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The purpose of this paper is to examine intrinsic and extrinsic food quality characteristics and the relative importance placed on these characteristics by different consumer segments. Moreover, relationship between segments of consumers and consumption frequency of differentiated food products (traditional, functional and organic) was analysed.

A three-stage stratified random sampling approach was employed and data were collected via 500 face-to-face interviews conducted in respondents’ homes. A version of the Food Choice Questionnaire was used to examine the motives of consumers’ underlying food choices. The collected data were analysed by factor analysis followed by cluster analysis.

Four factors were identified: health and sensory characteristics, price and availability, body weight and digestion, and convenience. Resulting clusters were named as: healthy and tasty food lovers, convenient, concerned, and indifferent consumers. Differences were identified between the segments according to consumers’ frequency of consumption of the different types of food products.

The findings have impact implications for food producers and distributors in developing communication strategies for consumer segments with different attitudes and motives. The findings of this study not only contribute to the organic, traditional, and food with health claim literature, but also help industry, government, and consumer associations fully understand consumer perceptions of intrinsic and extrinsic foods characteristics and enhance consumers’ responses to the different types of food products.

The study represents one of the first assessments of the importance of food quality characteristics, segmentation, and consumption frequency of traditional, organic, and functional food products in Central and Eastern Europe.

The objectives of this paper were twofold: to explore if there are differences in the perceptions about supply chain performance (SCP) and relationship quality (RQ) among traditional food supply chain members, and to examine the influence of individual relationship variables and aggregated relationship quality on SCP in the traditional food sector.

The survey was conducted in a triadic context with 189 supply chain members (62 suppliers, 65 focal companies and 62 customers) of 65 traditional food supply chains (cheese, olive oil, meat products, brandies and liqueurs, wine and honey) in Croatia. The influence of individual relationship variables and aggregated RQ on perceived SCP was tested using regression analysis.

It was found that there were no significant differences in the perception of overall SCP and RQ among supply chain members. It was identified that aggregated RQ and all individual relationship variables (trust, commitment, economic satisfaction, non-coercive and coercive power, reputation and conflict) have a significant influence on perceived SCP of the traditional food supply chains.

This study provides a systematic approach to investigate the SCP and supply chain RQ in the traditional food sector. The findings suggest that managers should not neglect any aspect of supply chain relationship to keep high SCP and to be competitive on the market.

This multiple supply chain study makes an original empirical contribution to the supply chain and network management literature by using a triadic approach to investigate RQ and SCP. The influence of individual RQ constructs and aggregated RQ on traditional food SCP examined in this study has not been explored thus far. This study also makes an original empirical contribution by investigating RQ and SCP in the traditional food sector, which has received little attention recently.

The objective of this study is to assess if Italian fish consumers are sensible to shark protection and if they would contribute paying more for small pelagic fishes coming from fisheries that are certified as “shark-free”.

Contingent valuation is used to estimate willingness to pay with a double approach, including a dichotomous choice and an open-ended question. Inconsistency between the two answers is allowed. This allows the correction of two sources of bias (i.e. preference uncertainty and anchoring effect) and has permitted that the two estimation methods converged to the same result.

Consumers show interest for the “shark-free” label. Premium price is estimated at +26%. Variables affecting willingness to pay (WTP) in the sample are age, income, environmental attitude, knowledge of organic labels and frequency of small pelagics' consumption. Results need to be confirmed by a replication on a larger (probabilistic) sample and with a different distribution of bids.

Ecosystems provide different benefits to humankind, including non-use services, such as the satisfaction to know that a species is well conserved. Generally, appreciation is higher for what are considered charismatic species. In this paper, the authors investigate if sharks can be considered charismatic species despite their “bad reputation”. The interest in shark survival is measured indirectly using a “shark-free” label on a commercial species like anchovy, allowing to increase the value added of this low-price species.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between consumer motives regarding purchase of traditional food in two European countries (Croatia and Austria) with a different history and development in regards to traditional and/or regional food.

A word association test and soft laddering interviews were used to elicit consumers’ perception and purchasing motives for traditional food. Additionally, the questionnaire contained socio-demographics and questions about shopping habits concerning traditional food. Semi-structured, individual, face-to-face interviews were performed with 31 Croatian and 28 Austrian respondents.

The most frequent associations/definition in both countries refers to heritage (food of generations) and elaboration (traditional receipt). The meaning of traditional food is for both samples positive. Hierarchical value maps for both countries contain ladders standing for health or support of local farmers. Additionally, the Austrians connect traditional food with environmental friendly production while for the Croatians sentimental hedonism ladder starts with perception of traditional food as a mean to connect with the childhood.

The findings can be used by traditional food producers in order to better understand consumers’ motives and accordingly adapt their marketing strategies.

This is the first work which uses free association test and laddering interviews to reveal consumers perception and motives for purchase of traditional food both in Croatia as well as in Austria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the knowledge of Croatian traditional food consumers, their attitudes as well as their concerns regarding GM food.

