Study On Consumers’ Purchase Intention Toward Genetically Modified Edible Oil

Since the end of the 20th Century,the fields of agriculture,environmental protection,medicine and chemical industry and many other fields of science have made excellence progress due to the rapid development of biotechnology,especially transgenic technology has gained the success that attracts worldwide attention by the virtue of its excellent agronomic characters and huge economic benefits.However,science is a double-edged sword.With the rapid development of transgenic technology,the international debate on transgenic technology has intensified.Opponents point out any behaviors that violate the laws of nature will lead to disastrous consequences,and it can threaten food safety,ecological safety and ethics.Supporters argue that transgenic technology can increase the yield of crops,reduce production costs and improve the quality of agricultural products,which can bring huge economic and social benefits to the society.Therefore,governments,environmental agencies and scholars conduct a fierce debate on the full liberalization of production and sales of genetically modified food.Consumer plays a vital role in purchasing genetically modified food,and it is the ultimate goal direction of genetically modified food chain and the promoters of genetically modified food to realize its market value.Consumers,attitudes and consumption intention of genetically modified food will have a profound impact on the government and the food industry’s behavior choice.And consumers9 own purchase practice of genetically modified food also determines the degree of utility of enterprise and government efforts.Therefore,there is an important practical significance in in-depth study of genetically modified food consumption issue from the perspective of consumer.There are five crops in China implemented labeling administration.They are soybean,corn,rapeseed,cotton and tomato.However,in many cases,this kind of consumption are passive,because consumers can not know how to identify the difference between genetically modified food and non-genetically modified food in the selection of products due to the lack of genetically modified food cognition.Although genetically modified ingredient is identified,the trademark is not obvious,unable to attract consumers’attention.From the studies in the southern city of Chinese such as Nanjing,Shanghai,Guangzhou,it can be seen that consumers’cognitive level of genetically modified edible oil is not high.However,the study on consumers’perception and purchase intention of genetically modified food in three-line city and four-line city is almost blank.In this context,this study conducts an in-depth research on consumers’ purchase intention of genetically modified edible oil based on Theory of Planned Behavior,combined with consumers’actual purchase characteristics in Zhangzhou,according to the idea "raising questions-establishment of model-data collection-hypothesis test-result analysis The paper explains consumer’s purchase intention of transgenic edible oil by constructing reasonable model based on the results of investigation and literature review,designs a scale with high reliability and validity,and applies statistical software to test the validity and reliability of the scale,Finally it determines a scale with practical value.There are mainly 4 parts in the study,and it is divided into 7 chapters.The first part is the theoretical basis of this study.It reviews scholars’ research on purchase intention of genetically modified food at home and abroad,and it focuses on the research on consumers’ purchase intention of genetically modified food.Based on the previous research,it analyzes and comments on the reference level of the existing theories and research results.The second part is the theoretical framework of the study.Firstly it attempts to develop a consumers’ purchase intention scale of genetically modified edible oil and pre-tests it,to determine the related factors affecting consumer purchase intention;then it apply Theory of Planned Behavior to investigation on consumers5 purchase intention of genetically modified edible oil.Finally,based on the established scale it constructs a path diagram of consumers’ purchase intention of genetically modified edible oil.The third part is the empirical analysis of the study,and it is also the key part of the study.This part puts forward the relevant hypothesis on consumer’s purchase intention based on variables provided in the model of Theory of Planned Behavior,and it establishes the multiple regression model to analyze the relationships between variables.Then it conducts the parameter estimation and hypothesis testing for the construction of structural equation,calculates the fitting index,and finally finds out the right path graph,and verifies the factors influencing consumers’willingness to purchase genetically modified edible oil and its formation mechanism.The fourth part is the research results and recommendations.The results show that:Firstly,the constomers in three-line or four-line city have a certain understanding on genetically modified edible oil,but not deep;individual characteristics and differences of consumers will significantly affect consumers’ understanding cognition,acceptance and willingness to pay for genetically modified edible oil.Education and occupation are the two variables that have the most significant influences on consumers’perception of genetically modified edible oil.Secondly,subjective norm has the largest overall effect on consumer’s purchase intention of genetically modified edible oil,which is different from the results of the study of the western countries.Maybe it is because China is a country in which the concept of collective value occupies a dominant position.The opinions and attitudes of others surrounding play the most important role in comsumers’ actual behavior to purchase genetically modified edible oil.While in the western countries,consumers pursue individualism value.In the comprehensive influence of norm factors on consumers’ intention to buy genetically modified edible oil,59.9%of the effect directly comes from the subjective norm,and 40.1%of the effect indirectly comes from normative beliefs.Thirdly,the overall effect of perceived behavioral control on consumers’ purchase intention of genetically modified edible oil is after the subjective norm,which coincides with the results of the study conducted by Han(2010).Due to the lack of necessary resources information such as time or cost,consumers cannot control performing a certain behavior,although the consumers actually have a more positive attitude and subjective norms of expected behavior,its behavior willingness still be reduced.In the comprehensive influence of control factors on consumers’ intention to buy genetically modified edible oil,45.8%of the effect directly comes from the perceived behavioral control,and 54.2%of the effect indirectly comes from control beliefs.