Health Concepts and the Health Foods Buying Behavior of Taiwanese: Purchase Intention, Category Switching and Choice Strategies.

• Main Authors: Jui-hsien Chiu, 邱瑞現
• Other Authors: Albert Wenben Lai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86484315172212263049

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 企業管理學系研究所 === 92 === Health pursuing is one of the most important and common aspirations of people in a modern society. However, what is their concept about health? What are the conditions of their cognitions about being healthy? As people’s income has increased, nutritious diet supplements (generally called health foods) have become a popular product category. But, while types of health foods in the market are numerous and competition between the different products are fierce, how do consumers make their decision, facing these various choices? How do Taiwanese people understand and acquaint with particular types of health foods? How do they switch between them, if there is a need for switch among the particular products. The current research tried to develop a measurement scale for the concept of health suitable for Taiwanese people based on their daily life, using health confidence, health dieting, living adaptation, and social interaction as the four fundamental dimensions. This scale is different from those health concept measurement developed based on the traditional medical perspective. The major testing products of this research are “Tong-Chong-Sia-Tsau” (Cordyceps Sinensis for medical terminology) and “Ling-Zhi,” two of new categories of Chinese health supplements developed from special plants. Two other categories of health foods product, “traditional Chinese herb medicine” and “Western vitamin pills,” are also included in the observation of category switching. Adoption of innovation is an important issue in the buying behavior research of health foods. The current research developed a measurement scale of innovation adoption, adopting many measuring items from Kirton (1976). Regarding the choice behavior, this research observed and analyzed both “need for cognition” and “need for change” aspects, referring to Wood and Swait’s (2002) choice research. The consumer samples of this research were collected from two groups of people in Taiwan: travel agents and land administration agents. The number of valid sample was 414. The relationship between health foods buying behavior and the demographic variables were as well analyzed and discussed for the valid sample.