A face‐to‐face survey was conducted with 360 consumers in order to collect data on importance of food production technology, respondents' knowledge about GM food, consumers' beliefs about GM food, fear of genetic modifications, willingness to consume and pay for GM food and respondents' demographics. Data were analysed with univariate and multivariate analyses.

The knowledge of Croatian traditional food consumers about GM food is relatively low, which affects their negative attitudes about consumption of GM food. Rejection of GM food is mostly associated with fear of possible negative impact of such food on human health and the environment. A high percentage of respondents (70 per cent) consider GM foods harmful to human health, resulting in a low acceptability of GM food even if it would be cheaper than food without GMOs. Respondents believe that GM components improve freshness and shelf life of food, but significantly reduce its taste and nutritional value.

One limitation of this study is the choice of the sample. Further research would be needed in order to explore attitudes and buying intentions of a representative sample of the entire Croatian population.

Research results show that the introduction of GM food in the market would find potential consumers if it would provide some health benefits.

This paper gives the first insight into Croatian traditional food consumers' knowledge and concerns regarding GM food.

The aims of this paper is to determine, via an empirical study of beer consumers in Croatia, the influence of tasting on the validity of conjoint analysis (CA) under presence of familiar or unfamiliar brands.

The research comprised a face‐to‐face survey with 403 beer consumers. The respondents were divided into four groups regarding CA experiment (familiar/unfamiliar beer brand in combination with presence or absence of beer tasting). CA validity was measured with five criteria: face validity, convergent validity, internal validity, predictive validity and subjective evaluation of conjoint task. In addition to the CA experiment, a structured questionnaire was used consisting of a few questions regarding respondents' socio‐economic characteristics, beer purchasing, and consuming behaviour.

The research results confirmed that tasting as an additional presentation method has significant influence on validity of CA. However, the results of the study indicate that tasting should be used as a stimulus presentation method for CA with food and beverage products/brands, which are unfamiliar to the consumers. When testing familiar brands and brands with established perceptions, simpler and less expensive verbal stimulus presentation can be used.

According to the research results, it could be concluded that when performing CA with strong familiar brands, it is not necessary to use CA with tasting since tasting increases research complexity and costs and it does not achieve better results. However, tasting as a stimuli presentation method gives better results than pure verbal CA in the case of unfamiliar brands.

The paper is one of the first to deal with tasting as a presentation method in conjoint analysis and its results have direct implications for the future use of CA with food and beverages.

Drawing on a representative survey, this paper aims to identify the determinants of functional food consumption in Croatia. The objective is to introduce and test a conceptual model that four sets of factors (food choice motivations, demographic and socio-economic characteristics, knowledge of functional food and health status) underpin variations in functional food consumption.

Data were collected via face-to-face interviews conducted in respondents' homes. Consumption of functional foods is modelled as a bootstrapped ordered probit model.

Results confirm the significant influence of all four sets of factors for explaining variations in functional food consumption. Heavier users of functional food are those that place a greater weighting on health and convenience in food choice. In contrast, the salience of familiarity in food choice is negatively related with functional food consumption. Females and those with higher levels of educational attainment are heavier consumers of functional food. While perceived health status appears not to have any significant relationship with functional food consumption, there is a link with body mass index. Functional foods appeal most to those concerned about their health and desire convenient, “quick fixes”. Such “quick fixes” may however be employed at the expense of more fundamental adjustments to diet and fitness, which may provide the basis for superior overall disease prevention/health promotion.

The study represents one of the first assessments of functional food consumption in Central and Eastern Europe, introducing and testing a comprehensive conceptual model.

With the crescent globalisation together with economic and food crisis, consumers are increasingly confronted with food products from different origins and appeals to consume “national”. If many food products can be related to a specific region or country, many are sold as commodities with Portuguese origin indication. One factor influencing the purchase behaviour of domestic food products is the consumer ethnocentrism (CE) characteristic. The aim of this paper is to study consumers' purchase behaviour intention towards “produce in Portugal” fruits and vegetables applying a CE extended model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

A questionnaire was presented to random sample of 700 individuals older than 18 and responsible for the household food purchase by computer-assisted telephone interview (CAT) system. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted to examine direct and indirect effects of attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SuBNs), perceived behavioural controls (PBCNTRLs), intention and self-congruity on domestic fresh fruits and vegetables purchases.

Findings suggest that TPB model is applicable in determining the consumers' intention to buy domestic fruits and vegetables in Portugal. CE has been shown to successfully influence purchase intention.

This study provides the food industry and retail with informative basis about which mechanisms underlie the consumers' intention to buy domestic food. Also, this study provides useful insight into how different food categories and label affect the consumers' intentions, which can serve for communication strategies in order to increase purchase of domestic products as fruits and vegetables. New food categories should be studied.

This study gives a new approach on Portuguese consumer ethnocentric tendencies and opens a discussion on consumer purchase intention on Portuguese low value food products. This gives a first insight on Portuguese consumer ethnocentric behaviour.