FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT

FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT Food Consumer Models: The Case of the Responsible Consumer Enrica DONIA1*, Angelo Marcello MINEO1, Danilo CESARINI1, Filippo SGROI1 1University of Palermo, Italy E-mail: enrica.donia@unipa.it; angelo.mineo@unipa.it; danilo.cesarini@gmail.com; filippo.sgroi@unipa.it *Corresponding author: Enrica Donia, Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 13 – 90128 – Palermo, Italy; E-mail: enrica.donia@unipa.it Abstract The profile of the responsible consumer, that is, an individual whose purchases strive to satisfy altruistic aims above and beyond one’s merely personal consumer necessities, is closely correlated to the one’s socio-economic conditions. All subjective aspects considered, the correlation between responsible consumption in the agri-food sector and the level of education of the individual was studied herein by way of a statistical survey, conducted on a sample of 108 individuals. Likewise, the correlation between the level of responsible consumption and the average monthly expenditures was also elucidated. The study was carried out using the statistical software environment R and the results indicate that responsible consumption is positively correlated with both of the aforementioned variables. The study is suited to identify which segment of the population has the possibility of making informed choices in the market based on the fact that its income allows better access to certain markets, and by virtue of the fact that a higher cultural level allows one to have better access to information, which makes for a more thorough understanding of the issues. Keywords: agri-food, food consumption, linear regression, responsible consumer. 1. Introduction The price-quality ratio is no longer the sole driver of consumer choices, albeit remaining one of the main factors. Nowadays, besides a product’s functional utility, strictly speaking, preferences are increasingly influenced by other factors (Mohr et al., 2001). The new-millennium consumer weigh ups altruistic objectives, thus incorporating social themes into his or her choices, so as to enhance individual well-being. In the economic literature such behavior goes by a variety of diverse names, however, by and large, we may encompass this motif under the catch-all heading of socially responsible consumption (Zecca and Rastorgueva, 2016; Paltrinieri, 2008; Webb et al., 2008; Mohr and Webb, 2005). This thread of research is decidedly linked to the ambit of ethical economy (Koslowski, 2008), where some particular cases, which often challenge concepts such as rationality of behavior, are sought to be incorporated into classical economics theory (Arvidsson, 2008). Globalization, consumerism, the indiscriminate pursuit of profit at all costs have characterized significant aspects of modern society to the detriment of quality of life (Contň et al. 2015; Tregear, et al. 2007; Micheletti and Stolle, 2004;Belleti and Marescotti 1996;), such that the socially responsible consumer emerges as a modern, dynamic figure whose origins take root from this very transformation of society (Contň et al., 2016; Mancini et al. 2015; Marotta and Nazzaro, 2012). The aim of this study is to attempt to characterize this strain of socially-responsible consumers through two predominant social features so as to assess whether their choices bear any correlation with the level of personal development or the means at their disposal. The sector of reference is the agri-food industry inasmuch as it caters to an essential prerequisite of human life, QUALITY access to success Vol. 18, No. 161/December 2017 namely nutrition, also representing one of the sectors most closely linked to the notion of quality of life, taking into account its inseparable links to human health, to the environment and the economy of a country (Akkerman et al. 2010). In other words, the agri-food sector is at the crossroads of this phenomenon for two simple reasons: firstly because it satisfies a primary need, thus closely linked to quality of life, and secondly because the production of foodstuffs is intimately interrelated with the environment, as exemplified by the concept of agricultural multifunctionality. All the more, the agri-food sector is the one where the supply has been keen on adapting to this new and growing demand on the part of consumers, particularly as far as sustainability of production is concerned, for example by implementing short food supply chains such as organic produce or Zero-Km food (Tacchi, 2014). In general, consumers seeking to put forms of responsible consumption into practice have not needed to go to great lengths to find the target markets to satisfy them, among which the ethical purchasing groups (in Italian Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale GAS), farmers markets, Bottega Verde (an Italian franchising for natural cosmetics and beauty products) and fair trade initiatives (Fanfani, 2009; Shaw and Clarke, 1999). This analysis of socially responsible consumption puts forward an assessment of individual behaviors having mass ramifications, often compared to quasi-political actions or the adoption of a stance in response to situations generally regarded as harmful to the well-being of both the individual and society at large, such as pollution, labor exploitation, etc. An interesting facet of this study focuses on how such consumption patterns position themselves within the theory of consumer choice, contrasting the responsible consumer with the "rational" archetype. May incorporating into one’s utility function choices of an altruistic nature, thereby maximizing utility by fulfilling social necessities, be defined a rational behavior? 