Generating consumer acceptance for incrementally new food products remains a challenge. Drawing o... more Generating consumer acceptance for incrementally new food products remains a challenge. Drawing on analogical learning theory, we explore the combined effect of providing information about the new product's closest referent ('the product is like…') and the instrumental value of store's frontline employees (FLEs) as credible source of this information on a new food product's acceptance. Using the context of aquaculture, two consecutive experimental studies with a joint data collection have been conducted among UK consumers. Study 1 focuses on the adoption of fillets of an unfamiliar fish species with the FLE communicating newness, or newness including closest referent information. Results confirm that information provided by the FLE has a positive effect on consumer attitude and willingness to buy the new product, but a similar rather than stronger effect is found for the condition including closest referent information. Using a subsample of the data of Study 1, Study 2 explores the underlying learning mechanisms involved. The findings show that the influence of the FLE's information on the consumer's attitude towards the new product is positively mediated by the consumer's attitude towards FLE's advice. Additionally, the positive indirect effect of the FLE's information regarding closest referent on willingness to buy is conditional on the consumer's (dis)liking of the referent product and his/her need to taste the new product first. These findings confirm that offering information on closest referent by FLEs is powerful and can be a useful variable in consumer segmentation.
The aim of this work is to highlight the major trends of Portuguese household food expenditure in... more The aim of this work is to highlight the major trends of Portuguese household food expenditure in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Food expenditure trends per food groups are examined taking into account household food expenditure at home, and away from home, and based on different variables. Results suggest that income, education and age are influencing changes in Portuguese food spending behaviour. The pattern observed in Europe in terms of an increasing trend towards food away from home can also be confirmed for Portugal.
The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry.... more The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is exis-tent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles.
The meat market is meeting many challenges today. These challenges are mainly related to the fact... more The meat market is meeting many challenges today. These challenges are mainly related to the fact that the way we produce and consume meat has changed. Traditional way of production, marketing and supply of meat as an undifferentiated product possessing “certain quality characteristics”, which consumers often cannot recognize, as well as constant meat sector crises, brought to light a need for new ways of meat quality communication. It became obvious that it is insufficient to create quality, but is necessary to create “quality perception”, that is quality recognisable by the consumer. Like all changes, this means good opportunities for some and painful adjustments for others. A key of success lays in constant market evaluation and resource manipulation in order to produce a product of “recognisable” quality, which will not only enable some to enjoy meat, but also give encouragement to others to continue eating meat.
Meat market has always had a special attention due to repeating crises and confidence breakdowns.... more Meat market has always had a special attention due to repeating crises and confidence breakdowns. Even though global meat trade has grown in the past decades, driven mainly by gains in poultry and pig meat originating from developing regions, many countries that produce and consume meat still remain disconnected by trade. Trade barriers, as sanitary and protectionist standards, have heavily influenced meat market. Sanitary standards related to animal diseases, food safety concerns and health issue awareness mostly identify those countries that are “free” and those that are “not free” of potential risks. Although sanitary barriers can inhibit trade flows they protect against the spread of serious diseases and other risks that can break animal production. On the other hand, protectionist barriers in the form of tariffs and tariff-rate quotas designed as domestic support may distort international markets and prevent significant potential trade in meats. The EU occupies an important pos...
In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as w... more In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as well as differences across gender. In an eye-tracking study, conducted with 105 Portuguese meat consumers, we find that fat content has an impact on visual attention, choice reaction time and choice of red meat products. Consumers pay more attention and choose more often meat products with lower fat content. This impact is further gender specific, with female consumers paying more attention and requiring less time to choose meat products with lower fat content. In contract, male consumers pay more attention to red meat products with higher fat content, but spend more time to choose red meat products with lower fat content. We discuss managerial and theoretical implications in relation to marketing of red meat products.
In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as w... more In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as well as differences across gender. In an eye-tracking study, conducted with 105 Portuguese meat consumers, we find that fat content has an impact on visual attention, choice reaction time and choice of red meat products. Consumers pay more attention and choose more often meat products with lower fat content. This impact is further gender specific, with female consumers paying more attention and requiring less time to choose meat products with lower fat content. In contract, male consumers pay more attention to red meat products with higher fat content, but spend more time to choose red meat products with lower fat content. We discuss managerial and theoretical implications in relation to marketing of red meat products.
