IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cfe/wpcefa/2010_03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Explaining organic food choice on the basis of socio-demographics.A study in Portugal and Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Cristina Marreiros

    (Departamento de Gestão, Universidade de Evora and CEFAGE-UE)

  • M. Raquel Lucas

    (Departamento de Gestão, Universidade de Evora and CEFAGE-UE)

  • Kerstin Röhrich

    (Institut für Agrar, und Stadtökologische Projekte an der Humbold, Universität zu Berlin)

Abstract

Socio-demographic characteristics of consumers may be of interest for marketers for two basic reasons: their appropriateness to segment markets and their influence on consumer behaviour. Success or failure of organic food is mainly determined by the consumer. Consumers from different countries, with different ages or genders may require different product features and show varying preferences and behaviours. Therefore, it can be asked, if, in the present context of food markets, consumers’ socio-demographic characteristics have an impact on consumer behaviour and, consequently, can be used as an effective criteria to segment markets? This is the question addressed on the present paper, through empirical research on organic food products in two different markets – Germany and Portugal. From the study it could be concluded that there are good reasons for preserving socio-demographic or economic variables in food consumer research. In the research reported in this paper, some of these variables proved to be strongly associated with consumer behaviour relating to organic food products, and to be robust segmentation criteria, with the advantage of being easily identifiable, stable and accessible.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristina Marreiros & M. Raquel Lucas & Kerstin Röhrich, 2010. "Explaining organic food choice on the basis of socio-demographics.A study in Portugal and Germany," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2010_03, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    • Handle: RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2010_03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cefage.uevora.pt/en/content/download/2045/28051/version/1/file/2010_03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanf, C.-Hennig & Patelli, P. & Saggau, Volker, 2005. "Food Risk Communication and Consumers' Trust in the Food Supply Chain," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24502, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. A. Gracia & L.M. Albisu, 2001. "Food consumption in the European Union: Main determinants and country differences," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 469-488.
    3. Baker, Gregory A. & Burnham, Thomas A., 2001. "The Market For Genetically Modified Foods: Consumer Characteristics And Policy Implications," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 4(4), pages 1-10.
    4. Baker, Gregory A. & Burnham, Thomas A., 2001. "Consumer Response To Genetically Modified Foods: Market Segment Analysis And Implications For Producers And Policy Makers," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 26(2), pages 1-17, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bond, Craig A. & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Bond, Jennifer Keeling, 2008. "What to Choose? The Value of Label Claims to Fresh Produce Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1-26.
    2. Kontoleon Andreas & Yabe Mitsuyasu, 2006. "Market Segmentation Analysis of Preferences for GM Derived Animal Foods in the UK," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-38, December.
    3. D Rigby & M Burton, 2003. "Capturing Preference Heterogeneity in Stated Choice Models: A Random Parameter Logit Model of the Demand for GM Food," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0319, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    4. Hossain, Ferdaus & Onyango, Benjamin M. & Adelaja, Adesoji O. & Schilling, Brian J. & Hallman, William K., 2002. "Uncovering Factors Influencing Public Perceptions Of Food Biotechnology," Research Reports 18178, Rutgers University, Food Policy Institute.
    5. Luisa Menapace & Gregory Colson & Carola Grebitus & Maria Facendola, 2011. "Consumers' preferences for geographical origin labels: evidence from the Canadian olive oil market," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 38(2), pages 193-212, June.
    6. Hu, R. & Deng, H., 2018. "A Crisis of Consumers’ Trust in Scientists and Influence on Consumer Attitude," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276047, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Hallman, William K. & Onyango, Benjamin M. & Govindasamy, Ramu & Jang, Ho-Min & Puduri, Venkata S., 2004. "Public Approval Of Plant And Animal Biotechnology In Korea: An Ordered Probit Analysis," Research Reports 18180, Rutgers University, Food Policy Institute.
    8. Kaneko, Naoya & Chern, Wen S., 2006. "Identification of Consumer Segments and Its Implication on the Willingness-to-Pay Distribution: The Case of Demand for Non-Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil in the United States," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21194, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Costa-Font, Montserrat & Gil, José M. & Traill, W. Bruce, 2008. "Consumer acceptance, valuation of and attitudes towards genetically modified food: Review and implications for food policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 99-111, April.
    10. Onyango, Benjamin M., 2004. "Consumer Acceptance Of Genetically Modified Foods: The Role Of Product Benefits And Perceived Risks," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 35(1), pages 1-8, March.
    11. Harrison, R. Wes & Han, Jae-Hwan, 2005. "The Effects of Urban Consumer Perceptions on Attitudes for Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 36(2), pages 1-10, July.
    12. Ehmke, Mariah D. & Lusk, Jayson L. & Tyner, Wallace E., 2006. "The Relative Importance of Preferences for Country-of-Origin in China, France, Niger and the United States," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25408, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. à frica Martínez-Poveda & Margarita Brugarolas Mollá-Bauzá & Francisco José del Campo Gomis & Laura Martínez Carrasco Martínez & Asunción Agulló Torres, 2019. "Consumer Perception of Gm Foods. Profiles of Potential Consumers and Non-Consumers in Spain," Current Investigations in Agriculture and Current Research, Lupine Publishers, LLC, vol. 7(3), pages 942-952, August.
    14. Jayson L. Lusk & Darren Hudson, 2004. "Willingness-to-Pay Estimates and Their Relevance to Agribusiness Decision Making," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(2), pages 152-169.
    15. Kaneko, Naoya & Chern, Wen S., 2005. "Consumer Acceptance of Genetically Modified Foods in Taiwan: Is Positive Discount the Same as Negative Premium?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19491, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Pesek, John D., Jr. & Bernard, John C. & Gupta, Meeta, 2011. "Consumer Interest in Environmentally Beneficial Chicken Feeds: Comparing High Available Phosphorus Corn and Other Varieties," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Li, Wenying & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2019. "The implications of heterogeneous habit in consumer beverage purchases on soda and sin taxes," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 111-120.
    18. Lilavanichakul, Apichaya & Boecker, Andreas, 2013. "Consumer Acceptance of a New Traceability Technology: A Discrete Choice Application to Ontario Ginseng," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1-26, November.
    19. Ziehl, Amanda & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Umberger, Wendy J., 2005. "A Cluster Analysis of Natural Beef Product Consumers by Shopping Behavior, Importance of Production Attributes, and Demographics," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 36(1), pages 1-9, March.
    20. Wendy J. Umberger & Dawn D. Thilmany McFadden & Amanda R. Smith, 2009. "Does altruism play a role in determining U.S. consumer preferences and willingness to pay for natural and regionally produced beef?," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 268-285.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organic food products; consumer behaviour; segmentation; socio-demographics.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2010_03. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Angela Pacheco (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfevopt.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.