The Dark Side of Palm Oil

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The Dark Side of Palm Oil

Sustainable food consumption attitudes

Abstract: Nowadays, the earth is getting tired and the natural resources are seriously decreasing due to human actions. These issues could be minimized by changing our behaviour, and start acting more in a sustainable way. Sustainability could be applied to all sectors, but this research paper focuses on food consumption, and attitudes towards sustainable purchasing behaviour related to food products containing palm oil. This study investigates how consumers make their purchasing decision, and whether they are influenced by their social environment. The results of the current study depict that there is a willingness to purchase palm oil free products but the actual purchasing of those products is still low. This study suggests a marketing mix and some managerial implications in order to better respond to the consumer demand in the chocolate spread category.

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The Dark Side of

Palm Oil

Sustainable food

consumption attitudes

Master Thesis

University of Groningen Faculty of Economic and Business

Master Thesis Marketing Management

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Management Summary

The concept of sustainability has gained more importance in the last 20 years. Indeed, the earth has fewer resources to offer because of the excessive human production and extraction of those. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, and tornados were increasing in the last decades. Next to those natural disasters, the climate is changing due to global warming, and the quantity of fresh water in the ocean is increasing because of glaciers and icebergs’ melting. These are just some examples to demonstrate that the earth is suffering from human’s actions, and that we need to change our behavior if we want to be able to live longer on our planet. This may sound dramatic but there is still hope if the global population starts to take action against the destruction of the earth.

At a human level, consumers are able to adapt their purchasing behavior and favor sustainable products in the food category. This research paper focuses on products which contains palm oil because the production of palm oil is against the sustainability concept. In addition to that, palm oil is an unhealthy product to consume. Therefore, the objective of this study is to understand if consumers are aware of the issues related to palm oil, and if they do take their knowledge into consideration when purchasing food products.

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Preface

Nowadays, global warming and climate change are topics mentioned a lot in actuality. The deforestation is increasing meaning that the amount of CO² released in the atmosphere is less filtrated by trees. Because of the raising amount of CO² in the atmosphere, the ozone layer is less efficiently filtering the sun rays, and global warming becomes an issue.

The decrease in primary resources and the important increase of waste force the population to make more sustainable choices. According to Linton et al. (2007), sustainability can be explained as “using resources to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs” (Linton et al., 2007). This study will focus on palm oil because of the inconsistency of the product with the sustainability concept.

I have always been fascinated by climate change and its impact on our earth. I try to act environmentally friendly at a human level in order to minimize my impacts on the environment. And when I am not able to act in such a way, I am able to notice it and live with some cognitive dissonance.

During my university studies, I have always chosen for the topic related to sustainability, because it appears to me as a solution to the issues that the earth is facing nowadays. This is the reason I have chosen for the topic “social influence in sustainable purchasing” for my master thesis.

I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. W. Jager and Dr. P. van Eck for their active contribution, and the numerous feedbacks that they have provided me to ameliorate this final project.

I also would like to thank my family who has been very supportive during the whole process, and who gave me innovative ideas to implement in this research paper.

Last but not least, I would like to thank the 116 respondents who have taken time to answer my questionnaire because without their collaboration I would never have been able to come up with a quantitative research analysis.

“A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step” (Lao Tzu).

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Palm oil is present in most of the products that we consume nowadays; 50% of the products that are offered in the supermarket contain palm oil. Products such as patisseries, cookies, crisps, soap, body cream, shampoo, cleaning products, glues, liquid soap, animal food, etc. contain a considerable percentage of palm oil. In fact, palm oil is so omnipresent that we do not realize anymore that we consume it every day. The palm trees from which the palm oil is extracted grow in the tropical forests and the biggest producers of palm oil are Malaysia and Indonesia. Those countries produce 85% of the worldwide production of palm oil. Palm oil is very successful among food and non-food products because the production is relatively cheap, it is a versatile ingredient, the yielding is high, and it is widely produced (Koh et al, 2008). Indeed the production of palm oil has risen from 22 millions of tonnes in 2000 to more than 50 millions of tonnes in 2012, with Malaysia and Indonesia producing each 15 millions of tonnes of Palm oil per year (faostat3.fao.org).

So far Palm oil does not seem to be a problem but sounds more like a miracle. It is cheap to produce and it can be produced in high quantity to satisfy the worldwide demand in food products and other derivates from the palm oil. However, as mentioned previously, Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest palm oil producers, but also the home to endemic and endangered species such as the Orang-utan, the Asian elephant, and the Bengal tiger which considerably suffer from the restriction of their habitats to ensure palm oil plantations and production (Mittermeirer et al., 2004). Indonesia and Malaysia contains 11% of the worldwide remaining tropical forests, and those primary and even secondary forests are destroyed in order to create sufficient space for the palm oil plantation (Iremonger et al, 1997; Koh et al., 2008). Furthermore, trashing forest is releasing high amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is speeding up the process of global warming (Reijnders et al., 2006). Because of this massive destruction of the tropical forests and the increase of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere, palm oil is considered as an unsustainable product and should be avoided as much as possible to save the environment. In order to reduce the deforestation, the concept of “sustainable palm oil” has been introduced on the market in 2005. Sustainable palm oil producers show that it is possible to be profitable and sustainable by respecting ecological and social standards (rspo.org). However, as the amount of palm oil needed on a worldwide level is extremely high, it will be difficult to hold the production at a sustainable level on the long-term. Therefore, there must be new alternatives introduced on the market to replace or complement palm oil. Those alternatives are; olive oil, colza oil, and sunflower oil.

Hence, a research question based on the previously mentioned information can be formulated as follow:

Do consumers have specific attitudes towards products containing palm oil, and how is their purchasing intention influenced by these attitudes, social influence, and price and availability of alternative products?

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1. To understand the main issues caused by Palm oil, and investigate the possible solutions available to those issues.

2. To theoretically investigate the consumer behaviour mechanism related to palm oil products purchasing.

3. To understand to what extend consumers are aware of the issue caused by palm oil and whether they consider their knowledge in their purchasing decision or not.

