Anne Arvola

Predicting intentions to purchase organic food: The role of affective and moral attitudes in the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study examined the usefulness of integrating measures of affective and moral attitudes into the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)-model in predicting purchase intentions of organic foods. Moral attitude was operationalised as positive self-rewarding feelings of doing the right thing. Questionnaire data were gathered in three countries: Italy (N=202), Finland (N=270) and UK (N=200) in March 2004. Questions focussed on intentions to purchase organic apples and organic ready-to-cook pizza instead of their conventional alternatives. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling by simultaneous multi-group analysis of the three countries. Along with attitudes, moral attitude and subjective norms explained considerable shares of variances in intentions. The relative influences of these variables varied between the countries, such that in the UK and Italy moral attitude rather than subjective norms had stronger explanatory power. In Finland it was other way around. Inclusion of moral attitude improved the model fit and predictive ability of the model, although only marginally in Finland. Thus the results partially support the usefulness of incorporating moral measures as well as affective items for attitude into the framework of TPB.

Impressions of functional food consumers.

Functional foods provide a new way of expressing healthiness in food choices. The objective of this study was to apply an indirect measure to explore what kind of impressions people form of users of functional foods. Respondents (n=350) received one of eight versions of a shopping list and rated the buyer of the foods on 66 bipolar attributes on 7-point scales. The shopping lists had either healthy or neutral background items, conventional or functional target items and the buyer was described either as a 40-year-old woman or man. The attribute ratings revealed three factors: disciplined, innovative and gentle. Buyers with healthy background items were perceived as more disciplined than those having neutral items on the list, users of functional foods were rated as more disciplined than users of conventional target items only when the background list consisted of neutral items. Buyers of functional foods were regarded as more innovative and less gentle, but gender affected the ratings on gentle dimension. The impressions of functional food users clearly differ from those formed of users of conventional foods with a healthy image. The shopping list method performed well as an indirect method, but further studies are required to test its feasibility in measuring other food-related impressions.

Food Neophobia and Variety Seeking — Consumer Fear or Demand for New Food Products

Food neophobia influences our willingness to try new foods and thereby how we accept new foods into our diet. Once the threshold of trying a food has been crossed, other mechanisms such as exposure, liking for the food, possible physiological effects, convenience and so on, can influence the further use of the food. Therefore food neophobia can act as an internal gatekeeper in our diet.

Comparison of elicitation methods for moral and affective beliefs in the theory of planned behaviour

Although the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) has been applied successfully in the area of food choice, it has been criticized for its pure utilitarian approach to the factors determining behaviour. Despite the increase in predictive power of the model with added components such as affective attitude and moral and ethical concerns, in most studies the elicitation process still only addresses peoples utilitarian beliefs about the behaviour with little attention paid to other aspects. This study compares the traditional method of elicitation of advantages and disadvantages with two other methods (word association and open-ended) in the elicitations of beliefs, attitudes and moral concerns in relation to the consumption of organic foods. Results show the traditional method to be best for eliciting cognitive beliefs, open-ended emotion task for eliciting emotional beliefs and open-ended beliefs task best for moral concerns. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed.

Food behaviours of Italian consumers at risk of poverty

Purpose – At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food behaviours of Italian female consumers, distinguishing similarities and differences due to age and level of income. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation adopted an inductive approach in order to analyse and confirm the determinants of food behaviours. Data were collected through four focus groups. Data elaboration included content analyses with term frequency – inverse document frequency index and multidimensional scaling technique. Findings – The food behaviours of Italian female consumers are based on a common set of semantic categories and theoretical dimensions that are coherent with those applied by previous studies. The age of consumers impacts the relevance attributed to the categories and income contributes to the explanation of the conceptual relations among the...

