Daniel Moscovici, Rana Rezwanul, Radu Mihailescu, Jeff Gow, Adeline Alonso Ugaglia, Lionel Valenzuela and Azzurra Rinaldi
This study aims to analyze the wine industry’s response to changing societal attitudes towards the environment. Environmental considerations are now an increasingly important…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the wine industry’s response to changing societal attitudes towards the environment. Environmental considerations are now an increasingly important factor in both production and purchasing behavior. While many eco-certifications exist, there is still consumer confusion between the multitude of eco wine certifications, lack of clarity about what consumers think about the wines, and not enough data about their willingness to pay (WTP) for these environmental characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study clarifies what the various wine eco certifications are, quantifies consumer knowledge and ascertains their WTP for five environmental or sustainable wine certifications, namely, biodynamic, fair trade, organic, natural and sustainable. The authors surveyed 456 wine drinkers in the USA.
Findings
The authors found that millennials, women, unmarried individuals, those purchasing eco-certified foods, low-income individuals and those looking to celebrate a special occasion have a higher WTP for eco-certified wines compared to respondents who are older, male, married, do not buy eco-certified goods, have higher incomes and are purchasing the wine for a regular occasion. They recommend marketing and targeting those in the former group for environmental or sustainable wines.
Originality/value
The study is the only research project, of this kind, to evaluate five types of eco-certifications for wine in a single WTP analysis.
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Jeff Gow, Rezwanul Hasan Rana, Daniel Moscovici, Adeline Alonso Ugaglia, Lionel Valenzuela, Radu Mihailescu and Robert Coelli
There has been increasing consumer interest in recent times in the environmental providence of what they eat and drink. A number of different environmental wine certifications…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been increasing consumer interest in recent times in the environmental providence of what they eat and drink. A number of different environmental wine certifications have been created and these include biodynamic, fairtrade, organic, natural and sustainable. The purpose of this study is to survey wine consumers in Australia about their interest in these eco-certifications and their willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for wine with one of these eco-certifications.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was developed to capture the knowledge and attitudes of consumers and their socio-demographic characteristics about their WTP for eco-certified wine. Data from 454 wine consumers in Australia were collected and analysed. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-squared test analysed the significant factors which determine consumers’ attitudes towards eco-certified wines. Ordinal logistic regression with marginal effects was used to examine whether the WTP a premium for different certified wines differs significantly based on wine knowledge, attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics.
Findings
The findings of this study indicate that consumers often buy pro-environmental goods. The majority have a positive (greater than 0) WTP a premium for biodynamic, fairtrade, organic, natural and sustainable-labelled wines. The main factors influencing eco-certified wine purchase decisions by Australian consumers are previously bought eco-certified goods, previously bought eco-certified wine and respondent age. Income, education or previous wine knowledge did not positively influence WTP a price premium for eco-certified wines. Gender was not significant in the ordinal logistic regression.
Research limitations/implications
Most studies in the literature use stated preference experiments to elicit WTP and these are valuable exercises, as they can provide an indication of consumer preferences for potential certifications, before they have been introduced to the market. In this study, we used an ordinal dependent variable in the logistic regression instead of a continuous variable (because of data limitations). Using ordinal dependent variables provides information on the probability or likelihood of occurring an event.
Originality/value
The study results provide the first price premium indications that Australian consumers are willing to pay for eco-certified wines (other than organic).
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Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, Rezwanul Hasan Rana and Suborna Barua
The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers of economic growth in South Asia region for the period of 1975–2016 using the World Bank data.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers of economic growth in South Asia region for the period of 1975–2016 using the World Bank data.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel corrected standard error (static estimation) approach and one-step system generalised method of moments (dynamic estimation) approach are used.
Findings
Both the static and dynamic estimations indicate that energy use, gross capital formation and remittances are the main drivers of economic growth in South Asian countries. The effects of all these variables are positive and significant. The extent of the effect of energy use is much higher than that of other two variables on the economic growth. A 1 per cent increase in the growth of energy consumption can expedite the gross domestic product growth by approximately 3 per cent in South Asia. However, the key variables, such as trade, government expenditure and foreign direct investment demonstrate no significant effect.
Originality/value
The current research is original in the sense that it investigated the issue with a new data set using improved econometric techniques. Moreover, in South Asia as a whole, this kind of study is totally absent, particularly with panel data of a large number of years. Furthermore, this study has taken into account the problem of heterogeneity and the biases created by cross-section dependence, which were mostly absent in previous studies. Therefore, the findings of this research are new contributions to the existing literature.