4. To investigate the attitudes of consumers towards palm oil and their purchasing behaviour related to palm oil products by mean of a quantitative survey.

5. To understand if the behaviour of consumers consuming palm oil can be changed towards a sustainable food consumption behaviour.

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2. Literature review

2.1 Sustainability

The concept of sustainability found its origin in the forestry sector, where sustainability meant never harvesting more than what the forest yields in new growth (Wiersum, 1995). The term of sustainability has been introduced for the first time in 1713 in Germany. Back in the day, the concept of sustainability was concerning the preservation of the natural resources meaning that the farmers should pay attention to keep a high level of soil fertility (Kuhlman, 2010). The sustainability concept as it should be understood nowadays has been defined by Linton et al. (2007) mentioning that sustainability is “using resources to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs” (Linton et al., 2007). In both view it is possible to notice that the resources are at the core of the concept, and the idea is to preserve them in order to beneficiate from it as long as possible. The concept of sustainability is based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) which can be defined according to the definition given by Pagell et al (2010) mentioning that the TBL is “a measure of supply chain performance that addresses not just profits, but also supply chain impacts on social and environmental systems; a measure of the chain’s impact on people, profits, and planet” (Pagell et al., 2010: 58). The objective of sustainability is to maintain a well-being feeling over a long period of time.

2.1.1 Corporate social responsibility and business ethics

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purchasing decision plays an important role in the company behaviour and adoption rate of CSR practices.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the article written by Porter et al. (2006), CSR can be considered as a source of innovation, opportunity, and competitive advantage (Porter et al., 2006). It is possible to notice that the emphasis on sustainability is growing, as 64% of the largest multinationals were offering sustainability reports in 2005. Furthermore, it appears that companies are focussing on CSR because of four main components which are: moral obligation, sustainability, license to operate, and reputation. The moral obligation means that a company should “do the right thing” for the society. This can be achieved by respecting people, communities and the natural environment (Porter et al., 2006). The sustainable component emphasises the importance of respecting the environment and the society, and functions in line with the sustainability definition. Finally, the reputation component focuses on the company’s image, and brand reputation. Companies should satisfy their main stakeholders such as consumers, employees, and shareholders. For instance, employees will be more attracted to work in an environment which is reputed socially responsible. Also, they will be more committed to the corporation if it operates according to socially responsible principles (Greening et al., 2000). Moreover, as Porter et al. (2006), mention in their article “any business that pursues its ends at the expense of the society in which it operates will find its success to be illusory and ultimately temporary” (Porter et al., 2006: 83). This means that companies that introduce CSR view in their business operations will be more profitable and successful on the long-term in comparison to companies that do not focus on CSR practices. Furthermore, the concept of shared value will be achievable for companies willing to operate successfully on a social and business level. Hence, both sides must benefit from the decision, and decisions that only focus on one own interest to the expense of the other party, will deviate from the successful path leading to long-term prosperity (Porter et al., 2006). In order to be considered as CSR companies, firms must act as good citizens respecting the society, taking part in the improvement of social concerns, and mitigate their operating activities’ impacts.

Another theory explaining the different components of CSR is the model introduced by Carroll (1979) called the “four-part model of corporate social responsibility” which is divided in four layers: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. Carroll and Buchholtz (2009: 44) came up with the following definition: “corporate social responsibility includes the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic expectations placed on organizations by society at a given point in time”. The model functions as a pyramid with economic responsibilities at the bottom and philanthropic responsibilities at the top. In order to be considered as truly socially responsible, companies must achieve the four levels consecutively.

 Economic responsibility means that the company must succeed in its task of being a company trough: shareholders’ return on their investment, fairly paid employees, good quality offered to customers, etc. This is the basis of all subsequent layers, which will rest on it. Hence, the satisfaction of economic responsibility is required by society for all corporations (Carroll, 1991).

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fraud and monopolistic behaviour should be banished within the firm. Hence, legal responsibility is also defined by Carroll (1991) as required by society for all corporations.

 Ethical responsibility is the third layer of the pyramid which is more abstract than the two previous variables. In ethical responsibility, the corporation must do what is right, just and fair even if they are not obliged to do so according to the legal framework. Because of this non-obligatory behaviour, ethical responsibility is considered as expected by society for all corporations (Carroll, 1991).

 Philanthropic responsibility is the last layer of the pyramid and this should be attained by corporations to be considered as truly socially responsible. The word philanthropic comes from the Greek word Philanthropy which means “the love of the fellow human”. Therefore, having this idea in mind, company should improve life’s quality of its employees, communities, and the society in general. For instance, companies willing to achieve philanthropic responsibility could donate money to charities, support local schools, build recreation facilities for its employees, and sponsors different kinds of sport or art events. Therefore, according to Carroll (1991), philanthropic responsibility is

desired by society for all corporations.

2.1.2 The triple bottom line (TBL)

As mentioned before, the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is based on three principles which are economical, social, and environmental (Pagell et al., 2010). This means that when a firm is operating, the final product or service offered to the customer should respect those three principles. The most important concepts of the TBL that are not always taken into consideration by operating firms are the environmental and social variables. The TBL functions in line with ethics, and can be defined as “the concern with the moral principles and values which govern our beliefs, actions, and decision” (Lysons, 1996: 411). Companies taking into consideration the triple bottom line in their operation need to focus on three performance measures instead of one. Some examples of environmental issues that should be avoided in order to operate according to the TBL are air and water pollution in the area touched by the operating industry. In addition, to be sustainable, companies need to take into consideration the management of waste and recycling after their production, and manufacturing of the final deliverable (Miemczyk et al., 2012). It is also important that companies focus on decreasing direct and indirect impact on the environment because customers are becoming more health oriented nowadays and aware of the fact that their purchasing decision could have an impact on the environment. Because of this tendency of customers to purchase green products, companies are pushed in the right direction to act in an ecological way.

