Tag: consumer behaviour

The farmer-owned label is a relatively recent addition to the crowded landscape of information on food and drink product packages. Due to its novelty, research on the farmer-owned label is still scarce. Using 451 responses from random food consumers in the United States, we attempt to explain variability in the purchase of farmer-owned brands in ten different food and drink product categories in terms of label comprehension and price fairness perception. Our structural equation model results are contrary to expectations: we find a negative relationship of label comprehension to the farmer-owned brand share, which implies food consumers do not support the various implications of farmer ownership of food brands. In addition, respondents who perceive more distributive price fairness and procedural price fairness purchase a higher proportion of farmer-owned brands. Implications for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are discussed.

This paper adds to the debate about factors influencing consumer behaviours that lead to the actual purchase of organic food in both developed and developing countries. Accordingly, authors seek to understand how consumers’ knowledge about organic food and consumers’ overall health consciousness play out as mechanisms for consumers’ behaviours leading to actual purchase. Samples from Tanzania as a developing country and Denmark as a developed country are used. A total of 1393 consumers filled the questionnaire. The study found that consumer knowledge and health consciousness function as underlying mechanisms in the relationship of attitude and subjective norms for actual purchase of organic food behaviour in Tanzania. In addition, consumer knowledge and health consciousness function as an underlying mechanism in the relationship of attitude and perceived behaviour control for actual purchase of organic food in Denmark. The study argues for enhancing consumers’ knowledge of organic food as the latter has been championed for its perceived health benefits in both developed and less developed countries.

Consistent with the trend witnessed in other European countries, in recent years there has been an increasing demand among Hungarian consumers for products purchased directly from farmers. However, no research has been published on the determination of clusters of consumers of short food supply chain (SFSC) products in Hungary. This study describes which groups of consumers are more likely to purchase such products, and their reasons for doing so. In the summer of 2013, 1,015 randomly-sampled adults were asked to complete questionnaires during face-to-face, on-street meetings with trained staff. The survey explored their willingness to support direct sales and production of local foods, their perceptions of product reliability, and their attitudes toward global supply-driven systems. As it was not possible to identify a clear structure of factors determining opinions, perceptions and attitudes directly from the results of the questionnaires, principal component analysis was performed, and K-mean cluster analysis was used to partition the respondents into five clusters. These were labelled 'Favouring imports and large farms, 'Favouring small farms', 'Informed and empowered consumers group in favour of local farms', 'Universally positive' and 'Unconcerneď. This method was effective in identifying groups of potential target consumers. The level of support for local foods ...