Bringing the Consumer Back in—The Motives, Perceptions, and Values behind Consumers and Rural Tourists’ Decision to Buy Local and Localized Artisan Food—A Swedish Example

Paulina Rytkönen, Madeleine Bonow, Chloe Girard and Håkan Tunón
Additional contact information
Paulina Rytkönen: School of Social Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Södertörn University, SE-14189 Huddinge, Sweden
Madeleine Bonow: School of School of Natural Sciences, Environment and Technology, Department of Environmental Studies, Södertörn University, SE-14189 Huddinge, Sweden
Chloe Girard: School of School of Natural Sciences, Environment and Technology, Department of Environmental Studies, Södertörn University, SE-14189 Huddinge, Sweden
Håkan Tunón: Swedish Biodiversity Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7016, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden

Agriculture, 2018, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: This article highlights the motivational factors behind consumers’ and tourists’ decisions to buy local artisan cheese in Jämtland (Sweden). Empirically, the case itself diverts from the typical Franco-Mediterranean case in which both the actions of producers and consumers are embedded in historical, long-term culinary traditions and territorial features, nor is it the typical farmers’ market or another market-driven direct produce system. The main purpose is to shed light on the motivational factors behind the purchasing decision of consumers and tourists by studying the attributes that consumers embody in the products. The article is based on two consumer surveys/short interviews, the first conducted in June 2012 and the second in February 2017. The results were tested against/related to the wider local food discussion conceptualized through four types of attributes. Namely, intrinsic and extrinsic attributes; post-modernity and environmental attributes; geographical and territorial attributes; and local and rural development attributes. The results in this article clearly show that consumers value a combination of different attributes from both market-driven direct produce systems and close typicity systems. Therefore, the construction of proximity from the point of view of the consumer can be derived from a complex set of attributes and motivational factors not normally highlighted in the localized food discussion.

Keywords: proximity; consumers’ motivational factors; local food systems; localized food systems; typicity; food attributes; close typicity food system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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