Open AccessTECHNOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY: A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS OF HIGH VALUE-ADDED FOODSTUFFS
Author(s) -
Alejandro Cotes-Torres,
Pablo Antonio Muñoz Gallego,
José Miguel Cotes Torres
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of business economics and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1611-1699
pISSN - 2029-4433
DOI - 10.3846/16111699.2014.987159
Subject(s) - agribusiness , product (mathematics) , marketing , value (mathematics) , business , portfolio , consumption (sociology) , food products , food science , agricultural science , mathematics , agriculture , statistics , chemistry , biology , ecology , social science , geometry , finance , sociology
This article proposes and develops the concept of technological complexity (TC) as a useful and simple tool for grouping key attributes that give added value to a product. In addition, it reports an empirical application of this concept to two different food products (cured ham and cured sausage). The authors used a mixed-effects multi-nomial logistic regression model and show that in the cured pork product agribusiness, a low frequency of consumption favours the acceptance of high TC products. The results also confirm that marketing high TC products in stores with a large assortment decreases the chances of success for agribusiness companies that produce cured pork food products. These finding can be used by the managers for designing complementary attributes that improve their product portfolio. Besides, advertising expenditures associated with introducing new products could be reduced if companies strengthened their presence in specialty stores.