Understanding consumer behaviour: the social embeddedness of food practices (original) (raw)
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BMC Public Health
Introduction Non-communicable diseases have risen markedly over the last decade. A phenomenon that was mainly endemic in high-income countries has now visibly encroached on low and middle-income settings. A major contributor to this is a shift towards unhealthy dietary behavior. This study aimed to examine the complex interplay between people’s characteristics and the environment to understand how these influenced food choices and practices in Western Kenya. Methods This study used semi-structured guides to conduct in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with both male and female members of the community, across various socioeconomic groups, from Kisumu and Homa Bay Counties to further understand their perspectives on the influences of dietary behavior. Voice data was captured using digital voice recorders, transcribed verbatim, and translated to English. Data analysis adopted an exploratory and inductive analysis approach. Coded responses were analyzed using NVIVO 12 PRO so...
Buying Local Food: Shopping Practices, Place, and Consumption Networks in Defining Food as “Local”
Annals of The Association of American Geographers, 2010
Increasing awareness and concern with global climate change has led to a push to identify local food consumption as a way to reduce food miles and help preserve the environment. The journey from farm to fork is rarely a simple connection between farmer and consumer but involves a range of different actors and agents, located in different places and at different socioeconomic scales. The result is a confusing array of meanings that can be attached to food items considered to be local (e.g., local supplier, local producer, local commodity chain, local cultural product). This research explores the ways that retailers seek to sell local food, ways that this term is understood by consumers, and ways that consumers negotiate these differences. The research employs a case study methodology and draws on interviews with producers and white, middle-class consumers located in West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Shopping is a skilled activity and the local is revealed as a complex intersection of provisioning decisions and practices that household food buyers undertake in the context of food availability and the racialized and classed marketing strategies of retailers, which in turn makes problematic the food miles concept for political mobilization.
Exploring consumer constructions of local food: meanings and influences
European Journal of Marketing
Purpose This study aims to focus on local food consumption and specifically seeks to explore how consumers construct the meaning of local food and the nature of relationships between key influences on the local food purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage qualitative methodology was adopted consisting of five focus group discussions and 25 semi-structured interviews with consumers in Northern Ireland. Focus groups explored consumer meanings of local food. Semi-structured interviews sought to explore in more depth the inter-relationships between the influences on the purchase intention and the role of moral norms. Findings Five key influences on the purchase intention are identified (quality attributes, experience and familiarity, emotional attributes, the setting, support for the local economy). These influences are connected with a range of self-interest, altruistic and moral factors. Research limitations/implications This study was undertaken in a specific geog...
Revealing the lifestyles of local food consumers
British Food Journal , 2012
Purpose-Changing consumption patterns have led to a number of transformations throughout the food cycle, and understanding how and why people purchase local food is important. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of the people leading this phenomenon: those that prefer to buy locally produced food. Design/methodology/approach-In order to explore the characteristics of local food purchasers, a single item question, "I try to buy a lot of locally produced food", was included in the food section of a New Zealand consumer lifestyles survey for which 3,556 responses were collected. The full survey included 600 questions across the full attitude, interest and opinion schedule. Findings-For people who express a strong intention to purchase local food, this behaviour is linked to the types of food they eat (e.g. unprocessed foods), where they buy it (e.g. at speciality stores), and how they cook it (e.g. follow recipes). A range of personality and other personal characteristics differ between local and non-local food buyers, with the former segment being more liberal, interested in quality, and frugal. Practical implications-Consumers who express an interest in purchasing local food are a demanding segment of the population whose interest in food makes them critical judges of produce. Local food must thus be fresh and value for money. Growing this sector requires making local food more accessible through mainstream retail outlets. Originality/value-While something is known about why people buy local food, less is known about other aspects of local food consumers, the range of attitudes they hold towards food or their food-related behaviours.
2018
Several agri-food studies have been done to promote African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) with food and nutrition security being a major promoting factor. However, practices of preparation, cooking and sharing a meal have been less studied thus creating a missing link in agri-food studies. This paper seeks to reveal the socio-cultural practices of consumption of AIVs in Kenyan households. The paper introduces the innovative concept of meal security. Qualitative studies were conducted in Nairobi, Nakuru and Kakamega regions in Kenya between 2015 and 2017. Results revealed that consumption of AIVs in Kenyan households is highly gendered. Women are responsible for most of the tasks in relation to AIV preparation and cooking. However, women also use their agency to circumvent some of the challenges they face including choice of family meals and a time burden. The paper recommends strategies and innovations that can reduce these challenges including reduction in time for cooking, provisio...
