IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/ecaqec/vhtml10.3280-ecag2015-001004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumo e consumatori di prodotti alimentari nella societ? postmoderna

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Vigan?
  • Gervasio Antonelli
  • Gian Italo Bischi
  • Fabio Tramontana

Abstract

The concept of the ?postmodern consumer? plays a central role in the debate, started in the early 80s, about economic, social and cultural changes in developed countries in the years following the end of the second world war. These changes were interpreted as a passage from modern to postmodern society. According to this literature, postmodern conditions have had a significant impact on the consumer, especially with regard to his/her psychological characteristics. In this new framework the consumer is viewed as someone more interested in the symbolic or cultural value of products and services than in their functional and utility value. At the same time, he/she is represented as an active player in the market scenario, exercising the freedom to move in search of trademarks, symbols and experiences through which he/she can communicate his/her own identity. The figure of the postmodern consumer is difficult to place in the framework of standard neoclassical theories on consumerism, which highlights the shortcomings of this theoretical approach in studying the behavior of the postmodern consumer. These shortcomings are likely to be more relevant when considering the consumer of food products, given the strong nexus between consumption and the well-being of the consumer and the symbolic and cultural value that food products project. The main goal of the paper is to provide an interdisciplinary overview of the postmodern consumer of food products by means of an analysis of scientific literature, mainly in the areas of behavioral economics, sociology and psychology. Following this, the paper focuses on questions regarding information and the rational behavior of consumers as being the main hypothesis upon which standard neoclassical theories are based, adding to the traditional approach to consumer choice the new insights provided by this different perspective. Finally, the implications of this type of analysis for food safety and quality policies are considered, together with a discussion on further research needed to define more effective policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Vigan? & Gervasio Antonelli & Gian Italo Bischi & Fabio Tramontana, 2015. "Consumo e consumatori di prodotti alimentari nella societ? postmoderna," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 17(1), pages 59-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ecag2015-001004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=53792&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henk Renting & Terry K Marsden & Jo Banks, 2003. "Understanding Alternative Food Networks: Exploring the Role of Short Food Supply Chains in Rural Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(3), pages 393-411, March.
    2. Koszegi, Botond & Rabin, Matthew, 2004. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt0w82b6nm, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    3. Gianni Cozzi, 2007. "La pubblicit? nell'economia dell'immateriale. Prima parte," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2007(4), pages 25-36.
    4. Alan P. Kirman, 1992. "Whom or What Does the Representative Individual Represent?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 117-136, Spring.
    5. Maria L. Loureiro & Azucena Gracia & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2006. "Do consumers value nutritional labels?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 33(2), pages 249-268, June.
    6. Andrea Bieberstein & Jutta Roosen & Stéphan Marette & Sandrine Blanchemanche & Frederic Vandermoere, 2013. "Consumer choices for nano-food and nano-packaging in France and Germany," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(1), pages 73-94, February.
    7. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Carr, Edward R., 2006. "Postmodern conceptualizations, modernist applications: Rethinking the role of society in food security," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 14-29, February.
    9. Asp, Elaine H., 1999. "Factors affecting food decisions made by individual consumers," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 287-294, May.
    10. Botond Kőszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2006. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1133-1165.
    11. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    12. Holt, Douglas B, 1997. "Poststructuralist Lifestyle Analysis: Conceptualizing the Social Patterning of Consumption in Postmodernity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(4), pages 326-350, March.
    13. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2003. "Studying Optimal Paternalism, Illustrated by a Model of Sin Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 186-191, May.
    14. Maxwell, Simon, 1996. "Food security: a post-modern perspective," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 155-170, May.
    15. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    16. Hingley, Martin & Boone, Julie & Haley, Simon, 2010. "Local Food Marketing: Factors for Growth of Small Agri‐food Businesses in the UK," 2010 International European Forum, February 8-12, 2010, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 100458, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    17. Read, Daniel & van Leeuwen, Barbara, 1998. "Predicting Hunger: The Effects of Appetite and Delay on Choice, , , ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 189-205, November.
    18. Gerolimetto, Margherita & Mauracher, Christine & Procidano, Isabella, 2008. "Analyzing Wine Demand with Artificial Neural Networks," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 30-50, April.
    19. Gianni Cicia & Luigi Cembalo & Teresa Del Giudice & Fabio Verneau, 2012. "Il sistema agroalimentare ed il consumatore postmoderno: nuove sfide per la ricerca e per il mercato," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 14(1), pages 117-142.
    20. Stefanella Stranieri & Lucia Baldi & Alessandro Banterle, 2010. "Do Nutrition Claims Matter to Consumers? An Empirical Analysis Considering European Requirements," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 15-33, February.
    21. Fred Kuchler & Abebayehu Tegene & J. Michael Harris, 2005. "Taxing Snack Foods: Manipulating Diet Quality or Financing Information Programs?," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(1), pages 4-20.
    22. LeBaron, Blake, 2006. "Agent-based Computational Finance," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 24, pages 1187-1233, Elsevier.
    23. M. Pianta & Natalia Paci, 2012. "Nove su dieci. Perch? stiamo (quasi) tutti peggio di 10 anni fa," PRISMA Economia - Societ? - Lavoro, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2012(2), pages 180-184.
    24. Daniel Thiel, 1999. "An interactive neural network for analysing the food consumer behaviour stability," Post-Print hal-02158876, HAL.
    25. Robert Scharff, 2009. "Obesity and Hyperbolic Discounting: Evidence and Implications," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 3-21, March.
    26. , & ,, 2014. "Regular prices and sales," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), January.
    27. Gert Spaargaren & Peter Oosterveer, 2010. "Citizen-Consumers as Agents of Change in Globalizing Modernity: The Case of Sustainable Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(7), pages 1-22, June.
    28. Enzo Rullani & Giampaolo Fabris, 2007. "Il consumatore creativo. Cento e un modi di fare il mondo a propria immagine e somiglianza," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2007(4), pages 7-24.
    29. Claudia Bazzani & Maurizio Canavari, 2013. "Alternative Agri-Food Networks and Short Food Supply Chains: a review of the literature," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 15(2), pages 11-34.
    30. Hingley, Martin & Boone, Julie & Haley, Simon, 2010. "Local Food Marketing as a Development Opportunity for Small UK Agri-Food Businesses," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 1(3), pages 1-10, October.
    31. Neuner, Michael & Raab, Gerhard & Reisch, Lucia A., 2005. "Compulsive buying in maturing consumer societies: An empirical re-inquiry," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 509-522, August.
    32. Botond Koszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2009. "Reference-Dependent Consumption Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 909-936, June.
    33. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    34. Kinsey, Jean & Bowland, Bradley, 1999. "How can the US food system deliver food products consistent with the dietary guidelines?: Food marketing and retailing: an economist's view," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 237-253, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fausto Cantarelli, 2016. "Le sfide per uno sviluppo sostenibile del sistema agroalimentare italiano e non solo," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 18(2), pages 229-238.
    2. Sabrina Giuca & Simonetta De Leo, 2019. "A social network linking rural and peri-urban agricultural production to the city of Rome: A case study," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(2), pages 507-522.
    3. Stefano Benetti, 2015. "Fishing district and fishing industry: a reference to the HighAdriatic," Argomenti, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics, vol. 2(2), pages 1-26, September.
    4. Alberto Sturla & Elena Vigan? & Laura Vigan?, 2019. "The Organic Districts in Italy. An Interpretative Hypothesis in the Light of the Common Pool Resources Theory," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(2), pages 429-458.

