ORGANIC VS CONVENTIONAL FOOD. A SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION APPROACH

In the global economy context and a more and more saturated market, only innovative products can survive and retain the consumer's attention, by targeting emerging needs and responding to modern issues. This rule applies also to the habitual markets like the food market, where different sectors are developing based on the consumer's new needs and beliefs - organic sector, genetically modified market, molecular gastronomy etc. Organic food represents one of the most trending and debated sectors nowadays, as it generates solutions for multiple social, economic and ethical problems but at higher costs and by declining other industries like genetic engineering or artificial add-in production. Thus, identifying and understanding the organic consumer's profile represents an essential point in the development of this sector. Also, taking into consideration cultural differences and local diets, a geographical circumscription must be respected when building the analysis. Given this conditions, the central objective of the present paper is to determine the main factors that influence the buying decision, directing it from a classic conventional purchase to an organic choice. The starting point is a literature review that contributes to identifying the main buying influencers that will stand as a basis for the research - building an organic purchase matrix for the Romanian organic food consumer. The authors' organic purchase decision model distinguishes multiple interacting layers, each one standing as a validation point for the subsequent: demographic and social factors, economic factors, knowledge, personal beliefs, products characteristics, sector guarantees and availability. The last part of the research is represented by the matrix testing phase on a selected geographical coordinate: Romania. Thus, a quantitative analyses was conducted on the Romanian consumers, the main results supporting the model's variable sequence and highlighting a limitation of the buying decision at the first level of variables: demographic, social and economic factors.