demographic is people who are working
or studying in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) from the age of 18 – 25 years old. The results
show that all the five hypotheses applied in research are statistically significant towards
the model. Therefore, the attitude of consumers towards purchase intention of novelty
foods and environmentally friendly foods are affected by how they perceive the green
value and if they are aware of animal welfare value, or their knowledge of these products
or similar ones are moderated by novelty of plant-based meat alternatives to purchase
intention. Finally, this research suggests that future researchers should extend the research
scope of age range and expand to cities and provinces with the same measurement
elements due to the limitation from the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic.