An instrument for measuring the influence of consumers' cultural values on functional food perception

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to develop an instrument for measuring the influence of consumers' cultural values on functional food perception.Design/methodology/approachThe study is quantitative in nature and builds on an earlier qualitative study that employed in-depth interviews, thematic analysis and constant comparative analysis to construct a survey instrument which initially had 53 items. The quantitative study involved an online survey that was conducted using this instrument, which resulted in 365 complete cases that included 173 Anglo-Australian, 102 Chinese and 90 Indian respondents living in Australia. The survey data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis using Principal axis factoring, with Promax rotation.FindingsThe research has validated that functional food perception is dependent upon consumers' cultural values. The results of the exploratory factor analysis provided a six-factor instrument with 32 items.Research limitations/implicationsOnly three ethnic groups were involved in this study and that is not entirely representative of Australia or other countries. The instrument, however, will allow researchers in the field of functional food to extend the research to other diverse communities.Practical implicationsThe instrument will further enable functional food producers and marketers to develop effective marketing strategies based on their knowledge of the influence of cultural values on functional food perception.Originality/valueThe instrument developed from this study, for measuring consumers' functional food perception based on cultural values, is the first of its kind.

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“…The abovementioned analyses are widely used in consumer research to study latent factors and criteria during purchasing process (Lee et al. , 2022; Neupane et al. , 2021; Carrión Bósquez and Arias-Bolzmann, 2022).…”

“…The comparable results can be achieved is in case of FA or PCA with numerical data. The abovementioned analyses are widely used in consumer research to study latent factors and criteria during purchasing process (Lee et al, 2022;Neupane et al, 2021;Carri on B osquez and Arias-Bolzmann, 2022). Non-parametric tests such as Chi-square test for independence (categorical data) and Kruskal-Wallis H test (ordinal data) were used to study differences among age cohorts.…”

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“…This notion stemmed from Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” (Hasler, 2002). Furthermore, if positioned, functional foods are somewhere along the spectrum between medicine and food (Neupane et al, 2021). Various functional foods exist, and they may be different in each region according to cultural values (Neupane et al, 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, if positioned, functional foods are somewhere along the spectrum between medicine and food (Neupane et al, 2021). Various functional foods exist, and they may be different in each region according to cultural values (Neupane et al, 2021). The perception of functional foods from one culture cannot be generalized to another because of cultural differences (Siegrist et al, 2015).…”