  Citation: Choi, S.; Lee, T.J.; Hong, W. Effect of Food Consumption Values of Vietnamese Consumers on the Reliability and Purchase Intention of Korean Home Meal Replacements. Sustainability 2022, 14, 736. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14020736 Academic Editors: Riccardo Testa, József Tóth, Giuseppina Migliore and Giorgio Schifani Received: 15 October 2021 Accepted: 7 January 2022 Published: 10 January 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Effect of Food Consumption Values of Vietnamese Consumers on the Reliability and Purchase Intention of Korean Home Meal Replacements Seunggyun Choi 1 , Timothy J. Lee 2,3 and Wansoo Hong 1, * 1 Department of Foodservice Management and Nutrition, Sangmyung University, Seoul 03016, Korea; sgchoi@smu.ac.kr 2 Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), Macau 999078, China; tjlee@must.edu.mo 3 Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT), Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia * Correspondence: wshong@smu.ac.kr; Tel.: +82-2-2287-5350 Abstract: The Vietnamese home meal replacement (HMR) market is expected to face intensified competition due to economic development and urbanization. This study analyzes how the food con- sumption values of Vietnamese consumers affect the perceived reliability and intention to purchase Korean food in the form of HMRs and provides basic data to establish strategies for Korean HMRs to secure an advantage in an intensely competitive market. A survey was conducted with Vietnamese consumers who had used Korean HMRs before and are constantly using HMRs on a regular basis. To analyze the relationships between food consumption values, the reliability of Korean HMR, and the intention to purchase Korean HMRs, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and covariance structural models were used. Among the factors of food consumption value, health, safety, time saving, and convenience have a positive effect on the reliability of Korean HMRs, while family and cost-effectiveness do not. Moreover, this reliability has a positive effect on the purchase intention of Korean HMRs. This study is significant in that while investigating Korean HMRs, it is pioneering research on Vietnamese consumers regarding HMRs. Therefore, the results of this study can be used to secure the competitiveness of Korean HMRs in the Vietnamese market. Keywords: convenience food; food consumption value; consumption behavior; Vietnamese con- sumers; Korean wave 1. Introduction Vietnam’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is constantly growing by 6–7% on average each year based on the ÐổiMới (renovation/innovation) policy and the Communist Party’s political stability [1–3]. Vietnam experienced 7.1% GDP growth in 2018 and increased investments and exports due to an improved business environment and higher productivity in the service industries [4]. In particular, the retail industry is a market that shows high growth rates, achieving a 12.7% annual sales increase in 2019. As incomes have increased and the number of young consumers has grown due to rapid urbanization, the market for convenience stores has shown remarkable growth, whereas traditional markets are declining [5]. Vietnam’s population surpassed 100 million in 2020, making it a large domestic market [6]. The average age of the Vietnamese population is 32.5 years [7], and the population pyramid is wide in the middle, with a large percentage of people at the median age. The population pyramid was affected by the war that continued until the mid-1970s. As a result of a post-war baby boom, there is a high ratio of people in their 20s and 30s born in the 1980s. Approximately 50% of the entire population is under thirty, giving Sustainability 2022, 14, 736. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020736 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability