Exploring consumers’ behaviour towards short food supply chains

Abstract

Purpose – Investigating the drivers of consumers’ behaviour towards purchasing in short food supply chains (SFSCs) and clarifying their relationships, the purpose of this paper is to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in order to predict the intention and the behaviour under investigation. Design/methodology/approach – The research includes a literature review of SFSCs. To investigate all the variables (attitudes, subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and intention) underlying consumers’ behaviour towards buying in SFSCs, an exploratory survey with a TPB questionnaire and a principal component analysis have been carried out among university students in Italy. Using a system of simultaneous equations, the relationships among variables have been measured. Findings – Findings illustrate that both attitudinal variables (i.e. sustainability, typicality and loyalty), SN and PBC play a key role in the consumers’ intention, that has a predictive effect on behaviour instead of PBC. Originality/value – This paper fulfils the purpose to explain and predict post-modern consumers’ preferences towards SFSCs, in order to orient policy strategies to support SFSCs.

Consumers’ Sense of Farmers’ Markets: Tasting Sustainability or Just Purchasing Food?

“…POS is related to the purchasing place and refers to FMs' "spatial proximity" definition [22,32]. LO describes where the product was grown [72][73][74]: if the product was grown in the same region where it was sold, we defined it as locally grown. Even if there are other measures of quality (e.g., taste, color, size), we chose the damage level (DAM) [2].…”

“…The questionnaire was developed on the basis of insights from the academic literature on consumers' attitudes towards purchasing in SFSCs [69] and pre-tested with a smaller online sample (20 respondents). It also incorporated statements regarding consumers' perception of the above mentioned three sustainability dimensions (i.e., society, economy and environment).…”

Trade Dynamics in the Italian Floriculture Sector within EU Borders: A Gravity Model Analysis

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Consumers’ Sense of Farmers’ Markets: Tasting Sustainability or Just Purchasing Food?

“…POS is related to the purchasing place and refers to FMs' "spatial proximity" definition [15,27]. LO describes where the product was grown [67][68][69]: if the product was grown in the same region where it was sold, we defined it as locally grown. Even if there are other measures of quality (e.g.…”

“…The questionnaire was developed on the basis of insights from the academic literature on consumers' attitudes towards purchasing in SFSCs [65] and pre-tested on a sample of 20 respondents. It also incorporated statements regarding consumers' perception of different sustainability dimensions (i.e.…”