Factors Affecting Consumers in Greece to Buy During the Economic Crisis Period Food Produced Domestically in Greece

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour towards food produced domestically in Greece (Hellenic Food) during the economic crisis in Greece. Intercept survey conducted in a random selected sample consisted of 197 consumers in summer of 2012 in Greece. Multivariate statistical analysis performed to identify consumers’ behaviour towards those food. In particular, principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted in order to identify the factors that affect people in purchasing food produced domestically in Greece. The factors that influence people in Greece to buy Hellenic food are: (a) product's features (b) psychological issues, (c) economic issues. Furthermore, cluster analysis was employed to classify consumers with similar buying behaviour towards Hellenic food, and identified three groups of consumers: (a) those that support the National Economy, (b) those who are influenced by psychological issues and (c) opportunists. Discriminant analysis was performed to assess how the identified factors derived from PCA could predict cluster membership. Non parametric tests employed to profile each group of consumers with a particular buying behaviour towards food produced domestically in Greece, regarding their opinion about those products, their WTP for them and their demographic characteristics.