The usefulness of Schwartz's ‘Values Theory’ in understanding consumer behaviour towards differentiated products

Abstract

The Values Theory adopts a generic framework whereby a set of values is employed across consumer decision-making contexts in a manner that makes no distinction among various product categories. The present study advances this theory by exhibiting the adaptation capability of the generic values instrument (the Portrait Value Questionnaire, PVQ), demonstrating that tailor-made PVQ versions can reflect consumers' motives towards differentiated products (i.e. organic foods). A questionnaire was completed by approximately 1000 households in each of eight EU countries (N = 8171). The organic food-relevant PVQ was developed through a preliminary qualitative phase (i.e. a means-end chain analysis), and its factorial design was validated through CFA, showing high statistical performance. PVQ-based European clusters with strong self-transcendence values comprised large numbers of organic purchasers. Moreover, results point to the fact that when a circumplex taxonomy, such as the PVQ, is applied in a real context (i.e. organic food purchases), the situation-relevant value domains merge into new hierarchical dimensions in absolute respect of the original taxonomy. This conclusion points to PVQ's robustness in adaptability to different situations of human value perspective.

Keywords:

• values
• PVQ
• value segmentation
• differentiated products
• behaviour

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was funded by the European Commission and based on results from the FP5 Integrated Project QLRT-2002–02446: ‘Consumer Decision-making on Organic Products, CONDOR’.

Notes

¹The FRL concept builds on MEC theory to explain how consumers mentally relate food acquisition and consumption to the attainment of basic life values. Five interrelated domains constitute the link between attributes and values: ways of shopping, cooking methods, quality aspects, consumption situations, and purchasing motives (Brunsø & Grunert, 1995; Brunsø, Grunert, & Bredahl, 1996; Grunert, Brunsø, & Bisp, 1997; Grunert, Brunsø, Bredahl, & Bech, 2001).