IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agfoec/v12y2024i1d10.1186_s40100-024-00307-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumers preferences and social sustainability: a discrete choice experiment on ‘Quality Agricultural Work’ ethical label in the Italian fruit sector

Author

Listed:
  • Eleonora Sofia Rossi

    (University of Tuscia)

  • Luca Cacchiarelli

    (University of Tuscia)

  • Simone Severini

    (University of Tuscia)

  • Alessandro Sorrentino

    (University of Tuscia)

Abstract

The Italian legislator has adopted several instruments to discourage undeclared work and exploitative labour in agriculture, mostly of a penal-repressive nature. Among the direct and indirect policy measures, the ‘Quality Agricultural Work Network’ represents an interesting approach to producing a ‘whitelist’ of farmers compliant with labour regulations. A law proposal intends to establish the ‘Quality Agricultural Work’ (QAW) ethical label to incentivise farmers to join the network, to which a limited percentage of farms have signed up. This study aims to investigate consumer preferences for the QAW label in the Italian fruit sector. We conducted a choice experiment on a sample of 324 consumers. Willingness to pay for ethical labels was estimated before and after information treatment was administered to evaluate the prospective effects of promotional and information campaigns. The information treatment conveyed a clear and concise message about the QAW project and its ethical label. The results show that consumers would pay a high price premium for fruit produced under fair working conditions, indicating that there may be a market space for the QAW label. Moreover, consumers perceive environmental and social sustainability claims as complementary contexts where both dimensions of sustainability are relevant. Graphical abstract

