소비자의 농식품 구매에 대한 정보의 영향

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of information on consumer purchases of agri-food products. We examine the effect of information by two perspectives, consumers competency and responses on information. We developed a questionnaire based on Big 6 Skills to measure consumer competence in terms of information literacy and conducted a survey on 1,2016 consumer panels managed by the Korea Rural Development Administration. In the survey, a five-point Likert scale was used to evaluate each stage of the information literacy, and also examine consumer responses on food-related information classified by price, hazard, health & safety, labeling, new products, and recipes. In modeling consumer purchases of food products, we use a Structural Equation Model(SEM) in order to consider inter-relationship among factors affecting consumer purchases of agri-food products. The estimation results of the SEM are as follows. First, consumers responses on information and their information literacy had not larger effects on the agri-food products purchases than their socio-demographic characteristics. Second, the type of information which significantly affects agri-food products purchases were different among products. Consumers reponses on price and health-related information being significant for fresh products, while their responses on new products and recipes being significant for processed products. Third, task definition, access, utilization among six stages of the information literacy were found to significantly affect agri-food products purchases. These findings suggest that education programs to reinforce consumer competence in terms of information is needed in order to enhance the effectiveness of providing agri-food information.