I.A. van der Lans

How trust in institutions and organizations builds general consumer confidence in the safety of food: A decomposition of effects

This paper investigates the relationship between general consumer confidence in the safety of food and consumer trust in institutions and organizations. More specifically, using a decompositional regression analysis approach, the extent to which the strength of the relationship between trust and general confidence is dependent upon a particular food chain actor (for example, food manufacturers) is assessed. In addition, the impact of specific subdimensions of trust, such as openness, on consumer confidence are analyzed, as well as interaction effects of actors and subdimensions of trust. The results confirm previous findings, which indicate that a higher level of trust is associated with a higher level of confidence. However, the results from the current study extend on previous findings by disentangling the effects that determine the strength of this relationship into specific components associated with the different actors, the different trust dimensions, and specific combinations of actors and trust dimensions. The results show that trust in food manufacturers influences general confidence more than trust in other food chain actors, and that care is the most important trust dimension. However, the contribution of a particular trust dimension in enhancing general confidence is actor-specific, suggesting that different actors should focus on different trust dimensions when the purpose is to enhance consumer confidence in food safety. Implications for the development of communication strategies that are designed to regain or maintain consumer confidence in the safety of food are discussed.

Consumer preferences for pork supply chain attributes

Based on an extensive customized conjoint analysis with 24 attributes of pork production, covering issues from feed to fork, we identified six consumer segments: ecologists (17%), tradition-minded consumers (17%), animal friends (16%), health-concerned consumers (18%), economists (12%) and unpronounced consumers (20%). Typically all segments prefer pork originating from the Netherlands and a zero risk of Salmonella. Discriminating items between segments include issues of pig breeding, housing, farm-level handling of pigs, safety aspects such as residue levels and irradiation of pork, and taste and price. Segments were furthermore found to differ on issues such as willingness to pay for pork production improvements and pork label perception. From our findings we recommend decision-makers in pork supply chains to no longer market pork as a bulk product as there are distinct requirements for pork and the way it is produced. Also, there seems to be sufficient financial room to invest in each of these segments. At the same time, however, it should be noticed that consumers have difficulties with distinguishing between different labels and that they generally have limited knowledge about basic pork production and safety issues.

The Structure of Marketing Cooperatives: A Members' Perspective

This paper examines marketing cooperatives’ (MCs’) structure from a members’ perspective. We support the notion that the utility that members derive from the attributes of MC’s structure enhances our insight in members’ commitment. Using a conjoint experimental design, we elicit the utility that producers attach to attributes of a MC. These attributes are related to the cooperative’s internal organizational structure and strategic behavior. The results of 120 producers of a Dutch horticulture cooperative show that the selected cooperative attributes are significant drivers of members’ utility. In particular, members attach high importance to strategic attributes and prefer a more individualized cooperative structure.

Benefit-feature segmentation: A tool for the design of a supply-chain strategy

Purpose – This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of different segmentation schemes as the basis of marketing strategy, with particular respect to supply‐chain decisions, and to propose a new procedure capable of combining benefits sought and features available.Design/methodology/approach – In a study of buyers and consumers of beef in Brazil, segments based on three approaches were derived by hierarchical cluster analysis, fine‐tuned by K‐means cluster analysis. The outcome was evaluated for the viability and actionability of the preferred procedure, both objectively and through interviews with managers in the beef‐supply business.Findings – The results revealed that a segmentation scheme combining benefits sought and features available yields more homogeneous and actionable segments, and has real promise as an input to the formulation and implementation of supply‐chain strategy.Research limitations/implications – This promising innovation in market segmentation requires further study, and testing in...

Role of product characteristics for the adoption of fruit and fruit product innovations

Summary The aim of this study was the identification of those product characteristics that are important for the adoption of fruit and fruit product innovations by consumers. Sixteen focus group discussions were held in four European countries (Greece, The Netherlands, Poland, and Spain). Different aspects of six innovative fruit products were discussed, revealing those characteristics that were important for the adoption of each of them. It was observed that the participants did not perceive fruit innovations as a homogenous group, but assigned them to different groups, which led to a number of categories of fruit innovation. Three categories concerned the level of preparation of fruit. These were fresh, prepared, and processed fruit product innovations. Another two categories, radical and evolutionary innovations, related to the level of novelty of the fruit innovation. Characteristics important for the adoption of each of these categories are given. The results will be used for further, more quantitative, research.

Consumer-Oriented New Product Development in Fruit Flavour Breeding - A Bayesian Approach

Taking consumer quality perceptions into account is very important for new-fruit product development in today’s competitive food market. To this end, consumer-oriented quality improvement models like the quality guidance model (QGM) have been proposed. Implementing such models in the agro industry is challenging. We propose the use of Bayesian structure equation modeling (SEM) for parameterizing the quality guidance model, allowing for the integration of elicited expert knowledge. Such casual modeling would furnish important insights for determining the optimal fruit product in terms of consumer flavor-quality perceptions. In the context of tomato breeding, where we have data about metabolites, sensory-panel judgments, and consumer flavor-quality perceptions, we estimated a benchmark Bayesian SEM using non-informative priors, starting from an initial causal model derived from the data with a score-based Bayesian network (BN) learning algorithm. The results so far have given some indication of the importance of accounting for consumer heterogeneity in the modeling process.