The impact of store atmospherics and consumer attitudes on in-store behavior ? What determines the buying decision of functional food?
Functional foodHealthStore atmosphericsEnvironmental psychologyManagement of enterprisesFöretagsledningManagementBusiness and Economics
Thesis purpose: The aim of this paper is to extend the knowledge of what influences the purchase decision of functional food in the store. By applying the M-R model in a new setting - the dairy department in grocery retailing in Sweden - and adding variables related to health attitudes, the aim is to contribute to existing research concerning in-store purchase decision making and store environment as well as consumer attitudes. Methodology: This thesis employs a quantitative strategy with a deductive approach and data has been collected with questionnaires. Theoretical perspective: Environmental psychology serves as an overarching framework where, more specifically, certain aspects of store atmospherics and some variables concomitant to health attitudes provide the theoretical base. Empirical data: The empirical data consists of customer purchasing a functional food product, Proviva, and this is contrasted with a test group, Bravo. Conclusion: Health variables had a greater impact on functional food customers than did the environmental factors. Environmental factors also seemed to be of minor importance for the test group. However they appeared to have greater impact on customers who made their purchase decisions in-store irrespective of product category. As the influence of health factors are established outside the retail context, the decision to purchase of functional food is made prior to entering the store.