| 摘要: | This master thesis has proposed and examined an extended framework based on the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model with here new variables, Health Concern, Country of Origin image, and Green Trust within the context of green consumption. The aim of this research intends to investigate the causal relationship among purchase intention and its antecedents based on the sample randomly selected from female Y-generation potential customers among three universities located in the Northern part of Taiwan. Due to growing purchasing power, increased disposable income, and raising awareness of skin care starting from teens, Taiwan has become a prospective market for foreign organic cosmetics. Especially, Taipei city, the capital city, is the biggest urban area of Taiwan with higher purchasing power among its habitants.
The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model developed by Fishbein and Ajzen is one of the three classic persuasion models of psychology to understand the casual consequence of attitude and behavior. By adding a new factor, “perceived behavioral control” (PBC), as the third independent variable (the other two are Attitude and Subjective Norms), TRA model has been improved and termed as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It reinforces the predictive power of purchase intension to actual behavior under a non-volitional situation.
The potential and the main benefit of Russian organic cosmetics lie in the availability of raw materials reserved from all over the wild nature of the country. Therefore, the Russian manufacturers of organic cosmetics are becoming recognized not only in Russia but also abroad. The success of the Russian organic cosmetics has correlated with the growing health concern of consumers to cope with their quickly evolving purchase behavior towards the trend of green consumption. The common awareness about hazardous effects of ingredients in conventional cosmetics has shattered the consumers’ faith and strengthened the belief in the performance of organic cosmetics. Under the context of green consumption, the authors purposely proposed this new framework with five new variables (Price, Health Concern, Country of Origin, Perceived Value, and Green Trust) as additional supplement to extend the TPB model. The new research framework may accurately predict consumers’ purchase intention towards Russian organic cosmetics.
A self-completion questionnaire with seven point Likert scale has been designed to carry out this present research. In order to identify the defects of the research tool, pilot test was conducted among 30 female respondents invited from one of the three universities mentioned above. After correcting defects based on the results of pilot test, the questionnaires randomly disseminated to 450 respondents among these three universities.
In conclusion, the results of this research may play a role of bridging research gap in the field of consumer behavior with these three new variables to extend the TPB model within the context of green consumption. Theoretical and practical implications as well as suggestions will be elaborated after empirical analysis conducted. Expectedly, this research may substantially contribute to the major stakeholders, such as material suppliers and manufacturers of organic cosmetics, consumers, and their reference groups, etc. To develop reputable organic cosmetics in respond to consumers’ green requirements, such as green trust, health concern, country of origin effect, and reasonable price are essential and can be seen as key factors to predict consumers’ purchase intention in the era of green consumption. As a result, this research is one of the pioneer studies conducted in Taiwan utilizing Russian organic cosmetics to predict purchase intention of Y-generation female potential customers in Taiwan. |