145 FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT With reference to the inquiries above, the literature forks off into two contrasting orientations: a first one, of a certainly more restrictive nature, which excludes such activities from rational behavior inasmuch as the individual would shun this revamped, costlier basket of goods, given his or her disposable income; vice versa, the second orientation, shared by us, deems such a consumption pattern highly rational, since achieving individual well-being is taken to be an increasing function of the well-being of society as a whole, thereby underlying the individual’s very sense of fulfillment (Kahneman and Krueger, 2006). 2. Materials and methods The deliberate adoption of this premeditated stance, at the moment of actually making a purchase, presupposes an overall assessment of the issue. A similar conclusion likely involves prior knowledge of the phenomenon, the product, the company and of the production methods, but gleaning such information, in turn, presumably entailed an investment of time and money. Furthermore, said choices often imply knowingly opting for markets with higher than average prices. Hence, it is legitimate to assume that those tending towards responsible choices likely have sufficient spending capacity and a moderate to high cultural level. Our objective is to prove the substance of the above assumptions, while verifying whether the level of responsible consumption, specifically regards the agri-food sector, is directly proportional to the level of education and spending capacity. A higher level of education should correspond to a higher cultural level, hence greater ease at accessing information and more critically evaluating phenomena. In the case of individual expenditures we assessed average monthly spending for food items, which is a reasonable indicator of the economic possibilities of the person considering that such spending also includes food consumed outside of the home (e.g. at a pizzeria or restaurant). The greater the spending capacity, the greater the subject’s choice and the easier the access to more expensive or niche markets, such as the organic variety. In general, we seek to elucidate whether or not socially responsible consumption is closely linked to certain measurable socio-economic conditions of individuals. The analysis conducted focuses on the food industry. The data to be processed was collected via a mixed questionnaire with both open and multiple-choice, closed-ended questions. The questionnaire basically consisted of two parts: in the first, key data regarding the socio-economic characteristics of the respondent were collected; the second part consisted in a total of 19 questions associated with the different facets of socially responsible consumption, seeking to evaluate the propensity, or better yet, the sensibility towards such behavior. The survey was conducted on 108 randomly chosen individuals, interviewed in person and face to face. The latter method was selected in consideration of the possibility that some words or sentences might have required further explanation, although the percentage of those actually finding difficulty with the arguments covered equaled 7%, consisting mostly of older subjects. The survey sample consisted of 36 women (33%) and 72 men (67%) ranging from ages 19 to 81. The age of subjects it is between 19 and 81 years, the subjects were divided by classes, in particular have been identified seven size classes of 10 years extremes included, the class with more subjects is the first, that is the category that includes subjects from 18 to 27 years, the classes that are significantly different than other classes are the last two with a distribution of 6 subjects in 68-77 years, one subject in 78-87 years. Other subdivision has been made in function of the persons composing the family nucleus. Significant is the number of respondents (37) who are part of families of four people 146 (34.2%), followed by families of five people 22.2% and three people 16.6%. An important variable in the analysis of the responsible consumption is the cultural level, since knowledge of certain topics or higher sensitivity levels require a level of greater information compared to the average, therefore one of the questions that can describe in the best way the level culture is the educational qualification. The selected sample has a high school diploma to 37%, has a degree to 32.4%, with the average license to 13.9%. The detected subjects were divided as by profession, 23.1% of the sample was found to be employed (employees who mainly perform intellectual activities), 17.6% are unemployed, 16.6% are students. The sample was further divided into seven classes of average monthly spending, spending that much still it depends on the individual spending capacity of individuals; with 33.3% the class that entails an average monthly expenditure comprised between EUR 100 and 200 was the higher, followed by the class EUR 0-100 with 21.3% and EUR 200-300 with 20.3%. Most of the sample refused to answer the question on income, for this reason, the sample was divided into "no income" (1%); single-income (39%); more of an income (60%). Data processing was performed using the R software package by entering the data collected so as to explore the correlations of cultural level and individual spending patterns to the level of individual responsible consumption, via analysis of