Smart consumer awareness of sustainability of food products

Abstract

Consumers being considered as ‘agents of change’ can induce firms to produce more sustainable food products by their buying behaviour. Consumers, however, must have sufficient information to enable them to exert this power. New flows of information through social media like Twitter, cloud-based applications, QR-codes and value-informed pricing can provide a more detailed picture for consumers thereby changing consumer buying behaviour of more sustainable food products. However, knowledge is lacking about how such new flows of information can be used to influence food buying behaviour of different consumer groups in a supermarket. In this project we aim to contribute to filling this gap by analysing how new arrangements concerning information provision to consumers about sustainable food products and their external production effects influence consumer buying behaviour of food products in a retail outlet.