ABSTRACT The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat ... more ABSTRACT The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is existent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles.
Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm size... more Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm sizes. Past policy schemes developed to address these issues have been targeted at accelerating succession and retirement processes in agriculture. Their success however was limited. The process of succession, inheritance and retirement is complex and the decisionmaking of farm families in these situations is influenced by many factors. In order to develop more successful policies to encourage the early transfer of land and to increase farm sizes a better understanding of these factors is necessary. The paper addresses this question by employing a Neural Network Analysis with data collected through a survey of Irish farmers' perception on succession and land mobility measures in 2012. The analysis shows that while many farmers in general are in favour of various land mobility measures, they would not consider taking advantage of any of them, which in part could be explained by a large number of farmers being unwilling to totally retire from farming.
This chapter focuses on the process of visual search during product choice, in which stimuli are ... more This chapter focuses on the process of visual search during product choice, in which stimuli are absorbed and interpreted by the consumer. It highlights the effects of visual attention on perceptual performance. The chapter reviews mechanisms and consequences of selection and deployment of visual attention across stimuli. It emphasizes that the way stimuli are presented is decisive for whether the consumer will notice them and make sense of them. It also presents a case study that focuses on consumer's perceptual analyses during choice of consumer nondurables as exposed by patterns of visual attention.
Fish producers' organizations (POs) bring together fishers or fish farmers on a voluntary basis s... more Fish producers' organizations (POs) bring together fishers or fish farmers on a voluntary basis so as to ensure the best market conditions for their fish. How fishers perceive and understand their membership experience is crucial to their capacity to learn from each other and adapt when interacting with their environment. These issues are explored by using the case of Propeixe, a Portuguese PO of purse seine fishers. Fishers 'perceptions' of their PO experiences are discussed using an analytical framework based on social learning literature. POs appear to stimulate social learning amongst fishers through changes in practices, economic and other incentives, rules and trust in leadership. Moreover, POs add to a simple market structure the properties of network coordination: interdependency and trust as a basis for co-operation. However, POs fail to change modes of interaction and communication amongst fishers. Within the PO network there are informal subnetworks, differing in terms of interests and influences, and disagreeing on problems (e.g. resource status) and on how to deal with them. By enhancing their members' social learning capacity, POs may increase their capacity to learn and cooperate with other actors in the sector. Leadership strategy, to encourage day-to-day dialog and deal with power relations, is essential in this respect.
The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry.... more The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is existent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles. An Application of Wavelet Analysis to Meat Consumption Cycles 253
This study examines the use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues in beef quality perception at the poi... more This study examines the use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues in beef quality perception at the point of purchase and upon consumption by consumers with varying levels of familiarity with a particular beef product. High-familiarity consumers tend to use the color of the meat to assess beef quality, whereas low-familiarity consumers tend to believe that the brand is the most valid cue for assessing beef quality. However, due to the lack of consistency in sensory beef quality, high-familiarity consumers' ability to form quality expectations that are predictive of their quality experience is no better than that of low-familiarity consumers.
Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 2012
There is agreement that product origin affects its quality evaluations. Though existing legislati... more There is agreement that product origin affects its quality evaluations. Though existing legislation makes use of this fact, recognition of such terms and symbols is quite low and taking advantage of origin as a differentiation source is often lost. Using a sample of Portuguese consumers and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) beef, results confirm low level of PDO label recognition. It is not enough to communicate that a PDO label is linked to a particular region, but other aspects should be highlighted, namely, products' experience attributes. Efforts should be made to improve communication to the consumer of what a PDO label exactly stands for. We thank students of Faculdade de Medicina Veterina´ria (first-, fourth-, and final-year students) and to first year students of Instituto Superior de Agronomia for implementing the questionnaires. We also thank Professors Maria Inês Mansinho and Filomena Duarte for their helpful comments.
