Consumers’ Attitudes and Purchase Behavior of HMR (Home Meal Replacement) Using Locally Sourced Food

ABSTRACT The home meal replacement(HMR) market is growing rapidly, but consumers have been dissatisfied with safety and nutrition of HMR. On demand side, HMR has been positioned as a convenient meal replacement but its nutrition and safety has been questioned by consumers. On supply side, the food industry has been challenged to find sustainable way of sourcing and producing. The issue of using local food and food self-sufficiency has gained more attention with COVID-19. This study aims to explore the attributes that are related to consumers’ trust and purchase intention of HMR using locally sourced food. An online survey was conducted with 807 Korean consumers. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used. The result showed three subdimensions of attributes: products, ingredients and retail attributes. Only ingredients attributes had direct effect on consumers’ purchase intention. However, when mediated by consumer trust, all three dimensions had positive indirect effect on purchase intention.