Other examples of variables not included

Income

Another variable consistently mentioned across multiple studies is the income (Hjelmar 2011, Hughner & al 2097, and Wang & al. 2003). This variable is particularly relevant because a lower income might represent an obstacle to the purchase of organic products, which are usually more expensive than non-organic alternatives. However, income is not expected to lead to different perceptions and evaluations, since the participants of this study are exclusively students and therefore their incomes are similar. For this reason, this variable is not included in the model.

Taste

The variable taste will be not included in the framework. Taste is indeed extremely subjective;

therefore, it would lead to too subjective evaluations and thus irrelevant results. Consequently, it would not be possible to establish a causation relationship between taste and the perception of the organic sticker. As it will be explained in the next section, participants tasted the same wine throughout the entire experiment in order to control this variable.

Revision of the original model

The framework below represents the original model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, on which the current revision is based.

44

Figure 4 Original Model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991)

First of all, it is important to clarify that this study does not focus on predicting the final behaviour.

Rather, it focuses on consumers’ attitudes towards organic wine and their antecedents. As it can be observed in the model above, attitudes are influenced both by subjective norms and by perceived behavioural control. These two factors are included in this study’s final framework. In particular, perceived behavioural control is reflected in the variable availability, which influences the volitional control that participants have over the behaviour “buy organic wine”. The higher the availability, the easier to be performed is the behaviour. If a behaviour is perceived as easy to be performed, it is more likely that the attitude towards it will be positive.

Subjective norms, representing the influence of the external environment, are included in the framework through the variables social modelling and social influence. The Theory of Planned Behaviour did not originally define social norms in a detailed way, hereby leaving freedom to adapt them to this research. Further, the original model did not include any variable referring to the social level, but exclusively variables on an individual level. However, this restriction is not applied in this revision of the framework. Conceptually, it is acknowledged that the individual mediates and internalizes what he/she observes in the external environment, as supposed in the original theory.

However, the functioning of this mediating mechanism is not in the scope of this research. Rather, the aim of this study is to investigate how the external context influences individual attitudes. For this reason, variables referring to the social context are directly linked to attitudes. To display this radical

45 change with respect to the original theory, the category external drivers has been created to include the above-mentioned variables. Availability, social modelling and social influence belong to this category and represent drivers which are not controlled by individuals and are not related to individuals’

personal mindset or background.

As far as the internal drivers are concerned, these represent an addition to the original Theory of Planned Behaviour. These drivers influence attitudes and they are: past experience, trust in the label, knowledge, ideals and individual food styles. The variable ideals has a strong connection with the original model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. As a matter of fact, it reflects the so called

“behavioural beliefs”, that connect a specific behavioural object (in this case the organic wine) to a specific outcome (such as increased protection of the environment or increased health benefits).

The functioning of the framework

All the above-mentioned drivers influence consumers’ attitudes towards organic wine. These attitudes are reflected in respondents’ opinions of design, quality and price. In particular, if these attributes are evaluated positively, attitudes towards organic wine are also positive. Consequently, if attitudes towards organic wine are positive, the behaviour is more likely to be performed.

Figure 5 Framework to study the consumption of organic wine, own elaboration (2018)

46 The focus on attitudes

In the original model, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control influence each other. However, in the model elaborated for this study, the focus is exclusively on how social modelling, social influence (subjective norms) and availability (perceived behavioural control) influence attitudes. This change with respect to the original theory, is due to the fact that this research aims to understand how the background of individuals influences their attitudes, and not vice versa. It is accepted that attitudes can influence subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. However, studying this correlation would not add value to this research.

A second difference is the fact that in the original model attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control are all assumed to influence intentions. However, in this revision of the model attitudes are assumed to be the factor influencing the likelihood to perform a given behaviour. This is due to the fact that in this model attitudes depend on availability, social modelling, social influence and numerous internal variables. For this reason, they can be considered comprehensive enough to predict individuals’ behaviour. Additionally, attitudes are defined as “feelings or opinions about something”. Therefore, attitudes perfectly reflect the purpose of this research, which is to understand consumers’ perception of organic wine. The way in which attitudes towards organic wine will be studied, is by analysing participants’ evaluations in terms of design, quality and price. The more positive these evaluations will be, the more favourable the attitude of participants towards organic wine can expected to be. In particular, Danish and Italian participants are expected to show different attitudes towards organic wine. This assumption will be better detailed by the hypothesis, discussed in the next section.