IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/huiwps/0036.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Shelf-Labeling of Organic Foods Increase Sales? Results from a Natural Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov

    (The Ratio Institute (RATIO))

  • Rudholm, Niklas

    (The Swedish Retail Institute (HUI))

Abstract

Can a simple point-of-purchase (POP) shelf-label increase sales of organic foods? We use a random-effects, random-coefficients model, including a time adjustment variable, to test data from a natural experiment in a hypermarket in Gävle, Sweden. Our model incorporates both product specific heterogeneity in the effects of labeling and consumer adjustment to the labels over time. The introduction of POP displays was found to lead to an increase in sales of organic coffee and olive oil, but a reduction in sales of organic flour. All targeted products became less price-sensitive. The results reveal that product specific heterogeneity has to be accounted for, and in some cases consumers adjusted to labeling over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2010. "Does Shelf-Labeling of Organic Foods Increase Sales? Results from a Natural Experiment," HUI Working Papers 36, HUI Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:huiwps:0036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hui.se/MediaBinaryLoader.axd?MediaArchive_FileID=59822671-0ebe-49f1-8da1-8dc1c0786bb8&MediaArchive_ForceDownload=true
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Monier Sylvette & Hassan Daniel & Nichèle Véronique & Simioni Michel, 2009. "Organic Food Consumption Patterns," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Conner, David S., 2004. "Beyond Organic: Information Provision For Sustainable Agriculture In A Changing Market," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 35(1), pages 1-6, March.
    3. I. Vermeir & W. Verbeke, 2004. "Sustainable Food Consumption: Exploring The Consumer Attitude – Behaviour Gap," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 04/268, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Julie A. Caswell & Eliza M. Mojduszka, 1996. "Using Informational Labeling to Influence the Market for Quality in Food Products," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1248-1253.
    5. Bellows Anne C. & Onyango Benjamin & Diamond Adam & Hallman William K, 2008. "Understanding Consumer Interest in Organics: Production Values vs. Purchasing Behavior," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-31, May.
    6. Reicks, Marla & Splett, Patricia & Fishman, Amy, 1999. "Shelf Labeling Of Organic Foods: Customer Response In Minnesota Grocery Stores," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 30(2), pages 1-13, July.
    7. Beretti Antoine & Grolleau Gilles & Mzoughi Naoufel, 2009. "How Cognitive Biases Can Affect the Performance of Eco-Labeling Schemes," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-13, December.
    8. Bauer, Hans H. & Heinrich, Daniel & Schäfer, Daniela B., 2013. "The effects of organic labels on global, local, and private brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1035-1043.
    9. Hassan, Daniel & Monier-Dilhan, Sylvette & Nichele, Veronique & Simioni, Michel, 2009. "Organic Food Consumption Patterns in France," 2009 Pre-Conference Workshop, August 16, 2009, Diet and Obesity: Role of Prices and Policies 53342, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    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. Magdalena Śmiglak-Krajewska & Julia Wojciechowska-Solis, 2021. "Consumer versus Organic Products in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Opportunities and Barriers to Market Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Jessica Aschemann-Witzel & Stephan Zielke, 2017. "Can't Buy Me Green? A Review of Consumer Perceptions of and Behavior Toward the Price of Organic Food," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 211-251, March.
    3. Lindgren, Charlie, 2021. "Discontinuities: What is the value of having the lowest price or highest consumer rating on a price comparison website?," HFI Working Papers 19, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    4. Yadav, Rambalak, 2016. "Altruistic or egoistic: Which value promotes organic food consumption among young consumers? A study in the context of a developing nation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-97.
    5. Cerdá Suárez, Luis Manuel & Robina Ramírez, Rafael & Palos Sánchez, Pedro Ramiro, 2018. "The influence of health and environment-focused values on restaurateur satisfaction in organic restaurants: a descriptive analysis in Spain," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).

