THE STUDY ON PLANT-BASED DIET COGNITION AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TAIWAN

• Published in: International journal of organizational innovation Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 80 - 98
• Main Authors: Chan, Ya-Wen, Hsia, Yin-Yin, Shih, Chien-Wei, Ting, Yu-San
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hobe Sound International Association of Organizational Innovation 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Diet; Hypotheses; Interviews; Questionnaires; Validity; Vegetarianism
• ISSN: 1943-1813

This study collected demographic data regarding consumers' cognition of vegetarian diets and analyze its correlation with consumption motivation and purchase inten-tion. In-depth interviews were conducted with experts to examine topics related to consumers' cognition of vegetarian diets and their consumption motivation and purchase intention. The interview results were then applied to design questionnaire items, which were modified based on relevant literature to enhance the adequacy of item wording and improve the reliability and validity of the study results. The ques-tionnaire was divided into four constructs, namely demographic variables, vegetar-ian diet cognition, consumption motivation, and purchase intention. The question-naire adopted a 5-point Likert scale for measurement and was distributed online, with 338 valid responses returned. SPSS 26 was used to analyze the questionnaire responses using the independent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance, re-gression analysis, and correlation analysis, thereby verifying the proposed research hypotheses. The results were as follows: (1). Vegetarian diet cognition was positively correlated with consumption motivation and purchase intention. All interviewees agreed that consumers' cognition of vegetarian diets affect their consumption motivation and purchase intention. (2) Consumers' " cognition of vegetarian diet " and "consump-tion motivation" can effectively predict " purchase intention ", among which "con-sumption motivation" is the best predictor of " purchase intention ". (3) Health maintenance was the most prevalent reason of eating vegetarian diets, followed by religion, animal welfare, and environmental protection. (4). Analyzing the effect of demographic variables on vegetarian diet cognition, consumption motivation, and purchase intention revealed that age, educational attainment, occupation, and mean monthly income were non-significant, whereas gender, religion, dietary type (vege-tarian or non-vegetarian), reason of practicing vegetarianism, and length of practic-ing vegetarianism were partially significant.