TY - BOOK
T1 - Consumer preferences and demand for insect-based food products in developing countries
T2 - Empirical perspectives on consumer heterogeneity, tasting experience, peer influence and value elicitation methods
AU - Alemu, Mohammed Hussen
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Edible insects are touted as a promising source of nutritious food which can be used to increasethe availability of protein. They are environmentally friendly as they contribute to the reductionof greenhouse gas emissions as a result of their high feed conversion efficiency property. Theirproduction requires less input than livestock production which has an important implication forhousehold insect production as well as large-scale commercialization. In addition to theirnutritional benefits, insect production can generate cash income and create employmentopportunities for the poor in developing countries. Due to these benefits, stakeholders in the foodsector have recently focused on establishing the insect production sector. Nevertheless, there area number of issues that need to be investigated before the production is fully optimized.This thesis investigates consumer demand in terms of consumers' preferences and willingness-topay(WTP) for insect-based food products in Kenya. It does this by focusing on the associationof consumers' psychological orientations, contextual attributes, tasting experience and peerinfluence with consumers' choice behavior. A further focus is an investigation of the impacts ofvalue elicitation methods in terms of hypothetical and nonhypothetical market scenarios onconsumers' WTP for the insect-based food products. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) areemployed to collect data in field settings. The data is then analyzed using the state-of-the-artchoice modeling approaches to test the different hypotheses outlined in the research.This thesis is a collection of five studies which can be divided into three parts. The first part,which consists of two studies, examines the role of consumers' psychological orientations andcontextual attributes in determining consumer heterogeneity in preferences for insect-based foodproducts. The results show that the contextual attributes in terms of recommendations andshopping location are important in driving consumers' preferences for termite-based foodproducts (TBFPs). The importance of these attributes is more pronounced for the processedproduct (termite powder) than for the unprocessed alternative (whole termites). This signals thatconsumers would seek further information to reduce any uncertainty related to the processedproduct which is new to Kenyan consumers. The results also demonstrate that consumers'psychological orientations, i.e. their attitudes and food choice motives, determine theirpreferences. For example, consumers who are associated with attitudes of nutritional benefits ofinsects would get an increasing utility from TBFPs with a high level of nutritional value.Furthermore, consumers' preferences for buns, which were baked by mixing cricket flour (CF) with wheat flour, are associated with their food choice motives that reflect consumption behaviorin terms of trying new tastes and diversifying food items.The second part of the thesis contains one study. Using nonhypothetical DCE integrated withsensory evaluations, it assesses demand for the CF buns by estimating WTP and predictingmarket shares. Three types of buns were developed. These were standard buns with 0% CF, andCF buns with 5% and 10% CF of the total wheat flour. Consumers are willing to pay more forthe CF buns. They like the buns with 5% CF the most, which is translated to higher preferencesfor these products than for the other bun products. The market share prediction reveals that CFbasedbuns would cover higher market share than standard buns up to a certain price level.The third part of the thesis, which consists of two studies, extends the study in the second part ofthe thesis by investigating the impacts of tasting experience, peer influence as well as valueelicitation methods on the WTP for the CF buns. Different experimental treatments weredesigned to achieve these objectives. The findings show that taste has an increasing impact onconsumer' WTP for the bun products but this is countered by the peer influence when consumersobserve their peers' taste preferences. Results regarding the impacts of value elicitation methodsreveal that the WTP estimates obtained from a standard hypothetical DCE are higher than thoseobtained from nonhypothetical DCE suggesting the existence of hypothetical bias. The resultsfurther reveal that framing the hypothetical DCE with a repeated opt-out reminder (ROOR)removes the hypothetical bias for one attribute while it significantly reduces it for the rest of theattributes.Taken together, the results reported in this thesis suggest that consumers have positivepreferences and are willing to pay more for the insect-based food products – TBFPs and CFbuns. One implication of this is that insect-based foods can be used to improve householdnutrition and food security in Kenya as the demand is present. Commercialization of insectbasedfood products can thus be a viable business. The main contributions of this thesis to theliterature is that it highlights the importance of taking factors related to consumers' psychologicalorientations, tasting experience and peer influence into account when examining consumers' foodchoice and purchase behavior. Furthermore, the findings of the thesis suggests that consumerstudies based on hypothetical DCEs should use ex-ante hypothetical bias mitigation strategies toremove and/or reduce hypothetical bias in situations where it is not possible to employnonhypothetical DCEs.
