As a consequence of the growing concerns about human health and the environment, consumers are becoming more interested in grass-fed beef than conventional grain-fed beef. Therefore, the study of consumers preference towards grass-fed versus grain-fed beef steak is the focus of research. In this paper, 2,000 respondents who indicate they have eaten grass fed beef in the past years and 2,000 respondents that complete a nationally representative sample is the general population. Conjoint analysis is utilized to analyze the preference of consumers. Participants are presented ten hypothetical beef steaks to rate. All steaks are identical excluding their product type, source of production, grade and price. Respondents were asked to rate each product from 1 to 10. Results show that for both grass-fed beef eaters and the general population, the target market has a higher demand for local prime grass-fed beef with a USDA certification with a relatively lower price. Consumers who live in the west tend to purchase more grass-fed beef with USDA certification.
The research also suggests among the four attributes, product type is the most essential attribute, followed by source as the second most important attribute for both groups. The highest utility rank for grass-fed eaters comes from the combination of grass-fed beef with USDA certification, local, prime, and $2.99 per pound; for general population, the highest utility rank is the combination of grass-fed product with USDA certification, local, choice, and $2.99 per pound. These results will help to reallocate input and resources as well as target and develop a market for grass-fed beef.
Limitations to this research still exist because more interaction effect should be studied. Future research may focus on an increased number of variable samples in order to provide realistic assessments of the market allocation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06282013-225852 |
| Date | 09 July 2013 |
| Creators | Lin, Bo |
| Contributors | Harrison, Robert, Kennedy, Lynn, Zapata, Hector, Hinson, Roger, Guillermo, Scaglia |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06282013-225852/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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