Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

The ability of a firm to differentiate their product hinges critically on an accurate understanding of the perceptions consumers hold regarding the implications of a credence labeling claim. Building upon existing work evaluating other food attribute labels (e.g., genetically-modified products, region of origin, use of growth hormones) and the impact of consumer inferences (e.g., implicit associations made from explicitly provided information), this work begins to address gaps in the literature regarding food products with sustainably produced claims. This paper uses data collected in the summer and fall of 2010 from a national, web-based survey of 1002 households, to initiate the process of examining consumer inferences and valuations of food products making sustainably produced claims. A Best-Worst scaling framework was implemented to identify what consumers believe sustainably produced labels mean and their preferences for each of the sustainable farming practices considered. The best-worst survey method forces respondents to make trade-offs by simultaneously choosing the most and least preferred attributes. The measured level of concern can then be applied to a standardized ratio scale. The results of this study suggest that consumers perceive farm size and local production as highly important elements of sustainable agriculture. Additionally, consumer preferences over economic attributes such as consumer food prices and financial stability of farmers exhibit high heterogeneity, indicating segmentation in the sample and potential for targeted marketing management.Sustainably Produced Food, Best-Worst, Consumer Perceptions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Q01, Q13, Q11,

Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

This paper uses data collected in the summer and fall of 2010 from a national, web-based survey of 1002 households to initiate the process of examining consumer inferences and valuations of food products making "sustainably produced” claims. A Best-Worst scaling framework was implemented to identify what consumers believe “sustainably produced” labels mean and their preferences for each of the individual sustainable farming practices. The best-worst survey method forces respondents to make trade-offs by simultaneously choosing the most and least preferred attributes. The measured level of concern is then applied to a ratio scale. The ability of a firm to differentiate their product hinges critically on an accurate understanding of the perceptions consumers hold regarding what a credence labelling claim implies. Building upon existing work evaluating other food attribute labels (e.g., genetically-modified products, region of origin, use of growth hormones) and the impact of consumer inferences (e.g., implicit associations made from explicitly provided information), this work begins to address gaps in the literature regarding food products with “sustainably produced” claims.Sustainably Produced Food, Consumer Perceptions, Best-Worst, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q01, Q13, Q11,

Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

The ability of a firm to differentiate their product hinges critically on an accurate understanding of the perceptions consumers hold regarding the implications of a credence labeling claim. Building upon existing work evaluating other food attribute labels (e.g., genetically-modified products, region of origin, use of growth hormones) and the impact of consumer inferences (e.g., implicit associations made from explicitly provided information), this work begins to address gaps in the literature regarding food products with sustainably produced claims. This paper uses data collected in the summer and fall of 2010 from a national, web-based survey of 1002 households, to initiate the process of examining consumer inferences and valuations of food products making sustainably produced claims. A Best-Worst scaling framework was implemented to identify what consumers believe sustainably produced labels mean and their preferences for each of the sustainable farming practices considered. The best-worst survey method forces respondents to make trade-offs by simultaneously choosing the most and least preferred attributes. The measured level of concern can then be applied to a standardized ratio scale. The results of this study suggest that consumers perceive farm size and local production as highly important elements of sustainable agriculture. Additionally, consumer preferences over economic attributes such as consumer food prices and financial stability of farmers exhibit high heterogeneity, indicating segmentation in the sample and potential for targeted marketing management

Personality and Procedural Invariance: Effects on Bidding Behavior Across Induced Value Experimental Auction Mechanisms

A growing literature exists on the design, implementation and evaluation of experimental auctions with a variety of non-market valuation applications. With behavioral economic models becoming more mainstreamed in the discipline, a natural question arises about how personality traits might affect bidding behavior in experimental auctions. To address this question, a series of induced-value experiments were carried out in the fall of 2012. Personality traits were measured in pre- and post-surveys aligning with the Midlife Development Inventory Analysis. Regression analysis determined the effects of personality traits on over- and under-bidding behaviors across four frequently used auction mechanism: the Becker-Degroot-Marschak, 2nd Price, Random Nth Price, and English auctions. Results indicate that only the BDM and Random Nth price auctions are significantly affected by personality profile. Specifically, openness, extraversion, and neuroticism are associated with overbidding behavior and agreeableness is associated with underbidding behaviors

Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

Building on existing work evaluating food-attribute labels, we use data collected in 2010 from a national web-based survey of 1,002 households to examine consumer inferences and valuations of food products promoted as “sustainably produced.” A best-worst scale framework was implemented to identify how consumers define “sustainably produced” and their preferences for each of the sustainable farming practices considered. The results suggest that consumers perceive farm size and local production as important elements of sustainable agriculture while economic attributes exhibit a significant amount of heterogeneity, indicating segmentation in the sample and the potential for targeted marketing

Discrete Choice Modeling of Consumer Preferences for Sustainably Produced Steak and Apples

"Sustainably produced" food labels have rapidly grown in popularity over the past decade (Batte 2011). Moreover, because there is no government agency overseeing certification of these production methods, consumers are generally confused about the production attributes that may or may not be present in a sustainable food system. This paper analyzes data from a hypothetical choice experiment to better understand consumer purchasing behavior when faced with competing food production attributes such as "organic" and "local". We seek to estimate preferences for "sustainably produced" food products and determine how they may be affected by varying degrees of information about sustainable agricultural systems. Additionally, the willingness to pay measurements estimated in this paper provide insight into the trade-offs perceived between current eco-labeling schemes, and the potential for differentiating "sustainably produced" products from their "organic" and "local" counterparts

Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

This paper uses data collected in the summer and fall of 2010 from a national, web-based survey of 1002 households to initiate the process of examining consumer inferences and valuations of food products making "sustainably produced” claims. A Best-Worst scaling framework was implemented to identify what consumers believe “sustainably produced” labels mean and their preferences for each of the individual sustainable farming practices. The best-worst survey method forces respondents to make trade-offs by simultaneously choosing the most and least preferred attributes. The measured level of concern is then applied to a ratio scale. The ability of a firm to differentiate their product hinges critically on an accurate understanding of the perceptions consumers hold regarding what a credence labelling claim implies. Building upon existing work evaluating other food attribute labels (e.g., genetically-modified products, region of origin, use of growth hormones) and the impact of consumer inferences (e.g., implicit associations made from explicitly provided information), this work begins to address gaps in the literature regarding food products with “sustainably produced” claims