Conceptual modeling of buyers' behavior of organic products based on empirical evidence - Case study: Denmark

Consumer buying behavior is related to her/his needs. Marketers need to identify the needs of their consumer, how to obtain information about different products and how to use them to select the desired product. The importance and necessity of addressing the buyers’ behavior of organic products emerges when it became clear that the market for organic products in the world is growing. The main purpose of the present study is to conceptually model the buyers’ behavior of organic products based on the empirical evidence of Danish citizens. The research is applied and mixed. In the qualitative part, the Grounded theory is used and in the quantitative part, the technique of structural equations is used. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview and a realized questionnaire. Theoretical sampling continued until the categories were saturated and nine buyers were interviewed. Then, based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin, in three main steps of open coding, axial coding and selective coding, the behavioral model of buyers of organic products was presented. The research hypotheses were developed based on a conceptual model and then tested. The results in the qualitative section have shown that awareness, perceived health, trust, price of organic products, product features, ease of access and perceived value are under causal conditions. Buyer behavior is an axial category. Developing competitiveness is a solution. Consumer characteristics are called contextual conditions. Social norms are intervening conditions. Finally, long-term environmental consequences are considered as the consequences of the conceptual model. The results of model estimation showed that among the effective factors, perceived health had the most impact and ease of access had the least impact.

Keywords:

International marketing , Consumer Behavior , Green Marketing , Organic Products , Mixed Research Method , International Business Management