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Since the dawn of the civilizations that olive has been playing a critical role on both the society and the economy. Indeed, one can argue that olive and olive oil were as critical as they shaped a form of culture, a seminal pillar that supported the Mediterranean civilizations and that has since then spread worldwide, influencing others. As waves and tides, the use of olive and olive oil has certainly met low points, to the extent that its use even became to be considered old fashioned more recently, when the traditional Mediterranean food and culture started to be jeopardized by very different modern ways of living. Nevertheless, despite defying challenging conditions, stubbornly as always, the Mediterranean diet not only continues to prevail, but keeps granting the admiration of diverse strands of the society and science, being notoriously evident the set of recent research that points to its health benefits, having olive oil as the cornerstone, a vegetable fat, considered to be highly healthy, as it enhances the control of important health indicators, such as the bad cholesterol, serving for nutritional and therapeutic uses, and preventing the occurrence of a number of diseases, including cardiovascular problems and some forms of cancer.

Taking into consideration this framework, the research presented in this book is focused on the examination of the main trends on olive and olive oil in the Iberian Peninsula, from production to retail and consumption, by analyzing several data sets covering recent decades. In terms of findings for more recent years, it was possible to conclude that despite the increasing recognition of the benefits of olive and olive oil by the society, and despite the increase in olive production, the consumption of olive oil has been decreasing internally, being replaced by increases in exports. This is most probably due to the economic conditions that have deteriorated due to the 2008’s financial crisis, which, together with an increase in olive oil prices, has prevented a considerable portion of the population to have financial conditions to access to the consumption of such an important component of the Mediterranean diet.

Urban metropolitan consumers react to the different qualitative categorizations of the product thus creating homogeneous market segments. The aim of this paper is to identify specific market segments which allow for the definition of homogeneous olive oil consumer targets.

This study was based on the stated preferences of consumers and emphasizes the role that different quality scales of olive oil have in the eye of the consumer. The data, collected through a questionnaire, were analysed by means of inferential and multivariate statistics techniques, that is, the study specifically entailed a factorial and cluster analysis.

This paper explores olive oil market segments broken down by the different quality levels of existing products, thus trying to identify main consumer preferences. Our outcomes suggest the existence of three main quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium.

Even though we gathered data and information from a broad sample, the study does not fully reflect the average Italian population since we based our study on a convenience sample of northern Italian consumers. A more extended sample is needed to test our hypothesis in other regional areas.

The outcomes derived from this study provide useful insights both for marketers and olive oil producers by allowing more efficient strategic decisions in terms of product segmentation.

This study, aimed at matching olive oil market segments and consumer preferences, shows the existence of three well-defined quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium. In addition, this study ascertains for the first time how the attitude towards local products is positively influenced by family origin as a result of an inter-generational attitude.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial step for understanding the sensory perception and purchase intent of Brazilian olive oil consumers. It also investigates the sensory perception and purchase intent for a Brazilian-made olive oil.

The sample, consisting of 115 surveyed consumers, is described demographically. The aspects related to sensory analysis and purchase intent associated with the key attributes indicated by the consumers are then discussed. Finally, consumer segmentation is carried out to characterize the consumers in more detail, in terms of both demographic and predictive variables for olive oil consumption.

Consumers displayed a sensory perception that is coherent with olive oil characteristics, thus being able to distinguish three different olive oils from a compound oil sample. Regarding purchase intent and preference, consumers showed mixed behaviors, which was not entirely convergent with the identified sensory aspects. Therefore, it was possible to segment them into three distinct groups: utilitarian, naïve, and expert consumers.

Brazil is an emergent olive oil market, which can create both research and business opportunities for the country. This preliminary study contributes to the advancement of this research subject in the non-traditional markets for olive oil.

Investigate the behaviour and the habits of the consumers from central-southern Italy in relation to extra olive oil consumption, focussing on the impact of protected designation of origin (PDO) and EU–organic certification on purchase intention and quality perception.

