Food safety is an important issue facing consumers, the food industry and the
government. Since consumers cannot themselves easily assess food safety risks, their
perception of food safety is in part a matter of trust in the food chain. This study
focuses on livestock farmers and investigates the causal relationship between the
factors which determine consumer trust regarding food safety and in turn their
purchase likelihood. The main research questions are: 1) What are the key factors
which build consumer trust in this context? 2) What are the contributions of these
factors to building consumer trust? 3) Is there any relationship between consumer
trust and purchase likelihood? By integrating theories developed in several
disciplines, six factors, namely: providing information, competence, integrity,
benevolence, credibility and reliability were identified to have a strong influence on
consumer trust in livestock farmers. An exploratory study in the form of face-to-face
interviews was carried out to clarify the main concerns of livestock husbandry
practices, and to identify the items to measure the causal factors of consumer trust in
livestock farmers regarding food safety.
Because the objectives set out in this study could not be achieved by using multiple
regression, which could not handle latent variables, the conceptual model was tested
with a quota sample of 194 individuals in the form of a Structural Equation Model
using LISREL 8.30. It was proved successful in identifying the effects of the causal
factors of trust to build consumer trust and in turn to affect purchase likelihood. The
factor ‘providing information’ was identified to be a key factor by which trust is built
and the features that lead to trust, namely: ‘competence’, ‘integrity’, ‘credibility’,
‘reliability’, and ‘benevolence’ were identified to be factors to build trust in livestock
farmers. Representatives of the livestock industry were approached to confirm the
relevance of the study and facilitate the interpretation of the findings. Though there is a limitation of its generalisation due to the sampling method, there is evidence that
these factors are important to building consumer trust in livestock farmers regarding
food safety. The evidence also suggests that there is a strong relationship between
trust and consumer purchase likelihood.
The research confirms that livestock farmers could draw benefit from strategies to
increase their trustworthiness and in turn positively influence consumers’ purchasing
decision. This study recommends further research to apply this model in other
industries where the suppliers have little contact with consumers. The differences in
trust building between cultures and the communication channels that livestock
farmers representatives should used are also suggested for further study. Future
research on how the food industry should respond to the change in consumer trust
during periods of concern about food safety is also recommended. These are valid
topics for future research and will provide potential benefits for consumers and food
industry as a whole.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/820 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Yee, Wallace Man Shek |
| Contributors | Morris, Joe |
| Publisher | Cranfield University, Cranfield University at Silsoe |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | en_UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | 1944 bytes, 3352061 bytes, text/plain, application/pdf |
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