Checking Degree of Related Information When Purchasing Food, and Evaluation and Purchasing Behavior of Environment-friendly agricultural products

본 논문은 환경문제와 함께 중요한 사회적 이슈인 유전자재조합기술에 대한 소비자 의 태도에 따른 식품안전정보의 확인 정도 차이와 친환경농산물에 대한 소비자의 인식과 구매행동의 관련성에 관한 분석을 시도하였다. 본 연구의 주요결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 소비자의 환경문제 및 유전자재조합 기술에 대한 태도를 유형화 시키는 요인은 환경문제관심 요인, 유전자재조합 기술 부정적 인식요인, 유전자재조합기술 혜택추구요인 환경비용 지불의사요인의 4가지로 분리되었다. 이 요인들을 이용하여 군집분석을 수행한 결과 5유형의 소비자들로 분류되었다. 서로 다른 소비자유형은 식품안전정보 확인정도에 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보였다. 둘째, 친환경농산물에 대한 인식과 구매행동에 있어서 5개 소비자 집단 모두 차이를 보였다. 전체 조사대상자들의 친환경농산물에 대한 인식은 높은 편인 것으로 나타났으며, 구매행동은 이와 같은 인식수준에는 못 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구 결과를 종합하면, 친환경 농산물의 판매를 촉진시키기 위해서는 친환경 농산물의 우수성을 알리는데 좀 더 환경 관련 정보를 제공해주는 것이 중요한 것으로 나타났다. 또한 친환경 농산물의 구매가능성이 높은 혜택 추구형 환경 개선집단과 보수적 환경개선 집단이 추구하는 최적화된 환경관련 주요 정보를 적절히 제공하는 것이 필요한 것으로 나타났다.

In this study, checking degree of related information when purchasing food, and evaluation and purchasing behavior of environment-friendly agricultural products were analyzed. The followings are the results of the study. First, consumers' attitude toward environmental problem and GMO technology were classified as four factors. they were "interest in environmental problem", "Negative attitudes toward GMO technology", "Benefit seeking from GMO technology", and "Accepting environmental expense", and these factors combined explained 60.25% of variance. Second, consumers clustered into five groups which are "advantage seeker with interests in environment improvement(104, 22%)", "unconcern(51, 11%)", "conservatives with interests in environment improvement(87, 18%)", "advantage seeker maintaining environment(147, 31%)", and "individualist with no concern(84, 18%)", depending on the characteristics of each group. Consumers in different groups showed significant differences in age, living expense, food expense, educational level, and occupation. Third, expiration date, manufactured date, price and country of origin in order were checked more frequently, while license number for business & item was the least checked information when purchasing food. Consumers in "advantage seeker with interests in environment improvement" group showed the highest checking degree of information. Fourth, there were differences in evaluation and purchasing behavior of environment-friendly agricultural products among five groups. Evaluations of environment-friendly agricultural products were fairly good. However, purchasing behavior of environment-friendly agricultural products were not as good, considering evaluation scores. In conclusion, to promote sales of environment-friendly agricultural products, it is important to inform consumers superiority the of environment-friendly agricultural products in environmental aspects, and provide the information accurately which were mostly checked by consumers in "advantage seeker with interests in environment improvement" group and "conservatives with interests in environment improvement" group. More follow-up studies on consumers' attitudes, recognition, and preparations about factors which threaten food safety, like importation of american beef, beef traceability, pesticides, and GMO technology, and so on, are needed.