Page 806 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

FYP PROPOSAL

AHIBS UTM SKUDAI JANUARY 2022

FACTOR INFLUENCING CONSUMERS’ INTENTIONS TOWARDS FRAUDULENT
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS AMONG JOHOR CONSUMERS: A CASE OF TDC

HOLDINGS SDN BHD

SITI SUHAILIEY BINTI ABD WAHID, DR. ADAVIAH BINTI MAS’OD

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru

*Corresponding author: sitisuhailiey@utm.my , adaviah@utm.my

Abstrak

Penggunaan makanan tambahan dalam kalangan masyarakat pada masa kini semakin meningkat untuk tujuan kekal sihat dan mendapatkan antibodi yang
kuat. Lebih-lebih lagi, pengguna semakin mengamalkannya kerana bimbang mudah dijangkiti virus dalam pandemik COVID-19 ini. Selain itu, isu penipuan
makanan tambahan juga semakin mendapat perhatian di kalangan pengguna. Ini terbukti apabila banyak penipuan makanan tambahan dikeluarkan oleh
pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab kerana ia turut menjejaskan pihak lain. Kesan daripada kegiatan tidak bermoral tersebut mendatangkan kesan buruk
kepada pengguna kerana ketidaktentuan bahan yang digunakan oleh pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Walau bagaimanapun, penipuan pengambilan
suplemen pemakanan juga berakar umbi daripada niat pengguna itu sendiri. Oleh itu, kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengkaji faktor yang mempengaruhi niat
pengguna terhadap penipuan makanan tambahan yang melibatkan pembolehubah pengetahuan, sikap, norma subjektif, kawalan tingkah laku yang ditanggap,
dan kesedaran. Kajian ini telah dijalankan dengan menggunakan kaedah persampelan bertujuan daripada 140 orang responden dan keputusan dijana
menggunakan perisian Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) versi 26. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan dua daripada lima hipotesis telah diterima dan
beberapa cadangan juga telah disediakan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman. di kalangan pengguna mengenai pengambilan makanan tambahan dalam
penyelidikan masa depan.

Kata kunci: Makanan Tambahan, Penipuan, Pengguna, Niat

Abstract

The use of dietary supplements among people nowadays is increasing for the purpose of staying healthy and getting strong antibodies. Especially, consumers
are increasingly adopting it due to worries of being easily infected by the virus in this COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, the issue of fraudulent dietary supplements
is also gaining attention among consumers. This is proven when many dietary supplement frauds are issued by irresponsible parties as it is also affecting
other parties as well. The effects of such immoral activities cause adverse effects to consumers due to the uncertainty of the ingredients used by the irresponsible
parties. However, the fraudulent intake of dietary supplements is also rooted in consumers’ intentions itself. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine
the factor influencing consumers' intentions towards fraudulent dietary supplement which involved the variable of knowledge, attitude, subjective norms,
perceived behavioural control, and awareness. This study has been conducted by using purposive sampling method from 140 respondents and the results were
generated using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26. The findings show that two out of five hypotheses were accepted and some
recommendations also has provided to improve understanding among consumers regarding dietary supplements intake in future research.

Keywords: Dietary Supplement, Fraudulent, Consumer, Intentions

■ 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, dietary supplements consumption among Malaysians is increasing from time to time. Consumers nowadays are interested in their
health and cause them to regularly take dietary supplements in order to sustain their body health. (Aziz N. A. S. A., & Kamarulzaman,
N. H., 2020). According to Bailey et al., (2013), there are various types of dietary supplements being produced due to the concern among
consumers in maintaining health and avoiding diseases is increasing. This can be further evidenced by a study found by the Institute for
Public Health, (2017) which said that there are about 44.7% and 30.6% of Malaysian teenagers' take vitamins, minerals, and food
supplements, respectively. Therefore, in order to prevent disease, people are consuming these supplements as one of the ways to correct their
improved physical performance and unhealthy lifestyle (del Balzo et al., 2014).

The dietary supplement intake by Malaysian consumers is increasing as it is believed to strengthen the body’s immune system
level accordingly (Sharma et al., 2014; Yusoff et al., 2016). Especially, the intake of dietary supplements among Malaysians is increasing
during this pandemic season due to fears of being easily infected due to the body's weak immunity. This is evidenced by research from
(Lordan et al., 2021) which says that supplement consumption has increased between the first and second pandemic waves. In addition, there
are also reports regarding a variety of reasons for supplement use by consumers which are boosting immunity (60%), improving overall
health (57%), and filling nutrient gaps in their diets (53%), respectively. Therefore, the consumption of dietary supplements is

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