Influence of Antecedents on Consumer Attitudes towards Functional Food: Empirical Study in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Food is one of the basic needs to be satisfied for the survival of a human being. "Functional Food” is food and food components that may provide benefits beyond basic nutrition, and it includes a wide variety of foods and food components believed to improve health and well-being of people which help to reduce the risk of specific diseases. This paper investigates the influence of antecedents (Customer knowledge, Necessity, Safety, Confidence, Rewards) on consumer attitudes towards functional food within the Sri Lankan context. It is important for marketers to understand the attitudes in relation to functional food so they can properly implement in marketing strategies. In addition to the main objective of identifying influence of antecedents on consumer attitudes, the most influencing antecedent was also established. Convenient sampling method was used in collecting data from the respondents which consisted of 280 respondents from Colombo district within the age group of eighteen to sixty. Inferential statistics were used analyse and interpret the data by Correlation and Regression. Validity and reliability were tested for all the measures. The results indicate that customer knowledge, necessity and safety have a negative impact while confidence and rewards has a positive impact on the consumer attitude towards functional food. Rewards from functional food were derived to be a crucial factor for the consumer attitudes on functional food. These findings will provide food processing organizations and policy planners with valuable insights on consumer behaviour.