Filipe Quevedo-Silva, Dario de Oliveira Lima-Filho and Mayra Batista Bitencourt Fagundes
The purpose of this paper is to assess dimensions of the food choice process among older consumers. Based on Gains’ model (1994), the study focuses on the dimensions: consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess dimensions of the food choice process among older consumers. Based on Gains’ model (1994), the study focuses on the dimensions: consumer, food and context, and investigates these consumers’ heterogeneities through the identification of possible market segments.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative study was conducted with 401 respondents in Brazil. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis.
Findings
The results highlighted four factors related to characteristics of food (appearance, price, packaging and quality), and four related to characteristics of the context/environment of the store (staff characteristics, external shopping environment, internal store environment and ease of access). The results also showed that older consumers liked to make food purchases, even though their options were restricted by health issues. Two segments were identified. “Older with a restricted diet” comprised consumers with lower education levels. They had fewer daily meals (three) and chose food with more regard to health. The second segment “Younger and better educated” comprised respondents with higher education levels and higher income. They had more daily meals, and health was less of a restriction on food choice than it was for the first cluster.
Originality/value
This study applies Gains’ three dimensions’ food choice model, with the variables adjusted in detail to enable a description of the purchasing behaviors of older adults in Brazil.
Details
Keywords
Filipe Quevedo-Silva, Otavio Freire, Dario de Oliveira Lima-Filho, Marcelo Moll Brandão, Giuliana Isabella and Luísa Brito Moreira
The purpose of this paper is to assess the factors affecting intentions to purchase food through the internet. Based on the available literature – more specifically, on Ajzen’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the factors affecting intentions to purchase food through the internet. Based on the available literature – more specifically, on Ajzen’s (1985) theory of planned behaviour and Grunert and Ramus’ model (2004) – this study proposes and tests a model of planned food purchases via the internet.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative study was conducted among 403 respondents. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The main results demonstrated that attitude and perceived difficulty are the antecedents of purchase intentions. Perceived risk had a negative relationship with attitude. With respect to lifestyle, novelty was positively related to attitude, and freshness was negatively related. In addition, novelty had only an indirect effect on intention, which was mediated by attitude. A wired lifestyle had a positive relationship with attitude, and a negative relationship with perceived difficulty.
Originality/value
This study operationalizes and improves Grunert and Ramus’ (2004) model of intention to buy food over the internet, by developing, testing and presenting a more comprehensive model.