=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper61
|storemode=property
|title=Consumers’ Purchasing Behaviour Patterns Regarding Organic Wine in a Southern E.U. Country
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper61.pdf
|volume=Vol-1498
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/TsourgiannisLKT15
}}
==Consumers’ Purchasing Behaviour Patterns Regarding Organic Wine in a Southern E.U. Country==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper61.pdf
Consumers’ Purchasing Behaviour Patterns Regarding
Organic Wine in a Southern E.U. Country
Lambros Tsourgiannis1, Efstratios Loizou2, Anastasios Karasavvoglou3, Christos
Antonios Tsourgiannis4, Giannoula Florou3
1
Region of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece,
e-mail: ltsourgiannis@gmail.com
2
Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia, Dept. of Agricultural Products
Marketing and Quality Control, Florina, Greece
3
Accountancy and Finance Department, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of
Technology, Kavala, Greece
4
Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Centre for Seed Certification in Xanthi, Xanthi,
Greece
Abstract. This paper aims to explore the consumers buying behaviour towards
organic wine in Southern Europe and more precisely in Greece. The study
attempts to compare its results with other studies concerning Northern
European Consumers’ attitudes shedding light in potential differences. Field
interviews conducted in a randomly selected sample consisted of 510
consumers in November and December of 2013, were analyzed by employing
multivariate statistical analysis. Principal components analysis (PCA) was
conducted to identify the factors affecting people in preferring consuming
organic wine. Cluster techniques employed to classify consumers with similar
buying behaviour and identified three groups of consumers: the “conscious”
consumers, the “curious” consumers, and the “opportunists”. Discriminant
analysis was performed to assess how the identified factors derived from PCA
could predict cluster membership. Non parametric statistical tests were
performed to profile the identified group of consumers regarding their
demographic characteristics.
Keywords: Consumer behaviour, Organic wine, Consumer preferences
1 Introduction
1.1 Issue Under Study
Niche marketing has become the focus of many studies that examine consumers’
acceptance of value added or differentiated products. Regarding food selection,
consumers' behaviour and decision-making process is affected by numerous factors,
such as: food quality characteristics, diet and health issues, price, governmental
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actions, cultural factors, distribution channels, etc (Tsourgiannis 2008). Additionally,
religious prohibitions, cultural beliefs and counterculture attitudes have a significant
influence on consumers purchasing decisions towards food products together with
the social characteristics of the consumers (Lazaridis 2003).
In this framework the current study examines such a product; that is, organic wine,
aiming to explore consumers purchasing behaviour patterns in Southern Europe and
particularly in Greece. Most of the knowledge about the consumers attitudes
regarding organic wine in Southern Europe mainly is derived from a limited number
of studies conducted before the current economic crisis. Thus, the examination of the
factors that affect the buying behaviour of South European consumers towards
organic wine amidst the period of economic depression is very important and fills a
gap in the relevant literature. More specifically, the study aims to identify the factors
that affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour and classify them into groups with
similar behaviour as well as to profile each group of consumers regarding their
demographic characteristics. Further, the study aims to compare its results with other
studies concerning Northern European consumers’ attitudes and sheet light in
potential differences.
1.2 Literature Review
Consumers, especially in Europe where food safety crises stuck hardest, have
partially lost their confidence towards many conventional farming products. Such a
product is wine, according to Loureiro (2003) in the wine market, environmental
quality perceptions seem to play a critical role in consumers’ preferences. Many
empirical studies examined the factors explaining organic food behaviour and profile
and differentiate the organic consumer from the non organic one. Thompson and
Kidwell (1998) found that families with children were more likely to buy organic
food. Aertsens et. al. (2009) argued that health related to value security and taste
related to hedonism can play an important role in determining organic food
purchases. Environment and nature protection as well as animal welfare also
motivate people in buying organic food (Aertsens et. al. 2009). Furthermore, a great
deal of attention has been devoted to the design characteristics of the wine bottle
(Mann e.t al, 2012).
While most consumers hold positive attitudes towards organic food the proportion
of consumers purchasing organic food on a regular basis remains low, with market
shares of organic products in European countries, being quite low in some Southern
Central and Eastern European countries and quite high in Austria and Denmark
(Aertsens, et.al 2009). Consumers are becoming more aware of quality issues linked
to health, taste, environmental and ethical concerns (Ness et. al.2010). Moreover
European consumers regarding organic market can be classified into established
consumers, emerging consumers and non-consumers and therefore while there is a
healthy market for organic food, purchasing patterns are not stable as consumers
switch between purchase –frequent categories. Furthermore, organic shoppers have
responded to the recent economic crisis by shopping less often, purchasing fewer
premium products and switching to quality low-input food (Ness et. al.2010).
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Consumers in Southern European Countries are influenced by the Mediterranean
dietary patterns (Balanza et. al. 2007). More particular, Mediterranean consumers
have developed a drinking culture according to which the sole use-value of alcohol is
that of a nutrient. In other words, alcohol (mainly wine) is mostly drunk in
connection with meals for its nutritional and gastronomic properties (Makela et. al.
2006); though, young people start following new wine consumption patterns, (Barena
and Sanchez, 2009). On the other hand, Northern and Central European consumers
are more influenced by the western diet that is rich in animal fat and protein and low
in complex carbohydrates (Panza et al 2004) and their average volume of drinking is
higher than in Southern Europe (Rehm et. al. 2003).
Studies conducted in Southern EU countries examined consumers’ attitudes
towards wine and organic wine purchases and indicated that these consumers pay
attention to the quality of the wine, price, nutritional information on food labels,
confidence in food quality controls made by authorities and private companies,
health and diet issues, absence harmful substances, visual attractiveness of the
product, influence of recommendations, presentation, publicity and previous
knowledge (Crescimanno et. al. 2002; Fotopoulos et. al. 2003; Radman 2005;
Barreiro-Hurle et al. 2007; Bernabeu et al. 2008; Kuhar and Juvancic 2010). They are
also influenced in their buying decision towards organic wine by their age, household
size, income, education (Crescimanno et. al. 2002; Chryssohoidis and Krystallis,
2005; Radman 2005; Tsakiridou et. al. 2006; Krystallis et. al. 2006).
The identification of the motives of Northern European consumers to buy organic
food as well as the comparison of these motives with the motives of Southern
European consumers, was the aim of a number of studies. In particular Northern and
Western European consumers are influenced by the appearance, taste, eating
experience, price, nutritional value, value for money, shelf life, keeping quality,
origin of the wine, production system, colour of the wine, perceived status image,
perceived satisfaction and perceived value; health and environment issues as well as
by ecological motives (Fotopoulos and Krystallis 2002; Honkanen et. al, 2006;
Adamsen et al., 2007; De Magistris and Gracia, 2008; Janssen et al. 2009; Ness et al.
2010; Mann et al., 2012; ).
Many consumer behaviour theories and models have developed the last decades to
examine issues as above. The food-related lifestyle (FRL) has been proposed as a
mediator between and behaviour (Brunso & Grunert, 1995; Brunso et al., 2004a;
Brunso et al., 2004b; Grunert, et. al., 1997; Scholderer, et. al., 2002). Attitude and
decision making research has examined what might be considered "cold" and "hot"
aspects of consumer behaviour (Simonson et al. 2001). Social recognition and
Behavioural Decision Theory (BDT) in consumer research have tended to build on
different underlying models of buyer behaviour and the communication process
(Simonson et al. 2001). Furthermore, according to the Theory of Reasoned Action
(TRA) people consider implications of their actions before they involved in a given
behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980). Therefore, as Papista and Krystallis (2012)
argued, people form intentions to perform behaviours that are intercepted by persons
attitudes towards that behaviour and social norms. As this model criticized that failed
to support the connection between intention and behaviour (Gupta and Ogden, 2009);
Ajzen (1991) developed the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TRB) which argues that
the intention of a person to perform an action is the most important immediate
522
determinant of the action. This theory found application and in consumers’ decision
making process and buying behaviour regarding sustainable food consumption
(Aertsens et. al. 2009; Arvola et. al. 2008; Toulouse et. al. 2006; Vermeir and
Verbeke 2008).
On the other hand, the above mentioned consumer behaviour theories and models
do not take into consideration all the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics and values,
marketing mix issues and demographic characteristics in exploring the factors that
affect consumers purchasing behaviour but each theory and model some of them.
