Why buy organic rice? genetic algorithm‐based fuzzy association mining rules for means‐end chain data

Abstract

While empirical studies of organic food consumption have centred primarily on European and North American countries, the amount of research occurring in Asian countries is increasing. This article describes the attributes, consequences, and values influencing consumer perceptions and adoption of organic rice in Taiwan, where rice is the major food. Based on a means‐end chain (MEC) rationale, regulatory focus theory and self‐construal theory, this article describes the attributes, consequences and values influencing Taiwanese consumer perceptions and adoption of organic rice. Using a questionnaire and a sample of 300 organic food shoppers in Taiwan, we applied the MEC technique in a different fashion via the proposed genetic algorithm‐based fuzzy association mining rules (GFAMR) algorithm to depict the attribute‐consequence‐value links to purchasing organic rice. This study has at least two merits: (a) it is among the first integrating regulatory focus theory, self‐construal theory and MEC to explore the reason why Taiwanese consumers purchase organic rice and (b) it introduces a new method to quantitatively deal with MEC analysis. The results show that the most important ultimate values are fun and enjoyment in life and security, which are in line with the promotion focus and prevention focus, respectively, of regulatory focus theory. Furthermore, we found three consumer segments related to organic rice: prevention focused housekeepers, promotion‐focused egoists, and promotion‐focused (meta‐personal self) altruists. The different paths found in the results can also provide green companies and policy makers with more information about organic rice consumers, allowing them to craft better marketing and communication strategies by which to promote organic food.

Means-End Chain theory: a critical review of literature

“…As for the quantitative-based MEC approach, there is no unified approach to the sample size in MEC, hence scientists resort to the sampling best fitting the purpose of the investigation. Consequently, there are surveys with a sample size of 1057 participants to investigate avoidance of household food waste (Richter and Bokelmann, 2018), of 300 shoppers to understand their perceptions and choice of organic food (Chen, Lee, and Huang, 2015), of 245 middle-aged women to explain meat product choice, of 104 people to identify pilgrim traveller value orientations (Kim, Kim, and King, 2016), of 54 hotel guests to obtain insight regarding their satisfaction, and of 46 participants to explain the motivation of complex food choices (Russell, Flight, Leppard, and van Lawick Pabst, 2004). Following the publication of "Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-end Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy" by Olson and Reynolds (2001), researches have paid a lot of attention to methodological and theoretical issues connected with MEC.…”

“…Likewise 'soft' laddering, the publications utilizing 'hard' laddering approach are focusing in the majority on food and FMCG industries. In the explored publications, the researchers are interested in underlying purchase and consumption motives of meat product (Le Page, Cox, Georgie Russell, and Leppard, 2005;Barrena and Sánchez, 2009;Barrena and Sánchez, 2010;Kirsten, Vermeulen, van Zyl, du Rand, du Plessis, and Weissnar, 2017); organic food (Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002;Chen, Lee, and Huang, 2015); functional food and ingredients (Barrena and Sánchez, 2010;Bitzios, Fraser, and Haddock-Fraser, 2011); oral care hygiene products, e.g. mouthwash (Chin-Feng, Hsien-Tang, and Chen-Su, 2006) and cigarettes (Kaciak, Cullen, and Sagan, 2010).…”

“…For example, Rokeach's Value Attitude Systems (RVS) (1973) are used to understand the direct and indirect influences of human values on consumer decisions about cars (Allen, 2001); Kahle's List Of Values (LOV) (1986) is utilized in the study of high-frequency beef consumers (Barrena and Sánchez, 2010), pilgrim travellers' value orientations (Kim, Kim, and King, 2016) and the exploration of the factors affecting consumer decisions to purchase organic food (Chen, Lee, and Huang, 2015); the Food-Related Lifestyle instrument (FRL) is mentioned by Grunert (2018) to investigate segmentation in the food domain.…”

“…It is also noticeable the increasing interest in combining 'hard' laddering with fuzzy logic, i.e. fuzzy linear programming (Chen and Ko, 2010) and Genetic Fuzzy Association Mining Rules (GFAMR) (Chen, Lee, and Huang, 2015). The overall position of the scientists is that fuzzy logic helps to overcome imprecise thinking and human subjectivity (Chen and Ko, 2010).…”

What drives organic food consumption in Lebanon?

“…Pleasure was also one of the motivating values identified in studies in a range of European countries (Naspetti & Zanoli, ; Padel & Foster, ; Roininen et al, ), sometimes the most important, as for Italian consumers, who particularly emphasize good and tasty food products (Zanoli & Naspetti, ). Pleasure was also an ultimate value referred to by Taiwanese consumers as basic motivation for eating organic rice (Chen et al, ). A cross‐national study in four European countries (Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, and Denmark) revealed that Spanish consumers were more likely to associate organic consumption with enjoyment, whereas Danish consumer associated it more with happiness/inner harmony (Thøgersen & Bredahl, ).…”