A specific questionnaire was submitted to 160 consumers; a subsample of ten experts, ten semi-experts and ten habitual consumers of olive oil tested, through a blind test first and a normal one then, three Italian samples: an extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) without certification, an organic EVOO and a PDO EVOO, which were characterised also from a chemical-physical point of view. The answers provided during the tastings were statistically analysed and compared.

People interviewed prefer local olive oils; they are positively influenced by PDO/organic certification, while price is not a decisive factor on the purchasing choices. According to tasting panel results: experts gave consistent answers preferring organic olive oil, semi-experts are positively influenced by the PDO brand contrary to what they claimed; non-experts would buy EVOO, although they are positively influenced by the PDO brand and negatively by the organic certification.

Only knowledge and experience can aid consumers make consistent and aware choices. Information campaigns could help them to distinguish products, correctly identify food attributes and overcome their scepticism towards quality of organic products.

Few works investigated the impact of quality and sustainability labelling on perception of olive oils, valuing the consistency between answers provided before and after sensory assessments.

The provision of information about food to consumers is well recognized to be problematic and complex. Novel approaches tend to adopt app-based services as a way for consumers to get better food information. Potentially, these services could provide relevant information to consumers because they could address particular needs by leveraging on context-awareness, ubiquity and pervasiveness. Do current app-based services actualize these potentialities? The purpose of this paper is twofold: to propose a methodological approach that can be easily adapted to conduct reviews of app-based services and provide consumers with information about food and to answer this question on a specified food information domain (namely, olive oil).

A literature review was performed to investigate characteristics of food information services under a consumer’s value perspective. Then, a qualitative framework was built, which allowed a multidimensional analysis of the food information provided by a service through a mobile app. Moreover, an application of that framework on “olive oil” mobile apps was carried out, with the twofold objective of providing an example of application of the proposed framework in a real context and analyzing the role of mobile apps in reducing consumers’ information and knowledge gap in this particular domain. The review covers commercial applications on “olive oil,” available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

A framework of multidimensional analysis of the two-way information flow in the interaction between a consumer/user and a food app-based service is proposed. The framework represents a useful tool to analyze the offer of mobile-based services in a given sector. The framework is then applied to perform a situation analysis of app-based services in the olive oil market. The analysis highlights that olive oil information providers do not seem to fully exploit recent advances in “Internet of food” technologies. Hence, results from our survey suggest some direction to conceive and develop innovative mobile olive oil apps that better exploit mobiquitous technology features.

Consumers perceive a growing need of information about food. This need is mainly due to recent cases of adulterations, allegations of fraud and subterfuges that have invested food sector (in particular, olive oil sector). This research provides a useful framework to analyze some aspects of management of food information provision through mobile apps. Such a framework represents a practical tool that provides fruitful insights for the design of a new generation of food-app based services within the so-called “internet of food” domain.

Although there are countless mobile apps aimed to assist consumers with their everyday food practices, little research has been devoted to investigate the impact of mobiquitous technologies on the management of food information provision to consumers. The available research lacks in defining an approach capable to analyze the relevance of information provided to targeted audiences by mobile food apps. This paper tries to fill this knowledge gap by proposing a framework that is based on a characterization of food information flows in terms of categorization, source and service features.

Over the last years, the olive oil produced in the Mediterranean countries has obtained growing success in international markets. Olive oil has benefited from the growing appetite of European and World consumers for products that are part of the so-called Mediterranean diet. For centuries, the olive crops were vital for communities that have occupied the territories bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Despite this long historical drive, this chapter analyses changes that took place since the Second World War. It is recognized that in the decades that followed the end of the war the transformation of western agriculture and rural societies together with commercial and cultural transnational connections have accelerated. Even in peripheral areas, such as Portugal, different processes of globalization have developed, making it necessary to identify the mechanisms that have established the connections to distant territories. Focused on the Portuguese case, this chapter examines how olive oil has contributed to inserting this peripheral territory in the global trade network. A path analysis of this crop is used as a lens to observe how various factors (political, ecological, technical, commercial, social and institutional) have been combined to inhibit or stimulate the inclusion of these rural territories in the dynamics of globalization.

