A growing number of empirical studies recently investigated consumers' valuation for local
food products. However, different aspects related to the local food consumption still remain
vague or unexplored. As such, the objective of the present research is to fulfill the existing
literature using a mixed methodological approach for the investigation of consumers'
preferences and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for local food products. First of all, local food is
still a blurred concept and this factor might be source of individuals' misperception for the
local origin meaning. Therefore, a qualitative research has been performed in order to
investigate the meaning and the perception of the local food in the Italian food market.
Results from this analysis have been used as inputs for the building of a non-hypothetical
Real Choice Experiment (RCE) to estimate consumers' WTP for locally and organically
produced apple sauce. The contribution of this study is three-fold: (1) consumers' valuation
for the local origin is interpreted in terms of regional borders, over the organic food claim in
case of an unusual food product in the area of interest, (2) the interaction between individuals'
personality traits and consumers’ preferences for local and organic foods is analyzed, (3) the
role of Commitment Cost creation in consumers' choice making in case of uncertainty due to
the use of a novel food product and of an unconventional food claim is investigated. Results
suggest that consumers are willing to pay a higher price premium for organic over locally
produced apple sauce, possibly because of the presence of a regulated certification. In
accordance with Commitment Cost theory, the organic label might thus decrease consumers'
uncertainty for the features of the product in question. Results also indicate that individuals'
personality can be source of heterogeneity in consumers' preferences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unibo.it/oai:amsdottorato.cib.unibo.it:7154 |
| Date | 12 June 2015 |
| Creators | Bazzani, Claudia <1985> |
| Contributors | Canavari, Maurizio |
| Publisher | Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna |
| Source Sets | Università di Bologna |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, PeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds