Evaluation of the effect of neophobia, product perception and purchasing behaviors in vertical farming technology

Our world, which has limited resources, is getting more crowded, warming, and arid day after day. Therefore, the ecosystem and biodiversity are deteriorating. It is becoming more difficult to reach reliable, sustainable, equitable and affordable food with traditional methods and practices each day. Vertical Farming technology is a revolutionary new food production technology that promises high efficiency in limited area, it does not need soil, saves water at a high rate, does not contain pesticides, is environmentally friendly, sanitation and climate controlled, and has a fixed cost throughout the year. It is not possible to claim that innovations and new technologies in the food industry are always understood and accepted by users. On the other hand, as in every sector, consumers' environmentally concerned approaches gain importance in the food sector. The aim of this study is to measure the level of fear of innovation (neophobia) created by food technologies in vertical farming in Turkey and to evaluate the effect of neophobia on environmentally friendly purchasing behavior. For these purposes, a questionnaire was applied to 512 people over the age of 18 who were selected by non-random convenience sampling method. The questionnaire mainly includes statements about the food technology neophobia scale and environmental purchasing behavior. Apart from these statements, items measuring consumers' beliefs in technology, familiarity with vertical farming, willingness to buy vertically farmed tomatoes and demographic characteristics were added to the survey. The obtained data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 25 and AMOS 24 programs. EFA and CFA were applied to detect and confirm the observed and latent variables of the scales. In the data analysis, ANOVA, correlation, and regression tests have been applied. As a result, Turkey Food Technologies Neophobia score was found to be 51.74 (±12.34). The sub-dimensions of Food Technologies Neophobia Scale "the necessity of new food technologies" and "risk perception" had significant effects on "purchasing determination". It was observed that "risk perception" and "healthy choices and media" had significant effects on "ease of purchasing".