Decision-making process of tomatoes purchase by generation Z: case study in the Slovak Republic

  • Received January 6, 2020;
    Accepted February 26, 2020;
    Published March 3, 2020
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.16(1).2020.07
  • Article Info
    Volume 16 2020, Issue #1, pp. 66-78
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

The paper aims to investigate and assess the decision-making process of young Slovak consumers – generation Z – in the purchase of tomatoes.
The respondents participatet in a questionnaire survey and blind testing of four tomato samples (two samples were Slovak and another two were foreign tomatoes). For a deeper analysis of the collected data, five scientific hypotheses were formulated. The accuracy of provided hypotheses was verified using the following mathematical-statistical methods: Chi-Square test of independence, Mann-Whitney U-test, and as Chi test for equality of proportions between two samples. The research results show that generation Z buys tomatoes once a week or several times a month. Moreover, it was found out that most young consumers are mostly influenced by freshness, taste, quality of tomatoes, and general appearance, the least by packaging, brand/specific tomato grower, information on the packaging and references. According to all observed attributes within the blind testing of tomato by the respondents, the best-evaluated sample was the Slovak sample of tomatoes – the sample B. Subsequently, all respondents were provided with information about the tested tomatoes, and it can be stated that they would also actually buy Slovak sample B in the store. Finally, one can state that the higher price of this sample has no significant impact on the respondents of generation Z.

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    • Figure 1. Frequency of tomato purchased by respondents
    • Figure 2. Frequency of tomato purchase according to gender by generation Z
    • Figure 3. Types of most purchased tomato by generation Z
    • Figure 4. Place of residence and place of tomato purchase
    • Figure 5. Factors influencing generation Z decision-making process when buying tomatoes
    • Figure 6. Preferences of tomatoes according to the country of origin by generation Z
    • Figure 7. Mann-Whitney U test results according to each factor
    • Table 1. Structure of the sample survey and blind test sample
    • Table 2. Results of blind test of tomatoes by respondents
    • Table 3. Change of preferences before and after finding out the price
    • Table 4. Summary of tested hypotheses
    • Conceptualization
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova
    • Data curation
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Formal Analysis
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova
    • Funding acquisition
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Investigation
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Methodology
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Jozef Šumichrast
    • Project administration
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova, Jozef Šumichrast
    • Resources
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova
    • Software
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Supervision
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Jozef Šumichrast
    • Validation
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova, Jozef Šumichrast
    • Visualization
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Writing – original draft
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy
    • Writing – review & editing
      Michaela Šugrova, Marek Plachy, Ľudmila Nagyova