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Internet-enabled access to alternative food networks: A comparison of online and offline food shoppers and their differing interpretations of quality

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Abstract

Online food retail has the potential to broaden access to systems of food provision which promote social and environmental quality attributes. This possibility is explored using data from a survey of 365 consumers who purchased food either via internet retailers of local and organic food, or via farmers’ markets, in Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia. Survey results are analyzed using principal component and regression techniques and interpreted via the theoretical framework of conventions theory. Key findings show that while online retailers of local organic food are not currently attracting more resource constrained consumers, they do appeal to a similar, although broader, array of quality conventions. This research provides new insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with increasing consumer access to alternative food networks, as well as adding to the small number of quantitative studies in the conventions theory literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Innovation Research Centre, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, TAS, 7007, Australia

    Benjamin Wills & Anthony Arundel

  2. UNU-MERIT, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Anthony Arundel

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  1. Benjamin Wills
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  2. Anthony Arundel
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Correspondence to Benjamin Wills.

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Wills, B., Arundel, A. Internet-enabled access to alternative food networks: A comparison of online and offline food shoppers and their differing interpretations of quality. Agric Hum Values 34, 701–712 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9771-2

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