소비자의 인터넷 검색활동이 농축산물 구매에 미치는 영향

The Impact of Internet Search Volume on the Consumers Purchases of Agricultural Food Products

This paper analyzed how the internet search volume provided by Naver Data Lab, the largest search engine in Korea, affects consumers purchases of agricultural food products. The subjects of this study were beef, pork, chicken, and chinese cabbage, radish, red pepper, garlic, and onion with the markets being very vulnerable in terms of the supply and demand. Using the consumers panel data of 1,314 households in the year of 2016-2017 provided by the Rural Development Administration, we analyzed whether the internet search volume for each product had a significant effect on consumers purchases of the food product, and estimated the marginal effect of its internet search volume. The main results of this paper are as follows. First, internet search activities on beef, chicken, cabbage, radish, red pepper, garlic and onion were found to be the factor that increased consumers purchases of the products. When the internet search volume for each food product was increased by 1 unit, the purchase amount of the product was increased by about 1% of its average purchase amount. In this context, the internet search volume can become one of the effective tools to quickly and easily identify the psychology or behaviors of those who purchase agricultural food products. Therefore, data obtained from consumers internet search activities could be employed to provide useful information in terms of making marketing strategies of agricultural producers and food companies, and establish more quickly and appropriately policy options in response to changes in food demand and supply.