The influence of psychographic variables on consumer preferences. The case of ethnic food in Spain

Dena M. Camarena-Gomez and Ana Isabel Sanjuan

No 57991, 113th Seminar, September 3-6, 2009, Chania, Crete, Greece from European Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: In the last years, ethnic food has been successfully introduced in the Spanish market. In this research a choice experiment is conducted in order to investigate consumer’s preferences toward ethnic food and the influence of psychographic variables in consumer’s decisions. A nested logit model is employed for this purpose, with a two level nesting structure: the first decision is whether or not to consume ethnic food at all; and the second decision combines ethnic cuisine and the consumption situation. The experiment contemplates three cuisines, Mexican, Asian and Arab; and three consumption situations: restaurant, take away and preparation at home. Three psychographic variables are used to investigate the opt-out decision, which relate to the degree of food neophobia, ethnocentrism and personal values. These personal traits are investigated by means of scales well documented in the literature that allow the classification of consumers into segments. The results show that the probability that a consumer decides not to choose ethnic food in any of the consumption situations provided, increases in the segments defined as relatively more neo-food phobic, ethnocentric and focused more towards personal development rather than socialization.

Keywords: Agricultural; and; Food; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:eaa113:57991

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.57991

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