Willingness-to-Pay for Beef Quality Attributes: A Latent Segmentation Analysis of Korean Grocery Shoppers

Abstract

A latent segmentation modeling is used in this study to identify the heterogeneity of willingness-to-pay estimates for quality attributes and country-of-origin in the Korean beef market. Three distinctive groups of grocery shoppers are identified based on their level of concern (very, moderately, and not too concerned) about the use of antibiotics and genetically modified organism feed ingredients in beef production. Results indicate that the very concerned group values such attributes as antibiotics-free, genetically modified organism-free, and domestic production the most among the three groups. Results also suggest that the most important factor in determining grocery shoppers' willingness-to-pay is country-of-origin for all three groups.