Regional Ethnocentrism on the Food Market as a Pattern of Sustainable Consumption
Sustainability, 2019
The paper aims to assess the level and predictors of regional ethnocentrism on the market of regional food products in the context of sustainable consumption. The study contributes to the theory of consumer ethnocentrism by extending our knowledge about its regional dimension. Regional ethnocentrism is the preference for products originating from the consumer's region. I conducted a survey in a representative sample of 1000 inhabitants of Poland with the use of the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) methodology. Regional ethnocentric consumers were characterized by a significantly more favorable attitude to regional food products compared to the rest of the sample. In a multiple regression model, the following eight statistically significant predictors of the regional ethnocentrism were identified: the importance of brand and retailer trust on the food market; the importance of quality signs in regional food purchases; opinion that insufficient marketing constitutes an important barrier to the development of the regional food market; buying regional products in shops owned by producers, rather than large distribution networks; frequency of purchasing regional products as a tourist; and national ethnocentrism on the regional food market. These predictors are strongly related to the three major pillars of sustainable development-economic, social, and ecological. Keywords: regional ethnocentrism; sustainable consumption; three pillars of sustainable development; local food; regional food; origin food; quality signs; consumer behavior on the food market; country-of-origin effect; region-of-origin effect
Locating the locale of local food: the importance of context, space and social relations
Localisation is one process/outcome which is proffered as key to the ‘grand challenges’ which currently face the food system. Consumers are attributed much agency in this potential transformation, being encouraged from all levels of society to exert their consumer muscle by buying local food. However, due to the social construction of scale it cannot be said that ‘local food’ is a definite entity and consumers understand the term ‘local food’ differently depending on their geographic and social context. As such, the research upon which this paper is based aimed to provide a nuanced understanding of how consumers in the particular spatial and social contexts of urban and rural Ireland understood the concept of ‘local food’. A specific objective was to test the theory that these consumers may have fallen into the ‘local trap’ by unquestioningly associating food from a spatially proximate place with positive characteristics. A three-phase mixed methodology was undertaken with a sample of consumers dwelling in urban and rural areas in both Dublin and Galway, Ireland: one thousand householders were surveyed; six focus group discussions took place; and twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were carried out. The results presented in this paper indicate that for most participants in this study, spatial proximity is the main parameter against which the ‘localness’ of food is measured. Also, it was found that participants held multiple meanings of local food and there was a degree of fluidity in their understandings of the term. The results from the case study regions highlight how participants’ understandings of local food changed depending on the food in question and its availability. However, the paper also indicates that as consumers move from one place to another, the meaning of local food becomes highly elastic. The meaning is stretched or contracted according to the perceived availability of food, greater or lesser connections to the local producer community and the relative geographic size of participants’ locations. Our analysis of findings from all three phases of this research revealed a difference in understandings of local food among participants resident in urban and rural areas: participants dwelling in rural areas were more likely than those in urban areas to define local food according to narrower spatial limits. The paper concludes with an overview of the practical and theoretical significance of these results in addressing the current dearth of research exploring the meaning of local food for consumers and suggests avenues for future research.
Cross Current International Journal of Economics, Management and Media Studies
Locavores is a term often using to describe a person who diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food. There are numerous definitions of "local food," but the concept is primarily based on distance. Many people prefer to buy food locally, beginning in their own community and progressing to the region, province, country, and so on. Consumption of local food products is defined as products manufactured in a given geographical space using methods, tools, and unique materials to that space. This research focuses on local food products and the objective of this study is to identify the various types of local food selections in Kenya, additionally, assessing the factors that influence them. The research problem was to identify the measurements of the population’s growing interest in its products and determine whether it’s unpremeditated option, abetted by external stimuli or reasoned choice. The investigation was conducted on an exploratory study with twen...
Drivers of local food consumption: a comparative study
British Food Journal, 2015
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore antecedents of local food purchase intention in two food producing countries with different cultural backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was employed to collect data from consumers located in Chile (n=283) and Australia (n=300). A proposed model is tested with structural equation modelling. Findings – Attitude towards consuming local food is a strong and direct driver of intentions to purchase local food in both countries. Attitude towards supporting local agri-businesses and consumer ethnocentrism are found to positively impact attitude towards consuming local food in both countries. Attitude towards local agri-businesses also has a direct effect on intentions to purchase local food in Australia, but not in Chile. Interestingly, subjective norms are not found to affect intentions to consume local food in either country. Research limitations/implications – The paper examines factors affecting the a...