Part 1-B:

With respect to the “Feelings from all aspects about Hecodulc products”, the findings are summarized and presented from Figure 4.7 to Figure 4.12. Majority in all aspects is revealed. It was found that 48 % of the interviewee has no idea about what the product looks like, and 60 % use sugar to sweet their beverage, food, etc (Figure 4-8). This indicates that the Hecodulc Products is quite new to Taiwan’s consumers. 92 % of the interviewees can find a difference between the sample with hecodulc drops and the sample without hecodulc drops, and for 84 % of the

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interviewees says that the sample with hecodulc drops is sweet. 76 % of the interviewee do not think the product has a metallic flavor, and 40 % cares more about the benefits and quality rather than price and taste for these kind of products. Finally, 88 % of the interviewee find that the package is convenient, as shown in Figure 4-13.

Figure 4. 7 Package’s impression Figure 4. 8 Way to sweet their beverage, etc

Figure 4. 9 Differentiation between samples Figure 4. 10 Is it sweet?

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Figure 4. 11 Differentiation between samples Figure 4. 12 Is it sweet?

Figure 4. 13 Differentiation between samples 4.2 Hypothesis Test

To conduct the data analysis for part C of the interview data, the research thesis employs multiple and linear regression to modeling the relationship between a scalar response and its explanatory variables, which is made up of the relationships between the independent and dependent variables. The data pre-processing contains (1) sorting the interview questions with

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each hypothesis, (2) converting all data from the linguistic data to numerical values, (3) tabulating data, and (4) calculating the average if there is more than one question per hypothesis. The relationship between each hypothesis and questions are described in the Table 3.1.

Table 4. 1 Hypothesis and Survey Questionnaire relationship.

Hypothesis Interview Questions

H1: Attitude toward product is positively and significantly associated with buying willingness.

Q9 I think nature-made-products are worthy to buy Q10 I am willing to buy the Hecodulc products H2 Perceived health is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

Q1 I like to do exercises to maintain health Q2 I like to eat healthy to maintain an average

weight H3 Packaging attraction is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

Q3 I like to buy the product that has attractive packaging

H4 Trust of product Ad is positively and significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

Q4 My decision to purchase is influenced by advertisement.

Q5 I trust on the message given by the advertisement

H5 Perceived brand loyalty is positively and significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

Q6 I think brand image is important when I buy food products

H6 Perceived quality is positively and significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

Q7 I think quality is an important criteria when I buy food products

Q8 It is important for me to buy high-quality food products

As aforementioned in previous Chapters, the path model of this study has two main parts. On the one hand, the first part is constituted by five independent variables, they are: Perceived Health, Packaging Attraction, Trust of product Ad, Perceived Brand Loyalty, and Perceived Quality, which are associated with the attitude. On the other hand, the second part measure the relationship between the attitude toward buying willingness of Hecodulc products.

Thus, one multiple and one linear regression has been applied on this research study. The multiple regression to test the hypothesis H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6, and the linear regression to test the hypothesis H1. As in any other empirical study it is important to determine the reliability and validity of the variables related to the factors in order to analyze the structural model, in this case which is an exploratory study a significant level of 10 % is using to test how strong is the

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relationship, if there is any, which is equivalent to p<0.1 significant. The outcomes of the regression models are shown as follow.

Table 4. 2 R square & Significance F of H2 to H5 Regression Statistic

R Square 0.58175662

ANOVA

Significance F 0.003292753

Table 4. 3 T-statistics and P-value of H2 to H6 T-Statistics P-value

Perceive Health -0.303016205 0.765170228

Packaging Attraction -1.25060557 0.226261104

Trust of product Ad 0.401554643 0.69249251

Perceived Brand Loyalty 1.844825662 0.080710311

Perceived Quality 2.770922712 0.012169626

Table 4. 4 R square & Significance F of H1 Regression Statistic

R Square 0.006248715

ANOVA

Significance F 0.707216023

Table 4. 5 T-statistics and P-value of H1

T-Statistics P-value Attitude toward Buying Willingness 0.38029482 0.707216023

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The coefficient of determination R Square indicates how much of the variation in the dependent variables are explained by the independent variable, meaning that it tells how well the model fits the data. When coefficient of determination are greater than 0.1 means that the dependent latent variables are significant (Falk and Nancy, 1992). Therefore, from Table 4-2 the R Square value for the multiple regression is greater than 0.1 which means that the 5 independent variables Perceived Health, Packaging Attraction, Trust of product Ad, Perceived Brand Loyalty, and Perceived Quality substantially explain the variation in the dependent variable (attitude toward products).

However, the R Square value for the linear regression is lower than 0.1 which means that the independent variable (attitude toward products) does not explain the variation in dependent variable (buying willingness). The significance F (or p-value) is the probability that the null hypothesis in the regression cannot be rejected. In other words, it is the probability that our regression model is wrong and needs to be discarded. According to the Table 4-2 the significance F value for the multiple regression is much smaller than 0.1, which means that this model is right.

Opposite, the linear regression, where the significance F value is greater than 0.1, indicating that the probability of null hypothesis in the regression model cannot be rejected, that means that variance produced by the model is not high enough to the error.

