Consumption of organic fruits among consumers in Sweden : Theroy of planned behavior and the role of the determinants of intention

The increased global consumption has a severe effect on the environment. In order to reduce the environmental impact, there is a need for more environmentally friendly consumption choices. Several studies have confirmed that consumers have a positive attitude towards environmentally friendly products, but that the attitude is, in most cases, not put in to practice. To increase the degree of explanation behind the gap between Swedish consumers intention and behavior regarding the consumption of organic fruits, this study used Ajzen’s (1985) theory of planned behavior. The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to examine if attitude, social norms and experinced behavior control can explain the consumption behavior regarding organic fruits in Sweden. An online-survey with several Likert items was conducted in order to gather data. The respondents were asked about their age, income, education, attitudes, social norms and their experienced behavior control. A correlation test and a multiple regression analysis was conducted in order to see how the determinants of intention correlated with the behavior and how well they could influence the behavior. The results showed that attitude was the determinant that had the strongest correlation (0.522) and contributed the most to the behavior of buying organic fruits. Subjective norm (0.294) and perceived behavior control (0.245) had not as strong correlation as attitude and subjective norm could only influence the behavior to a minimal level. However, it was found that perceived behavior control could influence the behavior. The total rate of explanation for all determinants of intention on the behavior was R2 = 0.568 (56.8%). The conclusions that were made from this study were, firstly, that attitude can influence most of the behavior regarding consumption of organic fruits among Swedish consumers. Secondly, subjective norm can to a minimal degree influence the behavior regarding consumption of organic fruits among Swedish consumers. Thirdly, perceived behavior control can to a minimal degree influence behavior regarding consumption of organic fruits among Swedish consumers. Furthermore, there is a need for more studies who includes behavioral data and more added variables to the TpB model in order to deepen the knowledge about environmentally friendly consumption behaviors