Hello Pepper, May I Tickle You?: Children's and Adults' Responses to an Entertainment Robot at a Shopping Mall

We took a social robot Pepper to a shopping mall for one day to see what kind of initial responses it draws from people. We observed that the robot was quickly surrounded by children when there were others-especially adults-interacting with it. The children seemed to especially enjoy the activity-related applications, such as tickling the robot or giving a high-five. Adults were interested in hearing about useful applications and tended to talk to the robot as if it were any machine capable of speech recognition. These observations will help to design more interactive and entertaining applications for shopping mall robots.

Financing major repairs in apartment buildings through infill development: Exploring views and benefit requirements of the owner-occupiers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study views of owner-occupiers concerning infill development as a mechanism for financing major repairs in apartment buildings and financial benefits they require from the infill development for accepting it near their homes (on the plot of their housing company). Design/methodology/approach The data used draws upon a survey of 894 respondents concerning residents’ views on infill development in Finland. The required financial benefits from the infill development were questioned in both relative proportions of the expenses related to major repairs and concrete monetary sums. Findings First, the findings indicate that the financial benefits owner-occupiers require in order to accept infill development are significant, covering about two-thirds of the costs of major repairs during following ten years or over 75 percent of an (imagined) upcoming pipeline repair. Second, approximately one-fifth of the respondents regard that no economic benefit is enough to make them support infill development. Third, people’s decision-making concerning infill development is complex, involving also many other factors than monetary. Practical implications This paper provides insight into the feasibility of infill development as a means to finance major repairs from the perspective of owner-occupiers. The paper has strong policy implications as it highlights the significance of the public authorities and their policies in enabling the infill development. Originality/value This is the first academic study to focus on owner-occupiers views and financial requirements for the infill development as a means to finance major repairs in apartment buildings.

Women’s Income and Healthy Eating Perception

Abstract Purpose The purpose of the chapter is to explore the relation between women’s healthy eating intention and food attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and barriers with a focus on the effect of women’s income differences. Methodology/approach The research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior, including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived barriers, and ability opportunity resources. Close-ended survey responses of 704 women between ages 25 and 65 years, affluent and at-risk-of-poverty women in three EU-member countries were analyzed. Findings Women are mostly positively inclined towards healthy eating, and income does not differentiate women’s inclination. Influencing factors are perceived behavioral control, attitudes towards healthy eating, subjective norms, and level of knowledge regarding healthy food. Barriers, when present, are similar for lower or higher income women and relate to routinized family habits and food affordability and availability. Research limitations/implications Future research should thoroughly investigate family network and structure features, with a focus on family food preferences and habits. Social and practical implications Encouraging women’s healthy behavior also impacts children and men, and vice-versa. There is need to target all family components with enjoyable, self-rewarding, emotionally gratifying, and pleasant tasting food. Originality/value Income is an overestimated driver in healthy food choices. Women are strongly influenced by personal and environmental factors, mainly personal control, feelings, and family habits.

Residents’ trust predicting attitudes towards infill development

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse what constitutes trust for residents in the infill development context, who are the targets of trust, and does residents’ trust predict their attitudes towards infill development. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were carried out. A qualitative study in three housing developments was followed by a quantitative study with 906 respondents in the Helsinki area, Finland. Findings Four stakeholders relevant to the residents’ trust were identified: the board of housing development, the housing manager, city planners, and construction companies. Three dimensions were found to constitute residents’ trust in these stakeholders (competence, benevolence and integrity). Furthermore, analyses revealed that trust in city planners and construction companies significantly predicted residents’ attitudes towards infill development. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study have implications on the management of the infill development process. More attention should be paid to how residents’ perceptions of trust towards the other stakeholders are formed in order to facilitate successful infill projects. The quantitative study was carried out in different residential areas. Based on this study, the authors were not able to analyse whether and how the characteristics of the residential areas might influence the results, which represents a limitation of this study. Originality/value This paper provides in-depth insights into the role of trust in explaining residents’ attitudes towards infill development. Previous research devoted to the topic is scarce, neglects residents’ perspectives and lacks empirical evidence. The discussions are mainly contemplation based on case examples. No previous studies have explicitly studied the significance of trust with large samples.