Giovanni Cicia

Il sistema agroalimentare ed il consumatore postmoderno : nuove sfide per la ricerca e per il mercato

The paper is an attempt to analyze the role of consumers and some of the most important trends in the food systemin the Eght of a new interpretative key that refers to the concept of postmodernity which has been generated in the field of sociology and progressively outlined from the first 80s. In postmodern society the act of consumption becomes an expression of culture and identity creation, products as material objects lose their importance and they become marks, symbols and a way to communicate personality. These phenomenons are difficult to interpret with the standard theory of neoclassical consumer, although several attempts in this direction have been carried out. For example, the proposal to introduce a function of happiness to express the features and behavior of the postmodern consumer is a possibility to be explored but certainly not yet a new theory. In the first part of the report the concept of postmodernism, its origin and evolution is discussed. Later, in the light of this new interpretative key the changing role of the consumer is analyzed. Finally, as case studies, the strategies of modern distribution and the problem oftypical Italian food products in foreign markets are also discussed. All the analysed cases, illustrate very well the traditional rules can lead to political intervention pontentially erroneous, as for example, an excess of expenditure in food safety policy or policies of the national mark.

Attributi di processo e di prodotto nella filiera carne suina: un’analisi europea delle preferenze dei consumatori attraverso un modello generalizzato ad utilità stocastica

This article evaluates consumers’ preferences among different pig production systems using a generalized random-parameter logit model for ranked outcome. The aim is to indagate whether process attributes are considered relevant by European consumers. Differences of preferences across subpopulations, among northern and mediterranean European countries, are also tested. The study’s background includes consumers’ concern of both farm animal welfare and environmental impact of livestock production. A self-administered structured electronic survey was developed to investigate product and process attributes of pork meat. It was completed by a sample of 2,437 representative individuals from five European countries. Each respondent made 14 choices, rank-ordering 15 pig production profiles in terms of their individual preference. The choice was organized around a fractional factorial main effect orthogonal design. Each profile consists of five different attributes, including product’s and process’s ones: stocking density and floor type process attributes have been included as proxies of animal welfare production characteristics; impact on soil, air and water were included to underline environmental related process attributes; fat contents and chain type/product were used to include in the choice set also traditional product attributes. A generalization of conditional logit model for ranked outcomes was implemented, accounting for heterogeneity and correlation among the respondent’s choices. Our analysis highlights the fundamental strategic role played by the process attributes considered. Such an influence in choices, however, does not seem connected to psychographic or particular lifestyle variables. This might suggest that a floor type more conducive to animal welfare and considerable effort made by the farm to limit environmental impact both represent for consumers indirect indicators of food health and safety. In addition, for a mature product, as is pork in current European consumption models, to focus on intrinsic attributes such as fat quantity and quality would not appear efficient. This is confirmed by the result obtained for the “obese” segment, for whom fat quality is unimportant in their choice to purchase pork.