在這一章節里，研究人員對研究項目進行了相關的背景分析，以確保足夠了解這個研究項目。也對研究這個課題的原因和問題進行解釋和說明。此外，研究問題和研究目標就像一個路線圖，為研究人員提供了方向來確定最終的研究成果。最后，數字的潛在利益和本課題研究的貢獻將在研究時顯示其重要性。
 

研究背景
 

目前由于環境問題，食品消費模式正在迅速改變，關于食品和健康問題的營養價值值得關注。質量安全的食品就會引起消費者的興趣，比如無農藥和化學殘留物的有機食品（Fotopoulos與Krystal’s，2002年）。因此，有機食品市場近年來快速增長，2006年，亞洲市場的有機食品零售銷售額約7.8億美元(Willer & Yussefi-Menzler, 2008)。Guadiana, Merriam, Harniza, Mona and Rizaimy (2010) 表示，在東南亞有機消費平均每年約增長20%。
 

如今，有機食品的需求在馬來西亞大幅增長。這個習慣來自于面臨快速發展的世界，人們的生活方式也快速變化著，他們已經看到了一些傳統的食品安全的缺乏(Rizaimy et al., 2010)。
 

In this chapter, some background analysis related to the research title has been done to ensure a throughout understanding for this research project. Reasons to conduct this research topic will be stated and analyzed in problem statement. Furthermore, the research questions and research objectives which act as a roadmap, providing researchers direction to the right final research results will also be determined and listed clearly. Finally, numeral potential benefit and contribution of this research project will be presented in the significance of study section.
 

研究背景———Research Background
 

Food consumption patterns are changing rapidly nowadays as a result of environmental issues, concern about the nutritional value of food and health issues. Issues such as quality and safety in food attract consumer interest in organic food that is free from pesticides and chemical residues (Fotopoulos & Krystallis, 2002a). As a result, the market for organic food products has grow rapidly in recent years with production and consumption of organic food in Asian market, retail sales were about 780 million US Dollars in 2006 (Willer & Yussefi-Menzler, 2008). Guadiana, Merriam, Harniza, Mona and Rizaimy (2010) stated that the average organic consumption growth was approximately 20% per year in South East Asian.
 

Nowadays, the demand for organic food is dramatically growing in Malaysia. The habit comes from the changes in lifestyle of the fast faced world which has been seen some lack in the conventional food safety (Rizaimy et al., 2010). Former Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his speech at the one-day National Organic Farming Seminar 2007 said; “Malaysia has the potential to develop and tap into massive global market for organic produce.” (New Straits Times, April 25, 2007).
 

According to the national study carried out by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (2002), Klang Valley is the main market of organic products in Malaysia. Major importers, distributors and more than half of the dealers are reportedly located in Klang Valley (Ong, 2002). Moreover, there were approximately 101 organic outlets in Klang Valley on Nov 2009 and increased to 300 in May 2012 (Testad, 2012). Hence, this research chose Klang Valley as its research location as people in these areas have higher exposure, contact and understanding to organic related matters or issues.
 

Although the concept of "organic food" seems to be well known to many consumers (Alvensleben, 1998), those who never bought (non users) any of organic products have made up 50.3% of the sample and signified that contained about equal number of organic product users and non users (Bayaah & Juhdi, 2010). Therefore, knowing the factors affecting consumers’ consumption of organic food products is important in order to promote advantages of organic food products and better protect consumers from harmful and fake organic food.
 

問題陳述———Problem Statement
 

In Malaysia, organic food products can only be sold to the market if it is certified organic and carries the Malaysian organic logo (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2002). Producers will have to raise the price of the products to cover the cost incurred to gain the accreditation (Zakaria & Vimala, 2002). However, according to Chen (2007), although Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based industry has launched the Malaysia Organic Scheme (SOM) in 2004, the awareness of consumers on organic food products are generally not increasing. Malaysians are less likely to take risks in consuming organic food products if they are not assured of the benefits and genuineness of these products. They are also less likely to switch products due to their risk avoidance (Voona, Ngui, & Agrawal, 2011). Hence, it is a challenging task for government to successfully convince investors that organic food products have a bright potential market and the future profits might be able to cover the cost invested.
 

There are inconsistent result obtained from prior study such as Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) state that there is no relationship between subjective norm and purchase intention of organic food ,whereas there proved to be negative relationship from the study of Dean, Raats and Shepherd (2008). Apart from that, this present study also emphasize on identify the most significant factor that influent the most on the purchase intention of consumers since there is just few researches done on this area. It may not be appropriate to apply the results that conducted in other countries or states in Klang Valley. Hence, this research aimed to examine the relationship between the selected independent variables and dependent variable as the final result may not be the same.
 

