"Parthenope" University of Naples, Department of Economic and Legal Studies, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132 Naples, Italy.
Food Res Int. 2020 Apr;130:108888. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108888. Epub 2019 Dec 17.
Nowadays people are increasingly interested in health foods, which are foods considered beneficial to well-being in ways that go beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. This study aims at providing a better understanding of the main factors leading to the purchase of a relatively new category of technological foods, namely nutraceuticals. Based on data collected on a sample of Italian families through a cross-sectional survey, which included choice experiment questions and socio-demographic characteristics, two specifications of discrete choice models allowed us to formalise the behavioural response linked to that purchase and to preference heterogeneity across consumers, and the willingness to pay for these products. Findings show that not all nutraceutical features are equally important in shaping consumers' preferences for health-oriented foods. The role played by formal education in describing the behavioural response towards nutraceuticals and the significant preference heterogeneity across consumers in relation to specific nutraceutical features provide interesting insights to assist researchers and marketers in developing more market-oriented functional foods that gain consumer acceptance.
如今，人们对健康食品越来越感兴趣，这些食品被认为在超越人类营养所需的正常健康饮食的方面对健康有益。本研究旨在更好地理解导致购买相对较新的一类技术食品（即营养保健品）的主要因素。基于通过横断面调查在意大利家庭样本上收集的数据，该调查包括选择实验问题和社会人口统计学特征，两个离散选择模型的规范允许我们将与购买相关的行为反应形式化，并允许消费者之间的偏好异质性，以及对这些产品的支付意愿。研究结果表明，并非所有营养保健品的特征在塑造消费者对健康导向食品的偏好方面都具有同等重要性。正规教育在描述对营养保健品的行为反应方面所起的作用，以及消费者在特定营养保健品特征方面的显著偏好异质性，为研究人员和营销人员提供了有价值的见解，有助于开发更受消费者欢迎的面向市场的功能性食品。