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the fact that all employees are treated equally and fairly by having the same access to resources and opportunities (Bansal, 2005). One of the solutions for companies to act in a socially sustainable way is to introduce fair-trade. Fair-trade is considered as socially responsible because workers are fairly paid for the work that they are providing to a supplier, and helps to strengthen relationship between both parties. Fair-trade means that the working practices are controlled and both parties should benefit from a win-win situation implying that suppliers buy a product with a good quality, sold for a fair price, and produced in acceptable working conditions (Ashby et al., 2010). Moreover, to act in a socially sustainable way companies should not make use of child labour, and employees should have sufficient time off and be fairly paid to the work that they are providing to their supplier. Furthermore, fair-trade is supporting the fact that resources should be preserved so that future generations are able to meet their needs, which is the basis of the sustainability definition.

As most of the concepts related to sustainability and ethical behaviour have been mentioned so far, the following section of the literature review will focus on the core subject of this research paper which is palm oil. A general description about palm oil will be given, followed by the main issues faced by palm oil at an environmental and social level. It will be explained how the consumption of palm oil and its production does not fit with the general view of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

2.2 Palm oil

Palm oil has become one of the most rapidly expanding plants worldwide during the last decades (Koh, 2008). The production has increased from 3.6 million tonnes in 1961 to 13.2 million tonnes in 2006 (FAO, 2007). The biggest producers of palm oil are Indonesia and Malaysia. One of the main issues is that the primary forests are being destroyed to create place for the palm oil trees plantation. By destroying the primary forests, endemic species are endangered because they are losing their habitat and cannot find place to live anymore. Endangered species are also killed during the destruction of the primary forest because of fire spread. Furthermore, the government in Indonesia and Malaysia is contributing to the massive deforestation because secondary forests are sold to palm oil producers and are not used for the local agriculture anymore as they are considered as degraded by the habitat (Casson, 2000). In fact, the government in those countries sees its advantage in the palm oil plantation because it gets return on lands previously considered as useless. This short-term orientation is against the long-term orientation of preserving endangered species, and tropical forests which are considered as key elements in the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The fact that primary and secondary forests are destroyed in those lands to give place to the palm oil production industry confirms the fact that Southeast Asia has the highest relative rate of deforestation (Achard et al., 2002).

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comes from the multiple processing of the oil for culinary purposes. On the one hand fresh palm oil is beneficial for human health by reducing arterial thrombosis, inhibition of cholesterol, and reduction of blood pressure. On the other hand, when palm oil has been oxidised it become truly unhealthy and even dangerous for human health. Oxidised palm oil delivers a certain amount of toxicity on the kidneys, lungs, liver, and heart because of the high fat saturation (Ebong et al., 1998). Palm oil is composed of a 50% amount of non-saturated fat and 50% of saturated fat, which is one of the highest rate of saturated fat between all different oils available on the market. The saturated fat acids are contributing to the high cholesterol increase in human body. According to Jones (1989), “in the recent past, palm oil has been classified as highly saturated fat and its consumption supposedly raises the level of blood cholesterol, thereby increasing the risk of coronary heart disease” (Jones, 1989: 866). As mentioned previously, palm oil can be found in more than 50% of the products available in the supermarkets. Because of the important percentage of saturated fat that palm oil contains, it also has an impact on the body weight, growth and morphology of tissues. A study conducted on animals to understand the impact of saturated fat versus non saturated fat “showed that palm oil contributed to low weight gain, sparse hair and unhealthy skin” (Ebong et al., 1998:214). However, even though palm oil is considered as an unhealthy product, its negative impacts on health are mainly becoming problematic for people who are consuming products containing a high percentage of palm oil. A sizeable and growing body of Scientifics shows that palm oil’s effect on blood cholesterol is relatively neutral when it is compared to other fats and oil (Mukherjee, 2009). This relatively neutral effect is present in products which do not contain a too high percentage of palm oil. The more the product will contain palm oil the more it will have a negative effect on blood cholesterol and potential increase of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, palm oil raises blood cholesterol only when there is an excess of cholesterol intake in the diet (Mukherjee, 2009). Therefore, the impact of palm oil on cholesterol will depend on the percentage of palm oil which is present in a certain product. For instance, chocolate spread such as Nutella contains around 31% of palm oil while other products such as bread contain only a small percentage of palm oil (greenpeace.org).

The significant negative impacts that traditional palm oil has on the environment, and the relative bad impacts it has on human’s health should be sufficient to educate customers and convince them to buy and consume palm oil free products. To sum it up, traditional palm oil is an ingredient that should be avoided in human’s consumption because it has a negative impact on the biodiversity trough deforestation and impact on the global warming, and it should also be avoided because of its negative impacts on the human body by significantly increasing the amount a saturated fat intake.

2.2.1 Sustainable Palm Oil

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select suppliers that will deliver good value at a competitive cost and that will respect the TBL standards (Schneider et al., 2012). Therefore, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has been created in 2004. The vision of this association is to “transform markets to make sustainable palm oil a norm” (rspo.org). The mission of the RSPO is that sustainability gain importance and that palm oil is replaced by sustainable palm oil. In addition, the association wants to set up review and control for the supply chain to ensure the production and usage of sustainable palm oil. The RSPO also has the function to monitor the impacts of the three aspects –people, planet, profit- mentioned in the TBL during the production process. Last but not least, the RSPO is trying to commit government and consumers to engage and take part of this improvement by purchasing products containing sustainable palm oil. The key founders and players of the RSPO are: WWF, MPOA, UNILEVER, MIGROS, and AAK. There are eight conditions that growers of palm oil must meet to be certified sustainable. Those are:

1. Commitment to transparency

2. Compliance with applicable laws and regulations

3. Commitment to long-term economic and financial viability 4. Use of appropriate best practices by growers and millers

5. Environmental responsibility and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity 6. Responsible consideration of employees, and of individuals and communities affected by

growers and mills

7. Responsible development of new plantings

8. Commitment to continuous improvement in key areas of activity (rspo.org)

Nowadays, 14% of the total production of palm oil is certified sustainable by the RSPO. In addition, it can be mentioned that companies turning to sustainable palm oil are better doing on social and environmental aspects because of the conditions that should be met to be called sustainable. Furthermore, it seems that the profitability of the firm is also increasing when switching to sustainable palm oil. However, even if sustainable palm oil is a solution to the environmental issue, the health’s issues still have to be taken into consideration for the food products.