Therefore, a conceptual model was developed in the current study to place the
intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics and values, marketing mix issues and
demographic characteristics outlined in the literature into an identifiable framework
(Figure 1).
Consumers’ opinion
towards organic food
products
Ho2
Ho1 Ho4
Factors affecting Classification of Demographic
consumers buying consumers to groups consumers’
behavior towards according to their buying characteristics
organic wine behaviour (age, education,
occupation, etc)
Ho3
Consumers’ preferences
regarding marketing outlet
utilisation in order to buy
organic wine
Fig. 1. The Conceptual Model
The research null hypotheses that this study tests according to the conceptual
model below are the followings: Ho1, consumers in Greece cannot be classified into
groups according to the factors that affect their purchasing behaviour towards organic
wine. Ho2, consumers’ opinion about the organic food products is not significantly
related to particular purchasing behaviour. Ho3, consumers’ purchasing behaviour
towards organic wine is not significantly related to their preferences regarding the
utilisation of a particular marketing outlet. Ho4, consumers’ purchasing behaviour
towards organic wine is not significantly related to their demographic characteristics.
In the introductory section above the current study presented the topic under
examination, the gaps in the literature and its aims and a comprehensive literature
review on organic food products consumers' perceptions along with a comparison of
523
the differences between Southern and Northern Europe consumers. The applied
methodology is analysed in the next section with a brief presentation of the survey
procedure; the results are presented next analytically following the research questions
and in the end conclusions are discussed.
2 Applied Methodology
2.1 Survey Procedure
The survey of the study addressed to a sample of consumers in order to gather data
necessary to identify the factors that affect consumers buying behaviour towards
organic wine, in Greece. Hence, the research focuses on a sample of Greek
consumers, purchasers of organic food products. Information were gathered through
an interview survey as the consumers are familiar with this kind of research and their
educational level is suitable for the use of this kind of survey method (Oppenheim
2000). Additionally, the cost of conducting large postal or telephone survey to
develop a typology was considered prohibitive. Furthermore, as many consumers do
not have an Internet access, the electronic survey method was not suitable for
surveying a representative to a general population sample.
Cluster sampling method used to form the sample. In particular the general
population is stratified into two levels: regions and prefectures. Initially based on the
methodology presented by Oppenheim (2000), from the 13 regions exist in Greece 11
regions selected at random order to have a more representative sample from the
geographical point of view. In the second stage 1 prefecture from each region
selected at random. Finally, a random systematic sampling was used to form the
sample of 50 consumers in each prefecture and more particular in the capital of each
chosen prefecture where shopping malls, supermarkets and market exist by taking
every sixth person that came on site (McCluskey et. al., 2003). As Errington (1985)
argued the only way in which this can be achieved is to ensure that the units for
survey are selected at random from the larger population about which generalizations
are to be made. The productive sample consists of 510 consumers that would be
reasonably representative of some larger population about which useful
generalization could be made. The size of the sample is considered reasonable
regarding the total population of the area as this size of samples were mostly used by
other researchers in Greece regarding consumer behaviour towards food purchases
(Tzimitra-Kalogianni et.al.1999; Botonaki and Tsakiridou, 2004; Tsakiridou et al.
2008).
An effort was made to reach consumers at the same time and place where actual
purchase decisions are made hoping to better elicit consumers’ true preferences about
the products. Interviews took place throughout the day to reduce time of shopping
related bias (Krystallis and Chryssohoidis, 2005). Hence, one quarter (25%) of the
interviews were conducted between 9:00 – 15:00 during the week (Monday –
Friday), one quarter between 15:00 – 21:00 during the week and 50% during
524
Saturday (9:00 – 19:00). This survey methodology developed according to the
results of the pilot survey into which the respondents indicated the day and time they
make their shopping.
The representativeness of the sample immunized by checking the proportion of the
consumers of the sample who declared that bought organic food with those of the
pilot survey. In particular, the proportion of consumers (p) in the pilot survey who
indicated that bought organic wine at least once is 92%. Therefore in order to achieve
a representative sample the sample size should be 265 consumers (in order have z=3
and d=5%). As the researchers decided to a sample size 550 consumers (about two
times more than what was needed) in order to have similar size samples with other
surveys presented above, and the proportion of consumers who bought at least one
time local food in this sample is about 92% (510 consumers), the sample is
considered representative.
