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Consumer Preferences for Sustainable Wine Attributes: A Conjoint Analysis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2018

Kathleen M. Kelley*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Pennsylvania State University, 6 Tyson Building, University Park, PA 16802
Jennifer Zelinskie
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Pennsylvania State University, 6 Tyson Building, University Park, PA 16802; e-mail: jxz5110@psu.edu.
Michela Centinari
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Pennsylvania State University, 218 Tyson Building, University Park, PA 16802; e-mail: mzc22@psu.edu.
Denise M. Gardner
Affiliation:
Denise Gardner Winemaking, 518 Kimberton Rd. #332, Phoenixville, PA 19460; e-mail: denise@dgwinemaking.com.
Ramu Govindasamy
Affiliation:
Dept. of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Rutgers University, 55 Dudley Rd., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520; e-mail: Govind@sebs.Rutgers.edu.
Jeffrey Hyde
Affiliation:
Penn State Extension, Pennsylvania State University, 323 Agricultural Administration Bldg., University Park, PA 16802; e-mail: jah38@psu.edu.
Bradley Rickard
Affiliation:
School of Applied Economics and Management,Cornell University, 450C Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853; e-mail: bjr83@cornell.edu.
Karl Storchmann
Affiliation:
Economics Department, New York University, 19 W. 4th St., New York, NY 10012; e-mail: karl.storchmann@nyu.edu.
*
e-mail: kmk17@psu.edu (corresponding author).

Abstract

Mid-Atlantic wine consumers participated in an Internet survey to determine which of three attributes (retail base prices, Botrytis cinerea [bunch rot] control measure, or weed-control strategy) and attribute levels (e.g., a retail base price of $12, $16, $22, or $26) were the most important factors in their decisions to purchase 750mL glass bottles of wine. Conjoint analysis was used to calculate average importance for the three attributes. Based on these calculations, the base retail price attribute had the greatest impact on participants’ decision to purchase the wine (57.40%), followed by bunch rot control measure (20.76%) and weed control strategy (21.49%). Participants were also asked to indicate how interested (not at all interested to extremely interested) they were in purchasing wines produced from grapes grown using minimal pesticides or with cover crops to control weeds. Separate conjoint analyses were then performed based on participants’ level of interest in the two sustainable production methods. In both instances, the average importance values for retail base price were still higher than the values for either bunch rot or weed control strategies. Average importance values for price were lower for participants who responded that they were “very” or “extremely interested” in purchasing wine produced with minimal pesticides or with cover crops than for participants who were “not all interested” in purchasing such wines. (JEL Classifications: Q18, Q11, M31)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2018 

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Footnotes

*

We thank an anonymous referee and participants at the AAWE conference in Padua for helpful comments. The project “Developing Wine Marketing Strategies for the Mid-Atlantic Region” (GRANT 11091317) was funded by a USDA Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program grant, whose goal is “to assist in exploring new market opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products and to encourage research and innovation aimed at improving the efficiency and performance of the marketing system.” For more information about the program, visit http://www.ams.usda.gov.

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