Consideration set size and choice in fish consumption : the influence of attitude, knowledge, convenience, and category presentation

Abstract

<i>Purpose</i> – Three main objectives are defined in this thesis: 1) To determine the extent to which the nature of a consideration set affects consumer choice; 2) To investigate how consumer attitudes, knowledge, and convenience motivations affect the formation of a consideration set; and 3) To investigate how category presentation moderates the relationship between convenience motivations and consideration set composition. <br><i>Design/methodology/approach</i> – Different research designs, several data sources, and different analytical procedures are employed in four papers. Papers #1, #2, and #3 use survey designs and are based on two large (n > 1000) cross-sectional datasets. Data in these papers are analyzed using structural equation modeling in LISREL 8.72. Paper #4 is based on two laboratory experiments (n = 150) with 2 × 2 between-subject factorial designs. Data in Paper #4 are analyzed using a two-way ANOVA in SPSS. <br><i>Findings and contribution</i> – This dissertation shows that consideration set size is important in explaining a consumer's choice and consumption of food, and is influenced by individual consumer variables such as attitude, knowledge, perceived inconvenience, and convenience orientation. Procedural knowledge is shown to be especially important for the number of food alternatives considered. In addition, the research in this dissertation demonstrates how situational and occasional factors such as availability and the urge to save time or effort (convenience) can affect aspects of consideration set attributes: stability, variety, and size. Importantly, the studies in this dissertation show that these relationships are moderated by the ways food is presented to the consumer (category presentation). While the overall findings are in accordance with previous research on consideration sets, this dissertation builds on and extends the past research by exploring the relationship between convenience and consideration set characteristics. The moderating influence of category presentation on the relationship between convenience motivations and consideration set characteristics is an especially important contribution of this dissertation research. <br><i>Practical implications</i> – Because the likelihood of being chosen is affected by the size of the consideration set, food producers should advocate that consumers should consider preparing their products in as many ways and in as many combinations with side ingredients as is reasonable. Furthermore, food marketers should focus on activities that enhance the consumer’s direct product experience through testing, trials, tasting, and samples, since procedural knowledge is shown to be of major importance for the number of considered alternatives. <br>If marketers can identify cut-off values of salient attributes such as the time and effort spent on dinner preparation for a particular segment, they will have the ability to position products in accordance with these factors and thereby enhance the possibility of being considered. Furthermore, the moderating effect of category presentation on the relationship between the urge to save time and consideration set (stability, variety, and size) has several practical implications for marketing issues, such as advertising, placement in the retail store, shelf labeling, product development, and package labeling. <br><i>Research limitations</i> – A limitation of this study is that the relationship between the consideration set and choice was only tested for size dimensions of the consideration set. Future research may focus on the relationship between all the different dimensions of the consideration set (stability, variety, preference dispersion, and size) and choice, at both taxonomic and script category level. In addition, in future research the relationship between knowledge and consideration set (stability, variety, and preference dispersion) should be investigated, because of the close relationship between knowledge and consideration set size shown in this dissertation. Finally, the moderating effect of category presentation is one of the major contributions of this dissertation. These findings should be validated in similar and alternative empirical settings and designs in future research. <br><i>Originality/value</i> – The findings of this dissertation are in accordance with previous research in the field. The findings also have implications for future theory development and research, as well as practical implications and benefits for the marketing strategy decisions of producers and businesses.