2.2.2 Sustainability and Palm Oil

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Therefore, to avoid health and ecological issues, consumers who are willing to act in a sustainable way should buy products without palm oil. Palm oil can easily be replaced by other alternatives such as colza oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, or butter. On one hand, consumers buying food products should purchase products containing the alternative oil to avoid health issue and environmental problems. On the other hand, consumers could purchase the non-food product category containing sustainable palm oil to contribute to the improvement of environmental issues provoked by palm oil. The health category does not have to be taken into consideration for products which are not eaten. Alternatives to food products containing palm oil can easily be found for chocolate paste, crisps, and cookies. In order to detect if palm oil is present in products, the most common appellation will be under “vegetable oil, and vegetable fat”. Table 1 will give some examples of products containing palm oil and their alternatives which are palm oil free.

Table 1. Food products alternatives palm oil free

(foodfacts.com)

The consumer survey conducted for this research paper is based on food products and more especially on chocolate spread, meaning that the behaviour of complete avoidance of palm oil in the purchasing decision is emphasized. This is due to the fact that sustainable palm oil is still at its introduction stage and can hardly be found in products at the moment. The combination of low level of awareness about sustainable palm oil combined with low product availability will be insufficient to conduct a proper survey. Therefore, the consumer survey is focussing on chocolate spread containing palm oil compared to its chocolate spread alternatives which are palm oil free. The consumer behaviour of people purchasing chocolate spread is analyzed on different level such as: personal attitudes, social environment, and perceived control behaviour. In addition, respondents were asked to choose between two chocolate spread, one containing palm oil and the other one being palm oil free, to understand what they value in their purchasing decision. In order to understand the functioning of consumer behaviour, the following section will focus on the main theories that have to be taken into consideration when consumers are purchasing food products.

Chocolate paste Crisps Cookies

Brand Nutel la Casino- I am hazelnu t Nocciol ata (organi c) Pringles Sour & Cream Doritos Dippas Nature Lima Tortilla (organic) KitKat LU Petit Beurre St Michelle Madeleine Price (in euro per 100gr) 0.60 0.58 1.27 1.20 0.95 1.72 0.70 0. 60 0.48

Palm oil YES NO

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2.3. Consumer behaviour for food products

According to Davis et al (1995), people are getting more environmentally oriented because of the “sudden increase of interest” in environmental issue in Europe since 1986. In addition, many well-documented surveys have found that environmental challenge is one of the main issues of the 21st century (Czinkota et al., 1995). Furthermore, nowadays obesity and health diseases are major issues increasing due to malnutrition. Changes in food habits are due to changes in social and cultural changes. Nowadays, social and cultural changes are changing faster because of the globalization and increase in network communication. In addition, because of the fast globalization and increase in technologies, people start to have easier access to information concerning the products they are eating. Therefore, consumers have the opportunity to gain more knowledge about the products offered on the shelves. As mentioned by Steenkamp (1997), food has a central position in a consumer life. This comes from the fact that food is a source of nutrition and hedonic experiences. In addition food is also related to social and cultural function and food expenses are considered as the major expenses for a consumer. The consumer decision towards food purchasing goes through four phases according to the model of Steenkamp (1997). Those four phases defining the decision process are: (1) need recognition, (2) search for information, (3) evaluation of alternative, and (4) choice. The model also emphasises the influence of person-related factors, environmental factors, and properties of the food on the decision process (Steenkamp, 1997). The following section of this review will focus on different aspects of this model. People related factors and environmental factors will be analyzed by means of the theory of planned behaviour introduced by Ajzen (1991) and the social influence theory. The decision process of buying food products will be enlightened by the habitual purchasing behaviour which is related to the emergence of scripts and saving on cognitive efforts. Therefore, different theories will be described to understand what goes through a consumer mind when he needs to purchase a food product. Theories that will be focussed on are: The Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991), The Theory of Habitual Purchasing, and Theory of Social Influence. By describing those theories, the objective is to understand the reasoning behind consumers purchasing decision in order to analyse to what extent consumers take palm oil into consideration in their purchasing behaviour, and act in a sustainable way.

2.4 Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991)

In 1975, Ajzen en Fishbein introduced first “The theory of Reasoned Action” which is based on the fact that an individual’s behaviour will be influenced by the intention to perform that behaviour (Chang, 1998). They are two determinants that influence the intention toward the behaviour which are “the attitudes towards the behaviour” and “the subjective norms” (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975).

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seen in Figure 1. As mentioned in the article, “the theory of planned behaviour is an extension of the theory of reasoned action” (Ajzen, 1991: 181). The centre of the theory is the intention of the consumer toward performing a certain behaviour. In fact, “the stronger the intention to engage in a behaviour, the more likely should be its performance” (Ajzen, 1991: 181). The following sections will explain each of the variables and relate them to palm oil. In addition, to come up with relevant hypotheses the three factors will be developed and supported by other well-know theories. The following hypotheses mentioned in the coming sections will be tested by mean of a consumer survey.

Figure 1. Theory of Planned Behaviour

2.4.1 Attitudes

The first determinant influencing the intention to perform a specific behaviour is called “the attitude towards the behaviour” meaning that a person has a certain attitude which can be favourable or unfavourable toward the behaviour to be performed (Ajzen, 1991). If the attitude towards the products is favourable this means that there will be a positive influence on the intention to perform a certain behaviour, which is in this case the intention to purchase palm oil free products. The attitudes can be personal or can be related to the product.

Personal related attitudes

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consumers who have personal value which are health oriented will be more likely to purchase products which are good for their health. In this case, it is possible to mention that customers who are more health oriented will have a tendency to be focussed on products which are palm oil free. Therefore the following hypotheses related to the TPB and the consumption of palm oil free products can be formulated as follow:

H1: A high level of consumers’ environmental interest will be positively related to the intention to purchase products without palm oil.

