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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractThe objective of this article is to identify the distinguishing socio-demographic and psychographic features of convinced sustainable consumers in contrast to convinced conventional consumers. Furthermore, it contributes to the sparse literature about tea consumption. This study is based on data collected via an online consumer survey. First respondents took part in a choice experiment with tea varying in its price (four levels) and quality (conventional / organic / fair trade / organic & fair trade). Then they had to complete a questionnaire about their attitudes towards food consumption. Respondents, who always chose sustainable tea, at no matter what price, were grouped and those that always chose the conventional tea. T-Tests and bivariate logistic regression are used to analyse the influencing socio-demographic and attitudinal dimensions that characterise the two groups of convinced consumers. Convinced sustainable consumers are more often female than male and perceive that their personal purchase decision has an impact on overall sustainable development. They show a higher willingness to increase sustainability through their consumption behaviour. They are very much interested in high food quality and are not as much influenced by advertisements and offers in their purchase decision-making as convinced conventional consumers. The main contribution of this study is to provide practical information for actors in the field of sustainable food marketing about how to target their most relevant segment, the convinced sustainable consumer.

For a sustainable diet, especially with regard to animal welfare, human health, and environmental issues, a significant reduction in the consumption of animal source foods is essential. The most frequently reported motivations for a meat-reduced or meat-free diet are ethical concerns about animal welfare. This study realizes one of the first consumer segmentations in the context of the human–animal relationship based on domain-specific values; animal ethics. Such a consumer segmentation is relatively stable over time and encompasses the issue of the human–animal relationship in its entirety without limiting itself to a specific question. Based on a comprehensive consumer survey in Germany and by means of a three-step cluster analysis, five consumer segments characterized by different animal-ethical value profiles were defined. A subsequent analysis revealed a link between animal ethics and diet. As a key result, relationism as an animal-ethical position seems to play a key role in the choice of a sustainable diet. About a quarter of the population is characterized by a combination of animal welfare-oriented ethical positions with a clear rejection of relationism, i.e., they do not distinguish between farm animals and companion animals. This specific combination of animal-ethical values is associated with a significantly above-average proportion of flexitarians and vegetarians. Thus, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of existing animal-ethical values and their link to the choice of diet.

Purpose – While the European organic regulation exists since more than 20 years consumers still do not seem to know what to expect from European Union (EU) labelled organic food. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer expectations towards organic food in mature and emerging EU organic food markets. Design/methodology/approach – Online consumer survey data (n=1,180; 2011) from Germany, the UK, Spain, and the Czech Republic are used to analyse the question: “Which criteria would you expect of an organic food product labelled with the EU-organic label?”. In total, 23 items including organic production criteria according to EC 834/07 and unregulated food quality criteria are tested. Mean value analysis and exploratory factor analysis are performed. Findings – Consumers expect organic food to be free from chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. In total, two factors affect consumers’ expectations: naturalness of organic food products; additional sustainability aspects like, e.g. resource saving. However, several differences between the analysed countries exist. Although there does not seem to be a big gap between what consumers expect from organic food and what EU organic labelled products fulfil, some attributes might not mean the same to each consumer which could be a source of consumer disappointment. Practical implications – Consequently policy makers as well as market actors should take this risk seriously and use terms like “naturalness” only with great caution when promoting organic food. Originality/value – Further cross-country studies focusing on consumer expectations towards organic food are still needed, because until today only few studies deal with consumer and marketing issues in EU countries with different organic market development.

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