Choice Drivers for Quality-Labelled Food: A Cross-Cultural Comparison on PDO Cheese

Abstract

This study aims at examining the consumers’ preferences and drivers affecting the choice of quality-labelled food products, i.e., protected designation of origin (PDO) labelled cheese. We applied the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to analyse the purchase of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO and Comté PDO hard cheeses in Italy and France, respectively. A cross-sectional sample of 808 consumers (400 French and 408 Italian) completed a questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated perceived behavioural control (PBC) and attitude to be significant predictors of intention to purchase PDO-labelled cheese in France and Italy. Subjective and moral norms affected intention in France. Intention significantly influenced the hard cheese purchase behaviour. The results confirm that the TPB model predicted the self-reported measure of behaviour more than the observed one, measured with a discrete choice experiment, in both countries. The TPB interrelationships varied between countries, suggesting that food systems operators and public authorities should carefully target their intervention to stimulate the demand of PDO-labelled products.

An Extended Model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Predict Local Wine Consumption Intention and Behaviour

“…This theory continues to be one of the most popular socio-psychological models used to understand and predict human behaviour [28] and has been successfully applied to behavioural studies of local product consumption [14,29], wine consumption [30,31] and local wine consumption [25,26].…”

How Successful Is Origin Labeling in a Developing Country Context? Moroccan Consumers’ Preferences toward Local Products

“…Those cities are representative of the country and are commonly used for assessing consumer behavior [18]. Given the cultural aspects related to the North African context for conducting consumer surveys [17], the data were collected by directly approaching the respondents in supermarkets, traditional markets, or streets [9]. The participants were selected based on the consumption of local terroir foods using control questions at the beginning of the interview.…”

“…Several studies have analyzed preferences and attitudes of consumers in the Mediterranean region toward origin-labeled food. Recently, researchers examined consumers' preferences and drivers affecting the choice of quality-labeled food products considering PDO-labeled cheese in Italy and France [9]. The authors used a questionnaire for sampling 808 consumers and found that the motivations, the perceived ability to perform the behavior, and consumers' attitudes are significant predictors of the intention to purchase PDO-labeled cheese.…”

Consumers’ decision-making mechanism differs under the presence of risk, habits, and past behavior for organic fisheries foods

“…Among TPB's applied studies, factors influencing organic food consumption were contextual across territories, especially between developed and developing countries (Thi Nguyen & Dang, 2022;Rana & Paul, 2017;Wang et al, 2019). Within TPB's core concepts, the impact of attitude on behavioral intention has been verified in previous studies (Dang & Tran, 2020;Koklic et al, 2019;Menozzi et al, 2021;Thi Nguyen & Dang, 2022) as the strongest factor impacting consumers' intention towards food options (Chu, 2018;Dangi et al, 2020;Hoang et al, 2020;Nguyen et al, 2019;Pham et al, 2019;Tuu et al, 2008). Thus, the following is hypothesized: H1: Attitude towards OFF positively influences purchasing intention of OFF.…”