The consumer has the final word in food choice, which is determined by his perceived quality. Wit... more The consumer has the final word in food choice, which is determined by his perceived quality. Within a project coordinated by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine we tried to relate objective quality with the consumer quality evaluation. To do so, we have measured the expected and experienced quality of a sample of Portuguese consumers towards three types of beef (PDO, national and imported) at the shop, and compared this subjective evaluation with the beef objective quality. Results at the consumer level show that respondents perceived PDO beef to be of higher quality than the two other types of beef for different attributes and for overall quality at the shop location. In terms of objective quality results, the three types of beef showed highly similar physicochemical characteristics and there were no differences, on average, in terms of the aspects mostly considered by the consumers -tenderness, colour and fat content. Hence, it was not possible to show that physicochemical characteristics are good predictors of consumer preferences. However shear force revealed a positive asymmetry showing a higher probability to find a tender beef in PDO than in the other types of beef. This should constitute an area for further research.
This study investigated the differences in the consumers' quality perception of national branded,... more This study investigated the differences in the consumers' quality perception of national branded, national store branded, and imported store branded beef. Partial Least Squares analysis is used for modelling the quality perception process. Results show that consumers perceived national branded Carnalentejana beef, as better on all quality cues and quality aspects than the other two store branded beefs. Preference for Carnalentejana beef stayed highly consistent even after the blind test, where consumers differentiated this beef from the other two beef brands on all sensory dimensions: taste, tenderness, and juiciness, and chose it as the preferred one. Consumers utilized more perceived intrinsic cues to infer expected eating quality of store branded beefs.
The main objectives of the present study are to understand how Portuguese consumers perceive beef... more The main objectives of the present study are to understand how Portuguese consumers perceive beef quality in a real-life purchase environment, which intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues consumers use when evaluating and forming beef quality expectations, and how extrinsic quality cues influence the perception of intrinsic quality cues. Furthermore, the study attempts to investigate how quality expectations are related to quality experience and future purchase intention after blind-tasting of beef steaks. Results show that extrinsic quality cues influence perception of intrinsic quality cues. Brand was found to be the predominant extrinsic quality cue. Consumers used brand both for perception of intrinsic quality cues and for inference of quality expectations. Future purchase intention is mainly influenced by experienced eating quality.
Generating consumer acceptance for incrementally new food products remains a challenge. Drawing o... more Generating consumer acceptance for incrementally new food products remains a challenge. Drawing on analogical learning theory, we explore the combined effect of providing information about the new product's closest referent ('the product is like…') and the instrumental value of store's frontline employees (FLEs) as credible source of this information on a new food product's acceptance. Using the context of aquaculture, two consecutive experimental studies with a joint data collection have been conducted among UK consumers. Study 1 focuses on the adoption of fillets of an unfamiliar fish species with the FLE communicating newness, or newness including closest referent information. Results confirm that information provided by the FLE has a positive effect on consumer attitude and willingness to buy the new product, but a similar rather than stronger effect is found for the condition including closest referent information. Using a subsample of the data of Study 1, Study 2 explores the underlying learning mechanisms involved. The findings show that the influence of the FLE's information on the consumer's attitude towards the new product is positively mediated by the consumer's attitude towards FLE's advice. Additionally, the positive indirect effect of the FLE's information regarding closest referent on willingness to buy is conditional on the consumer's (dis)liking of the referent product and his/her need to taste the new product first. These findings confirm that offering information on closest referent by FLEs is powerful and can be a useful variable in consumer segmentation.
The aim of this work is to highlight the major trends of Portuguese household food expenditure in... more The aim of this work is to highlight the major trends of Portuguese household food expenditure in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Food expenditure trends per food groups are examined taking into account household food expenditure at home, and away from home, and based on different variables. Results suggest that income, education and age are influencing changes in Portuguese food spending behaviour. The pattern observed in Europe in terms of an increasing trend towards food away from home can also be confirmed for Portugal.
The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry.... more The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is exis-tent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles.
The meat market is meeting many challenges today. These challenges are mainly related to the fact... more The meat market is meeting many challenges today. These challenges are mainly related to the fact that the way we produce and consume meat has changed. Traditional way of production, marketing and supply of meat as an undifferentiated product possessing “certain quality characteristics”, which consumers often cannot recognize, as well as constant meat sector crises, brought to light a need for new ways of meat quality communication. It became obvious that it is insufficient to create quality, but is necessary to create “quality perception”, that is quality recognisable by the consumer. Like all changes, this means good opportunities for some and painful adjustments for others. A key of success lays in constant market evaluation and resource manipulation in order to produce a product of “recognisable” quality, which will not only enable some to enjoy meat, but also give encouragement to others to continue eating meat.