    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. Meyer, Andrew, 2015. "Does education increase pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 108-121.
    2. 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.
    3. Akrout Houcine & Kaswengi Joseph, 2019. "Choosing Organic and Healthy Food in Times of Economic Uncertainty: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis in France," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Monier-Dilhan Sylvette & Poméon Thomas & Böhm Michael & Brečić Ruzica & Csillag Peter & Donati Michele & Ferrer-Pérez Hugo & Gauvrit Lisa & Gil José M. & Hoàng Việt & Lilavanichakul Apichaya & Majewsk, 2021. "Do Food Quality Schemes and Net Price Premiums Go Together?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 79-94, December.
    5. Jessica Aschemann-Witzel & Stephan Zielke, 2017. "Can't Buy Me Green? A Review of Consumer Perceptions of and Behavior Toward the Price of Organic Food," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 211-251, March.
    6. Mathieu Lambotte & Stephane De Cara & Valentin Bellassen, 2020. "Once a quality-food consumer, always a quality-food consumer? Consumption patterns of organic, label rouge, and geographical indications in French scanner data," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 101(1), pages 147-172.
    7. Etilé, Fabrice & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and the economics of consumer social responsibility," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement (RAEStud), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 94(2).
    8. Terlau, Wiltrud & Hirsch, Darya, 2015. "Sustainable Consumption and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap Phenomenon - Causes and Measurements towards a Sustainable Development," 2015 International European Forum (144th EAAE Seminar), February 9-13, 2015, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 206233, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    9. Tang, Chor Foon & Abosedra, Salah & Naghavi, Navaz, 2021. "Does the quality of institutions and education strengthen the quality of the environment? Evidence from a global perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    10. Terlau, Wiltrud & Hirsch, Darya, 2015. "Sustainable Consumption and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap Phenomenon - Causes and Measurements towards a Sustainable Development," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, July.
    11. Schroeck, Rebecca, 2011. "A Demand System Analysis of Organic and Conventional Fresh Milk in Germany Segmented by Consumer Groups," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 115995, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Nambiar, Padmanand Madhavan & Florkowski, Wojciech J. & Suh, Dong-Kyun, 2012. "Attitudes of Urban Female Consumers Toward Food Production Practices in the Republic of Korea," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124811, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Junjun Zheng & Mingmiao Yang & Mingyuan Xu & Cheng Zhao & Cong Shao, 2019. "An Empirical Study of the Impact of Social Interaction on Public Pro-Environmental Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-14, November.
    14. Hanna Lindström, 2022. "The Swedish consumer market for organic and conventional milk: A demand system analysis," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 505-532, July.
    15. Lindström, Hanna, 2021. "The Swedish consumer market for organic and conventional milk: A demand system analysis," Umeå Economic Studies 998, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    16. Tan Poh Leong & Laily Paim, 2015. "Mediating Effects of Intention On The Factors Affecting Organic Food Products Consumption Among Chinese Generation Y In Malaysia," International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Computer Science Journals (CSC Journals), vol. 6(1), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Dominika Srednicka-Tober & Renata Kazimierczak & Ewelina Hallmann, 2016. "European Organic Food Consumers: Motives, Actions and Implications (Charakterystyka europejskich konsumentow zywnoœci ekologicznej – motywy, dzialania i implikacje)," Problemy Zarzadzania, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 14(58), pages 100-108.
    18. Gilles Grolleau & Naoufel Mzoughi & Angela Sutan, 2019. "Does advertising the green benefits of products contribute to sustainable development goals? A quasi‐experimental test of the dilution effect," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 786-793, July.
    19. Bellows Anne C. & Onyango Benjamin & Diamond Adam & Hallman William K, 2008. "Understanding Consumer Interest in Organics: Production Values vs. Purchasing Behavior," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-31, May.
    20. Hwang, Jiyoung & Chung, Jae-Eun, 2019. "What drives consumers to certain retailers for organic food purchase: The role of fit for consumers’ retail store preference," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 293-306.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Product labeling; random coefficient models; ecological products; experimental economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

    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:hhs:huiwps:0036. 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: Hans Seerar Westerberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/huistse.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.