2.2 Questionnaire design
Factors that affect the consumers’ behaviour towards organic wine were identified
by the researchers after searching the literature. Furthermore they designed a
questionnaire in order to meet the research objectives and pre-tested it in academics,
food marketing experts and consumers. In the next stage the questionnaire was
piloted in October of 2013 to 100 consumers. The pilot survey indicated that no
modification needed to the questionnaire and therefore the main survey was
conducted in November and December of 2013 as mentioned above.
2.3 Statistical Methodology
Multivariate analysis techniques were used to the 510 consumers that buy organic
wine to reveal the key information contained in the responses, and these analyses
were applied in three stages. First, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to
identify the variables that accounted for the maximum amount of variance within the
data in terms of the smallest number of uncorrelated variables (components). The
anti-image correlation matrix was used as well as Bartlett’s test of sphericity and
measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) in order to check the appropriateness of the
data for subsequent factor analysis. The variables that had a high proportion of large
absolute values of anti –image correlations as well as MSA less than 0.5 were
removed before analysis. In this study, PCA reduced the key attitude variables, which
relate to various aspects of consumers behaviour towards organic wine, to a smaller
set of underlying factors (or consumption dimensions). An orthogonal rotation
(varimax method) was conducted and the standard criteria of eigenvalue=1, scree test
and percentage of variance were used in order to determine the factors in the first
rotation (Hair et al. 2010). Different trial rotations followed where factor
interpretability was compared. These factor scores were then subjected to cluster
analysis to group consumers with similar patterns of scores into similar clusters
based on their buying behaviour. In this study, both hierarchical and non-hierarchical
methods were used according to the recommendations of Hair et al. (2010) and
525
Karelakis et al. (2011) in order to develop a typology of the consumers’ buying
behaviour. A non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis one way ANOVA was conducted to
validate the cluster solutions by examining if variables not used in cluster analysis
differ significantly among the identified clusters.
Quadratic discriminant analysis was performed to assess how accurately the
identified key consumption dimensions that were derived from the factor analysis
could predict and discriminate cluster membership. Statistical tests based on the
outcomes of the multivariate statistical techniques presented above (factor, cluster
and discriminant analysis) were used to test the four hypotheses presented in
previous section.
3 Results
3.1 Consumers’ buying behaviour and attitudes towards organic wine.
Principal components and factor analyses (through a varimax rotation) were
conducted to identify the key consumption preference variables, and the latent root
criterion (eigenvalue =1), the scree plot test and the percentage of variance were used
to determine the number of factors (Table 1). Several different trial rotations were
conducted to compare factor interpretability as suggested by Tabachnick and Fiddell
(1989) and Hair et al (1998).
Table 1: Results of Principal Component Analysis regarding Consumers buying attitudes
Component Eigenvalue %Variance %Cumulative Variables Communalities
variance
1 2.271 37.842 37.842 V1 - Environment 0.630
protection
2 1.402 23.366 61.208 V2 – Nutritional Value 0.586
3 0.736 12.272 73.480 V3 – Absence of 0.592
Chemical Ingredients
4 0.629 10.475 83.955 V4-Quriosity 0.684
5 0.505 8.418 92.374 V5-Prestige 0.691
6 0.458 7.626 100.00 V6-Health protection 0.502
KMO MSA = 0.682, Bartlett test of Sphericity = 545.352, P <0.001
PCA identified two factors that affect consumers’ preferences towards organic
wine (Table 2).
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Table 2. Main Factors affecting consumers preferences towards organic wine
KEY CONSUMPTION DIMENSIONS Factor Loadings
Health Safety
Environment protection 0.793
Absence of Chemical Ingredients 0.766
Nutritional Value 0.762
Health protection 0.659
Prestige and Curiosity
Prestige 0.829
Curiosity 0.827
In the next stage, hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering methods were used
to develop a typology of the buying behaviour of the consumers in Greece (Helsen
and Green, 1991 and Hair et al., 2010). Cluster analysis was conducted on the 510
observations, as there were no outliers. It identified three groups of consumers that
were named according to their buying behaviour patterns towards organic wine
(Table 3).
