Consumer perception of sustainable practices in dairy production

Simona Naspetti,Jeroen Buysse,Ellen J Van Loo,Terhi Latvala,Raffaele Zanoli,Serena Mandolesi,Susanne Padel,Phillipa Nicholas

doi:10.1186/s40100-020-00175-z

Abstract

Home-grown protein crops as an alternative to soya in dairy cattle meals, as well as other sustainable ethical-based practices, have been proposed to increase the sustainability of dairy production. Data on consumer acceptance of the three novel sustainable production strategies of ‘agroforestry’, ‘prolonged maternal feeding’ of young cattle and ‘alternative protein source’ were collected through an online survey on consumer in six European Union countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy and the UK. Using Chen’s extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour model, the underlying model hypotheses on the attitudes and intentions of these consumers towards these production practices were tested, to establish the explanatory power of the model in the specific context of novel sustainable production strategies. Furthermore, the influence of gender and consumer ethical choices on their attitudes towards these innovative practices was also tested. These data show that ‘prolonged maternal feeding’ is the novel production practice that has the highest level of acceptance by consumers in all of these countries, with the least accepted practice as ‘alternative protein source’. Unexpectedly, increased availability of home-grown feed, which is grounded on both farmer and societal interests for higher input self-sufficiency and more sustainable production practices, was little appreciated by consumers, although their intentions appear to be dependent on their moral norms.

Highlights

Innovation in an increasingly globalised dairy market is an essential strategic tool for the dairy industry to achieve a competitive advantage (Jordana 2000; Bishop 2006; Kühne et al 2010; Almli et al 2011)
Not all innovation impacts upon consumers in the same way. Product innovation, such as new products or new packaging, are more noticed by consumers than, for example, process and system innovations, which are more difficult for the consumer to understand unless they are embedded in specific quality cues (Grunert 2005)
Moral norm appeared to be a more relevant antecedent of intention to purchase than subjective norm if agroforestry was excluded, where it was not a significant predictor of intention, as previously shown (Figs. 9, 10 and 11)

Summary

Introduction

Innovation in an increasingly globalised dairy market is an essential strategic tool for the dairy industry to achieve a competitive advantage (Jordana 2000; Bishop 2006; Kühne et al 2010; Almli et al 2011). Not all innovation impacts upon consumers in the same way. Product innovation, such as new products or new packaging, are more noticed by consumers than, for example, process and system innovations, which are more difficult for the consumer to understand unless they are embedded in specific quality cues (Grunert 2005). Innovation in traditional sectors like dairy farming can be a cause of cognitive dissonance, because consumers tend to reject. Previous studies have shown that consumers tend to accept processing-technology innovations on the condition that they do not modify the intrinsic attributes of the product (Guerrero et al 2009). Most studies have investigated the introduction of product innovation (e.g. packaging, labelling, ingredients; Luce et al 2000; Onwezen and Bartels 2011; Vanhonacker et al 2013), while fewer studies have concentrated on process innovations, the most ‘popular’ of which are genetic modifications and nano-technologies (Grunert et al 2001; Verdurme et al 2003; Anderson et al 2006; Sodano et al 2016), along with organic food (Napolitano et al 2010a, b; Bjorklund et al 2014)

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Discussion

Conclusion