Stated choice experimentation, contextual influences and food choice: A case study

This paper presents a framework for the use of stated choice experimentation to study food choice and applies it in a case study that explores how consumers take product characteristics, as well as the situational and social context into consideration when making choices among different types of fresh fruit eating occasions. Specifically, an experimental design that varied the eating context across (but not within) choice sets was developed. To approximate actual choice situations as much as possible, a labelled experiment was used and the powerful mixed logit model provided a behaviourally sound approach to data analysis. Evidence is presented of complexity of choice behaviour and of the influence eating occasion context exerted on choice behaviour. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential to use stated choice experimentation to study food choice behaviour and offers suggestions for future research. These include exploration of heterogeneity among consumers with respect to the influence context factors exert, and gaining greater insight to the decision processes underlying choice decisions.