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Differences in Consumer Abstraction Levels as a Function of Risk Perception
Author(s) -
Barrena Ramo,
Sánchez Mercedes
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2009.00224.x
Subject(s) - credence , risk perception , product (mathematics) , perception , logit , marketing , abstraction , logistic regression , business , consumer behaviour , cognition , ordered logit , economics , psychology , econometrics , mathematics , statistics , philosophy , geometry , epistemology , neuroscience
This study investigates factors affecting consumer purchase choice (cognitive structures) in two foods with different perceived risk levels. Means‐end chain methodology is used to test for differences in the degrees of abstraction and complexity in the purchase decision process for each product. The results reveal significant differences, with more food safety issues coming into play in the case of the product associated with higher perceived risk in the past. This might suggest a non‐temporal effect on consumers’ level of risk perception in food products, with important implications for crisis management. Furthermore, logit models estimated to investigate the health impact of foods show that age and income have played a role in turning this credence attribute into a key element of consumer choice.