These are: (a) the “curious” consumers, (b) opportunists and (c) the “conscious”
consumers. In particular, the “curious” consumers comprise the 19% of the sample
and are mainly influenced in their buying decisions towards organic wine only by
prestige and curiosity. Some other factors that influence them in this purchasing
decision are the absence of chemicals additives, nutritional value of the products and
the environmental impact of the production process of the product. On the other
hand, the “opportunists” consists of the 26% of the sample. These consumers
although they purchase organic wine they are not influenced by any particular factor.
The “conscious” consumers comprise 55% of the sample. These consumers are
interested in buying products with no chemical additives. Furthermore, the
environmental consequences of the product as well as the nutrition value of the
product are also some factors that affect consumers buying behaviour. Hence they
buy organic wine consciously as they consider it healthier and environmental
friendly.
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Table 3. Characteristics of the Three Consumers’ Groups
Key Consumption “Curious” “Opportunists” “Conscious” P
Dimensions Consumers Consumers Consumers
Health safety 0.34501 -1.36372 0.52825 0.0001
Prestige and 1.58335 -0.20174 -0.45269 0.0001
curiosity
Number of 97 133 280
consumers (n=510)
Furthermore these three groups of consumers were validated using Kruskal –
Wallis non-parametric one-way ANOVA with four (4) consumption variables
describing the way they buy organic wine and were not used in factor analysis; as
this test is more robust in cases of ordinal data (Kinnear and Gray 2000). As Table 4
illustrates the three identified consumers groups found to good validity as the
examined variables are significant associated with consumers’ buying behaviour
towards organic wine. In particular the “Conscious” consumers in comparison with
the “curious” consumers are more affected in their organic wine purchasing decision
by the quality, taste and advertisement of the product, whilst the “curious”
consumers pay more attention to the topicality of the product.
Table 4. Miscellaneous Characteristics of the Three Consumers Groups according to Kruskal–
Wallis test
Miscellaneous “Curious” “Opportunists “Conscious” P
Characteristics Consumers ” Consumers Consumers
Quality 267.2a 172.0a 291.10a 0.000
1
Taste 274.7a 169.8a 289.6a 0.000
1
Topicality 327.7a 191.1a 261.10a 0.001
a a
Advertisement 140.8 128.6 150.8a 0.001
Number of 97 133 280
consumers (n=510)
NB: Average ranks with similar superscripts among groups per line (characteristic) differ at P<0.05
Moreover discriminant analysis was conducted to evaluate the prediction of group
membership by the predictors derived from the factor analysis. Initially the normality
of the key strategic dimensions was checked. The Box’s M test statistic (Box M=
95.053 approx F= 15.730 df =6 P<0.001) indicated that the variance – covariance
matrices were violated. The summary of the cross validation classification derived by
the quadratic discriminant analysis is shown in Table 5.
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Table 5 Summary of Classification with Cross - validation
Actual Classification Predicted Classification
“Curious” “Opportunists” “Conscious”
Consumers Consumers Consumers
“Curious” Consumers 97 0 3
“Opportunists” 0 133 21
Consumers
“Conscious” 0 0 256
Consumers
Total N 97 133 280
N correct 97 133 256
Proportion of Correct 100% 100% 91.4%
Classification
N=510 N correct = 486 Proportion Correct =95.3%
Thus, the two consumption dimensions could accurately predict and discriminate
consumers’ group membership.
Therefore, the hypothesis Ho1: Consumers in Greece cannot be classified into
groups according to the factors that affect their purchasing behaviour towards
organic wine may be rejected.
3.2 Consumers Opinion Towards Organic Food Products
In the next stage, nominal logistic regression analysis was performed to in order to
identify the main opinion of each group of consumers towards organic products. In
particular, the analysis indicated (Table 6) that “opportunists” contrary to the
“conscious” consumers although they believe that organic food have better quality
and more nutritional value than conventional, these attitudes do not influence them
positively in their shopping towards organic food. On the other hand, most of the
“curious” consumers in comparison with the “conscious” although they believe that
conventional food in general are better than organic they consider organic food
tastier than conventional. Besides, their attitudes that organic food products are more
expensive than conventional influence them negatively in their purchasing decision
in comparison with the “conscious” consumers.
