| The aim of this paper is to investigate relative importance of food choice motive in food selection of Thai consumer and to explore factors contributing to intention to consume vegetarian food at the restaurant based on the Theory of planned behavior(TPB).Data used in this study is collected through an online survey software Qualtrics.A total of 164 Thai respondents completed the questionnaire and were used in the analysis.First,ten food choice motives were assessed for their importance and influence on consumers' attitude including health,mood,sensory appeal,natural content,price,weight benefits,familiarity,ecological welfare,religion and social media.Then antecedents of TPB model,namely,attitude,subjective norm,perceived control and perceived difficulty were analyzed for their predictive ability in explaining behavioral intention to consume vegetarian food at the restaurant.In addition,moderating effects of food neophobia,lifestyle and awareness of impacts were also examined.The collected data was analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistic for both descriptive analysis and regression analysis.The results showed that among ten food choice motives,only concern for natural content and ecological welfare were found to have a statistically significant positive contribution to attitude toward vegetarian food.The theory of planned behavior is supported by this study in explaining behavioral intention to consume vegetarian food at the restaurant.Except for perceived behavioral control,attitude and subjective norms showed significant positive influence on consumers' intention to consume vegetarian food at the restaurant.In contrary,perceived difficulty factor found to have a significant negative impact on intention to consume vegetarian food.The results provide new insight useful information for restaurant operators and marketing practitioners to have a better understanding of Thai consumers' perspective and preferences toward emerging vegetarian food. |
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