Consumers’ Sustainability Perceptions of the Supply Chain of Locally Produced Food

Ari Paloviita
Additional contact information
Ari Paloviita: School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland

Sustainability, 2010, vol. 2, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: This article is based on a qualitative focus group study regarding consumer perceptions about the sustainability of locally produced food supply chains. Sustainability perceptions were analyzed through thematic content analysis, where the most important economic, environmental and social themes of the supply chain were emphasized. According to the research findings, the socio-cultural aspects encompassing locally produced food form the most important sustainability dimension for consumers. Although the sample size is small, consisting of 19 consumers and limited to Central Finland, the findings suggest that the sustainability of local food should be promoted via socio-cultural arguments alongside economic or environmental ones. The results conclude that the development of local food networks requires direct personal relationships with producers, social networking, consumer education and communication.

Keywords: locally produced food; supply chain; sustainability; consumer perceptions; focus group (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/6/1492/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/6/1492/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:6:p:1492-1509:d:8502

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().