Which Aspects of Food Value Promote Consumer Purchase Intent after a Disaster? A Case Study of Salmon Products in Disaster-Affected Areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Takashi Suzuki,Taro Oishi,Hisashi Kurokura,Nobuyuki Yagi

doi:10.3390/foods8010014

Abstract

This research examined post-disaster consumer perception of food value and their effects on purchase intent by focusing on Japanese seafood industry after the Great East Japan earthquake. Online surveys on consumers living in Tokyo and Osaka Prefectures were conducted to investigate consumer value perceptions of Miyagi salmon in 2012 and 2015. Multiple-group structural equation modeling (SEM) on the 2012 survey results showed that desire to contribute to restoration (social value) had the greatest positive influence on purchase intent in both regions. Concern about radiation threats (safety value) had a negative influence on purchase intent, with a stronger impact in Osaka than Tokyo. In comparison, the 2015 results revealed a reduction in the effects of these two potent factors (i.e., safety value and social value) on purchase intent only in Osaka. The beneficial value of seafood had a general positive influence on purchase intent, but its magnitude of effect differed by regional and chronological context. Among these three values, sales promotion with emphasis on social value is more effective than with other values. In cases of future disasters in a similar context, marketers are recommended to adopt different value transfer strategies according to geographical and temporal diversity.

Highlights

Food value has a distinctive impact on consumer food choice, which has been proposed to be subject to various social factors [1,2]
This research identified the values of food produced in an area affected by natural and technological disasters in the context of the seafood industry, and clarified that effects of food values on consumer purchase intent varied in different spatial and chronological contexts
With regard to salted salmon products, the present study found that the negative effect of consumer concern about safety value on purchase intent was significantly higher in the relatively distant market than the neighboring market about one year after the disaster

Summary

Introduction

Food value has a distinctive impact on consumer food choice, which has been proposed to be subject to various social factors [1,2]. Researchers have not yet determined which aspects of food value motivate consumer purchase of food produced in regions affected by natural and technological disasters. The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake was a large-scale disaster which involved both natural and technological hazards. The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami affected many fishery areas in Northeast Japan, in particular the Sanriku coastal area, which is the country’s major fishery and production site. The devastating disaster was followed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power accident, a nuclear disaster rated at Level 7 by the International Nuclear and Radiological

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