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Sofia Rossi & Luca Cacchiarelli & Simone Severini & Alessandro Sorrentino, 2024. "Consumers preferences and social sustainability: a discrete choice experiment on ‘Quality Agricultural Work’ ethical label in the Italian fruit sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agfoec:v:12:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s40100-024-00307-9
    DOI: 10.1186/s40100-024-00307-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40100-024-00307-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40100-024-00307-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gorton, Matthew & Tocco, Barbara & Yeh, Ching-Hua & Hartmann, Monika, 2021. "What determines consumers' use of eco-labels? Taking a close look at label trust," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Glynn T. Tonsor & Robert S. Shupp, 2011. "Cheap Talk Scripts and Online Choice Experiments: "Looking Beyond the Mean"," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1015-1031.
    3. Thong Meas & Wuyang Hu & Marvin T. Batte & Timothy A. Woods & Stan Ernst, 2015. "Substitutes or Complements? Consumer Preference for Local and Organic Food Attributes," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1044-1071.
    4. Natali, F. & Cacchiarelli, L. & Branca, G., 2022. "There are plenty more (sustainable) fish in the sea: A discrete choice experiment on discarded species in Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    5. Grunert, Klaus G., 2011. "Sustainability in the Food Sector: A Consumer Behaviour Perspective," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 2(3), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Giovanna Piracci & Fabio Boncinelli & Leonardo Casini, 2022. "Wine consumers' demand for social sustainability labeling: Evidence for the fair labor claim," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1742-1761, December.
    7. David Conner & Kathryn Colasanti & R. Brent Ross & Susan B. Smalley, 2010. "Locally Grown Foods and Farmers Markets: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-15, March.
    8. Craig A. Bond & Dawn Thilmany & Jennifer Keeling Bond, 2008. "Understanding consumer interest in product and process-based attributes for fresh produce," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 231-252.
    9. Leonard Maaya & Michel Meulders & Nick Surmont & Martina Vandebroek, 2018. "Effect of Environmental and Altruistic Attitudes on Willingness-to-Pay for Organic and Fair Trade Coffee in Flanders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, November.
    10. Greene, William H. & Hensher, David A., 2003. "A latent class model for discrete choice analysis: contrasts with mixed logit," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 681-698, September.
    11. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    12. Zhu, Zhanguo & Zhang, Tong & Hu, Wuyang, 2023. "The accumulation and substitution effects of multi-nation certified organic and protected eco-origin food labels in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    13. Blackman, Allen & Naranjo, Maria A., 2012. "Does eco-certification have environmental benefits? Organic coffee in Costa Rica," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 58-66.
    14. Loureiro, Maria L. & Lotade, Justus, 2005. "Do fair trade and eco-labels in coffee wake up the consumer conscience?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 129-138, April.
    15. Van Loo, Ellen J. & Caputo, Vincenzina & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Seo, Han-Seok & Zhang, Baoyue & Verbeke, Wim, 2015. "Sustainability labels on coffee: Consumer preferences, willingness-to-pay and visual attention to attributes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 215-225.
    16. Gilg, Andrew W. & Battershill, Martin, 1998. "Quality farm food in Europe: a possible alternative to the industrialised food market and to current agri-environmental policies: lessons from France," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 25-40, February.
    17. Alcon, Francisco & Marín-Miñano, Cristina & Zabala, José A. & de-Miguel, María-Dolores & Martínez-Paz, José M., 2020. "Valuing diversification benefits through intercropping in Mediterranean agroecosystems: A choice experiment approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    18. Soyoung Seo & Hee-Kyung Ahn & Jaeseok Jeong & Junghoon Moon, 2016. "Consumers’ Attitude toward Sustainable Food Products: Ingredients vs. Packaging," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    19. Carlsson, Fredrik & Frykblom, Peter & Johan Lagerkvist, Carl, 2005. "Using cheap talk as a test of validity in choice experiments," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 147-152, November.
    20. Borrello, M. & Cecchini, L. & Vecchio, R. & Caracciolo, F. & Cembalo, L. & Torquati, B., 2022. "Agricultural landscape certification as a market-driven tool to reward the provisioning of cultural ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    21. Giuseppina Rizzo & Massimiliano Borrello & Giovanni Dara Guccione & Giorgio Schifani & Luigi Cembalo, 2020. "Organic Food Consumption: The Relevance of the Health Attribute," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, January.
    22. Loomis, John B., 2014. "2013 WAEA Keynote Address: Strategies for Overcoming Hypothetical Bias in Stated Preference Surveys," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 39(01), pages 1-13, April.
    23. Grunert, Klaus G. & Hieke, Sophie & Wills, Josephine, 2014. "Sustainability labels on food products: Consumer motivation, understanding and use," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 177-189.
    24. Junyi Shen, 2009. "Latent class model or mixed logit model? A comparison by transport mode choice data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(22), pages 2915-2924.
    25. Hong Il Yoo, 2020. "lclogit2: An enhanced command to fit latent class conditional logit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(2), pages 405-425, June.
    26. Haghani, Milad & Bliemer, Michiel C.J. & Rose, John M. & Oppewal, Harmen & Lancsar, Emily, 2021. "Hypothetical bias in stated choice experiments: Part II. Conceptualisation of external validity, sources and explanations of bias and effectiveness of mitigation methods," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    27. Yuko Onozaka & Dawn Thilmany Mcfadden, 2011. "Does Local Labeling Complement or Compete with Other Sustainable Labels? A Conjoint Analysis of Direct and Joint Values for Fresh Produce Claim," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(3), pages 689-702.
    28. Daniele Pacifico & Hong il Yoo, 2013. "lclogit: A Stata command for fitting latent-class conditional logit models via the expectation-maximization algorithm," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 13(3), pages 625-639, September.
    29. Federico Antonioli & Simone Severini & Mauro Vigani, 2023. "Visa for competitiveness: foreign workforce and Italian dairy farms’ performance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(1), pages 115-150.
    30. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Achilleas Vassilopoulos & Jayson L. Lusk & Rodolfo M. NaygaJr., 2017. "Consumer preferences for fair labour certification," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 44(3), pages 455-474.
    31. Delmas, Magali A. & Gergaud, Olivier, 2021. "Sustainable practices and product quality: Is there value in eco-label certification? The case of wine," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    32. Chandra R. Bhat, 1997. "An Endogenous Segmentation Mode Choice Model with an Application to Intercity Travel," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 34-48, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sofia Galeotti & Luca Cacchiarelli & Eleonora Sofia Rossi & Roberto Henke & Raffaella Zucaro, 2025. "The Role of Italian Local Agencies for Water Management in the Mitigation of and Adaptation to Climate Change: Stated Preference Methods for Future Sustainable Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.

