Different Tubers for Different Consumers: Heterogeneity in Human Values and Willingness to Pay for Social Outcomes of Potato Credence Attributes

Abstract

This paper investigates heterogeneity in consumers’ human values and willingness to pay (WTP) for social outcomes of credence process attributes that might have some positive social impact on purchases of early potatoes in Italy and Germany. Consumers’ identification with cross‐cultural human values is measured according to the Schwartz’ Portrait Values Questionnaire; the distribution of preferences for product attributes that claim a positive social impact among respondents with different human values is modeled using mixed logit analysis. Parallel survey studies were conducted in each country with the intention of comparing the impact of human values using the Schwartz Values framework on willingness to pay for early potatoes with several credence process attributes that may signal a positive social outcome as a result of purchase (price, country of origin, carbon footprint certification, ethical certification, and method of production). This paper aims to help clarify the role, if any, that pro‐social consumer values have in influencing the willingness to pay for specific food credence process attributes that claim to have a social impact. To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first paper to focus on the role human values have in influencing the willingness to pay for specific extrinsic food attributes.