Regional Embeddedness Segments Across Fifteen Countries

Abstract

While segmenting consumers, it is beneficial to understand how emotions and sensory perceptions relate to consumers’ food behavior. In this research, a new measure called the “local embeddedness” (EMB) scale was used to measure the emotional bond with the region among 1,714 respondents from 15 countries. There were two aims of the study: firstly, to examine the effectiveness of the EMB scale in segmenting respondents, and secondly, to profile the EMB segments in terms of socio-demographic variables. Results show that EMB segments consisted of three groups of respondents: 1) strong local supporters, 2) confused disbelievers, and 3) limited knowledge about product origin/trust industry segment.

Keywords:

• Embeddedness
• emotions
• food
• local
• regional

Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the memory of colleague and friend Prof. Hannah Williams, who recently passed away.