Giorgio Schifani

Quality attributes of cactus pear fruit and their role in consumer choice: The case of Italian consumers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to detect what experience and credence quality attributes contribute to the consumer decision to consume cactus pear fruit. The authors therefore try to measure the effect of each quality attribute on consumer choice. Design/methodology/approach – As a theoretical basis, two principal quality attributes emphasised in the literature on consumer behaviour were analysed and adjusted to the specific fruit features. The empirical strategy was carried out by administering a telephone questionnaire survey of 270 interviewees who consume cactus pears in Italy. The questionnaire, consisting of 14 items expressed on a metric scale (five-point Likert scale), was used to rate the importance of cactus pear fruit quality attributes. An ordered logit model was employed for data analysis. Findings – The results show that consumption of cactus pear fruit is mainly based on credence and experience attributes, which have different effects on the consumer decision to consume cactus pear...

Identifying Social Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Farmers participation in Alternative Food Network

The concept of social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and attracting increased attention from research institutions and business schools around the world to understand how these satisfy the needs of communities, those private and public institutions are not adequately addressing. Social entrepreneurship, identified as activity with a social objective, was used in this study as a conceptual tool to empirically examine farmer’s participation in AFNs. Using a behavioural approach, we conducted a survey in Sicily, Italy, using a questionnaire with modified items from the Edinburgh Study of Decision Making on Farms. From the results emerges that around 64% of the farmers participating in AFNs is driven by social entrepreneurial dimension.