¶ … Purchase of Organic Food in Germany and Italy Descriptive Statistics

Answering the Research

Understanding the Term Organic

The Impact of Understanding on Purchase Decisions

Education and the Purchase Decision

Education and Attitudes

Culture and the Purchase of Organic Food

Culture and the Attitude to Organic Food

Evaluation

The research was conducted with a sample of 50 respondents; 20 in Germany and 30 in Italy. Only questionnaires which were fully completed included in the findings analysis. All respondents were either solely or jointly responsible for the purchase of groceries was in their household. This binding section starts with a presentation of the descriptive statistics for the samples in both countries, before moving on to an examination of the various questions which guided the research, and a testing of the hypotheses assessing the impact of education on attitudes towards organic food and intention to purchase, and cultural differences between those residing in Germany and Italy

Descriptive Statistics

The research is made up of two samples which will facilitate a comparison between Germany and Italy. The German sample consists of 20 respondents, 60% (N = 12) were female, with 40% (N = 8) male. The mean age of 29.25 years, with a standard deviation of 8.95, and a skewer 2.18. Within this sample 5% (N = 1) had a high school level education, 35% (N = 7) had a Bachelor's degree, and 60% (N = 12) had a Master's degree. The Italian sample was made up of 30 respondents, of which 60% (N = 18) were female and 40% (N = 12) were male. In this sample group the mean age was 49.13 years, the standard deviation of 14.58 years, and a few of -0.31. Within this group 23.3% (N = 7) had a high school education, 26.6% (N = 8) has a Bachelor's degree, 43.3% (N = 13) had a Master's degree, and 6.6% (N = 2) had doctorates.

Answering the Research Questions

Each of the research questions identified to guide methodology is considered in turn, before the results are correlated in order to present an overall finding.

Understanding the Term Organic

Both sample group indicated they believe they had a good understanding of the term organic. The results for the 2 sample groups are shown in table 1 below.

Table 1; Consumers self-perceived understanding of the term organic

Do you understand the term organic

Germany

Italy

Yes

90% (18)

70% (21)

Not sure

10% (2)

26.6% (8)

No

0% (0)

3.3% (1)

When consumers were asked to define the term using a range of discerption, it is notable that while both samples overwhelming stated that organic food was not genetically modified; 80% (N=16) in the German sample and 96.6% (N = 29) in the Italian sample. Almost all both samples identified factors such as the lack of man-made fertilizer and use of pesticides. 45% (N = 9) of the German sample and 53.3% (N = 16) of the Italian sample referred to national certification. However, there were also answers indicating the understanding was not complete, as sown in table two below, where different attributes were also identified.

Table 2; Attributes associated with organic food

Attribute

Germany

Italy

Organic food is more expensive than non-organic produce

60% (12)

73.3% (22)

Organic food not grown on a large scale

10% (2)

33.3% (10)

Organic food tastes better

40% (8)

13.3% (4)

There appear to be some differences in beliefs about organic food in Italy and Germany; more people in Italy believe it is more expensive, and fewer that it tastes better. In Germany there was an insufficient spread of educational levels to fully assess understanding against education, however, in Italy, there did appear to be a greater level of comprehension of the term for those with degrees compared to those with only a high school educational level; those with degrees identified more of the accurate answers.

The Impact of Understanding on Purchase Decisions

The understanding of the term organic appears to be quite high, with almost all the sample having a basic grasp of the concept. The data collected indicates insufficient data from those who display a poor understanding to assess the answer to this question in a meaningful manner. However, due to the small size of the data, and all but 10% (N=3) of the Italian sample, and 5% (n= 1) of the German sample buying at least some organic food, it may be argued this is a potential effect of the bias in the sample towards higher education, or some other type of bias present in the sample that is impacting on results. However, when assessing those who have stated they do not make organic purchases, these are spread though the different educational levels. Overall, there is no evidence which appear to indicate that understanding, or lac k of understanding, of organic produce is impacted by understanding.

However, when looking at some of the misconceptions, such as the assertion that organic food tastes better (discussed later in the paper), there may be some influence to support...

The German sample only has one non-degree respondent, so assessment of this sample is unlikely to yield meaningful results that can be applied to a broader population. However, although the Italian sample is biased, there is a greater cross section, so this is tested using the Italian sample only.
Assessing the educational level against the level of organic food purchases made assessed as never, rarely (less than 25% of purchases), sometimes 25 -- 49% of the time, often 50 -- 25% of the time, frequently, >75% of the time, and always (100% ) of the time, the different categories can be assessed and compared.

Figure 1; Organic Food Pucrases by Education

As this is categorical data, the most viable type of test that is suitable is a chi squared test, which will compare the outcomes observed with those expected (Curwin & Slater, 2006). If it is assumed there would be an even spread of each choice against each educational level, the chi squared statistic may be generated. This question leads directly to one of the hypotheses; so the test may be applied. This data may be used to test whether education levels will impact on intention to purchase organic food

In this case the chi squared test result provided by Excel is 0.00002543044. As the sample is 30, this means there are 29 degrees of freedom. For a certainty of 95%, the critical value is 17.708, as test statistic does not exceed the critical value, it is not possible to reject this hypothesis, so the null hypothesis that education does not have an impact has to be accepted. Therefore, it is possible to state that with a 95% level of certainty that there is no correlation between education level and purchases.

Education and Attitudes

There appear be similar attitudes in both of the sample groups regarding both the reasons to buy and the reasons to refrain from buying organic food, with a number of commonalities which appear to be evenly spread across the different educational groups.

Figure 2; Reasons for the Purchase of Organic Food

The totals equal more than 100% as many respondents gave more than one answer. Just as there was commonalities in the reasons for purchasing organic food, there were also commonalities for reasons not to purchase it, with the most common reason being given as the that it was too expensive, given by 53% of Italians (N = 16) and 70% of Germans. In second place was the statement that the organic food was not always the best quality, with 33.3% (N = 10) for the Italians, and 20% (N= 4) for the German sample. However, if assessing the impact of education a more detailed examination of attitudes is required.

Examining the positive and negative attitudes towards food a number of the statements regarding food were given to the sample, with the sample answering in the context of a Likert scale. To assess the impact the mean of these scores may be compared dividing the samples by educational level. This is assessed using the Italian sample only, due to the heavier bias towards degree holding respondents in the German sample.

Table 3; Attitudes towards Organic food in Italy by Educational Level

Organic food is a marketing gimmick

Organic food is healthier than non-organic food

Organic food is fairly priced

I know how organic food is produced

I was taught about organic food in school

I get confused about organic food and what the term means

PhD

2

3

2

2

1

3.5

Masters

2.38

4.54

2.38

3

1.92

2.39

Bachelor's

2.875

3.62

2.25

3.63

1.38

1.88

High School

1.71

4.14

2.14

2.7

2.14

1.86

To assess whether or not there is any significant the use of a chi squared test may be used. The table of results, assessed against an expected mean of 2.5, is presented below.

Table 4; Chi Squared Results for each of the attitude statements

Chi squared statistic

Organic food is a marketing gimmick

0.937826

Organic food is healthier than non-organic food

0.341807

Organic food is fairly priced

0.980348

I know how organic food is produced

0.866892

I was taught about organic food in school

0.662077

I get confused about organic food and what the term means

0.867914

For each of these tests there are 29 degrees of freedom with a certainty of 95%, the critical value is 17.708. In each case, there is a score below this critical value,…