Ambiguity tolerance and confusion avoidance in the intent to purchase farmed fish

Abstract

Aquaculture products are presently becoming a crucial part of consumers' diets. However, asymmetric information regarding farmed fish exposes consumers to ambiguity and often makes them confused. Therefore, this study aims to ascertain the levels of ambiguity tolerance (AT) and confusion avoidance (CA) related to farmed fish and to test if consumers' AT and CA influence their purchase intent (PI) of such fish. The impact of demographics on consumers' CA and AT is also explored. The data were obtained through a survey conducted on a randomly selected sample of 1053 households who either purchase and have purchased fish. The collected data were analyzed employing explorative factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and a simple regression model. The study demonstrates that AT had a positive and significant impact on the PI of farmed fish, and also reduced CA. However, the current high level of CA does not influence the PI of farmed fish.

Investigating consumer stated preferences for orange juice: The influence of behavioral traits

“…We found a negative correlation between ambiguity tolerance and WTP for GE. This result contrasts with other studies that established a positive link between consumer tolerance to ambiguity and willingness to purchase food products such as farmed fish (Hoque et al, 2021) and organic wine (Jorge et al, 2020). A possible explanation is that the context‐independent ambiguity tolerance scale doesn't accurately capture tolerance to ambiguity in the context of biotechnology.…”

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Organically Farmed Fish in Bangladesh

“…80.30% of the respondents bought fish from the wet market, 4.10% only from supermarkets, with the remaining 15.60% buying from both. These findings are consistent with the results of the study by Hoque et al (2021). Although 99.20% of the respondents were aware of farmed fish, 85.10% believed that it was not safer than wild fish.…”

Personal and Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Perceived Knowledge of Farmed Fish

“…Second, although a positive link between CA and FF knowledge is shown, confused consumers choose to acquire the appropriate FF knowledge insignificantly, as the average level of confusion faced by them in their purchase intention is not the same as that they experienced during the response time [94]. The study by [60] found that a high level of perceived CA does not affect the intention to purchase farmed fish. As AT influences CA positively, this study supports the hypothesis that firms' strategy of increasing the level of AT could help improve CA.…”

“…Such conflict is experiential and has been described as consisting of two related parts: the unwillingness to remain in contact with knowledge, and the action taken to alter the events that elicit consumers [59]. Because of information asymmetry, many customers face confusion when buying farmed fish [60]. Although augmented information may create confusion, customers with balanced information will be in a position to avoid this [44].…”

“…Fourth, the study adopted the perceived knowledge scale of Hoque et al [60]. To develop the product knowledge scale, FFF were divided into two classes: whole (FFF in general) and single (a specific FFF species).…”