529
Table 6. Consumers’ opinion about organic products
Predictors Coef P Odds
ratio
Constant 5.562 0.001
Conventional food products are better than organic 0.2721 0.050 1.31
Opportunists/Conscious
Organic food products are tastier 0.0252 0.884 1.03
Organic food products have better quality -0.7156 0.001 0.49
Organic food products are healthier 0.2412 0.222 1.27
Organic food products are more expensive 0.0087 0.956 0.99
Organic food products have more nutritional value -0.4777 0.005 0.62
Organic food products do not have negative impact on -0.9199 0.001 0.40
the environment
Constant 0.165 0.889
Conventional food products are better than organic 0.2906 0.026 1.34
Organic food products are tastier 0.4548 0.006 1.58
Curious/Conscious
Organic food products have better quality -0.0726 0.731 0.93
Organic food products are healthier -0.3000 0.157 0.74
Organic food products are more expensive -0.3619 0.011 0.70
Organic food products have more nutritional value 0.0851 0.639 1.09
Organic food products do not have negative impact on -0.1459 0.294 0.86
the environment
Log-likelihood = -417.657
G=179.976; DF=14; P<0.001
Thus hypothesis, Ho2: Consumers’ opinion about the organic food products is not
significant related to particular purchasing behaviour maybe rejected.
3.3 Consumers’ Marketing Channel Utilisation regarding organic wine
purchases
The researchers in their effort to explore which marketing outlet the consumers of
each group usually prefer conducted the chi-square analysis. According to the results
of the test (Table 7) the consumers of all the three groups have similar behaviour
530
regarding the marketing outlets they use in order to buy organic wine . In particular
most of them usually buy organic wine from wine cellars.
Table 7. Consumers’ marketing channel utilisation regarding organic wine
Marketing “Curious” “Opportunists” “Conscious” Consumers
channels Consumers Consumers
Wine (x2 (x2=1 (x2=115
a b
Cellars =43.63 64.9% 5.535, 46.6% .340, df=2 62.5%a
3, df=2 df=2 P<0.001)
Special
P<0.00 P<0.05)
Shops that sell
1)
Organic Food 17.6%c 34.6%b 11.8%a
Supermarket
s 17.5%c 18.8%a 25.7%b
a
P<0.001, bP<0.01, cP<0.05 and n.s P>0.05
Hence, the hypothesis Ho3 Consumers’ purchasing behaviour towards organic
wine is not significantly related to their preferences regarding the utilisation of a
particular marketing outlet maybe rejected.
3.4 Profiling each consumer group according to consumers’ demographic
characteristics.
A chi-square analysis was also performed for each consumer group in order to
develop the profile of the consumers who have a particular buying behaviour towards
organic wine regarding their demographic characteristics. As Table 8 indicates most
of the “curious” consumers are between 30-44 years old, hold a bachelor degree,
have 1-2 children and work as private employees or as civil servants. On the other
hand, most of the “opportunists” consumers are between 30-44 years old, hold a high
school of a bachelor degree, do not have children and are free licensed. Furthermore,
the majority of the “conscious” consumers are between 30-44 years old, hold a
university degree, are married with 1-2 kids and work as free licensed.
531
Table 8. Consumers’ profile regarding demographic characteristics.
