OBJECTIVE - The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding about the determinants of consumers to purchase GMO food by study the role of moral concerns, environmental sustainability, unfamiliar technology and trust in institutions on risk perception. Another goal is to investigate that there exist potential moderating effects of the uncertainty avoidance, social optimism and religiosity on risk perception.

METHODS - Developed the questionnaire and collected from Thailand and Taiwan using the survey methodology to collect information from individuals. SmartPLS 3 software were used for data analysis.

FINDING - The study results demonstrate the significance of the environmental sustainability concerns, unfamiliar technology, and trust in institutions on risk perception. The current research also shows the strong relationship of risk perception and attitudes towards GM food on consumer purchase behavior. The results of moderating effect implied that the cultures with a high level of uncertainty avoidance have a strong impact between unfamiliar technology and risk perception, while low level uncertainty avoidance, unfamiliar technology do not increase or decrease the perception of risk exhibited by Thai and Taiwanese consumers.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE - The research contributed to the cross-cultural study between Thailand and Taiwan in the context of GM food and provide scholars and firms with a new lane to assess consumer behavior on genetically modified food.

ABSTRACT I
TABLES OF CONTENTS II
LIST OF TABLES IV
LIST OF FIGURES V
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Research Background 1
1.2. Research Gap 1
1.3. Research Purpose and Research Questions 2
1.4. Significance of the Research 3
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1. Moral concerns 5
2.2. Environmental sustainability concerns 5
2.3. Unfamiliar technology 5
2.4. Trust in institutions 6
2.5. Uncertainty avoidance 7
2.7. Social optimism 7
2.8. Religiosity 8
2.9. Risk perception 8
2.10. Attitudes towards GM-food 9
2.11. Purchase Intention 10
CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT 12
3.1. Conceptual Framework 12
3.2. Research Hypothesis 12
3.2.1. Direct Effect of Customer concerns on Risk perception 12
3.2.2. Moderating Effect of Uncertainty Avoidance on Risk perception 14
3.2.3. Moderating Effect of Social optimism on Risk perception 15
3.2.4. Moderating Effect of Religiosity on Risk perception 16
3.2.5. Direct Effect of Risk perception on Attitude towards GM food 17
3.2.6. Direct Effect of Attitude towards GM food on Purchase Intention 17
CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS 18
4.1. Research Measures and Questionnaire Design 18
4.2. Data Collection 20
4.3. Accuracy Analysis 23
CHAPTER 5 RESULTS 28
5.1. Hypothesis verification (direct effect) 28
5.2. Control variables 31
5.3. The effect of a moderating variable 31
5.3.1. Test of hypothesis 5 31
5.3.2. Test of hypothesis 6 34
5.3.3. Test of hypothesis 7 36
CHAPTER 6 GENERAL DISCUSSION 38
6.1. Discussion 38
6.2. Research implication 42
6.3. Limitation of the study and future research direction 42
REFERENCES 45
Appendix: Questionnaires 51

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