Does Product Diversity Signal Bargains in Australian Wine?

The residuals from a set of linear regression equations built to explain the quality of a bottle of Australian wine via eight quality signals are examined to determine whether there is any relationship between their signs for individual producers and the diversity of their offerings. Product diversity is found to be a fault-ridden signal of a quality-bargain, which we define as a bottle of wine whose quality rating exceeds its regression-based expectation. Indeed, to the extent that the signal does impart useful information, the message would be that consumers are less likely to get their money's worth the greater is the diversity of the producer's offerings.wine marketing, product diversity, wine quality, predicted quality, quality-bargain, Agribusiness, Marketing,

Analysis of consumer preferences for information and expert opinion using a discrete choice experiment

We present a study of consumer preferences for information in wine purchases. Consumers are presented with extra information in the form of qualitative product descriptions and quantitative expert ratings. We implement a discrete choice exper- iment in which we vary experimentally the presence of the descriptions and ratings and the values of the ratings themselves. Respondents are asked to choose amongst a set of 5 wine bottles in a sequence of 21 choice scenarios. We find that the presence of extra information and high expert ratings have a significant impact on the will- ingness to pay for a given wine. The dispersion of ratings for a given wine does not affect respondents’ choices. In our estimates high average ratings by experts carry a premium of AUD $10.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Best-Worst Scaling: A simple method to determine drinks and wine style preferences

Wine marketers are continually involved with measuring consumer preferences usually by means of surveys or consumer purchase panel data. In this paper we provide initial results using a relatively new and very straightforward method for measuring consumer preferences. The best-worst scaling method (also called max-diffs) simply asks consumers to look at sets of products, attributes, or other factors to be compared and choose from each set the best/most favourable and the worst/least favourable. A simple count and manipulation results in a single preference scale, where the differences may be compared as distances rather than rank order. Managerial implications of the importance of wine attributes that influence consumer drinks purchasing and wine style selection are discussed as well as suggestions for future research. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the practical and a scholarly usefulness of this approach and present a call for replication in other markets in an ongoing manner.Steven Goodman, Larry Lockshin and Eli Cohe

Using the best-worst method to examine market segments and identify different influences of consumer choice

Wine marketers use market segmentation to target different products to different segments in order to increase sales, often with little evidence about what influences choice within or between segments. In this paper we provide initial results using a relatively new and very straightforward method for measuring consumer preferences. The best-worst scaling method (also called max-diffs) simply asks consumers to look at sets of products, attributes, or other factors to be compared and choose from each set the best/most favourable and the worst/least favourable. A simple count and manipulation results in a single preference scale, where the differences may be compared as distances rather than rank order. This paper shows how segmenting the consumers using factors such as gender, frequency of consumption, wine involvement and age produce segments with similar preferences for different varietal wines. Two country examples are used, Israel and Australia, to show the ability of the Best-Worst method to develop ‘maps’ of segments across markets based on patterns of choice. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the practical and a scholarly usefulness of this approach and to show the method for a larger cross-national study across major wine consuming markets.Steven Goodman, Larry Lockshin and Eli Cohenhttp://academyofwinebusiness.com/?page_id=33

Do Respondents use Extra Information Provided in Online Best-Worst Choice Experiments?

An issue of interest to researchers is the amount of explanatory information one needs to give respondents making decisions in choice tasks. One way to resolve this issue is to let people select only relevant information from interactive information sources. This resolution poses unanswered questions: e.g., will respondents use the extra information, and potential systematic differences in information users and non-users. To shed some light on this issue, we let respondents access optional descriptive information about attributes in the form of partial (verbal) and full (verbal plus visual) glossaries associated with a Best-Worst (BW) web survey. Only a small minority with higher subjective product knowledge accessed the glossary information. We found no significant difference between verbal and visual information in attractiveness of use or impact on choice

Monte Carlo Simulations of Sexual Reproduction

Modifying the Redfield model of sexual reproduction and the Penna model of biological aging, we compare reproduction with and without recombination in age-structured populations. In contrast to Redfield and in agreement with Bernardes we find sexual reproduction to be preferred to asexual one. In particular, the presence of old but still reproducing males helps the survival of younger females beyond their reproductive age.Comment: 8 pages, plain tex, 7 EPS figures, to appear in PHYSICA

Understanding Young Chinese Wine Consumers Through Innovation Diffusion Theory

Purpose – This paper aims to examine young Chinese wine consumers’ perceptions of the diffused wine information in China, and explore the factors that may influence their perceptions. Design – A positivism paradigm was employed to design the research. Methodology – Quantitative data were collected from a total of 507 young Chinese wine consumers via a self-administered structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and advanced statistics were employed to analyse the collected data. Approach – Respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique. Deductive approach was used to reason data. Research ethics were observed. Findings – Six dimensions (complexity, compatibility, relative advantage, observability, religion and ethics, and trialability diffused wine information) emerged via Principal Component Analysis. Young Chinese wine consumers’ perceptions of the diffused wine information were independent of their personal and professional backgrounds. However, consumers with different education levels and religions considered differently the expensiveness of wine to purchase. Their considerations of the expensiveness of wine to purchase were dependent on their awareness of alcoholic friends and family members, age, education levels and gender. Originality of the research – This study is possibly the first of its kind to employ the diffusion of innovation theory to examine young Chinese wine consumers’ perceptions