The p-value is the probability of obtaining a result as or more extreme than the one gotten in a random distribution. In view of this it is better the p-value be as small as possible in reference to the significance level. Note that the p-value is similar in interpretation to the significance F, and the key difference is that the p-value applies to each corresponding coefficient and the significance F applies to the entire model as a whole (Rodas, 2020). The p-value is given in the Table 4-3, which indicates that the hypothesis H1, H2, H3, and H4 are not significant due to their values are greater than the significance level 0.1, while the hypothesis H5 and H6 are significant due to their values are lower than the significance value 0.1.

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Table 4. 6 A summary of hypothesis testing

Hypothesis p-value Result

(*p<0.1) Significant / Not Significant H1: Attitude toward product is positively and

significantly associated with buying willingness.

0.707216023 0.70 > 0.1 Not significant H2: Perceived health is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

0.765170228 0.76 > 0.1 Not significant H3: Packaging attraction is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

0.226261104 0.22 > 0.1 Not significant H4: Trust of product Ad is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

0.69249251 0.69 > 0.1 Not significant H5: Perceived brand loyalty is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

0.080710311 0.080 < 0.1 Significant H6 Perceived quality is positively and

significantly associated with Attitude toward product.

0.012169626 0.012 < 0.1 Significant Significance level: 0.1

4.3 Discussion and Implications

Overall, from the previous regression analysis it can be concluded that the measurement model shows that the latent variables Perceived Brand Loyalty and Quality are significant, explaining or supporting the Attitude Taiwanese have toward Hecodulc. However, the linear regression also shows the attitude does not support or is not significant to explain the buying willingness. The overall testing results are illustrated in Figure 4-14.

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Figure 4. 14 Hypothesis testing results

In the linear regression model, the independent factor (attitude) is not a significant predictor of buying willingness. This implies that the Hypothesis H1 is rejected because its p-value is higher than 0.1. This could be explained as follows.

First, new products usually remain many unknowns, although quite positive attitude (mean=6.16), but still needs more confidence to lead to buying willingness. As the findings from the multiple regression, brand loyalty and perceived quality are critical for Taiwanese consumer preferences, The Hecodulc is an unknown brand and people do not have buying willingness because they do not have ideas about its quality and brand as in Paraguay. Second, most Taiwanese do not cook, so for them it is not a necessity to buy one of these products, and if they want to keep a diet, they just buy healthy food. Finally, when the respondents tried the samples with Hecodulc drops, they claimed it was too sweet. Some people just prefer to avoid the consumption of sugar than use sweeteners like Hecodulc.

For the multiple regression, two out of five independent factors are significant (brand and quality). In the case of perceived health, packaging attraction and trust of product ad do not present significant predictors of the attitude due to its p-value is higher than 0.1. This implies that the hypothesis H2, H3 and H4 are rejected.

This could be explained because Taiwanese mostly associate healthy food with trying to avoid fried and processed food, eat more vegetables and watch the portion size instead of thinking in including a sweetener in their diet. Taiwanese consumers prefer to avoid sugar instead of trying to replace it. In this way, despite the fact that Taiwanese care about healthy life style (mean=4.36),

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they do not associate sweetener as a main product for this purpose. For healthy food market, Taiwanese appreciate most about other attributes, like benefits and quality, taste, and easy to get and use.

For other side, the packaging seems not attractive to them because they see no relationship between the Hecodulc package and sweetener. Most of them have no idea what kind of product it is by looking at it and they think it is a juice or some sweet beverage. Literature reports reveal that the key variables measuring consumer characteristics are perceived quality, perceived risk and familiarity, price consciousness that influence attitude and purchase intention in Taiwan (Lin, 2010). This might explain why packaging attraction is not significant to explain the attitude for this case.

Brand loyalty refers to an experience in which a consumer uses a product from a brand that previously provided consumer satisfaction, thereby generating repeat purchasing behavior. In summary, it is the combination of a consumers’ behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty toward a brand. Generally, Taiwanese consumers pay more attention to the brand recognition and reputation, as well to the feedbacks and recommendation than advertisements. The evidence that the decision to purchase is lightly influenced by advertisement and they do not trust much on the message given by the advertisement. They become immune and even annoyed, with the numerous ads that fill online display space (Chen Et. Al, 2015). Prior studies have identified various consumer perceptual variables like perceived quality, price, value, familiarity or brand recognition, smart-shopper self-perception and perceived risk associated with purchase behaviors (Hoch and Banerji 1993, Richardson 1996, Burton 1998, Sinha 1999, Garretson Fitcher 2002, Erdem et al 2004, Jin and Suh 2005 among others). This signifies that consumer perception toward brand, price, risk and quality are the most important reasons for purchasing in Taiwan.

