Local Food Consumers
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Local food consumers Who are they and what drives them? Irene Leemans 900721506100 MSc. Thesis Marketing and Consumer Behaviour MSc. Management, Economics and Consumer Studies Specialisation Consumer Studies Irene Leemans, 900721506100 Supervisor: Hans van Trijp Second reader: Frans Verhees MCB-code 80436 0 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 2 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Context ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Local food benefits .................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 The acceptance of local food among Western consumers ....................................................... 4 1.4 Knowledge gap .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.5 Moderators of consumer behaviour ......................................................................................... 4 2. Literature review ........................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 What is local? Defining the concept of local foods ................................................................... 5 2.2 Local food outlets ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1. Types of local food outlets .................................................................................................... 7 2.2.2. Selection of types of local food outlets ................................................................................ 8 2.3 Perceived benefits of local ...................................................................................................... 10 2.4 Perceived costs of local food .................................................................................................. 11 3. Conceptual model ........................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Consumer behaviour theories ................................................................................................ 12 3.2 Concern about food provisioning ........................................................................................... 14 3.3 Food-Related-Lifestyle ............................................................................................................ 16 3.4 Context .................................................................................................................................... 19 4. Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 20 4.1 Research design ...................................................................................................................... 20 4.2 Research sample ..................................................................................................................... 20 4.3 Data collection ........................................................................................................................ 20 4.4 Measures ................................................................................................................................. 21 4.5 Data analysis ........................................................................................................................... 22 5. Results .......................................................................................................................................... 22 5.1 Randomization check .............................................................................................................. 22 5.2 Descriptive data ...................................................................................................................... 23 5.1 Hypothesis 1 Attitudes find their basis in beliefs .................................................................... 26 5.2 Hypothesis 2 Attitudes lead to purchase intentions ............................................................... 27 5.3 Hypothesis 3 Purchase intentions lead to purchase behaviour.............................................. 28 5.4 Hypothesis 4 Concern moderates the beliefs-attitude relationship....................................... 29 5.5 Hypothesis 5 Food-Related-Lifestyle moderates the beliefs-attitude relationship ................ 30 1 5.6 Hypothesis 6 Accessibility moderates the attitude-purchase intention relationship ............ 32 5.7 Hypothesis 7 Accesibility moderates the purchase intention-behaviour relationship ........... 33 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 35 7. Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 39 7.1 Market implications ................................................................................................................ 39 7.2 Limitations of technical design ............................................................................................... 39 7.2.1 Internal validity .................................................................................................................... 39 7.2.2. External validity ................................................................................................................... 40 7.3 Recommendations for future research ................................................................................... 40 8. References .................................................................................................................................... 42 9. Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 47 9.1 Questionnaire blueprint .......................................................................................................... 47 9.2 Data analysis description hypothesis 1 ................................................................................... 51 9.3 Data analysis description hypothesis 3 ................................................................................... 54 9.4 Data analysis description hypothesis 4 ................................................................................... 55 9.5 Data analysis description hypothesis 5 ................................................................................... 56 9.6 Data analysis description hypothesis 6 ................................................................................... 57 Abstract While interest in local food is growing, only a small part of the population consumes them on a regular basis. To gain a thorough understanding of the underlying decision-making process, Value-Belief-Norm theory, Attitude- Behaviour-Context theory and Alphabet theory were combined together with personal and situational factors of Food-Related-Lifestyle, concern about food provisioning and accessibility context to form a new theoretical model. This model was tested for local food decision-making in general, but also for four specific local food outlets common in the Netherlands; the local supermarket, the health food shop, the farm shop and the Community Supported Agriculture farm. Four questionnaire versions, based on the four different local food outlets were administered among 689 participants. Results from the questionnaires confirmed that beliefs about local food differed from those about global food and that perceptions even significantly differed between the local food outlets. Furthermore attitudes towards local food and the various outlets were found to find their basis in product quality beliefs, but not in convenience beliefs. On top of that it was confirmed that positive attitudes lead to positive purchase intentions and in turn to positive purchase behaviour. Low accessibility of the outlets negatively influenced attitudes and purchase intentions. Concern about food provisioning and Food-Related-Lifestyle only to a small extent influenced the relationship between beliefs and attitudes. More research is needed to disclose how these factors influence the decision-making process. 1. Introduction 1.1 Context In the recent decades, considerable changes have occurred in the food supply chain (Watkiss et al., 2005). Globalisation of knowledge has boosted the green revolution during the early and mid-twentieth century. The green revolution made the food production system more efficient, leading to higher yields and the possibility to feed a 2 growing population. This enormous increase in production was made possible through mechanization, the introduction of high-yielding varieties of crops and increased usage of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation (Horrigan et al., 2002). This led to a further globalisation of the food industry in which food products are sourced from all around the world and imports and exports keep on rising. Sales of food products are concentrated in supermarkets, which have almost all foods year around