Socio-economic factors affecting consumer behaviour for United States and Spanish beef under different information scenarios

This study analyzes the results of taste tests on US and Spanish-produced beef conducted with a Spanish consumer panel. The objective is to explore variation in the sensory and market evaluations of the beef products in relation to a series of socio-economic factors. The tasters are assigned to one of three different experimental scenarios based on the amount of product information disclosed. The results show that consumers' evaluations differ according to the degree of product information provided and that the socioeconomic factors with most effect on consumers' evaluations were gender, age, and education level. Thus, the higher educated, higher income consumers reveal a preference for intrinsic attributes and for the US beef, as long as they are unaware of its foreign origin. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.