Gianluca Stefani

Consumers’ perception of wine packaging: a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the methodology adopted and the main results achieved by an exploratory study on consumers perception of wine packaging.Design/methodology/approach – The research was designed to elicit the relevant dimensions through which consumers perceive and describe differences between bottles of wine. In order to allow respondents to freely express their perceptions without suggesting a priori descriptive category/dimensions a repertory grid (RGT) approach was followed. A sample of 30 consumers were asked to analyse differences across 11 bottles and to summarize them in descriptive bipolar constructs. The results were analysed performing a consensus procrustes analysis. An innovative feature of this study was the analysis of complete transcriptions of interviews to better understand the meaning assigned by consumers to descriptive constructs.Findings – The attributes of bottles and labels represent the main factors underlying wine packaging perceptions. These charac...

Exploring consumer’s preferences for farmed sea bream

Sea bream (Sparus aurata) production plays a significant part in Italian aquaculture, contributing to almost 18% of national pisciculture sales revenue. In recent years, Italian firms faced higher competition from countries with lower production costs. This prompted responses toward both cost reduction and product differentiation. The objective of this study was to investigate the preferences of Italian consumers for sea bream from fish farms, with a focus on aspects of product differentiation as gleaned from the analysis of the market situation: price, product origin, type and place of fish farming, and, in particular, type of feed. Data were collected with a consumers’ survey using personal interviews conducted on a questionnaire that included a choice experiment. Consumer preferences were analyzed with choice models based on stated preference data. The models made it possible to evaluate the potential of products with different combinations of attributes for which there is currently no market information available. In particular, the country of origin emerged as an important element of consumer choice, and to a lesser degree, organic certification and fish farming in marine cages also play a relevant role and may command a price premium.

From Agricultural to Bio-based Economics? Context, State of the Art and Challenges

The world economy is experiencing dramatic changes.In this context, the concept of bioeconomy (or bio-economy, or bio-based economy) has emerged as a key strategy to match human needs while facing resource efficiency requirements, based on the sustainable exploitation of biological resources. The Italian Association of Agriculture and Applied Economics (AIEAA) is launching a new journal, “Bio-based and applied economics†(BAE). The main questions behind this initiative are: why a Journal on bio-based economics? And, why is it launched by a scientific society of agricultural economists? We will try to answer these questions by briefly reviewing current trends in the evolution of academic responses to past, recent and emerging research needs in the field of agriculture economics and its interaction with the closest fields of economics, building on this examination to single out relevant challenges for future research.

Escaping the resource curse in regional development: a case study on the allocation of oil royalties

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the allocation of royalties from oil extraction on regional development through a case study on the Basilicata region (Italy). We examine how the regional governments chosen policies have impacted the income of Basilicata residents and the economic development of the region and how a different set of choices may reveal a more effective approach to turning revenue into long-term public benefits. The analysis focuses on growth as well as on distributive impacts of the allocation of royalties. The results clearly show that the past allocation of the royalties accruing to regional government into regional policies generated little impact in terms of economic growth and occupation, the total well below what was expected. Appreciable impacts on incomes and occupation will not be forthcoming unless resources are redirected towards supporting a stronger competitiveness of the regional economic system.

Regional Differentiation and Farm Exit: A Hierarchical Model for Tuscany

We analyse the exit behaviour of Tuscan farms during the period 2000–2007 both at the farm and the territorial level. The study combines data from the 2000 National Census of Agriculture and three waves of the ‘Farm Structure Surveys’. The exit probability of the resulting sample, composed of 3,187 farms, is estimated through a Bayesian hierarchical probit model. Our results show that exits reflect the size and type of holdings. Likelihood of exit is higher in areas of higher population density that are not classified as ‘urban’ areas.

