Multi-actor approaches to implement cooperative strategies and value chains based on sustainability

Abstract This special issue of Agricultural and Food Economics consists of four articles that were part of the scientific programme of the First SIDEA-SIEA Joint Conference, held in Bisceglie in September 2017. The conference afforded agricultural economists the opportunity to reflect on cooperative strategies to promote competitiveness of the agri-food supply chain, with a focus on environmental quality and social sustainability. The selected articles address these themes from different perspectives: those of firms, of consumers, and of policy makers, stressing that sustainability calls for the active participation of all of the actors. The case studies presented propose an effective interpretation of the strategies for value creation with respect to the challenges of climate change, food waste management, the development of marginal rural areas, and that of the fish sector

Territory, environment, and healthiness in traditional food choices: Insights into consumer heterogeneity

Traditional foods are facing new market challenges tied to current trends in food habits and their determinants, such as the decline of domestic food preparation, the increased demand for convenience foods, the increasing importance of industrial food production, and the evolution of regulations on food safety. In this context our study aims at improving the knowledge of consumer segments in traditional foods market in order to develop better marketing strategies. The preferences for different credence attributes are investigated applying a latent class choice model to the extra-virgin olive oil market in Italy. Results show the existence of a marked heterogeneity of preferences, which determines the presence of both vertical and horizontal differentiation of the product

The Role of Context Definition in Choice Experiments: a Methodological Proposal Based on Customized Scenarios

One of the most critical points for the validity of Discrete Choice Experiments lies in their capability to render the experiment as close to actual market conditions as possible. In particular, when dealing with products characterized by a large number of attributes, the construction of the experiment poses the issue of how to express the choice question providing sufficient information. Our study verifies the role of scenario definition in choice experiments and proposes a methodology to build customized scenarios by eliciting responses from interviewees on the main choice criteria, which makes it possible to render the conditions of the experiment more realistic. This methodology is applied to the case study of wine and is introduced by a systematic review of the Discrete Choice Experiments conducted on wine. The findings show that customized scenarios result in different preference estimates compared to the conventional approach. In particular, we found a significant decline in the importance of the price attribute, which could be attributed to a better definition of the product being evaluated. Moreover, the methodology is capable of gathering information on the decision-making process that would otherwise remain unobserved and that can be used for a better segmentation analysis

Future Scenarios of the Food System: Insights from the Consumers’ Perspective

 A careful analysis of contemporary society shows a radical evolution of the role and function of consumption. So-called post-modernity, along with the technological, economic and social transformations that have brought it on, inaugurate a different way of conducting relationships, of existing and of consuming. So consumptions evolve, assuming new expressions in extremely heterogeneous ambits, including that of food consumptions. The past decades have witnessed a progressive increase in the complexity of food consumptions due to the affirmation of increasingly more differentiated trends sensitive to territorial specificity and, at the same time, open to the globalisation of tastes. This topic represents a theme as interesting from the scientific viewpoint as it is decisive from the perspective of implementing food marketing strategies. In this framework, studying food consumptions and the sources that influence them in order to comprehend motivations and significances, implicates reflecting on and investigating into the way these practises can be the object of conditioning mediated by business communication, social practises and practises among friends, or by particular socio-economic conditions...

Consumer Response to Quality Differentiation Strategies in Wine PDOs

Abstract The wine-growing sector is probably the area of agriculture that best expresses the binomial of production quality-territorial identity. In fact, the identification of agricultural production with the territory, its peculiarities and its atmospheres generates a relationship that is mutually advantageous and that the consumer perceives and values. This binomial is the basis that has generated the PDOs, which represent a winning solution for the success of productions that are otherwise fragmented and have little market "recognisability". A current debate that has spread to various wine-growing areas questions the advisability of introducing sub-zoning based on quality levels in order to better promote the typical characteristics of each territory. The objective of this paper is to verify whether the strategy of sub-zoning based on the quality diversification of productions could constitute an appropriate tool to further promote a territory's productions. Towards this end, we have developed a discrete choice experiment to compare a new Chianti Classico DOCG type of excellence with other 4 DOCG Tuscan Sangiovese wines. The results show that introducing this new typology into a territory that has already been awarded the DOCG certification can represent a valid development strategy for the firm, as well as for territories