Correlation of consumer involvement and consumer purchase decision on packaged beef products

Consumers need to search for extensive and impartial information before purchasing to obtain the best product when choosing appropriate beef products. The study aimed to understand the correlation between consumer involvement and consumer purchase decisions concerning in selection of packaged beef. The primary data were collected by the structured questionnaire and disseminated to 303 respondents. Method of the study is a survey, and data were analyzed and interpreted using Spearman Rank Correlation. Studies using a one-sample t-test indicate significantly different involvements to hypothesized value on economic, functional, and symbolic dimensions. Furthermore, the correlation between consumer involvement and consumer purchase decisions showed a positive influence. This study found that consumers remain to prioritize the economic dimensions in case of purchasing packaged beef products. The marketing challenges of livestock products can be overcome by developing a strategy based on consumer involvement.


Introduction
Involvement theory is becoming more important in understanding emerging consumer behavior, as evidenced by numerous studies relating purchasing and consumption decisions to consumer involvement [1]. Involvement indicates importance to the individual [2], resulting in self-reflection, risk and cost, or peer pressure to conform.
Case-ready meat or packaged beef in retail food establishments continues to increase. Survey data from the Ministry of Trade [3] showed the rapid development of packaged or processed meat with average consumption growth of 10.28% annually. Three trends in meat packaging continue to stand out each year: (1) the safety of the product, (2) reduced back-store labour in the retail stores and (3) consumers' need for fresh, high-quality and convenient products [4].
Packaged beef minimizes time-consuming in retail stores for cutting, trimming, and overwrapping meat, reducing human handling and improving food safety and quality, as determined by Jeyamkondan et al. [5]. It supports segmented consumer behavior who tend to choose something fast, easy and safe in food selection.
Nevertheless, the selection process will provide an evaluation to ensure the product purchased [6]. Product evaluation is a form of consumer involvement in fulfilling the needs [7]. Beef consumers tend to evaluate the price and quality to get the maximization of benefits [8]. Purchases with a specific purpose indirectly increase consumer involvement. Consumer behavior will determine the way they are involved in a product [9]. Thus the involvement will be different before making a purchase decision [2].
A result [1] showed that meat involvement is a multifaceted concept with four dimensions: pleasure value, symbolic value, risk significance, and risk likelihood. High-involvement consumers tend to have Almost all studies on consumer involvement have revealed that it is a multifaceted concept [1,10]. Hence, this study concentrates on identifying consumer involvement based on Gendel-Guterman and Levy [11] that proposed three dimensions of involvement: (1) the economic; (2) the functional; (3) the symbolic and analyzing their correlation with a purchase decision. Therefore, identifying and analyzing this correlation is meaningful for producers to attract segmented consumers.

Method
This initial research is based on primary data through a survey of respondents using a self-administered questionnaire on April 2021 and disseminated to 303 respondents who were taken using the convenience sampling technique. Respondents are beef consumers who have bought packaged beef at least three times in the last three months. Therefore, it is assumed that consumers already have a pattern of purchasing packaged beef so that the involvement and purchasing decisions of packaged beef products can be measured.
Questionnaires are used to collect data from respondents through closed and open-ended research question. Six items were used to assess each of levels of involvement (18 items in total). In addition, respondents were asked to respond to sixteen items on 5-point Likert (interval) levels ranging from "totally disagree" to "fully agree" when making a purchase decision.
Data were analyzed using STATA 16.0. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of multi-item scales (each dimension of involvement and purchase decision). A satisfactory scale has a threshold value of 0.7. The differences level of involvement was assessed through a one-sample t-test with a hypothesized value compared to mean scores. Finally, the correlation between consumer involvement and purchase decision were investigated using the Spearman Rank Correlation test.

Consumer profile
Characteristics of the sampled respondent are shown in Table 1. Out of the 303 respondents surveyed, 60.4 per cent of the respondents were female. The age group of >45 years was dominated by respondents (45%). This age group is classified as productive and matured enough to decide on consuming food, exceptionally high-quality food issues.
Majority of respondents have a primary education, which equates to a senior high school degree or equivalent. Only 1 per cent of the respondents are from the secondary level and below. Most of respondents based on their level of education is dominated by those with a bachelor's degree or higher. Sample households with monthly incomes ranging from Rp 2,100,000 to Rp 6,000,000 dominated, with a 63 percent share. According to [12], stated that lower-middle-income dominates Indonesia's population.

Involvement in packaged beef
Cronbach's alpha internal reliability coefficient was acceptable for three dimensions of involvement in buying a packaged beef: "economic" (α= 0.78), "functional" (α= 0.70), "symbolic" (α= 0.78) and the sixteen items measuring purchase decision had a value of 0.92, which satisfies the threshold value. The level of consumer involvement was assessed based on the statistical differences. Table 2 showed that sampled respondents have a high level of involvement in case of purchasing packaged beef. Furthermore, the three dimensions of consumer involvement show significant differences (P<0.01). It indicates that consumers will seek more information and adjust the product to their preferences when deciding to buy packaged beef.
High involvement leads to considerable decisions, that encompasses an active search for and use of information, cautious information processing, assessing and evaluating a variety of product features before having formed beliefs, developing an attitude, and moving toward behavioral intention and purchase decision. Reversibly, low involvement is linked to impulsive, habitual, or routine behavior that does not require extensive information processing [1].

Correlation between consumer involvement and purchase decision
In this section, some findings regarding the relationship between consumer involvement and purchase decision are presented. The results show that the Spearman coefficient of consumer involvement =0,80 for 303 samples (Table 3). This means a strong positive correlation between the variables. Similar to the results above, there is a significant positive correlation (P<0.01) between the economic, functional, symbolic and the purchase decision of packaged beef.
Previous research [13] confirmed the result that consumer involvement plays an important role in product purchasing decisions. The higher the consumer's involvement (high product involvement), the higher the process of seeking information and evaluating information. The high-involvement consumer will affect the better consumers purchasing decision process. In this study, the economic dimension includes consideration of price to focus on the financial impact obtained from the purchase. The functional refers to the impact of using a product or service, which consist of quality, benefits, purchase risk, and concerns about the decline in product or service performance. The symbolic describes using a product or service that can affect a person's image and self-esteem [11].
From table 3, we found that all dimensions of involvement correlate with purchasing decisions. It clearly indicates that sampled consumers have complex considerations while deciding to purchase packaged beef products. However, the economic dimension has a stronger relationship than other involvements. The survey results denote that consumers still prioritize the price of purchasing beef packaged products. We also have to consider that the most sampled respondent falls into the lowermiddle income category. Therefore it is crucial to make a careful decision when consumers faced price issues.
Consumer involvement related to economic, functional, and symbolic dimensions must be considered by producers in developing sales strategies to increase product purchases. [8] emphasizes the importance of producers regarding price attributes in beef products that have a dominant contribution to consumer involvement.
Producers could develop a strategy to create a high value for a packaged beef product in the consumer's sight by identifying the prevailing facets of consumer involvement [14]. A pricing strategy could be used to capture a price-oriented consumer by adding more product value than competitors.

Conclusion
Consumers identified as being highly involved in purchasing packaged beef. It is proved by significantly different involvement in the economic, functional, and symbolic dimensions. The result indicates that consumers will seek more information and adjust the product to their preferences when purchasing a packaged beef. Furthermore, the correlation between consumer involvement and consumer purchase decisions showed a positive influence. This study found that consumers remain to prioritize the economic dimensions in case of purchasing beef packaged products. The marketing challenges of livestock products can be overcome by developing a strategy based on consumer involvement.