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The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes and behavior towards organic products and products produced under the system of integrated management (SIM) and to compare the socioeconomic characteristics and attitudes that affect consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for these two different certification systems.

The study is based on cross‐sectional data collected through a questionnaire survey. Respondents' attitudes towards the organic and SIM certification systems are examined. A principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was primarily applied to provide a more manageable set of variables relevant to attitudes. Those attitudes together with socioeconomic factors and variables relevant to respondents' motivations to food consumption were used for the estimation of the WTP for organic and SIM products.

Findings suggest that consumers' level of awareness and information towards the studied certification systems is rather low especially for SIM products. This can be mainly attributed to the inadequate promotion and the low availability of certified products in the Greek market. The study also reveals that the WTP for organic products is higher among consumers who place much importance on health, consume organic fruits/vegetables and get information about food/nutrition issues from doctors/nutritionists/health institutes and magazines. WTP for SIM products is affected mainly by married consumers, regular buyers of organic products and those who consume frequently fruits/vegetables.

This paper provides an outline of the level of awareness and trust of food quality certification systems by Greek consumers, a topic that has not been widely discussed in Greece. The findings can help all the involved bodies to avoid the impediments and develop an adequate marketing strategy for the effective promotion of certified food products.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the governance implications of non-genetically modified (GM) voluntary private standards on the private label poultry meat value chain of the leading Italian retailer. Considered aspects are: first, the organizational practices adopted along the chain to assure effective segregation; second, the changes in the characteristics and governance of the key transaction (meat processor-retailer); finally, what makes the chain economically sustainable.

A picture of the chain is obtained collecting information from the businesses involved; the snowball selection criterion is used in identifying people to interview. Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) is used to conceptualize the organizational changes in the meat processor-retailer transaction; the coherence of expected-actual variations in asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency, as well as of the observed governance with TCE predictions is assessed.

The creation of the non-GM chain required investments by both the key actors involved and the establishment of a partnership based on trust and mutual dependence. The increase in uncertainty coupled with the rise in asset specificity led to higher transaction costs, requiring a shift of the governance structure toward the right side of the market-hierarchy continuum to economize on costs and improve supply chain performance. TCE well explains the changes occurred. The retailer values the return on image as a strategic asset and bears the non-GM extra costs making the chain economically sustainable.

The implications of the findings are twofold. First, they help to identify the critical factors for an effective and economically sustainable segregation of non-GM products/raw materials along agro-food value chains. Second, they show how chain actors could adopt tighter governance structures in order to comply with binding technical and quality specifications, economize on transaction costs and improve supply chain performance.

Retailer-led private standards used as regulation and enforcement mechanisms in vertical relations, as well as their organizational implications in the governance of transactions between actors in agro-food value chains have received insufficient attention. This research contributes to fill out this gap.