variance (ANOVA) and by fitting a simple regression model. In order to conduct the analysis it was necessary to identify a factor indicative of the cultural level of interviewees; the variable that most closely reflects that cultural level was assumed to be the more easily measurable level of education. Individual spending instead allowed us to obtain a numerical vector, whereby each number identifies the absolute values corresponding to the average monthly expenditures of the interviewee. Obtaining a numerical vector of responsible consumption was a bit more complex, requiring a subjective evaluation of the questionnaire responses so as to convert the qualitative options chosen by respondents into quantitative values. The method used to evaluate the questionnaire consisted in assigning a numerical score to a group of questions that express an individual’s objective tendency towards patterns of responsible consumption. The reference model was that of reliability of production assessments regards suppliers on the part of GAS ethical purchasing groups. The level of responsible consumption was obtained by summing up the scores to the individual questions, each ranging from a minimum of 0, i.e. no responsible consumption, to a maximum of 39. In the multiple-choice questions each choice has its own reference value easily identified according to their decreasing or increasing values; in the open-ended questions the evaluation was subjective taking into consideration the completeness of the response, or rather the ability to reveal certain behaviors typical of responsible consumption. The resulting variable was called "CSR" representing a numerical vector whereby each element of the vector is the corresponding responsible-consumption value of the interviewee. CSR is the response variable to be compared first and foremost with the qualification variable, then with the expenditures or spending variable. First, the relationship between the level of education and responsible consumption serves to establish whether actions, such as the behavioral patterns of critical consumption or boycotting them, somehow depend on the individual's cultural level and, if so, whether increases of one also correspond to increases of the other. Qualification is the factor that represents the level of education of the person interviewed. The factor levels are: no qualification, primary, middle, or secondary-school diploma, or a Vol. 18, No. 161/December 2017 QUALITY access to success FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT university degree. In order to carry out the analysis we used the R statistical environment and fitted a one-way (ANOVA) model, or a Student's t-test generalization to k populations to test the null hypothesis of equality of the population means. In other words, comparisons were made between the means of the populations so as to test the significance of the differences between them (Table 1). Table 1. Descriptive Analysis increase in the level of socially responsible consumption. To test this hypothesis a simple linear regression model was fitted using R statistical software, as follows: CSR: α + βexpendituresM + ε where CSR is the response variable that represents the level of individual socially responsible consumption, α is the intercept, β is the slope of the regression line, expendituiresM are the average monthly expenditures per respondent and ε represents the stochastic part of the model. Next table (Table 2) shows the principal dates. diploma Table 2. Analysis of Regression line Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 9.00 17.00 22.00 21.47 26.00 31.00 lm(formula = csr ~ expendituresM) Residuals elementary Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. Min IQ Median 3Q Max 12.00 18.25 20.00 21.00 26.25 28.00 -21.411 -2.203 1.084 2.864 15.176 Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|) 13.824409 1.076.152 12.846 < 2e-16 *** 0.035779 0.004086 8.757 3.49e-14 *** university Coefficients: Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 7.00 22.00 26.00 25.49 30.00 33.00 (Intercept) expendituresM middle Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 1.00 8.00 17.00 17.59 26.00 31.00 Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 5.385 on 106 degrees of freedom Multiple R-squared: 0.4197, Adjusted R-squared: 0.4143 F-statistic: 76.68 on 1 and 106 DF, p-value: 3.493e-14 n.qualification Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 13.00 14.50 16.00 17.33 19.50 23.00 As can be seen from this first descriptive analysis, the means of the different levels of the factor are different, specifically the means are arranged according to the following order: no qualification < elementary < middle < high school < university The inference is that the higher the level of education, the higher the average level of responsible consumption. To test whether this difference in means was significant, Student’s t-test was used. Having set the level of significance at 5%, the hypothesis system was as follows: H0 : αi = 0 for every i H1 : αi ≠ 0 for at least some i In sum, with alpha we define the additive effect of the single factor; if equal to zero, none of the levels has a single effect greater than the other levels, therefore confirming an equality between the means; vice versa if it is different from zero, at least one difference between two levels is significant, thus a difference exists between at least two means. Verification is based on the value of the significance value p. If the value is lower than the set level of significance, the alternative hypothesis is accepted, vice versa we fail