Traditional Foods at the Click of a Button: The Preference for the Online Purchase of Romanian Traditional Foods during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag, Iris Vermeir (), Dacinia Crina Petrescu, Florin Laurentiu Crista and Ioan Banatean-Dunea
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Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag: Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, 30 Fantanele Street, 400294 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dacinia Crina Petrescu: Department of Marketing, Innovation and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Florin Laurentiu Crista: Faculty of Agriculture, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania”, 119 Calea Aradului Street, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Ioan Banatean-Dunea: Faculty of Agriculture, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania”, 119 Calea Aradului Street, 300645 Timisoara, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: The 2020 quarantine demonstrated that online food purchase has become one of the main protagonists of the pandemic. The present study valued the Internet as a mediator between producers and consumers with the power to create new demand for Romanian traditional food during the COVID-19 crisis. Authors aimed at carrying out an exploratory research about the online purchase of traditional foods (TFs). Within this context, the study, firstly, outlines the meaning of traditional foods in the Romanian consumers’ minds and, secondly, it identifies the variables that can predict the preference for the online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was carried out to investigate the Romanian consumers’ perceptions (n = 223) of TFs and online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Binary logistic regression tested the relationship between the preference for the online purchase of TFS (vs. in-store) and seven perceived characteristics of TFs. Results show that the preference for the online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic can be predicted by five variables—“TFs taste”; “Effect of TFs consumption on health during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “Effect of online TFs purchase on health during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “How cheap/expensive is to buy TFS online during the COVID-19 pandemic”; and “Easiness to purchase TFS online during the COVID-19 pandemic”. It was concluded that TFs have to claim their place within this digitized landscape by finding the balance between old and new, between preferences for foods taste passed through generations and new life lifestyles at 5G speed.

Keywords: traditional foods; consumers; the internet; COVID-19; perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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