Focused on the olive oil sector in Chile which is a non-traditional market (both in production and consumption), the purpose of this paper is to determine the implicit value of the most relevant attributes of olive oil on the final price charged by supermarkets to consumers through the hedonic pricing methodology.

Field work was carried out between September and October 2012 in 12 supermarkets belonging to the four most important Chilean retail chains. A log-linear price-attribute function was used to estimate the hedonic price function. The sample included 248 observations olive oil prices available to consumers in the leading supermarkets in the city of Chillán (Chile).

The model estimation results led to the observation that the attributes that most positively influenced final price are oil acidity level, tin can container of imported oil, and origin. On the other hand, the attributes that most negatively influenced final consumer price are retailer house brand and plastic container.

A limitation of this study is associated with the geographic area where it was carried out, that is, the city of Chillán in the Bío-Bío Region, which is the second largest region and accounts for 12 per cent of the total population. Further research should include other cities such as Santiago (capital), Concepción, Curicó and Valparaíso.

This study can be considered as a first approximation of a hedonic pricing model estimation for olive oil in non-traditional markets like Chile, which is considered an emerging market.

This study aims to examine the most influential drivers, both product-specific and consumer-specific, affecting Asian consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for organic olive oil.

To individuate the most influential drivers of WTP for organic products and to assess their effect, in terms of configurational paths and consumer profiles, this study sequentially employs explorative factor analysis approach and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method. The survey is carried out in different areas of Asia (e.g. Pakistan, Vietnam and China).

The results suggest that Asian consumers' WTP for organic products is described by consumer-specific drivers (gender, occupation and household size) as well as product-specific drivers (product authenticity and sustainability, consumer ethnocentrism and food fraud risk perception).

The findings of the study permit the identification of different drivers that move consumers' WTP for organic olive oil. The study contributes to setting the ground for companies to propose and implement efficacious marketing strategies for organic olive oil in importing countries, such as Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness of the Greek virgin olive oil in the main destination markets (German, Italian, UK and US market).

In order to achieve the aim, in the first stage the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA₂) Index was employed showing that Greek virgin olive oil has a comparative advantage over the other suppliers (mainly Italy and Spain) in the markets under examination. In the second stage, the estimations of an import demand system for each market were estimated.

Results demonstrate clearly the competitive advantage of Greek virgin olive oil in the German market but not so clear in the rest of the markets. A strategic shift to export high-quality branded virgin olive oil instead of bulk seems necessity, in order the Greek virgin olive oil to dominate to the international markets.

Though there are similar works, especially for Spanish olive oil, there is no analogous research work for the Greek olive oil.

Sustainability of the origin-based production and promotion system of a geographical indication (GI) depends on the remuneration from the market and the local resources reproduction. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the sustainability and the development of olive growing and extra-virgin olive oil production in the Emilia Provinces (northern Italy) using the origin-based quality virtuous circle as a conceptual framework.

In total, 11 personal interviews and one focus group with six olive producers were conducted to assess the product potential and the willingness to set up rules for value creation and preservation of local resources. A survey of 100 extra-virgin olive oil consumers was performed to examine the product perception and consumers’ willingness to pay.

The origin-based quality virtuous circle was used as a conceptual framework to deal with the different aspects involved in the development and sustainability of the GI system. The results show that the value creation and preservation process of extra-virgin olive oil production in the Emilia Provinces has good potential, although many problems still exist, such as a lack of technical and agronomic expertise, and the lack of organisation among the producers. These weaknesses should be addressed to enhance the potential for sustainable development of the GI system.

The creation of a GI organisation, such as a Consortium, may play a central role in coordinating collective action, such as providing technical assistance, managing the internal rules and controls system along the supply chain, and the marketing and communication strategies.

The future development of olive production, by reducing the risk of land abandonment, would contribute to landscape protection and improvement of the geological structure of the Emilia hilly areas, which are under serious threat of soil erosion and landslide events.

This study represents the first attempt to evaluate the economic and development potential of olive growing and extra-virgin olive oil production in non-specialised areas, using the origin-based quality virtuous circle as a conceptual framework.