to reject the null hypothesis. As far as the amount of individual spending is concerned, we can assume it to be a good indicator of the socio-economic status of the respondent. In fact, some products whose features are in part related to socially responsible consumption drivers, often belong to markets having higher than average selling prices, or whose markets are more difficult to access, nonetheless bearing in mind the additional time/effort required to acquire the relevant information. Consequently, the hypothesis to be tested is whether the increase in average monthly expenditures correlates with an QUALITY access to success Vol. 18, No. 161/December 2017 By way of the first commands we are able to estimate the parameters of the regression line: csr = 13.824409 + 0.035779spesaM 2. Results and discussion As shown in the diagram below (Table 3), the results obtained give a p value of less than 5%, therefore the alternative hypothesis H1, i.e. at least one difference between the means is significant, is accepted. Table 3. Analysis of Variance Table Response: CSR Df Sum Sq Mean Sq F value Pf(>F) Qualification 4 865.5 216.381 Residuals 103 4432.7 50279 0.0009648 *** 43.036 Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’1 The presence of an added effect of at least one factor demonstrates that the qualifications variable influences one’s level of responsible consumption, that is, the scale of the mean values of the individual factors increases. This feature highlights two different and highly significant objective characteristics that emerge at the moment of purchase: first, with regard to the supply side, there is a low level of diffusion of relevant information concerning the production and commercialization of these products, entailing a difficulty for the consumer to access information and appropriately interpret it. Secondly, consumers who manage to acquire the information must have the background knowledge that allows them to evaluate them properly. In this regard, an increasing cultural level on the part of 147 FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT the individual favors those self-safeguarding patterns of behavior that allow him or her to make informed choices. Similarly, with regard to the individual spending, which includes both domestic consumption as well as that outside of the home, it is, at least in absolute terms, an indicator of the socioeconomic status of the respondent. An increasing range of average individual spending values fairly objectively reflects a corresponding range of personal economic income. In light of the present study, this premise establishes that: given that the level of responsible consumption increases with increases in consumers’ average monthly expenditures, increased earning capacity objectively affords consumers greater possibilities of taking a position in the market. As can be seen, the slope of the line (13.824409) is positive and non-zero (although very close), with a determination coefficient R2 of 0:41. Although the latter indicates a low model fit to the data, one may verify whether this difference is nonetheless significant, such as to suggest that the response variable is effectively correlated, in this case positively, with the independent variable by comparing the p.value with a significance level of 5%, so as to either reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis of α = 0. In the case in point, this value is lower, thus allowing one to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis of α ≠ 0. The above mentioned situation is shown in Figure 1. to the notion of quality of life, then responsible consumption may become an essential collaborative tool of economic policy. As such, the main direction to embark upon should be that of uncoupling the possibility of positioning oneself freely in matters of consumption choices from one’s socio-economic conditions. Q-as References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Figure 1. Relationship between responsible consumption and individual consumer spending [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] One’s disposable income obviously has the single-greatest influence on spending capacity and the formulation of the basket of goods to be purchased. However, the greater the income, the higher the ability to access information and save time while choosing one’s basket of goods. Similarly, the greater the spending capacity, the easier to choose one’s stance with respect to the market. 3. Conclusions The objectives that responsible consumers pursue, in any case, generate positive externalities, because, even though socalled green goods are purchased for primarily self-interested reasons, the benefits of such purchases ultimately have social effects, for example on the environment. The final considerations regards this consumer profile are two-fold: firstly, the socio-economic status is, often, prerequisite to becoming responsible consumers; secondly, there are insufficient incentives and policies to ensure that one’s socioeconomic conditions not be a limiting factor, with the corollary that for a part of the population there is a difficulty in accessing certain information and, especially, certain groups of products that for the intrinsic characteristics we may define greener, or healthier. 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(2016), Trends and perspectives of the information asymmetry between consumers and Italian traditional food producers. Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, 8(1), 19-24. Vol. 18, No. 161/December 2017 QUALITY access to success