Estimation of consumer willingness‐to‐pay for social responsibility in fruit and vegetable products: A cross‐country comparison using a choice experiment

Abstract

Choice experiments are used to assess consumer preferences and willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for different food attributes worldwide. These studies also include credence attributes which are the product attributes that are not immediately observable to consumers without appropriate information and labelling, such as animal welfare, food safety, and social responsibility. Although choice experiment application has considered many of these attributes, studies focused on social responsibility are scant. Building on previous work comparing developed and developing countries, this paper focuses on WTP estimation for social responsibility. Surveys of fruit and vegetable consumers were conducted in United Kingdom (UK), Japan, India, and Indonesia in 2015. Results indicate WTP for an increase from minimum to improved standard for social responsibility ranges from 16% to 30% (median), and 6% to 26% (median) from improved to a high standard. Premiums vary between countries but, overall, demonstrate the significant importance of social responsibility consideration in consumer choices. Significant differences on WTP were observed between Japan and other countries, as well as between UK and Indonesia for the improved social responsibility standard, and across UK, Indonesia, and India for the high standard. Findings contribute to increasing understanding of consumer preferences across countries, revealing significant preference heterogeneity towards social responsibility.

Consumers' heterogeneous preferences for corporate social responsibility in the food industry

“…Since the premium price expresses a payoff for the costs incurred by companies for implementing CSR (e.g. audit and reporting), several studies have attempted to reveal consumers' WTP (Aktar, ; De Pelsmacker, Driesen, & Rayp, ; Loureiro & Lotade, ; Miller et al, ). Most of these studies were carried out surveying consumers from both developed (Lombardi, Caracciolo, Cembalo, Lerro, & Lombardi, ; Viegas, Nunes, Madureira, Fontes, & Santos, ) and developing countries (Tait, Saunders, Guenther, & Rutherford, ; Wu, Yin, Xu, & Zhu, ), different food products (Hartmann et al, ; Mueller Loose & Remaud, ) and different CSR attributes (De Pelsmacker et al, 2005; Viegas et al, ; Del Giudice et al, ).…”

“…Most of these studies were carried out surveying consumers from both developed (Lombardi, Caracciolo, Cembalo, Lerro, & Lombardi, ; Viegas, Nunes, Madureira, Fontes, & Santos, ) and developing countries (Tait, Saunders, Guenther, & Rutherford, ; Wu, Yin, Xu, & Zhu, ), different food products (Hartmann et al, ; Mueller Loose & Remaud, ) and different CSR attributes (De Pelsmacker et al, 2005; Viegas et al, ; Del Giudice et al, ). However, the discrepancy encountered in previous studies in terms of premium prices detected, due to products, attributes and consumers investigated, do not allow us to extend the results observed (Miller et al, ). Moreover, given the lack of research focusing on Italian consumers, this study adds to the CSR literature examining consumers' WTP for food products meeting the expectations, in terms of CSR, of Italian consumers.…”

“…Since the premium price expresses a payoff for the costs incurred by companies for implementing CSR (e.g. audit and reporting), several studies have attempted to reveal consumers' WTP (Aktar, 2013;De Pelsmacker, Driesen, & Rayp, 2005;Loureiro & Lotade, 2005;Miller et al, 2017). Most of these studies were carried out surveying consumers from both developed (Lombardi, Caracciolo, Cembalo, Lerro, & Lombardi, 2015 (De Pelsmacker et al, 2005;Viegas et al, 2014;Del Giudice et al, 2018).…”

Assessing the Heterogeneity of Consumers’ Preferences for Corporate Social Responsibility Using the Best–Worst Scaling Approach

“…Liu et al [4] conducted a choice experiment for coffee products and showed that the most important certification attribute is traceability, followed by organic, graded, environmentally friendly, and fair-trade certification. Miller et al [5] conducted a choice experiment for fruits and vegetables and investigated preferences for attributes such as health, environment, animal welfare/biodiversity, food safety, social responsibility, and quality. They showed that consumers prefer better standards of these attributes.…”

Perceived and Reported Reliability of the Electricity Supply at Three Urban Locations in Indonesia

“…Many studies which utilized public perception focus on health (Harapan et al [36]), environment (Vollmer et al [37], Suparman, Folmer and Oud [38], Ghozali and Kaneko [39], Soo [40]), tourism (Anna [41]), transportation (Hendratmoko, Guritnaningsih, and Tjahjono [42], Ambarwati [43]), and trade (Kojima [44] and Miller et al [45]). Only two studies present public perception in the energy area in the Indonesian context, namely Lensink, Raster and Timmer [46] with observations about the WTP for solar lamps, and Kumashiro et al [47], which evaluated geothermal energy.…”