    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. Giovanna Piracci & Fabio Boncinelli & Leonardo Casini, 2022. "Wine consumers' demand for social sustainability labeling: Evidence for the fair labor claim," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1742-1761, December.
    2. Rebecca Boehm & Hannah Kitchel & Selena Ahmed & Anaya Hall & Colin M. Orians & John Richard Stepp & Al Robbat, Jr. & Timothy S. Griffin & Sean B. Cash, 2019. "Is Agricultural Emissions Mitigation on the Menu for Tea Drinkers?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Kitchel, Hannah & Boehm, Rebecca L. & Cash, Sean B., 2018. "Does Consumer Climate Change Knowledge and Risk Perception Influence Willingness to Pay for Climate Mitigation in Beverage Crop Production?," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274067, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Cordula Hinkes & Inken Christoph-Schulz, 2020. "No Palm Oil or Certified Sustainable Palm Oil? Heterogeneous Consumer Preferences and the Role of Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-26, September.
    5. De Bauw, Michiel & Franssens, Samuel & Vranken, Liesbet, 2022. "Trading off environmental attributes in food consumption choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Marco Costanigro & Yuko Onozaka, 2020. "A Belief‐Preference Model of Choice for Experience and Credence Goods," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 70-95, February.
    7. Wårell, Linda & Ek, Kristina, 2024. "Male lone wolves and sociable females – Preferences for shared and AV transport services," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    8. Takahashi, Ryo & Todo, Yasuyuki & Funaki, Yukihiko, 2018. "How Can We Motivate Consumers to Purchase Certified Forest Coffee? Evidence From a Laboratory Randomized Experiment Using Eye-trackers," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 107-121.
    9. Richartz, P. Christoph & Abdulai, Awudu & Kornher, Lukas, 2020. "Attribute Non Attendance and Consumer Preferences for Online Food Products in Germany," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 69(01), March.
    10. Azucena Gracia & Ana María Sánchez & Francesc Jurado & Cristina Mallor, 2020. "Making Use of Sustainable Local Plant Genetic Resources: Would Consumers Support the Recovery of a Traditional Purple Carrot?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-17, August.
    11. Julia Blasch & Robert W. Turner, 2016. "Environmental art, prior knowledge about climate change, and carbon offsets," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 691-705, December.
    12. Francisco J. Areal & Daniele Asioli, 2024. "Heterogeneous preferences and consumer willingness to pay for vitamin D fortification of eggs," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 661-679, July.
    13. Leonard Maaya & Michel Meulders & Nick Surmont & Martina Vandebroek, 2018. "Effect of Environmental and Altruistic Attitudes on Willingness-to-Pay for Organic and Fair Trade Coffee in Flanders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Jacob Ladenburg & Mette Andersen Nexø & Bryan Cleal & Frederik Thuesen, 2023. "Willingness to pay heterogeneity for accommodating job attributes among people with diabetes," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(4), pages 626-654, December.
    15. Eleonora Sofia Rossi & José A. Zabala & Francesco Caracciolo & Emanuele Blasi, 2023. "The Value of Crop Diversification: Understanding the Factors Influencing Consumers’ WTP for Pasta from Sustainable Agriculture," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Wuepper, David & Clemm, Alexandra & Wree, Philipp, 2019. "The preference for sustainable coffee and a new approach for dealing with hypothetical bias," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 475-486.
    17. Gorton, Matthew & Yeh, Ching-Hua & Chatzopoulou, Elena & White, John & Tocco, Barbara & Hubbard, Carmen & Hallam, Fiona, 2023. "Consumers' willingness to pay for an animal welfare food label," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    18. Takahashi, R. & Todo, Y., 2018. "When do consumers stand up for the environment? Evidence from a large-scale social experiment to promote environmentally friendly coffee," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277507, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Katherine Fuller & Carola Grebitus & Troy G. Schmitz, 2022. "The effects of values and information on the willingness to pay for sustainability credence attributes for coffee," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(5), pages 775-791, September.
    20. Katherine Fuller & Carola Grebitus, 2023. "Consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for coffee sustainability labels," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1007-1025, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural labour; Fair working conditions; Quality Agricultural Work Network; Ethical consumption; Social sustainability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    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:spr:agfoec:v:12:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s40100-024-00307-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.