Consumer beliefs, attitudes and responses toward organic foods will affect the overall product development and marketing strategies that developed by the business. However, this condition may be vary according to different regions in the world (Bonti-Ankomah & Yiridoe, 2006). The conception of consumer decision–making towards organic food products must be understand by marketers (Bonti-Ankomah & Yiridoe, 2006) to avoid problems of wrongly develop of marketing plans. Unfortunately, there are only a little research available regarding the demand of organic food products in Malaysia (Musdiana et al., 2010). Thus, this recent research able to made contribution of knowing the current organic food market condition and the preferences of consumers toward organic food products. This helps marketers able to compete with each other with the use of effective marketing plans.
 

總目標———General Objective
 

The general objective of this research is to examine the relationships between factors and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

具體目標———Specific Objectives
 

The specific objectives of this research are:
 

To examine the relationship between attitude toward organic food products and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

To examine the relationship between subjective norm and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

To examine the relationship between perceived behavioral control and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

To examine whether there is any difference in consumer purchase intention toward organic food products between genders.
 

To examine whether at least one group (income level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products.
 

To examine whether at least one group (education level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products.
 

總問題———General Question
 

The general question of this research is “What are the relationships between factors and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia?”.
 

具體問題———Specific Questions
 

The specific questions of this research are:
 

What is the relationship between attitude toward organic food products and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia?
 

What is the relationship between subjective norm and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia?
 

What is the relationship between perceived behavioral control and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia?
 

Is there any difference in consumer purchase intention toward organic food products between genders?
 

Is there at least one group (income level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products?
 

Is there at least one group (education level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products?
 

研究假設———Hypotheses of the Study
 

H1: There is a relationship between attitude toward organic food products and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

H2: There is a relationship between subjective norm and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

H3: There is a relationship between perceived behavioral control and consumer purchase intention toward organic food products in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
 

H4: There is a difference in consumer purchase intention toward organic food products between genders.
 

H5: At least one group (income level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products.
 

H6: At least one group (education level) differs significantly from the other in term of consumer purchase intention toward organic food products.
 

研究的意義———Significance of the Study
 

This research tends to provide people a better understanding about the factors that affecting customer purchase intention toward organic food products. It attempts to allow organic food products companies to gain knowledge from our research about the consumer’s attitude toward organic food products. Thus, their companies can develop sales plans that are suitable for them to increase their sales.
 

Moreover, this study can provides better picture to those companies that wish to venture into this sector. It would probably provide better insights for marketers and help them to establish a proper communication plan to the buyers of organic food products by using the information given in our research.
 

This research also aims to provide information about factors affecting customer’s purchase intention which can help government authorities such as Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based industry and Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute to formulate sound public policies in order to attract investors to invest in this sector. The empirical results would also help government authorities to establish appropriate market strategies to form a health food industry in Malaysia and boost this industry in future.
 

Lastly, this research provides conceptual and empirical supports for future studies basis on the construct and can be useful for future researcher on the subject of forecast and analysis market trend in organic food area.
 

章節安排———Chapter Layout
 

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the research background and explains about the research problem in the problem statement. This chapter also includes the research objectives, research questions, developing relevant hypotheses and the significance of this study.
 

Chapter 2 will conducts a comprehensive review on the secondary data and developed conceptual framework. This chapter also explains the dependent variable and independent variables.
 

Chapter 3 is the research methodology. It describes how the research is carried out in terms of research design (qualitative or quantitative research), data collection methods (primary or secondary data), sampling design (target population, sampling frame, location, elements, technique and size), research instrument, constructs measurement, data processing and data analysis.
 

Chapter 4 will presents an overall of the result and the finding from the analysis of the data collected. Other than that, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) is use in this research to illustrate the chart and tables.
 

Chapter 5 includes discussion and conclusion of this research. Research findings will be summarized and major findings in this research will be discussed. Besides, researchers will point out the limitations of this research for further improvement as well as provide some recommendations for future research.
 

結論———Conclusion
 

Contents in Chapter 1 have portrayed the brief picture of research conducted and readers will be more understand about what organic food products is and the current market condition of organic food products. Research objectives and research questions provide a clearer direction to complete this research. Besides, issues that affect the purchase intention of customers in Klang Valley are further discussed in problem statement and the relationship will be examined. The independent variables will be further explained in Chapter 2 with the literature review, conceptual framework and the hypothesis in this study.

參考文獻略