Organic label as an identifier of environmentally related quality: A consumer choice experiment on beef in Italy

By R. Zanoli, Riccardo Scarpa, F. Napolitano, E. Piasentier, S. Naspetti, V. Bruschi. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 2012

121 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This paper uses a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate Italian consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic, conventional and genetically modified (GM)-fed beef, utilizing intrinsic, search cues (price, color and visible fat) and extrinsic, credence cues. Data are gathered from three different locations in northern, central and southern Italy using a sequential Bayesian approach. Results showed that consumers attach higher value to organic meat. WTP for GM-fed beef, which is not yet sold in Italy, is well below current conventional beef prices. Organic beef is attractive to consumers because it is associated with higher animal welfare standards and environment-related issues (food miles and biodiversity preservation). No differences are found in marginal WTP estimates by gender, age, education, being a parent or having a higher level of knowledge about organic production. Ethical/environmental issues (credence cues) appear to be more relevant in explaining variation in WTP for organic beef than ordinary product characteristics (search cues).

Subfields: Ecology, Economics and Econometrics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/29b59d98e74b4444ab74a4efc1a8d9954c329688

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. J. Aschemann‐Witzel
2. Vincenzina Caputo

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Dániel Békési
2. J. Aschemann‐Witzel
3. P. Balogh
4. R. Vecchio
5. Tormod Næs
6. Vincenzina Caputo
7. P. Lengyel
8. József Popp

In Plant Science

1. J. Aschemann‐Witzel
2. Paula Varela
3. R. Vecchio
4. D. Asioli
5. Vincenzina Caputo

Citations in the corpus

• Making sense of the "clean label" trends: A review of consumer food choice behavior and discussion of industry implications. (2017, background): “Also animal welfare, fair trade and local origin represent central drivers that explain WTP for organic food (Zanoli et al., 2013).”
• Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products (2016, background): “Zanoli et al. (2013) attempt to trace such effects by comparing conditional parameter estimates of WTP between different demographic groups.”