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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter September 29, 2018

Choosing Organic and Healthy Food in Times of Economic Uncertainty: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis in France

  • Houcine Akrout EMAIL logo and Joseph Kaswengi

Abstract

Organic and healthy products are becoming more prevalent in markets worldwide, but limited research investigates how consumers choose among these products. This article considers relationships among price, product quality, assortment, and staff service that might affect consumer product choices, as well as a moderating role of macroeconomic conditions. The most important drivers of a choice of organic over healthy products are assortment and service. This study also reveals a distinction between organic and healthy products resulting from the interaction of marketing variables with macroeconomic contexts, such that crisis periods can prompt the cannibalization of healthy products by organic products.

Appendix

A Reliabilities of model constructs

Marketing elementsIndicatorIndicator loadingCronbach's alphaAVECRSC

(1)
(2)(3)(4)
Assortment (1)0.73200.4780.731
ASSI10.4470
ASSI20.4609
ASSI20.3536
Price (2)0.77780.5440.780.381
PRI10.6723
PRI20.6577
PRI30.5402
Staff service (3)0.74480.5180.760.410.241
SERVI10.6618
SERVI20.5262
SERVI30.6543
Product quality (4)0.84190.5190.810.330.370.241
PRODI10.5714
PRODI20.7008
PRODI30.5809
PRODI40.7226
PRODI50.7393

B Correlations of instrument variables and store image

AssortmentPriceServiceProduceDisplayFeature
Assortment1.0000
Price0.43511.0000
0.0000
Service0.49310.36801.0000
0.00000.0000
Produce0.46050.54480.39141.0000
0.00000.00000.0000
Display0.00780.0322−0.00480.01991.0000
0.01130.00000.12300.0000
Feature−0.01670.0112−0.02950.0115−0.04051.0000
0.00000.00040.00000.00070.0000

C Probability of choosing products by macroeconomic period

D Products’ resubstitution classification

ProductsDistance2
Economic periodOrganic

N (pc.)
Healthy

N (pc.)
TotalOrganicHealthy
ExpansionOrganic12,141

(53.06)
10,740

(46.94)
22,881

(100.00)
̶0.039
Healthy17,145

(45.72)
20,352

(54.28)
37,497

(100.00)
0.040̶
Total29,286

(48.50)
31,092

(51.50)
60,378

(100.00)
CrisisOrganic7,195

(56.37)
5,570

(43.63)
12,765

(100.00)
̶0.048
Healthy8,699

(46.37)
10,060

(53.63)
18,759

(100.00)
0.044̶
Total15,894

(50.42)
15,630

(49.58)
31,524

(100.00)
Priors0.500.50

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Published Online: 2018-09-29

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