Marketing channels “Curious” “Opportunists” “Conscious”
Consumers Consumers Consumers
Age 20-29 years (x2= 23.7%n.s (x2= 25.6%n.s (x2= 17.9%a
40.031, 48.732, 96.486,
30-44 years df=3 48.5%c df=3 48.1%c df=3 46.1%c
45-64 years P<0.001) 24.7%n.s P<0.001) 20.3%n.s P<0.001) 29.6%n.s
>65 years 3.1%c 6.0%c 6.4%c
Educa Primary (x2=2 11.3% n.s (x2=3 14.3% (x2=1 9.6% c
n.s
tion School 7.485, 9.143, 36.143,
df=4 df=4 df=4
Secondary P<0.001) 13.4% n.s P<0.001) 11.3% a P<0.001) 12.1% b
School
High School 27.8% n.s 33.1% c 38.2% c
Bachelor 37.1% c 33.1% c 35.4% c
degree
Postgraduate 10.3% a 8.3% b 4.6%c
degree
Marit Not Married n.s. 41.2% n.s n.s. 42.1% (x2=5 27.9% c
n.s
al Status 4.914,
df=1
Married 58.8% n.s 57.9% P<0.001) 72.1% c
n.s
Numb No children (x2=8. 39.2% n.s (x2=2 44.4% a (x2=1 28.9%
n.s
er of 317, df=2 1.905, 02.762,
Children P<0.05) df=2 df=2
1-2 children 41.2% n.s P<0.001) 41.4% P<0.001) 59.6% c
n.s
+3 children 19.6% a 14.3% c 10.7% c
Occu Private (x2=2 24.7% b (x2=5 27.1% c (x2=5 20.4% b
pation employee 4.523, 7.053, 5.350,
df=6 df=6 df=6
Civil P<0.001) 24.7% b P<0.001) 15.0% P<0.001) 21.8% c
n.s
Servant
Free 15.5% n.s 29.3% c 22.5% c
Licensed
Retiree 5.2% a 6.8% a 10.0%
n.s
Student 9.3% n.s 10.5% 17.5% b
n.s
Unemployed 9.3% n.s 4.5% b 8.9% a
Other 11.3% n.s 6.8%c 8.9%a
a
P<0.001, bP<0.01, cP<0.05 and n.s P>0.05
532
Therefore the hypothesis Ho4: Consumers’ purchasing behaviour towards
organic wine is not significantly related to their demographic characteristics maybe
rejected.
4 Discussion - Conclusions
This study provides, from a theoretical perspective, evidence on factors that
influence the intention to purchase organic wine, extending evidence to European
consumers and give useful information to local policy makers to promote the future
development of the demand for organic wine in a Southern E.U. Country. Results
indicated that there was a significant association between the adoption of a buying
behaviour and the factors, opinions and personal characteristics that influence them
to choose organic wine.
It was also found that the consumers who prefer to buy organic wine wittingly
consider it healthier, with no chemical ingredients, with no negative impact on the
environment, tastier and with better quality in comparison with the conventional
products. “Curious” consumers on the other hand consider the organic wine healthier
and with no chemical ingredients and no negative impact on the environment than the
conventional. They also pay attention in product’s topicality but they are mainly
influenced in their purchasing decision towards organic wine by their curiosity and
the prestige they will gain by buying these products. Moreover all the three groups of
consumers prefer to buy organic wine from wine cellars. Therefore, this study
supports the findings of other studies (Cresimento et al 2003, Radman 2005, Barreiro
– Hurle et al. 2007, Bernabeu et. al. 2008) according to which Southern European
consumers are mainly affected in their preferences towards organic wine by health
and quality issues. Furthermore this study indicates that existence of a family,
occupation and educational level affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour towards
organic wine and hence supports the findings of Tsakiridou et. al. (2006) and
Chryssohoidis and Krystallis (2005).
On the other hand, this study indicates that most of the organic wine consumers in
Greece are influenced in their choice by environmental and nutritional issues, whilst
these factors do not motivate mainly the Southern European Consumers. This finding
suggests that the motives of Greek organic wine consumers are switching and
becoming similar to that of North European consumers who mainly buy organic food
due to their environmental concern and the nutritional value of the product (Ness et
al. 2010, Mann et. al. 2012, Janssen et. al. 2009) maybe because most of the organic
wine consumers in Greece who in their vast majority are between 30-44 years old
have studied in Northern and Western European Countries. Moreover, the
supermarket sector in Greece is dominated by multinational supermarket chains and
therefore, the last few years there is availability of organic food including wine in
supermarkets except the specialty shops and wine cellars. Hence, even most of the
consumers prefer to buy organic food from wine cellars there is about a 18%-25% of
consumers who purchase organic food from supermarkets as Northern European
consumers usually do.
533
Moreover, the fact that the mentioned in the literature review consumer behaviour
theories and models including the food-related lifestyle (FRL), social cognition and
behavioural decision theory (BDT), theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of
planned behaviour (TRB) (Aertsens et. al. 2009; Ajzen and Fishbein 1985; Ajzen
1991; Arvola et. al. 2008; Brunso & Grunert, 1995; Brunso, et.al.2004a; Brunso,
et.al.2004b; Grunert, Brunso, & Bisp,1997; Scholderer, Brunso, & Grunert, 2002,
Simonson et al. 2001; Toulouse et. al. 2006; Vermeir and Verbeke 2008) do not take
into consideration all the above mentioned attitudes, values and characteristics,
supports the validity and novelty of the conceptual model developed and used in this
study.