Meat market has always had a special attention due to repeating crises and confidence breakdowns.... more Meat market has always had a special attention due to repeating crises and confidence breakdowns. Even though global meat trade has grown in the past decades, driven mainly by gains in poultry and pig meat originating from developing regions, many countries that produce and consume meat still remain disconnected by trade. Trade barriers, as sanitary and protectionist standards, have heavily influenced meat market. Sanitary standards related to animal diseases, food safety concerns and health issue awareness mostly identify those countries that are “free” and those that are “not free” of potential risks. Although sanitary barriers can inhibit trade flows they protect against the spread of serious diseases and other risks that can break animal production. On the other hand, protectionist barriers in the form of tariffs and tariff-rate quotas designed as domestic support may distort international markets and prevent significant potential trade in meats. The EU occupies an important pos...
In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as w... more In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as well as differences across gender. In an eye-tracking study, conducted with 105 Portuguese meat consumers, we find that fat content has an impact on visual attention, choice reaction time and choice of red meat products. Consumers pay more attention and choose more often meat products with lower fat content. This impact is further gender specific, with female consumers paying more attention and requiring less time to choose meat products with lower fat content. In contract, male consumers pay more attention to red meat products with higher fat content, but spend more time to choose red meat products with lower fat content. We discuss managerial and theoretical implications in relation to marketing of red meat products.
In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as w... more In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as well as differences across gender. In an eye-tracking study, conducted with 105 Portuguese meat consumers, we find that fat content has an impact on visual attention, choice reaction time and choice of red meat products. Consumers pay more attention and choose more often meat products with lower fat content. This impact is further gender specific, with female consumers paying more attention and requiring less time to choose meat products with lower fat content. In contract, male consumers pay more attention to red meat products with higher fat content, but spend more time to choose red meat products with lower fat content. We discuss managerial and theoretical implications in relation to marketing of red meat products.
ABSTRACT The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat ... more ABSTRACT The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is existent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles.
Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm size... more Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm sizes. Past policy schemes developed to address these issues have been targeted at accelerating succession and retirement processes in agriculture. Their success however was limited. The process of succession, inheritance and retirement is complex and the decisionmaking of farm families in these situations is influenced by many factors. In order to develop more successful policies to encourage the early transfer of land and to increase farm sizes a better understanding of these factors is necessary. The paper addresses this question by employing a Neural Network Analysis with data collected through a survey of Irish farmers' perception on succession and land mobility measures in 2012. The analysis shows that while many farmers in general are in favour of various land mobility measures, they would not consider taking advantage of any of them, which in part could be explained by a large number of farmers being unwilling to totally retire from farming.
This chapter focuses on the process of visual search during product choice, in which stimuli are ... more This chapter focuses on the process of visual search during product choice, in which stimuli are absorbed and interpreted by the consumer. It highlights the effects of visual attention on perceptual performance. The chapter reviews mechanisms and consequences of selection and deployment of visual attention across stimuli. It emphasizes that the way stimuli are presented is decisive for whether the consumer will notice them and make sense of them. It also presents a case study that focuses on consumer's perceptual analyses during choice of consumer nondurables as exposed by patterns of visual attention.
Fish producers' organizations (POs) bring together fishers or fish farmers on a voluntary basis s... more Fish producers' organizations (POs) bring together fishers or fish farmers on a voluntary basis so as to ensure the best market conditions for their fish. How fishers perceive and understand their membership experience is crucial to their capacity to learn from each other and adapt when interacting with their environment. These issues are explored by using the case of Propeixe, a Portuguese PO of purse seine fishers. Fishers 'perceptions' of their PO experiences are discussed using an analytical framework based on social learning literature. POs appear to stimulate social learning amongst fishers through changes in practices, economic and other incentives, rules and trust in leadership. Moreover, POs add to a simple market structure the properties of network coordination: interdependency and trust as a basis for co-operation. However, POs fail to change modes of interaction and communication amongst fishers. Within the PO network there are informal subnetworks, differing in terms of interests and influences, and disagreeing on problems (e.g. resource status) and on how to deal with them. By enhancing their members' social learning capacity, POs may increase their capacity to learn and cooperate with other actors in the sector. Leadership strategy, to encourage day-to-day dialog and deal with power relations, is essential in this respect.