Brand recognition or familiarity enhance confidence in one’s ability to have specific skills in judging the criteria needed to evaluate product quality and to avoid those products that may fail to meet specific consumption requirements. Studies confirmed that familiarity with a brand has an influence in consumer confidence toward a brand, which in return, affect the attitude toward the brand (Rao & Monroe 1998). This indicates that as Taiwanese buyers familiarity with the product increase their beliefs about price-quality relationship increases (i.e. recognize brand are associated unconsciously with good quality). Moreover, when a consumer is familiar with a brand their

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concern for the safety will reduce and they will be more focusing on price benefits; in other words brand recognition likely leads to higher perceived quality, lower perceived risk and higher prices consciousness. The research finding has confirmed that consumer brand loyalty and recognition affect the attitude toward products.

According to the Nielsen’s’ survey of loyalty (Ching Et Al. 2015), Taiwan’s consumers claimed to be completed loyal or more loyal to financial institution 77 %, mobile service provider 75 % and cable or internet service providers 74%. In the other hand alcoholic beverage 45%, carbonate beverage 48 % and cereal brands 53 % were the categories Taiwanese consumers reported feeling the least loyal to. Nielsen report also shows that better price 37 % and better quality 35 % are the key attributes that will encourage Taiwanese consumers to switch brands. The previous information support that Taiwanese people have a high level of brand loyalty. The research survey conducted in this study also confirms that brand recognition is important when Taiwanese consumers buy food products.

Quality perception is one of the critical elements in a purchase decision. When consumers perceive a brand to be of better quality they may have higher purchase intention toward the brand.

Previous literature consistently represented a positive relation between perceived quality and purchase behavior. The improvement in perceived quality resulted in more positive attitude toward purchase behavior and increased the likelihood of purchase (Well Et. Al, 2007). Baltas and Argouslidis (2007) implied that the quality improvement of purchase behavior is particularly effective in creating consumer demand. The primary determinant of purchase behavior success is the ability to deliver an acceptable level of perceived quality. Nowadays the quality of purchase behavior can be very close to brand leader and some costumers have found them as good as the manufacturer brands.

The current study supports the previous information showing that for the Taiwanese respondents the quality is an important determinant when they buy food product, then it is important for them to buy high quality food products. With part B question 12 of the questionnaire the respondents appreciate the most benefit and quality (40 %) for these kind of products (sweetener).

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Chapter 5 Conclusion

In previous chapters, this study utilizes an empirical analysis to explore the factors associated with buying willingness of Taiwanese consumers with Hecodulc. The used data was collected by a survey applied to Taiwanese people to get their opinions to determinate the influence of the defined factors. The research contributions, suggestions, and future research are addressed below:

5.1 Research Contribution

First, as defined in previous chapter consumer behavior as “the dynamic interaction of affect, cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives”. Precisely, consumer behavior involves the thoughts and feelings people experience and the actions during consumption processes. As the research model suggests, the dynamic interaction among Taiwanese consumers focuses mainly on perceived brand loyalty and perceived quality. These are key factors for Taiwanese consumer’s attitude toward the Hecodulc product.

They trust in a solid and well recognized brand or perceived quality when shopping.

Second, perceived health, and packaging and advertisement do not have a significant impact on Taiwanese consumer attitude toward the Hecodulc product, due to mainly they regard healthy products as sweeteners. Price, quality and brand are the main influences when choosing what to buy.

Finally, the attitude toward this product (Hecodulc) is not significantly associated with buying willingness. Despite Taiwanese consumers are aware of the importance of healthy habits, as diet, exercise, etc., Hecodulc sweetener is a new product, thus, remains many unknowns around its quality, benefits, brand, etc. Therefore, potential customers still need more confidence to lead to buying the product.

5.2 Research Suggestions

This research concludes that lack of familiarity of brand recognition as well as perceived quality are the main reasons the attitude toward new products does not lead their buying willingness. Unlike Paraguayan people, Taiwanese consumers have limited or any experience with

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this product, Hecodulc. In this regard, to allow the success of Hecodulc launched in Taiwan, the company should enhance some promotional activities, such as offering free samples or testing at the sales point to provide consumers with an opportunity to try the product, familiarize themselves with it and evaluate the quality of the brand. Another interesting marketing strategy is that they could create a partnership with a recognized brand on Taiwan in this industry, healthy food, to sell Hecodulc.

5.3 Limitations and Future Studies

This study provides insights into the relationship between seven key variables including perceived health, packaging attraction, trust of product advertisement, perceived brand loyalty and perceived quality, the attitude toward the product and the buying willingness. However, the natural complexity of consumer’s decision process makes difficult to construct a theory which can exactly explain or predict consumer’s choices. This study, for example, does not consider the effects from uncontrollable factors (e.g. economic and cultural factors).

Moreover, this study finds that brand loyalty and perceived quality as the key factors that influence the attitude and buying willingness of Taiwanese consumers. This finding has important managerial implications and future research should also attempt to apply the model in other Asian countries to determinate if there is any correlation to Asian consumers’ willingness to buy this kind of product (sweetener).

Finally, the concept of the consumer’s preference of Taiwanese market could be applied on any industry. This research has restricted itself to healthy food category, more exactly sweeteners, as well as including a specific brand and product, due to the interest that Heisecke as a Paraguayan industry which is launched Hecodulc in Taiwan. However, it would be useful and interesting to apply this research model to other products with different characteristics (e.g. clothing) and focus on the different performance among the same factors influence.

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