The role of organic and fair trade labels when choosing chocolate

Rousseau, Sandra

doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.04.002

Cited by 134 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In this respect, research shows that consumers often perceived organic food products as healthier, tastier and better for the environment than conventional food [1,2]. When evaluating a product, consumers can use the information that is available on the packaging to evaluate the sustainability of the product [3,4]. This information includes the country of production, prices, ingredients but also organic labels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beer and Organic Labels: Do Belgian Consumers Care?

Poelmans

Rousseau

2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:We investigate whether beer drinkers are willing to pay a price premium for organic beer compared to conventional beer. Moreover, we identify subgroups of consumers with different preference patterns by investigating whether specific personal characteristics of the purchasers have an influence on this willingness-to-pay. Specifically, results are reported from a survey including a stated choice experiment of consumer decisions concerning beer purchases in Flanders (Belgium), focusing on organic labels. A non-probabilistic sampling method was used over the Internet and 334 responses were useable for the empirical analysis. Each respondent was asked to choose their preferred beer from a series of nine choice cards describing three different beer varieties. In this respect, we created a two-block design, each consisting of nine choice cards. Each respondent was randomly presented with one of the two blocks, so that an equal distribution of the blocks could be obtained. Overall, we find that our sample is statistically indifferent between a beer with an organic label and a similar beer without an organic label. This is in line with previous research that stated that consumers are unwilling to pay high price premiums for organic vice products, such as beer. We find no statistically different preferences for male or female respondents, or for members or non-members of nature protection organizations. However, we find a significant difference (p-value = 0.029) between primary beer shoppers who have a zero willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic beer compared to similar non-organic beer and the reference group that has a negative WTP of 14 Euro per 1.5 L for organic beer. In addition, the WTP for beer drinkers older than 40 (negative WTP of 22 Euro per 1.5 L) and the WTP for frequent beer drinkers (zero WTP) are statistically different from the reference group (p-value = 0.019 and 0.000 respectively).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beer and Organic Labels: Do Belgian Consumers Care?

Poelmans

Rousseau

2017

Sustainability

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“…The Fairtrade scheme addresses equity and justice in international commodity markets and aims to reduce poverty, increases participation and empowerment of producers and workers in developing countries (Melo et al, 2014;Philips, 2014;Smith, 2010). Fairtrade-labelled products were more influential compared to organic labels in Belgium (Rousseau, 2015), similar to these findings, while consumers claimed that food and drinks tasted better with FairTrade logo (Lotz et al, 2013;Tang et al, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 57%

A greater share of the stomach?

Soon

Wallace

2018

NFS

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Purpose Provenance and ethical standards reflect foods that traceable and are supportive of the environment, sustainability and justice in the food supply chain. The purpose of this study is to understand higher education consumers’ food choices and to examine the predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was completed by 296 students and staff members of the University of Central Lancashire. The questionnaire collected information on socio-demographic profiles; food choices, provenance and ethical standards; ethical purchasing and sourcing requirements and purchasing intention of food products with provenance and ethical standards. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of distribution of all socio-demographic characteristics. Multiple regression was used to examine if attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) significantly predict the consumers’ purchasing intention (Step 1). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the behavioural items using principal components estimation and varimax rotation. Multiple regression on the expanded TPB (Step 2) using the obtained factor scores were conducted to determine if the factors were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. Findings Multiple regression on the expanded TPB model revealed that only attitude and perceived behavioural control were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. The regression model explained about 50 per cent of the variance of the intent to purchase food with provenance and ethical standards where R2 = 0.50 (Adjusted R2 = 0.47). This was significantly different from zero F (5, 89) = 17.77, p < 0.001. The incorporation of “Preference for ethically sourced food” and “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards” did not increase the prediction of purchasing behaviour. Originality/value Two broad themes were identified from the factor analysis where the first factor prioritises “Preference for ethically sourced food” and the second factor conceptualises “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards”. The TPB was expanded to incorporate both factors but did not increase the prediction of purchasing intention. The authors recommend that other potential predictors, for example, moral concerns or perceived value of food with provenance and/or ethical standards to be tested using an extended TPB framework. The study is of value to higher and further education catering services to encourage more sustainable and local food consumption.

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“…On the measures of building customers trust, labeling is the most widely studied. Rousseau [28] empirically investigates the effect of organic labeling on consumers' purchasing behavior of chocolate. They find that, for most of the consumers, the organic label seems to become superfluous when selecting self-indulgent products.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the customer at location x of product line believing that the product is organic, the net utility of buying an organic product from Firm 1 is U + u o − p 1 − tx, where U is the utility for a customer getting their ideal non-organic product for free, u o is the additional utility from an organic product compared to a non-organic product, and U and u o are the same for all customers. In general, customers may have different utility in organic products, for example sometimes the willingness to pay for organic food is even negative [28]. However, for the sake of analysis convenience, we assume homogeneity in organic utility.…”

Section: Model Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic vs. Non-Organic Food Products: Credence and Price Competition

Wang

Zhu

2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:We analyze the organic and non-organic production choices of two firms by considering customers' trust in organic food products. In the context of customers' possible willingness to pay a premium price and their mistrust in organic food products, two firms first make choices on offering organic and non-organic food products. If offering organic products, a firm can further invest in the credence system to increase customers' trust in their organic products. At the final stage, two firms determine prices. We provide serval insights. First, we characterize the market conditions in which only one firm, both firms or neither firm will choose to offer organic food products. We find that the higher the production costs or credence investment costs for organic food products are, the more likely firms are to choose to produce non-organic food products. Second, if it is expensive enough to invest in organic credence, offering organic food products may still be uncompetitive, even if organic production cost appears to have no disadvantage compared to non-organic food products. Third, we highlight how the prices of organic food products in equilibrium are affected by market parameters. We show that when only one firm offers organic food products, this firm tends to offer a relatively low price if organic credence investment is expensive. Fourth, we highlight how one firm's credence investment decision in equilibrium can be affected by the product type choice of the other firm. We find that the investment in organic credence is lower when both firms offer organic food products compared with the case when only one firm offers organic food products.

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The role of organic and fair trade labels when choosing chocolate

Cited by 134 publications

References 43 publications

Beer and Organic Labels: Do Belgian Consumers Care?

Beer and Organic Labels: Do Belgian Consumers Care?

A greater share of the stomach?

Organic vs. Non-Organic Food Products: Credence and Price Competition

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