The effect of food related personality traits and lifestyle orientation on consumer’s behaviour related to extra virgin olive oil: estimation of an extended hybrid choice model.

Due to the increasing interest on understanding the formation of consumer’s food choice process, the hybrid choice model (HCM) has been developed. HCM represents a promising new class of models which merge classic choice models with structural equations models (SEM) for latent variables (LV). Regardless of their conceptual appeal, up to date the application of HCM in agro food marketing remains very scarce. The present work extends previous HCM applications by first estimating a random parameter logit model (RPL) into panel data context (taking into account the heterogeneity around the mean) and second, estimating the relationships between latent variables. Furthermore, in order to ascertain the role of psychological factors in consumer’s behavioural process of decision towards a traditional food, variables such as food related personality traits, purchase habits and lifestyle orientation were introduced. The model pretends to better understand Catalan consumer’s behaviour towards extra virgin olive oil. The findings suggest that the incorporation of inferred LV for understanding individuals’ food decision making constructions is needed. That is, some LV have indirect effects associated with consumer’s purchase intention towards organic olive oil, and that almost all LV considered have a direct effect related to consumer’s utilities associated with extra virgin olive oil. The results reveal a high and significant heterogeneity, highlighting the role of the housewife with high level school education as responsible of both household food purchases and preparation of familiar dishes