Abstract There is an ongoing trend towards the consumption of organic food in many industrialized countries. For food producers and marketers, it is interesting to know the determinants of organic food consumption. The great majority of previous research on this topic was based on consumer surveys or interviews with questions on past or future behaviour or attitudes towards organic food. However, there is a potential bias in these measures. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine the drivers of actual organic food purchases and compare them with the drivers of attitudes towards organic food. The analysis was based on household panel data from Germany provided by the company GfK documenting all food purchases of N = 9470 households during the entire year of 2008. The data on actual purchases of organic food were linked with survey data from the same households on attitudes towards different food characteristics. The analysis confirmed the phenomenon of an attitude-behaviour gap in the market for organic food. Nevertheless, the structural equation models provided evidence that attitudes towards organic food and organic food purchases were both driven by the same determinants; however, the relative importance of the determinants differed. In both models, ‘naturalness and healthiness’ and ‘environmental protection’ were the two most influential drivers. Other significant determinants with a positive influence were the preference for ‘local and domestic food’ and the desire for ‘high quality food and enjoyment of eating’; ‘price consciousness’ and ‘convenience orientation’ both had a significant negative effect. The paper concludes with implications for future survey research on organic food and recommendations for producers and marketers of organic food.

中文翻译：

---

有机食品购买的决定因素：来自家庭面板数据的证据

摘要 在许多工业化国家，有机食品消费呈持续趋势。对于食品生产商和营销商来说，了解有机食品消费的决定因素很有趣。以前关于这个主题的绝大多数研究都是基于消费者调查或对过去或未来行为或对有机食品的态度问题的访谈。然而，这些措施存在潜在的偏差。因此，本研究的目的是确定实际购买有机食品的驱动因素，并将它们与对有机食品的态度的驱动因素进行比较。该分析基于 GfK 公司提供的德国家庭面板数据，该数据记录了 2008 年全年 N = 9470 个家庭的所有食品采购。有机食品的实际购买数据与来自同一家庭对不同食品特性的态度的调查数据相关联。分析证实了有机食品市场存在态度-行为差距的现象。尽管如此，结构方程模型提供的证据表明，对有机食品和有机食品购买的态度都受到相同的决定因素的驱动；然而，决定因素的相对重要性有所不同。在这两个模型中，“自然和健康”和“环境保护”是两个最有影响力的驱动因素。其他具有积极影响的重要决定因素是对“当地和国内食物”的偏好以及对“高品质食物和享受饮食”的渴望；“价格意识”和“便利导向”都产生了显着的负面影响。该论文的结论是对未来有机食品调查研究的影响以及对有机食品生产商和营销商的建议。