Generation Y’s Perception of Product Origin and its Labelling in the Context of Food Quality and Safety

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify and compare how Generation Y consumers from the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Poland perceive the product origin and its labelling in the context of food quality and safety. First, the theoretical background of food quality and safety, product origin, and food origin labels is discussed. The next section is devoted to the methodology of research followed by a discussion of research results. Data were collected via the online survey with 530 respondents of Generation Y. Chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to determine whether consumer attitudes differ based on their country. A statistically significant difference between the attention given to food products origin in the purchase decision and the respondents' country was confirmed, the product origin is the most important for Poles. In comparison with Czechs and Slovaks, Poles have also a stronger preference for domestic food products, believing them to be of a higher quality than the foreign ones. In each respective country, the awareness of food origin labels is low and their benefits are not sufficiently perceived. Statistically significant relations exist between the attitudes of Czechs and Poles as well as Slovaks and Poles, whereas there are no differences between the attitudes of Czechs and Slovaks.

A Qualitative Approach to the Sustainable Orientation of Generation Z in Retail: The Case of Romania

“…According to the generational theory, Generation Z, also called Baby Bloomers or iGeneration, includes individuals born between 1994 and 2010 (Williams and Page 2011;Persson 2019). Outnumbering Millennials (Gen Y) by more than one million, Generation Z members or the iGeneration (Vasiliu et al 2016;Jacobsen 2017;Velčovská 2018) make up the most attractive segment for producers and retailers. iGeneration's buying power is five or six times that of Generation X (Gilbert 2003;Jacobsen 2017), which turns the former into a segment of high interest to marketers.…”

Buy Domestic? Emerging Food Nationalism in Slovakia

“…These results indicate the validity of the claims of the authors Skallerud and Wien (2019), who demonstrated the reason for such action in the prosocial helping behaviour of consumers towards domestic producers on the example of Norway. Velčovská (2018) found relatively analogous findings on an example of millennials from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The significantly lower share of other responses to the question of the reason for the purchase of Slovak food – ‘better quality’ (24.4%), ‘more environmentally friendly’ (5.4%), ‘visually better and tastier’ (8.7%) and ‘other’ (0.9%), or the option ‘does not buy Slovak food or I don't know’ (7.7%) – indicates the relatively strong nationalist tendencies of Slovak consumers in relation to the reasons for the preference for domestic food.…”

“…Velčovská (2018) looked at the issue on the example of the generation of millennials in Slovakia, Czechia and Poland and found a weak relationship related to the association between the country of origin of a product and its perception of quality by consumers. She also states the very strong preference of millennials for domestic, local and regional foods, in contrast to their preference towards foreign foods.…”

Consumer preferences regarding food quality labels: the case of Czechia

“…In general, experts agree that quality has an objective and a subjective dimension (Grunert, 2005). Food quality is typically defined in terms of “taste”, a “good product” associated with a “proper production method”, “natural/organic” and “fresh” (Velčovská, 2018a). For most consumers, quality and safety are clearly related.…”

“…Previous studies about consumer attitudes to food quality labels focused on developing a typology, willingness to pay and consumer preferences for EU quality labels and other labels. These studies used different methodological approaches, typically cluster analysis, factor analysis, conjoint analysis and choice experiment (Aprile et al , 2012; Erraach et al , 2014; Schröck, 2014; Balogh et al , 2016; Gracia and de-Magistris, 2016; de-Magistris and Gracia, 2016; Velčovská, 2018a, b). We have decided to utilise a cluster analysis in our research design because this method allows for the stability and validity of the cluster solution to be generated (Hair et al , 2010).…”