IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/gagfdp/160420.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expectation Gaps and Halo-Effects in Organic Food Positioning: Characteristics of Organic Food from a Consumer’s Point of View

Author

Listed:
  • Meyer-Höfer, Marie von
  • Nitzko, Sina
  • Spiller, Achim

Abstract

Despite the different levels of maturity of organic markets among the member states of the European Union (EU), the European organic food market is continuously growing. In the EU this production method is regulated according to the Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007 (EC 834/07). All products produced accordingly are labelled with the common European organic label. The future success of organic agriculture as one sustainable solution of food production is to a large extent dependent on its market success, thus the positioning of organic food is a crucial topic for food policy and marketing. This paper analyses the data of an online survey done in 2011 with a total of 1,180 consumers from four European countries (Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, and Czech Republic,) representing different stages of the current organic market development across Europe. This paper focusses on which criteria consumers attach to organic food products and what attributes they expect of them. The risk that consumers might expect too much of organic food produced under EC 834/07 is identified. To overcome the observed expectation gap, some political as well as practical implications are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Meyer-Höfer, Marie von & Nitzko, Sina & Spiller, Achim, 2013. "Expectation Gaps and Halo-Effects in Organic Food Positioning: Characteristics of Organic Food from a Consumer’s Point of View," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 160420, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:gagfdp:160420
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.160420
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/160420/files/GlobalFood_DP25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.160420?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lobley, Matt & Butler, Allan J. & Courtney, Paul & Ilbery, Brian & Kirwan, James & Maye, Damian & Potter, Clive & Winter, Michael, 2009. "Analysis of socio-economic aspects of local and national organic farming markets; final report for Defra," Research Reports 90374, University of Exeter, Centre for Rural Policy Research.
    2. Simons, Johannes & Vierboom, Carl & Harlen, Ingo, 2001. "Einfluss des Images von Bio-Produkten auf den Absatz der Erzeugnisse," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 50(05), pages 1-7.
    3. Mette Wier & Katherine O'Doherty Jensen & Laura Morch Andersen & Katrin Millock, 2008. "The Character of Demand in Mature Organic Food Markets: Great Britain and Denmark Compared," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00343683, HAL.
    4. Wier, Mette & O'Doherty Jensen, Katherine & Andersen, Laura Mørch & Millock, Katrin, 2008. "The character of demand in mature organic food markets: Great Britain and Denmark compared," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 406-421, October.
    5. Mette Wier & Katherine O'Doherty Jensen & Laura Morch Andersen & Katrin Millock, 2008. "The Character of Demand in Mature Organic Food Markets: Great Britain and Denmark Compared," Post-Print halshs-00343683, HAL.
    6. Grolleau, Gilles & Caswell, Julie A., 2006. "Interaction Between Food Attributes in Markets: The Case of Environmental Labeling," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Sebastian Koos, 2011. "Varieties of Environmental Labelling, Market Structures, and Sustainable Consumption Across Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Organizational and Market Supply Determinants of Environmental-Labelled Go," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 127-151, March.
    8. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    9. Gabriele Jahn & Matthias Schramm & Achim Spiller, 2005. "The Reliability of Certification: Quality Labels as a Consumer Policy Tool," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 53-73, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahnaj Akter & Shahjahan Ali & Mária Fekete-Farkas & Csaba Fogarassy & Zoltán Lakner, 2023. "Why Organic Food? Factors Influence the Organic Food Purchase Intension in an Emerging Country (Study from Northern Part of Bangladesh)," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. repec:zib:zbseps:v:2:y:2022:2:1:p:44-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Cuffaro, Nadia & Di Giacinto, Marina, 2015. "Credence goods, consumers’ trust in regulation and high quality exports," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 4(2), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Roman Ostapenko & Yuliia Herasymenko & Vitalii Nitsenko & Svitlana Koliadenko & Tomas Balezentis & Dalia Streimikiene, 2020. "Analysis of Production and Sales of Organic Products in Ukrainian Agricultural Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Mahnaz Mansoor & Justin Paul, 2022. "Consumers' choice behavior: An interactive effect of expected eudaimonic well‐being and green altruism," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 94-109, January.
    6. Kubitzki, Sabine & Krischik-Bautz, Stephanie, 2011. "Weiß der Verbraucher wirklich, welche Qualität er kauft? Eine Studie zur Qualitätserwartung an Prüfzeichen," Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, vol. 60(1).
    7. Francisco José Torres‐Ruiz & Manuela Vega‐Zamora & Manuel Parras‐Rosa, 2018. "Sustainable Consumption: Proposal of a Multistage Model to Analyse Consumer Behaviour for Organic Foods," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 588-602, May.
    8. Janssen, Meike & Hamm, Ulrich, 2014. "Governmental and private certification labels for organic food: Consumer attitudes and preferences in Germany," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 437-448.
    9. Fabrice Larceneux & Florence Benoît-Moreau & Valérie Renaudin, 2012. "Why Might Organic Labels Fail to Influence Consumer Choices? Marginal Labelling and Brand Equity Effects," Post-Print hal-00656485, HAL.
    10. Krystyna Mazurek-Łopacińska & Magdalena Sobocińska & Joanna Krupowicz, 2022. "Purchase Motives and Factors Shaping Consumer Behaviour on the Ecological Product Market (Poland Case Study)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-29, November.
    11. Phani Kumar Chintakayala & William Young & Ralf Barkemeyer & Michelle A. Morris, 2018. "Breaking niche sustainable products into the mainstream: Organic milk and free‐range eggs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1039-1051, November.
    12. von Meyer-Höfer, Marie & von der Wense, Vera & Spiller, Achim, 2013. "Characterising convinced sustainable food consumers," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 161887, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    13. Fabrice Larceneux & Florence Benoit-Moreau & Valérie Renaudin, 2012. "Why Might Organic Labels Fail to Influence Consumer Choices? Marginal Labelling and Brand Equity Effects," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 85-104, March.
    14. Bergès, Fabian & Monier-Dilhan, Sylvette, 2013. "Do consumers buy organic food for sustainability or selfish reasons?," TSE Working Papers 13-372, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Aug 2013.
    15. Ahsan Akbar & Saqib Ali & Muhammad Azeem Ahmad & Minhas Akbar & Muhammad Danish, 2019. "Understanding the Antecedents of Organic Food Consumption in Pakistan: Moderating Role of Food Neophobia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-20, October.
    16. Gratiela Dana Boca, 2021. "Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior in Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Maramures County, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Meyer-Höfer, Marie von & Spiller, Achim, 2015. ""Sustainability" a semi-globalisable concept for international food marketing: Consumer expectations regarding sustainable food," 143rd Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, March 25-27, 2015, Naples, Italy 202747, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Michael Grimm & Nathalie Luck & Franziska Steinhübel, 2023. "Consumers' willingness to pay for organic rice: Insights from a non‐hypothetical experiment in Indonesia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(1), pages 83-103, January.
    19. Chen, Xuqi & Gao, Yujuan & Gao, Zhifeng, 2022. "Impacts of color-coded nutrition facts panel and consumer responses," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322206, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Oliver Meixner & Felix Katt, 2020. "Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Food Safety Perceptions—A Choice-Based Willingness to Pay Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    21. Laura Mørch Andersen & Thomas Bøker Lund, 2011. "Digging deeper: How do different types of organic consumers influence the increasing organic market share?," IFRO Working Paper 2011/15, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:gagfdp:160420. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iagoede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.