| Author: | Liu, Yunyao |
| Title: | Sustainable food consumption and its consequences |
| Advisors: | Kim, Sam (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Edible insects Cooking (Insects) Food consumption Sustainable development Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xvi, 378 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The rapid population growth has exacerbated the issue of food sustainability. Insect-based food has received attention due to their high nutritional value and sustainability. Despite the growing interest in insect-based food research, only few studies have specifically explored the benefits of tasting insect-based food from the perspective of consumers. Accordingly, understanding of this issue remains limited, and many problems remain unsolved or have only been partially solved. Moreover, the relationships among the benefits of tasting insect-based food and how such relationships affect the customers’ attitude toward tasting insect-based food, their perceived consumption value of tasting insect-based food, their satisfaction with tasting insect-based food, their subjective well-being, their loyalty to insect-based food, and their attachment to the insect-based food community are yet to be examined. To fill these gaps, this thesis was designed to reveal the dimensionality of the benefits of tasting insect-based food and to validate the multidimensional measurement instrument of such benefits. This study then tested the influences of the benefits of tasting insect-based food on its consequences and further identified the moderating role of food neophilia, hedonic function, utilitarian function, and environmental identity. The measurement scale of the benefits of tasting insect-based food was developed through a literature review, expert interviews, pre-test, and pilot tests. A total of 797 respondents were recruited from Yunnan Province, China to participate in the main survey. SPSS and Amos were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling to confirm the measurement scale and the proposed conceptual model. Multi-group analysis was also conducted to examine the moderating effect. Results identified six dimensions that constitute the benefits of tasting insect-based food, namely, health benefits, nutritional benefits, taste and flavour benefits, cultural-maintaining benefits, financial benefits, and environmental value benefits. All these domains, except for financial benefits and environmental value benefits, have significantly positive influences on attitudes toward tasting insect-based food. Attitudes toward tasting insect-based food positively affect the consumption value of and satisfaction with tasting insect-based food, both of which positively affect subjective well-being. Meanwhile, the consumption value of tasting insect-based food positively affects satisfaction with tasting insect-based food, and subjective well-being positively affects food loyalty and community attachment. Food neophilia, hedonic function, utilitarian function, and environmental identity partially moderate the relationship among the proposed constructs. This study enriches the food consumption literature because the empirical research of the conceptual model validates the relationship between the benefits of tasting insect-based food and its outcome variables. This study also provides practical implications for food marketing decision makers, governments, and public organizations to easily understand insect-based food consumption and its consequences. Given the aforementioned positive influences of tasting insect-based food, marketing strategies should be formulated based on the benefits of such food to shape the positive attitudes and behaviors of consumers toward insect-based food consumption. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7315.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 5.23 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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