    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. Gervasio Antonelli & Gian Italo Bischi & Fabio Tramontana & Elena Vigan?, 2014. "Beyond a neoclassical consumer analysis in food choices," Working Papers 1410, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2014.
    2. Karle, Heiko & Schumacher, Heiner & Vølund, Rune, 2023. "Consumer loss aversion and scale-dependent psychological switching costs," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 214-237.
    3. Heiko Karle & Heiner Schumacher & Rune Vølund, 2020. "Consumer search and the uncertainty effect," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 657766, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    4. Meisner, Vincent & von Wangenheim, Jonas, 2019. "School Choice and Loss Aversion," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 208, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Luc Meunier & Sima Ohadi, 2023. "When are two portfolios better than one? A prospect theory approach," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 503-538, April.
    6. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    7. Yuval Arbel & Danny Ben-Shahar & Stuart Gabriel, 2016. "Are The Disabled Less Loss Averse? Evidence From A Natural Policy Experiment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 1291-1318, April.
    8. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    9. Carpentier, A. & Reboud, X., 2018. "Why farmers consider pesticides the ultimate in crop protection: economic and behavioral insights," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277528, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Mariya Burdina & Scott Hiller, 2021. "When Falling Just Short is a Good Thing: The Effect of Past Performance on Improvement," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(7), pages 777-798, October.
    11. Jong-Hee Hahn & Jinwoo Kim & Sang-Hyun Kim & Jihong Lee, 2018. "Price discrimination with loss averse consumers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 65(3), pages 681-728, May.
    12. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    13. Dorian Jullien, 2018. "Under Risk, Over Time, Regarding Other People: Language and Rationality within Three Dimensions," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: Including a Symposium on Latin American Monetary Thought: Two Centuries in Search of Originality, volume 36, pages 119-155, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Sanjit Dhami & Narges Hajimoladarvish & Konstantinos Georgalos, 2023. "Precautionary Savings, Loss Aversion, and Risk: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10570, CESifo.
    15. Chen, Si, 2012. "Optimistic versus Pessimistic--Optimal Judgemental Bias with Reference Point," MPRA Paper 50693, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Giamouzi, Maria & Nomikos, Nikos K, 2021. "Identifying shipowners’ risk attitudes over gains and losses: Evidence from the dry bulk freight market," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    17. Babcock, Bruce, 2015. "Using Prospect Theory to Explain Anomalous Crop Insurance Coverage Choice," 2015 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2015, Boston, Massachusetts 189682, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Meisner, Vincent & von Wangenheim, Jonas, 2023. "Loss aversion in strategy-proof school-choice mechanisms," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    19. Wenhui Zhou & Dongmei Wang & Weixiang Huang & Pengfei Guo, 2021. "To Pool or Not to Pool? The Effect of Loss Aversion on Queue Configurations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(11), pages 4258-4272, November.
    20. Park, Hyeon, 2023. "A general equilibrium model of dynamic loss aversion," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ecag2015-001004. 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: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=214 .

    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.