Micro-simulation of households: a new tool to assess the impact on society of food safety policies

Public concerns about the risk from food hazards have spread in recent years, boosted by a number of well-publicized food scares. As a result, food safety issues are high on the policy agenda in Europe and elsewhere, and a range of policies have been developed to deal with them. The paper illustrates and makes a case for the use of micro-simulation models as support for better economic assessment of food policies. When households deal with food safety issues they can show heterogeneous behaviors, and micro-simulation can provide a useful tool to take into account this heterogeneity. However, to the authors knowledge, no attempt to use micro-simulation in the analysis of food safety policies has taken place so far. After an illustration of the way economists evaluate food safety policies, micro-simulation methodologies are introduced, stressing their potentiality for the assessment of food safety policies.

Exploring costs and benefits of compliance with HACCP regulation in the European meat and dairy sectors

A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Program was introduced as a mandatory measure in the EU in the 1990s. Despite its impact on the food industry, only limited literature addresses the issue of cost and benefits of HACCP at the firm level in Europe. This paper illustrates the results of a pilot study on case studies in Italy, UK and The Netherlands, providing a first assessment of the order of magnitude of costs of compliance and a qualitative illustration of the main benefits perceived by producers.

An addendum to: a meta-analysis of hypothethical bias in stated preference valuation.

A recent study published by Murphy et al. (2005) reported results of a meta-analysis of hypothetical bias using 28 valuation studies. The authors found a median ratio of hypothetical to actual values of 1.35 but they did not investigate the ratio of variances of the hypothetical and actual value distributions, which is of great relevance in joint stated and revealed preference analysis. We propose an addendum to Murphy et al. (2005) to provide some insights on the distribution of the scale factor across 23 studies for which relevant data is available. We distinguish three types of dispersion parameters reported in the literature. We find that the ratio of real to hypothetical standard deviations of marginal distributions of WTP is about 0.6.

Health and Nutrition Studies Related to Cereal Biodiversity: A Participatory Multi-Actor Literature Review Approach

Recently, a large and growing body of literature has investigated the health potential of different wheat species. In particular, a considerable number of studies dealing with nutritional aspects has grown up around the theme of the recovery of ancient wheat varieties (species that have remained unchanged over the last hundred years). According to several studies, indeed, ancient varieties present a healthier nutritional profile than modern ones. In the framework of the European project “CERERE, CEreal REnaissance in Rural Europe: embedding diversity in organic and low-input food systems”, this paper aimed to review recent research on the issue of health and nutritional cereal systems by adopting an innovative and participatory multi-actor approach which involved practitioners along with researchers. The participatory approach is the main innovation and peculiarity of this literature review. Nevertheless, the review highlights the many positive effects derived from eating whole and ancient grains such as a significant reduction in the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and also a more favorable long-term weight management and increase in satiety. This review may be considered as a fruitful starting point that integrates research results to foster current and future healthier and sustainable practices in cereal systems.

Blissed ignorance?: The role of process information on consumer evaluation of a typical Italian salami

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of information on origin, “typicalness”, production method and flavour on the willingness to pay and the sensorial appreciation of Tuscan sanguinaccio (Italian Salami). Design/methodology/approach – The goal of the study was to explore how differences between willingness to pay and sensorial appreciation (measured using a hedonic score) for the three types are influenced by the nature of the sensorial and non-sensorial information available to the consumer. To evaluate reaction to sensorial information, typical information regimes used in works on degree of disconfirmation (Schifferstein, 2001) were adopted, that is, visual examination of the product with indication of the name and tasting of the labelled product. Findings – Analysis of the results of the experiments indicates that Mallegato and Biroldo have particular characteristics that make it critical to promote them to a vast public. The information on the production methods and ingredients seemed to interact negatively with the sensorial perception of the product after tasting, probably because of the presence of blood and other problematic components (for example, components of the pig head in Biroldo) among the ingredients. Research limitations/implications – Limited size of the sample and a gastronomic niche product analyzed. Practical implications – The negative influence of the processed information has to be considered to efficiently communicate the typicalness of these salami products. In fact, whilst for other traditional products, different kinds of information related to process, raw materials, recipes and, more generally, tradition can be jointly used to increase the arousal and the expectation on products quality characteristics, in this case, the communication strategy has to carefully consider the limit of these product components. Originality/value – For the first time the use of experimental auctions investigate the role of problematic information, such as the presence of blood, on consumers’ preference towards a typical gastronomic product.