The influence of the subjective norm on consumers' intention to purchase foods derived from modern biotechnology

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The aim of the present study is to describe major positive and negative beliefs and consumption stereotypes toward genetically modified(GM) food among Japanese consumers, and to identify differences in those beliefs and stereotypes among consumer segments with different levels of intention to purchase. In this study, respondents were asked to rate their purchase intention, attitude and subjective norm and to indicate their agreement with each of three positive and three negative beliefs which were extracted from the preliminary survey. Among a sample of 300 Japanese consumers, three segments are distinguished with respect to purchase intentions for GM food : proponent, neutral and opponent. The results demonstrate that the proponent and the neutral group were almost congruent in their beliefs and stereotypes toward GM food, except in beliefs about ethical concern.