Business Capstone Project Organic Food Market

Question: Describe about the Business Capstone Project of Organic Food Market . Answer: What factors influence the purchase of organic foods ways Rosebery residents in Sydney NSW? Introduction: The organic food market in Sydney is small niche markets. The organic products that are part of the domestic market are only 0.2 percent of total sales of food (Paul and Rana 2012). This percentage is related to less than 2 percent of all the agricultural land that is farmed organically in Sydney (Wikstrm et al. 2014). However, the sales from the organic food in the market of Sydney are only about 120 million dollars and this comes from exports from the global markets in organic food (Denver and Jensen 2014). Organic Production is a system that helps in the contribution of healthy people and soil (Henryks et al. 2015). It does not use chemicals; in fact, it promotes improved biological activity and encourages sustainability (Williams et al. 2015). Despite the fact that organic production is associated with acceptable characteristics very little research and development is carried out or accepted by the organic industry. The reason behind this is that there is restricted government funding for the research available in the organic industry and lack of communication for the support and growth of organic farming (Gracia and Magistris 2013). Opportunities: The small size of the market in Sydney makes it vulnerable to seasonal cycles and business. Since the number of producers is less, the industry is not able to maintain the supply of organic products and the quality is not maintained at the same time (Paul and Rana 2012.). Thus, there is a requirement that the organic market maintains stability so that the consumers are able to fulfil their needs related to organic products. In the coming years, the organic market shall increase as the number of consumers for the organic products shall increase (Liu et al. 2013). There is a likelihood that the, organic industry shall expand and increase in the coming years and that there was an increased awareness of organic food all over the world and not just Sydney NSW. Problems: In Sydney, the consumers have become frustrated due to lack of coordination from changes in the supply of products, co ordination from the producers and price disadvantages and they do not appreciate the benefits of foods that are produced organically (Solomon 2014). Thus, it was noted during the research that consumers in Sydney have poor understanding of the organic food that is available. Additionally, at the time of conducting the research it was seen that the consumers in Sydney do not have sufficient knowledge about the consumer behaviour that shall induce them in buying organic food (Gracia and Magistris 2013). Research Questions: How do consumers in Sydney identify and assess organic products? What the factors that influence the purchase decision of consumers in Sydney to buy products that are organic in nature? What is the purchase decision structure adopted by the consumers in Sydney when buying the organic products in Australia? Research Methodologies: This part of chapter 1 shall include the method of research that was used during the research. This section includes the qualitative and quantitative research method and it justifies the choice of method that was used to investigate on the given topic. The decision to adopt a quantitative or qualitative research method depends much on the contribution of solving the problem in the research. In the section of problems, the research problems were outlined and the research questions were formed based on the research problems. Following the step of formation of research question was the issue of adopting the accurate method of research, that is qualitative or quantitative research methods. It was therefore; decided that for this research a qualitative approach should be adopted so that a proper type of investigation is completed. The qualitative method enables the subjective standpoint to be captured successfully. The qualitative research method focuses on understanding and interpretation of the relevant theories and themes in practice whereas quantitative research focuses more on the statistical analysis of the problem depending on the hypothesis that is set by the researcher at the beginning of the research (Solomon 2014). In qualitative research methodology the theory can be casual or non casual and is often inductive. This is however relevant to the research that is been undertaken as it involves interpretation and understanding of the data that shall be available after conducting a primary and secondary research. Gantt chart Main activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 5 Week 6 7 Week 8 Selection of dissertation topic v Composition of literature review v Research methodology v Collection of primary data v Collection of secondary data v Results and findings v Analysis and interpretation of data v Conclusion and recommendation v Final submission v Table 1: Gantt chart (Source: Created by Author) Research Process: There are two types of variable based on which the research process is conducted, those are: Dependent Variable Independent Variable Dependent variable is the one that is of the interest to the researcher, whereas, independent variable is the one that affects the dependent variable. The researcher has the authority of manipulating the independent variable and observes the changes created in the dependent variable. A research should be conducted on both the dependent variable as well the independent variable. For this research, the availability of the organic food product shall be considered as independent variable whereas the dependent variable shall be the behaviour of the consumers (Liu et al. 2013). Data Collection and Analysis: For this research, the researcher shall rely on both primary as well as secondary data. The secondary data includes articles, journals and books whereas the primary data includes answers, responses of surveys conducted on a selected organisation or a group of people. For this research, a primary research shall be conducted on the people who stay at Rosebery residents in Sydney NSW for the factors that affect their purchase of organic food. The researcher shall collect responses from 50 respondents who are staying at the Rosebery Residents. As already mentioned, that for this research the researcher will conduct a qualitative research. Based on the responses that the researcher will obtain from the primary research a qualitative analysis will be conducted. Expected Outcome: The research will be able to draw the conclusion regarding the factors that influence the purchase of organic foods ways Rosebery residents in Sydney NSW. The research will produce an effective analysis on the factors that affect the purchase power of consumers in Rosebery residents. The research shall produce an effective discussion on the consumer behaviour theory, internal factor influencing the consumer, the motivation of the consumers that are conscious by nature and the cultural factors influencing the consumer. Moreover, the research shall also produce effective outcome of the social factor that influence the consumer, personal factors of the people and psychological factors affecting consumer behaviour (Denver and Jensen 2014). References: Denver, S. and Jensen, J.D., 2014. Consumer preferences for organically and locally produced apples.Food Quality and Preference,31, pp.129-134. Gracia, A. and de Magistris, T., 2013. Organic food product purchase behaviour: a pilot study for urban consumers in the South of Italy.Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research,5(4), pp.439-451. Henryks, J., Pearson, D., Anisimova, T. and Sultan, P., 2015. Are organic food labels inadequate? Evidence from consumers in Australia.Business and Management Studies,1(2), pp.45-54. Liu, R., Pieniak, Z. and Verbeke, W., 2013. Consumers' attitudes and behaviour towards safe food in China: A review.Food Control,33(1), pp.93-104. Paul, J. and Rana, J., 2012. Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food.Journal of consumer Marketing,29(6), pp.412-422. Paul, J. and Rana, J., 2012. Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food.Journal of consumer Marketing,29(6), pp.412-422. Solomon, M.R., 2014.Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall. Wikstrm, F., Williams, H., Verghese, K. and Clune, S., 2013. The influence of packaging attributes on consumer behaviour in food-packaging LCA studies ea neglected topic.Journal of Cleaner Production,30, p.1e9. Wikstrm, F., Williams, H., Verghese, K. and Clune, S., 2014. The influence of packaging attributes on consumer behaviour in food-packaging life cycle assessment studies-a neglected topic.Journal of Cleaner Production,73, pp.100-108. Williams, L.T., Germov, J., Fuller, S. and Freij, M., 2015. A taste of ethical consumption at a slow food festival.Appetite,91, pp.321-328.