AB - Edible insects are touted as a promising source of nutritious food which can be used to increasethe availability of protein. They are environmentally friendly as they contribute to the reductionof greenhouse gas emissions as a result of their high feed conversion efficiency property. Theirproduction requires less input than livestock production which has an important implication forhousehold insect production as well as large-scale commercialization. In addition to theirnutritional benefits, insect production can generate cash income and create employmentopportunities for the poor in developing countries. Due to these benefits, stakeholders in the foodsector have recently focused on establishing the insect production sector. Nevertheless, there area number of issues that need to be investigated before the production is fully optimized.This thesis investigates consumer demand in terms of consumers' preferences and willingness-topay(WTP) for insect-based food products in Kenya. It does this by focusing on the associationof consumers' psychological orientations, contextual attributes, tasting experience and peerinfluence with consumers' choice behavior. A further focus is an investigation of the impacts ofvalue elicitation methods in terms of hypothetical and nonhypothetical market scenarios onconsumers' WTP for the insect-based food products. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) areemployed to collect data in field settings. The data is then analyzed using the state-of-the-artchoice modeling approaches to test the different hypotheses outlined in the research.This thesis is a collection of five studies which can be divided into three parts. The first part,which consists of two studies, examines the role of consumers' psychological orientations andcontextual attributes in determining consumer heterogeneity in preferences for insect-based foodproducts. The results show that the contextual attributes in terms of recommendations andshopping location are important in driving consumers' preferences for termite-based foodproducts (TBFPs). The importance of these attributes is more pronounced for the processedproduct (termite powder) than for the unprocessed alternative (whole termites). This signals thatconsumers would seek further information to reduce any uncertainty related to the processedproduct which is new to Kenyan consumers. The results also demonstrate that consumers'psychological orientations, i.e. their attitudes and food choice motives, determine theirpreferences. For example, consumers who are associated with attitudes of nutritional benefits ofinsects would get an increasing utility from TBFPs with a high level of nutritional value.Furthermore, consumers' preferences for buns, which were baked by mixing cricket flour (CF) with wheat flour, are associated with their food choice motives that reflect consumption behaviorin terms of trying new tastes and diversifying food items.The second part of the thesis contains one study. Using nonhypothetical DCE integrated withsensory evaluations, it assesses demand for the CF buns by estimating WTP and predictingmarket shares. Three types of buns were developed. These were standard buns with 0% CF, andCF buns with 5% and 10% CF of the total wheat flour. Consumers are willing to pay more forthe CF buns. They like the buns with 5% CF the most, which is translated to higher preferencesfor these products than for the other bun products. The market share prediction reveals that CFbasedbuns would cover higher market share than standard buns up to a certain price level.The third part of the thesis, which consists of two studies, extends the study in the second part ofthe thesis by investigating the impacts of tasting experience, peer influence as well as valueelicitation methods on the WTP for the CF buns. Different experimental treatments weredesigned to achieve these objectives. The findings show that taste has an increasing impact onconsumer' WTP for the bun products but this is countered by the peer influence when consumersobserve their peers' taste preferences. Results regarding the impacts of value elicitation methodsreveal that the WTP estimates obtained from a standard hypothetical DCE are higher than thoseobtained from nonhypothetical DCE suggesting the existence of hypothetical bias. The resultsfurther reveal that framing the hypothetical DCE with a repeated opt-out reminder (ROOR)removes the hypothetical bias for one attribute while it significantly reduces it for the rest of theattributes.Taken together, the results reported in this thesis suggest that consumers have positivepreferences and are willing to pay more for the insect-based food products – TBFPs and CFbuns. One implication of this is that insect-based foods can be used to improve householdnutrition and food security in Kenya as the demand is present. Commercialization of insectbasedfood products can thus be a viable business. The main contributions of this thesis to theliterature is that it highlights the importance of taking factors related to consumers' psychologicalorientations, tasting experience and peer influence into account when examining consumers' foodchoice and purchase behavior. Furthermore, the findings of the thesis suggests that consumerstudies based on hypothetical DCEs should use ex-ante hypothetical bias mitigation strategies toremove and/or reduce hypothetical bias in situations where it is not possible to employnonhypothetical DCEs.
UR - https://rex.kb.dk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=KGL01010656700&context=L&vid=NUI&search_scope=KGL&tab=default_tab&lang=da_DK
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
BT - Consumer preferences and demand for insect-based food products in developing countries
ER -