A number of limitations can be identified in this survey with the most important
being the followings: a) Some answers in the questionnaire may not represent the
true beliefs and attitudes of consumers due to the fact that they are asked in the place
and at the time they make their shopping and their time to answer the questionnaire is
sometimes limited. Of course this limitation exists in most of consumers preferences
surveys. b) The samples in such surveys cannot be quite large due to financial
constrains. Though, a larger sample covering the whole country or even better a
sample from various Southern EU countries that would provide much accurate results
can be the aim of a future study. c) The adopted statistical methodology even it
explore the factors that affect consumers’ buying behaviour and create a taxonomy of
consumers with similar buying behaviour (which is the purpose of the current study)
useful for marketing analysis and strategy development cannot measure the demand
of a product or determine the importance of the characteristics of a product that affect
consumers’ behaviour. These measurements can be made with the use of other
statistical techniques such as conjoint analysis and contingent valuation, thus a future
research employing such techniques may result in more comprehensive and
integrated outcomes. Policy makers and relevant stakeholders may found very useful
information regarding the demand for such products through the estimation of
demand elasticities.
Nevertheless, the value of the current study is incontestable. It is the first
study that explores consumers’ attitudes towards organic wine in Southern Europe
and more particular in Greece during the recent economic crisis. Moreover,
consumers’ choice processes are no longer based entirely on their knowledge of the
product but on their knowledge of themselves (Barena and Sanchez 2009). Therefore,
this study provided details on the consumers profile regarding their organic wine
purchases and broadens the range of available marketing information and options.
From a managerial perspective, according to the results of this study the local
producers in Greece should focus on the production of organic wine in order to add
value to their products and differentiate them from the products produced in other
areas or imported from other countries and launched in very low prices by
supermarkets and other retailers. Furthermore, they should structure their marketing
and promotion mix and focus on the factors and consumers characteristics presented
above. In particular they should target to those interested in health safety and
environment protection, in product’s taste, nutrition value, quality as well as to those
that are influenced by psychological factors such as prestige and curiosity, by health
safety issues and the locality of the product. They should certify and label their
products as organic and differentiate them according to this quality certification. For
534
example in Denmark all farmers who sell their products as organic must be
authorized. The Plant Directorate inspects farms and Food Directorate inspects
processing and Trading (United Nations 2008). Moreover a systematic promotion of
the organic food products should be undertaken by all the involved stakeholders
within the value chain of the products in order to motivate consumers to prefer such
products. The National Organic Agriculture Programme of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Livestock (PNAO) in Costa Rica coordinates actions with both
supermarkets and farmers’ markets to assist in the inclusion of new suppliers to these
markets as well as to support financially the promotion of activities such as national
fairs and festivals (United Nations 2008). According to the same source, in Denmark
the organisation “Organic Denmark” that consists of the main non-profit association
for organic farmers, manufactures and consumers has been the main actor in most of
the campaigns regarding information, marketing, export and so forth, often in very
close cooperation with the main companies and retail stores with organic farming and
organic products. This systematic promotion should include advertisement and
campaigns organised by the local authorities and consumers organisations and hence
they will also comply with E.U. promotion campaign for organic food. The Chilean
Association for example was created in 1990 to promote the organic sector in Chile.
It has approximately 90 members including farmers, certifiers, traders, consultants,
students, professionals and others while it has been recognized as a valid
representative for the organic sector by governmental bodies. Furthermore the
Ministry of Agriculture in Chile has constituted a group, with public and private
actors involved in the organic sector, to coordinate actions for developing organic
agriculture (United Nations, 2008). They will also contribute to the Green Economy
and the development of niche market products such as the local certified and organic
food. Therefore, consumers may spend their money within the framework of the
local economy buying local produced products instead of imported and will
contribute in this way to the relation of the local economy that suffers so much due to
the recent economic crisis. Furthermore, society as a whole, will gain from the
growth of organic sector as organic food production creates fewer environmental
externalities than conventional food production.
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