H2: A high level of consumers’ health consciousness will be positively related to the intention to purchase products without palm oil.

Product related attitudes

Secondly, when consumers need to make a purchasing decision some attributes that are influencing their decision will be related to the product itself. In the case of palm oil, consumers have to make a decision between products containing palm oil and their alternatives which are palm oil free. Therefore, it is important to take product related attributes such as customer-based brand equity into consideration. In fact customer-based brand equity can be defined as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to marketing of the brand” (Keller, 1993). A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when consumers react more favourably to an element of the marketing mix of this brand than they do to the similar marketing mix element when it is attributed to a less known version of the product (Keller, 1993). Therefore, customer-based brand equity will be stronger when customers are more familiar with the brand, and when this brand holds a favourable, strong, and unique association in the customer’s mind. In the case of palm oil avoidance, the emphasis will be place on the fact that customers might still decide to buy a certain brand containing palm oil instead of its palm oil free alternatives because of strong brand equity.

H3: Strong brand equity negatively affects the customer’s intention to purchase palm oil free products.

2.4.2 Subjective norms

The second determinant of the TPB is called “the subjective norm” and is related to the social pressure that a consumer faces in its environment influencing him to perform or not the desired behaviour. The more the subjective norms are favourable toward the behaviour, the more likely the behaviour will be performed (Ajzen, 1991). In this situation, the influence of social norms will depend on the orientation of friends and family towards environment and health consciousness. In fact, if friends and family are more environmental and health oriented, this will influence the intention of the customer to purchase products which are palm oil free.

H4: A high level of family and friends environmentally oriented will positively influence the consumers’ intention to purchase a product without palm oil.

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Social influence is an important topic related to subjective norms which has to be taken into consideration when analyzing purchasing behaviour of individuals. In fact customers have a tendency to associate themselves to other people that present similarities with their own personality, hence the norms and value of those people will indirectly impact their purchasing behaviour. According to the article written by Deutsch & Gerard (1995) it seems logical that the judgements of others are taken into consideration in order to create our own judgement. This comes from the fact that since our birth, we have learnt that “the perceptions and judgements of others are frequently reliable sources of evidence about reality” (Deutsch & Gerard, 1995: 635). Therefore, most of the customers will be influenced by the actions and thoughts of other customers. The social influence has to be taken into consideration in the purchasing behaviour toward products which are palm oil free because the personal and society influences might be considerable variables influencing a consumer purchasing choice. For instance, if close friends and family to a specific consumer are purchasing palm oil free products, the likelihood that this consumer also buys palm oil free products will be higher.

Social influence is based on two main determinants according to the article written by Cialdini and Goldstein (2004), which are “compliance” and “conformity”. Compliance means that a person agrees to a specific request which can be explicit or implicit. An explicit request would be for instance a charity organization asking for donation, and an implicit request would be for instance a politician candidate doing its campaign and indirectly asking to vote for him (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). Compliance can be attained trough authority and obedience, meaning that people’s behaviour is rewarded when conforming to the wish of authority. Compliance is also reached when the behaviour fits with social norms and focus on reciprocation. Reciprocation contributes to compliance because it means that what others have offered must be returned to them on a similar level. Nowadays, conformity can be defined as “the act of changing one’s behaviour to match the responses of others” and conformity is influenced by norms, value, and habits (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004: 606). Influence can be informative or normative in order to comply with conformity. Firstly, informative influence is based on efficient information acquisition, importance of sharing experience where expertise advices will be highly valuated. This means that the consumer will be searching for relevant information in its social environment. Secondly, normative influence is based on the willingness to be part of a group and therefore conforming to group standards will be of high importance for the customer. The following hypotheses are based on normative and informative influence.

H6a: Consumer’s normative influence will negatively affect the consumer’s intention to purchase products without palm oil

H6b: Consumer’s informative influence will positively affect the consumer’s intention to purchase products without palm oil

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Graph 1. Innovation diffusion process

2.4.3 Perceived behaviour control

The third determinant influencing the intention to purchase is “the perceived behaviour control”. This variable made the theory of planned behaviour different from the theory of reasoned action. On the one side, the actual behaviour control can be explained as the required opportunities and resources that a consumer need to control in order to be able to acquire an intention to purchase palm oil free products. On the other side, the perceived behaviour control explains how the behaviour of customers is influenced by the confidence they have in their ability to perform the behaviour. This can also be explained as the expectation of consumers to successfully perform the behaviour. Hence, consumers who intend to buy products which are palm oil free need to have sufficient information and resources to perform this specific behaviour. The perceived behaviour control determinant also takes into consideration the past experience and the future obstacles that a person could face when willing to perform the behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Similarly to the two other determinants, the most favourable the perceived behaviour control will be toward the intention to perform the behaviour, the most likely the intention to perform the behaviour will be. In the case of perceived behavioural control for palm oil, the research will be based on the perceived information availability, perceived price difference, and habitual behaviour.

Availability

Availability is related to the ease for a consumer to acquire the product. When availability is high for a certain product it means that the distribution coverage is high and that the product can easily by found in most of the supermarkets. However, in this case the term perceived availability is probably more appropriate because alternative products are available in most of the supermarkets but the consumers are just not aware of it and must find it out themselves as the information are not clearly communicate to them. Information about the product that will be easily accessible will help the customer to increase its perceived availability of alternatives. For instance, if the packaging mentions on the front side “palm oil free”, the information accessibility will be higher

Picture 1. Information accessibility high, "I am hazelnut, the first chocolate

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for the customer and this might influence its purchasing decision. Therefore, even if consumers are willing to buy sustainable product by minimizing the consumption of palm oil they might not be aware of the alternatives available and therefore their perceived availability will be low (Robinson, 2002). A low perceived availability will result in a lower intention to buy product without palm oil. An example of high information accessibility can be found in Picture 1. The following hypothesis emphasizes the fact that perceived information accessibility will be influencing the intention to purchase palm oil free products.

H7: High perceived availability of products without palm oil will positively influence the intention to purchase products without palm oil.