The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry.... more The existence or nonexistence of changes in meat consumption cycles is critical to meat industry. If the change is existent, there is a need to understand what motivates the change to identify the most appropriate response. Wavelet analysis is considered here as a promising technique that may lead to a better understanding of characteristic patterns and changes in the meat consumption cycles. An Application of Wavelet Analysis to Meat Consumption Cycles 253
This study examines the use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues in beef quality perception at the poi... more This study examines the use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues in beef quality perception at the point of purchase and upon consumption by consumers with varying levels of familiarity with a particular beef product. High-familiarity consumers tend to use the color of the meat to assess beef quality, whereas low-familiarity consumers tend to believe that the brand is the most valid cue for assessing beef quality. However, due to the lack of consistency in sensory beef quality, high-familiarity consumers' ability to form quality expectations that are predictive of their quality experience is no better than that of low-familiarity consumers.
Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 2012
There is agreement that product origin affects its quality evaluations. Though existing legislati... more There is agreement that product origin affects its quality evaluations. Though existing legislation makes use of this fact, recognition of such terms and symbols is quite low and taking advantage of origin as a differentiation source is often lost. Using a sample of Portuguese consumers and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) beef, results confirm low level of PDO label recognition. It is not enough to communicate that a PDO label is linked to a particular region, but other aspects should be highlighted, namely, products' experience attributes. Efforts should be made to improve communication to the consumer of what a PDO label exactly stands for. We thank students of Faculdade de Medicina Veterina´ria (first-, fourth-, and final-year students) and to first year students of Instituto Superior de Agronomia for implementing the questionnaires. We also thank Professors Maria Inês Mansinho and Filomena Duarte for their helpful comments.
The consumer has the final word in food choice, which is determined by his perceived quality. Wit... more The consumer has the final word in food choice, which is determined by his perceived quality. Within a project coordinated by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine we tried to relate objective quality with the consumer quality evaluation. To do so, we have measured the expected and experienced quality of a sample of Portuguese consumers towards three types of beef (PDO, national and imported) at the shop, and compared this subjective evaluation with the beef objective quality. Results at the consumer level show that respondents perceived PDO beef to be of higher quality than the two other types of beef for different attributes and for overall quality at the shop location. In terms of objective quality results, the three types of beef showed highly similar physicochemical characteristics and there were no differences, on average, in terms of the aspects mostly considered by the consumers -tenderness, colour and fat content. Hence, it was not possible to show that physicochemical characteristics are good predictors of consumer preferences. However shear force revealed a positive asymmetry showing a higher probability to find a tender beef in PDO than in the other types of beef. This should constitute an area for further research.
This study investigated the differences in the consumers' quality perception of national branded,... more This study investigated the differences in the consumers' quality perception of national branded, national store branded, and imported store branded beef. Partial Least Squares analysis is used for modelling the quality perception process. Results show that consumers perceived national branded Carnalentejana beef, as better on all quality cues and quality aspects than the other two store branded beefs. Preference for Carnalentejana beef stayed highly consistent even after the blind test, where consumers differentiated this beef from the other two beef brands on all sensory dimensions: taste, tenderness, and juiciness, and chose it as the preferred one. Consumers utilized more perceived intrinsic cues to infer expected eating quality of store branded beefs.
The main objectives of the present study are to understand how Portuguese consumers perceive beef... more The main objectives of the present study are to understand how Portuguese consumers perceive beef quality in a real-life purchase environment, which intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues consumers use when evaluating and forming beef quality expectations, and how extrinsic quality cues influence the perception of intrinsic quality cues. Furthermore, the study attempts to investigate how quality expectations are related to quality experience and future purchase intention after blind-tasting of beef steaks. Results show that extrinsic quality cues influence perception of intrinsic quality cues. Brand was found to be the predominant extrinsic quality cue. Consumers used brand both for perception of intrinsic quality cues and for inference of quality expectations. Future purchase intention is mainly influenced by experienced eating quality.
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