Attitudes and purchase intentions of consumers for organic products in the Turkish market

This thesis investigates the impact of consumers? belief and knowledge about organic products on their attitudes towards these products, and analyzes the influence of the factors such as attitudes towards organic products, personality and shopping characteristics of consumers, social factors and marketing on consumers? intention to buy organic products. The conceptual model of this study is developed by the adaptation of the dimensions received from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1985;1991).An internet survey of a group of people working in different sectors such as FMCG, textile, retailing, automative, banking, insurance and pharmaceuticals was conducted. The factors that might have an impact on consumers? purchase intentions regarding organic products were covered. Correlation and regression analyses were used to test the proposed hypotheses.According to the results, the more consumers trust in organic label and the more they are knowledgable about organic products, the more positive their attitudes towards organic products are. Consumers? attitude towards organic products, shopping characteristics and word of mouth marketing are found to be effective on their intention to buy organic products. On the other hand, marketing factors such as communicability and advertising are not found to be effective on consumers? intention to buy organic products. Consumers? personality characteristics such as health consciousness and environmental consciousness and their willingness to try new products are important determinants of their intention to buy organic products. The results also suggest that consumers? attitudes towards conventional products should be taken into account while analyzing their attitudes towards organic products.