Price difference

Furthermore, price difference between products containing palm oil with its palm oil free alternatives also plays an important role in the intention to purchase a product without palm oil. However, as Table 1 shows they are alternatives to palm oil products which are cheaper. Therefore, in this case, it is also more relevant to talk about perceived price difference as consumers are not always aware of the alternatives available and the price ask for those palm oil free alternatives. As mentioned in the article written by Suri (2003), it is relevant to take time constraint into consideration when consumers are balancing quality with price in order to make a purchasing choice. In fact, Suri (2003) mentions that when consumers face uncertain information environments, “price serves not only as an indicator of monetary sacrifice but also as an indicator of product quality” (Suri, 2003: 93). This statement can be understood as the relation between customers’ willingness to pay a higher price in order to get higher quality products and vice versa. In fact, when consumers are not willing to process product attributes, because of time constraint or personal reasons, they will basically rely on the price-quality ratio (Rao & Monroe, 1988). However, when people are willing to process information they will rely less on price as an indicator of quality and will process other information in order to evaluate a certain product. In the case of palm oil free products, it is important that sufficient information is processed because the price ratio does not give information about the presence of palm oil in the products. Therefore, in the case of intention to buy palm oil free products, the fact that perceived price will be considered higher will have a negative impact on the intention to buy a product which is palm oil free. The following hypothesis will test the previously mentioned relation.

H8: High perceived price difference of products without palm oil will negatively influence the intention to purchase products without palm oil.

Habitual purchasing

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mind for certain products categories. This means that there is a direct relationship between consumers search and price awareness of the product. According to Kujula (1961), habitual purchasing behaviour for food products is determined by three variables which are: price importance, price knowledge, and search behaviour. The model shows that price importance positively affects search behaviour, and that search behaviour positively affects price knowledge. As mentioned by Russo et al. (1986), the purchasing of food is usually made with a low level of information processing. This implies that there is a low cognitive process between the price knowledge of the product and the searching behaviour, because the behaviour is executed trough cognitive scripts (Russo et al., 1986). The difference between habitual behaviour and reasoned behaviour comes from the fact that habitual behaviour stresses the importance of cognitive scripts that are executed in familiar situation (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Svenson, 1990; Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1977). The script can be explained as a rule stating that a certain behaviour will be expected in a certain situation. Hence, the script can be understand as the knowledge structure behind the habit, but will not be equal to the habit itself (Abelson, 1981). Therefore, if people are in a situation in which they think that a given behaviour is appropriate, they will be more triggered to perform the same behaviour and will comply with such as script. By performing the same behaviour over time, consumers will develop a script (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Furthermore, by complying with the script, consumers do not elaborate on available options over and over again meaning that they are saving on cognitive effort. Habitual purchasing will be characterized by a high level of price importance and high level of price knowledge but the searching behaviour will be low because people are repeatedly purchasing the same products without considering new information.

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evaluation because there is a dissociation between the implicit intention that are guiding the habitual behaviour and the explicit intention of the customers (Wood et al., 2002).

Therefore, the following section will focus on how habitual behaviour and bad habits can be modified, and it will be linked to changing behaviour of consumer purchasing product containing palm oil. As the negative impacts on health and environment have already been mentioned, consuming product containing palm oil is considered as a bad habit. Hence, bad habits can be determined as satisfying immediate needs (feeding ourselves in this case) and having long term negative outcomes (increase in health diseases in this case) (Jager, 2003). As mentioned before, the more the behaviour is automated meaning that the cognitive level is low, the more difficult it will be to change the behaviour. As mentioned in the article written by Jager (2003) “the most effective way to change habit is to make it impossible” (Jager, 2003: 8). In the case of palm oil this means that companies should banish palm oil from their products and replace it with an alternative which is more environmentally friendly and less harmful for consumer’s health. However, this is hard to implement and another option should be implemented in order to change bad habit before making them impossible which is anyway unlikely to happen. Therefore, in this situation of consuming palm oil in different food products, the concern of consumer’s awareness of its presence in food must be raised. In fact, it is hard and even impossible to change a bad habit if people are not aware of it. Therefore, consumers should first be informed about the negative effects of palm oil on their health and then bad habits should be changed. One of the objectives of this research will be to analyse to what extent people are aware of the negative impacts of palm oil on health and environment before asking them to what extent they consider palm oil in their purchasing decision. Hence, the following hypothesis is based on the habitual purchasing and the impact it has on the intention to purchase palm oil free products.

H9: Habitual shopping behaviour will negatively influence the intention to purchase products without palm oil.

2.4.4 Purchase intention and actual purchasing

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25 H10: High intention to purchase products without palm oil will positively influence the actual purchasing of products without palm oil.

2.5. Conceptual model and hypotheses

The following conceptual model represented in Figure 2 is based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) by Ajzen (1991). The research question focuses on the different parts of the model introduced by Ajzen which is the reason why the conceptual model is based on this model. Hence, the conceptual model based on the research question and the TBL will be based on: the attitudes towards the product, the subjective norms, and the perceived behaviour control. Those variables will then be related to the intention to purchase the product and the actual purchasing of the product. The conceptual model and related hypotheses will be used in order to answer the upcoming research question:

Do consumers have specific attitudes towards products containing palm oil, and how is their purchasing intention influenced by these attitudes, social influence, and price and availability of alternative products?

In order to test the subsequent hypotheses, we first need to investigate to what extend people are aware of palm oil. Therefore, the consumer’s awareness of the product will be tested in order to understand if people have an attitude or not toward palm oil. A knowledge test will be conducted first in order to see the percentage of respondent who are aware of the situation of palm oil. Based on the results obtained in the knowledge test we will be able to estimate the proportion of respondents taking the survey who are aware of the actual situation and issue related to palm oil. The results obtained from the online survey will be used to test the following conceptual model, which is the ultimate objective of this research paper.

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3. Research Design

The following part of the research consist of explaining the methodology used in the quantitative survey. Quantitative survey “is used to study general trends across population, with a focus on number” (Myers, 2009: 260). The method for data collection will be divided in the method used for the data collection, the sample size, and the preferred characteristics of the sample size.

