Understanding consumer attitudes to organic food: using profile deviation analysis for consumer benchmarking

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine to what extent misalignment with an organic food consumer benchmark profile affects two key consumer performance indicators: consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The chapter performs a profile deviation analysis on a cross-sectional sample of 1011 Australian organic food consumers. An extensive literature review revealed three key dimensions of comprising organic food consumer benchmark: healthism, hedonism, and organic food trust. The analysis reveals the significant negative consumer satisfaction and loyalty implications of deviating from the benchmark consumer profile. Separate profile deviation analyses for each theoretically identified consumer profile dimension (i.e. healthism, hedonism and trust) have revealed strong support for our hypotheses concerning loyalty.We demonstrate the theoretical and practical relevance of using configuration theory to understand and explain the consumer performance implications of a misalignment with a benchmark organic consumer profile.