3.1 Method for data collection

The following section will focus on the design of the survey used for the data collection, and the minimum requirement in sample size in order to analyze the results at a significant level.

3.1.1 Field survey

A field experiment is conducted in the purpose of this research paper. The objective of the field survey is to understand if there is a difference between the control group and the experimental group. A field experiment is applying scientific method to experimentally analyze if there is a difference between the control group and the experimental group. The difference between the two groups comes from the fact that the control group did not get an introduction text to the situation of palm oil while the experimental group was able to read the introduction text. The introduction text given to experimental group is the following:

3.1.2 Online survey

The data collection is done by mean of an online survey, using a snowball effect. This means that the original mail is sent to a high number of respondents who were required to send the mail to other respondents. This method is used to reach a high amount of respondents, at a low cost, in a short time period, and with a high heterogeneity between the respondents. Also, the online

Have you ever heard about palm oil?

Do you know that palm oil is the main oil used in products sold in supermarkets? You can find it in products ranging from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips. Palm oil is used in those products to make your soap soapy and your crisp crispy. BUT there are some issues linked to palm oil:

1. Palm oil is mainly produced in Indonesia and Malaysia and highly contributes to the deforestation of those regions

2. Due to the deforestation, endemic species in Asia such as the Orang-utan are threatened

3. Palm oil is a high saturated fat which is bad for your health, it increases your blood pressure by increasing the blood cholesterol and increases the risk of having cardiovascular diseases

Do you know that there are alternatives available to palm oil in Europe such as the colza oil, and the sunflower oil which are much better for your health and do not contribute to the deforestation in Asia. Unfortunately those alternatives are less used because they are more expensive to produce.

Do you know that as a consumer YOU can make a difference by selecting products in your supermarket which are palm oil free? You can choose product without palm oil by selecting products which contain sunflower oil, or colza oil and avoid products containing “vegetable oil, or vegetable fat”.

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questionnaire will be shared in forum dealing with palm oil issues in order to reach a sufficient amount of people aware of the actual situation of palm oil. Furthermore, the online survey will be shared in social media in order to reach different types of customers differentiating on their age, living countries, education, etc. The major strengths of online survey come from the fact that there is an important global reach. Indeed, more than 1.1 billion people are using internet (ClickZ, 2004). In addition, internet is high in industrialized countries, which are the targeted countries for the present survey. Moreover, as Scholl et al. (2002) mention; the more the society has access to internet, the less the online survey will be impacted by lack of representativeness. Furthermore, online survey is an interesting tool to reach different regions of a specific country, at a low cost. The conducted survey took the form of e-mail sent to the respondent with the survey URL link available (Evans et al., 2006). In addition, the questionnaire is available in two languages which are: French and English. This is due to the fact that the survey focused on two neighbor countries which are: The Netherlands and the French part of Belgium. Another reason why online survey has been chosen comes from the fact that online survey can be conducted in a short period of time. Due to the time constraint, the online survey is an interesting tool to get high amount of data in a short time period. In addition, online surveys are convenient for the respondents because they can decide themselves when and where they want to respond to the survey. Hence respondents do not face time pressure and are allowed to take as much time as they want to answer the questionnaire (Hogg, 2003). Last but not least, online surveys trough questionnaires have been chosen because of the ease of data entry and analysis (Evans et al., 2006). Indeed, it is simple for the respondents to answer the questionnaire, and the data entry in the computer tool named SPSS is simplified. However, if the number of respondent is still too low, face to face street surveys have to be conducted, meaning that the questionnaires are the same but the way how respondents are reached is different. The questionnaire is fundamentally based on dichotomous questions, multiple choice questions by selecting 1 out of n answers, and semantic differential questions based on a five point Likert scale; where 1= completely disagree, and 5= completely agree (Evans et al., 2006). In the e-mail sent to the respondents, a short introduction to the topic and the objective of the research is given in order to motivate the respondents to answer the questionnaires. Once the respondents have clicked on the URL link available in the mail, they can access the online questionnaire. The questionnaire starts first with some general questions about the socio-economic class of the respondent. Then questions related to the hypotheses are introduced. The main topics asked in the survey is emphasizing the personal and product related attitudes, the subjective norms, the perceived behavior control, the intention to buy the product, and the actual purchasing of products without palm oil.

3.1.3 Sample size

In order to consider the answers collected by the online survey, a minimum of 97 respondents is needed to be considered as significant. The amount of respondents needed has been calculated using the following formula: N°= ((t)²*(S)²)/(d)² (Bartlett et al., 2001).

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The S is determined by the number of points on the scale divided by the number of standard deviation. In this case the likert scale is based on a 5 point scale meaning that the standard deviation is equal to 4. Therefore the S value is equal to 5/4= 1.25

The variable d is the acceptable margin of error. The acceptable margin error chosen in this case is 5%. In order to find the variable d, the acceptable margin error must be multiplied by the number of points in the Likert scale; which is 5 in this case. Therefore the d value is equal to 0.05*5= 0.25

N°= (1.96²* 1.25²)/0.25²= 96.04 respondents (minimum sample size required)

As mentioned by Holton (1997), “one of the real advantage of quantitative methods is their ability to use smaller groups of people to make inferences about larger groups that would be prohibitively expensive to study” (Holton & Burnett, 1997). In fact, a minimum amount of respondents is needed for the quantitative survey, however by having more respondents we will be able to lower the error variation. Therefore, a minimum of 97 respondents is needed but having more respondents will slightly increase the quality of this research.

3.2 Variables

The variables included in the conceptual model in Figure 2 will be tested throughout the whole survey. Those variables are: the attitudes towards the product, the subjective norms toward sustainable behavior, the perceived behavioral control, the intention to buy the product, and the actual purchasing of the product. However, as some variables are antecedent to other variables, it is important to take into account the moderating effect of the variable on each other and the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Therefore, the following section will be divided in two sections. The first one is representing the dependent variables, and the second one is representing the independent variables.

3.2.1 Dependent variables

The dependent variables in the conceptual model are: “the intention to buy the product” and “the actual purchasing of the product”. The first dependent variable is “the intention to buy the product”. In fact this is a dependent variable which depends on the three independent variables called “attitudes towards the product, subjective norms toward sustainable behavior, and perceived behavior control”. The second dependent variable is the “actual purchasing of the product” which is dependent from the variable called “the intention to buy the product”. Therefore, as the variable “the intention to buy the product” is influenced by three independent variables and influencing one dependent variable, it can be considered as a moderator variable.

3.2.2 Independent variables

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3.3 Determining the conceptual model variables

The conceptual model is composed of 5 different variables which all need to be tested in order to accept or reject every previously mentioned hypothesis. In order to test those hypotheses, a certain amount of questions are combined together. The questions asked in the online survey can be found in Appendix 1. The following table, Table 2, clearly shows which question is related to which variables. Not all question will be mentioned in the table because some questions are present in the questionnaire in order to get insight about the background of the customers, but do not explain what the intentions of the customers are and how a purchasing decision is made.

Table 2. Composition of the conceptual model variables

Model Variables Scale Questions

1) Attitudes towards palm oil

Health oriented I think that it is important to buy healthy food products

I am acting in an health oriented way when purchasing food products I consider myself health oriented

I care about the quality of the food products that I buy

I am looking at the calories in the food product that I am buying Environment

oriented

I think that it is important to buy food products that are environmentally friendly

I am acting in a environmentally conscious way when purchasing food products

I consider myself eco-friendly Brand equity for

Nutella

I have the feeling that Nutella is a part of who I am I could not live without Nutella

I think that Nutella is a unique brand

I think that Nutella is different from the other brand available I am a loyal customer to Nutella

Nutella is the best brand that is available on the market

2) Subjective norms

Health Oriented They are people in my surroundings who think that it is important to buy food products that are healthy

They are people in my surroundings who are health oriented They are people in my surroundings who look at the amount of calories in the food products that they are buying

They are people in my surroundings who look at the ingredients in food products that they are buying

Environment Oriented

They are people in my surroundings who are environmentally oriented

They are people in my surroundings who think that it is important to buy food products that are environmentally friendly

They are people performing eco-friendly behaviour in my surroundings

Social influence: Normative

I purchase the same food products as people in my surroundings It is important for me what people in my surrounding think about the food products that I am buying

I achieve a sense of belonging by purchasing the same products and brands that others purchase

Social influence: Informative

To make sure I buy the right product or brand, I often observe what others are buying and using

If I have little knowledge about a food product I will ask people in my surroundings what they think about the product

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30 food products 3) Perceived control behavior Perceived availability

I think that chocolate spread without palm oil is harder to find in the supermarket than other products

I think that chocolate spread without palm oil can only be found in specific stores

I do not have sufficient information about palm oil for the chocolate spread that I am buying

I would like to have more information about the chocolate spread that are palm oil free

I would like to have easy access to information about chocolate spread that are palm oil free

I do not want to lose time looking for information about chocolate spread

Perceived price difference

I think that chocolate spread without palm oil is more expensive than other chocolate spread.

Habitual behavior I always purchase the same type of chocolate spread

I do not like to buy different chocolate spread than the ones I am used to

I always purchase the same brands of chocolate spread

When I am in the shop I do not consider to buy chocolate spread I have never tried before

4) Intention to purchase palm oil free products

I would buy chocolate spread without palm oil if the information were easily accessible

I would buy chocolate spread without palm oil if they were cheaper than other products

I would buy chocolate spread without palm oil if people in my surroundings also do

I would buy chocolate spread without palm oil if it was available everywhere

I would buy chocolate spread without palm oil if I would have more information about the products

I intend to buy chocolate spread without palm oil in the future

5) Actual purchasing of palm oil free products

I actually buy chocolate spread which is palm oil free (Yes/No) I have already bought chocolate spread without palm oil (Yes/no)

3.4 Statistical techniques

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4. Results

As mentioned in the introduction of this paper, the main objective of this research is to understand to what extend people are aware of the issues related to palm oil, and how their attitudes, social influence, and perceived behaviour control influence their intention to purchase products without palm oil. Therefore, the study was based on different subjects such as: consumers’ attitudes towards health and environment, brand equity, family and friend’s environment and health oriented, normative and informative influence, perceived availability of products without palm oil, perceived price difference for products without palm oil, and habitual purchasing behaviour.

This study was conducted with three main goals. The first one was to understand the respondents’ awareness and perception of chocolate spread available and different oils available in food products. The second goal was to come up with the respondent’s preferences concerning chocolate spread brands and specific oils to be present in food products, which resulted in a suggestion for the most and least preferred product. And the third goal of this research paper was to understand how personal attitudes, social influence, and perceived behaviour control influence the intention to purchase palm oil free products and ultimately influences the actual purchasing of palm oil free products.

The findings of the current study are discussed in detail, below.

4.1 Socio-demographic characteristics

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Table 3. Socio-demographic characteristics

Socio-demographic information Age Minimum Maximum Mean 18 years 80 years 40 years Gender Male Female 36% 64%

Education level achieved Primary school

High school Vocational school University Others 0% 7.8% 5.9% 64.7% 21.6% Expenses per month on food

purchasing Minimum Maximum Mean 40€ 1500€ 443€ Frequency of food purchasing per

month Minimum Maximum Mean 2 times 30 times 9.11 times Importance of product characteristics

when purchasing food products

Low price High availability

Sustainability of the product Brand of the product Good taste

Healthiness of the product

8.8% 0% 11% 1.1% 49.5% 29.7%

Living area In the city

In the countryside

47.1% 52.9%

Household type Living with partner and children

Single parent with children Living with my partner Living alone Others 30.4% 5.9% 22.5% 20.6% 20.6%

Number of children at charge 0

1 2 3 4 Mean 57% 13% 19% 9% 2% 0.86 child

4.2 Awareness and perception on chocolate spreads and oils

4.2.1 Field experiment

The Dark Side of Palm Oil