Ben Campbell

University of Georgia | UGA · Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics

Certain pesticides are coming under scrutiny because of their impact on pollinator insects. Although most consumers express willingness to aid pollinators, the reasons for consumers’ preferences or barriers to purchasing pollinator-friendly plants and the types of pollinators’ that consumers are trying to protect are less understood. Using an onlin...

Recent declines in pollinator populations have led to widespread concern due to their impact on food/crop production and the environment. Contrary to growing interest in the use of insecticides in urban landscapes, the relationship between pollinator-related eco-labels, visual attention, and preferences for plants is less understood. The present st...

Over the past couple of decades, consumers have begun to increase purchasing of locally labeled products. However, research has shown their definition of local production is not always accurate and varies by product category. This study investigates consumers' perceptions of the geographic boundary for local fruits/ vegetables and ornamental plants...

Brands differentiate products from each other and help create the perception of added value. They influence product choice at the point of purchase with >70% of all buying decisions made in the store. Brands are often one of a few pieces of information consumers use to make product choices. Prior research showed that consumers had a greater likelih...

Consumption of berries has increased significantly over the past couple of years. As such, producers and retailers are experimenting with new berry varieties to capture market share and increase their profitability. We examine consumer preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for a relatively new-to-market berry (aronia: Aronia mitschurinii Skvortso...

The strategic value of organic production and origin promotions may vary based on product end-use. Conjoint analysis and eye-tracking technology were used to investigate consumers’ purchase likelihood (PL) and visual search behavior for esthetic and food-producing ornamental plants. Organic production methods, in-state, and domestic origins positiv...

A rating-based conjoint experiment combined with eye-tracking analysis was used to investigate the effect of plant attributes on consumer purchase likelihood for indoor foliage plants. The experiment assessed the effects of plant type (Dracaena marginata Lam., Guzmania lingulata, or Spathiphyllum wallisii Regel), volatile organic compound (VOC) rem...

The relationship between consumers' environmental concerns (EC) and willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable plant attributes was investigated using 2012 data from a representative panel of US and Canadian consumers. The study linked three orientations of the EC scale (egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric) to WTP premiums for plant attributes such...

Federal regulation of terms like local and organic ensure consistency in the marketplace, but unregulated terms such as eco-friendly and sustainable vary widely in use. A survey of representative US and Canadian consumers with questions including demographic, purchasing behavior, and attitude questions revealed varying perceptions of local, organic...

Experimental auctions were employed to investigate U.S. and Canadian consumers’ willingness to pay for sustainable attributes in plants. The results show consumers are willing to pay a price premium for energy and water savings in plant production of $0.15 and $0.12, respectively. Consumers are only willing to pay $0.08 more for sustainably labeled...

Ethno-cultural vegetables are increasingly in demand in Canada. Little research has examined differences in cultural preferences for these vegetables. Using conjoint analysis within an online survey of Canada and key export markets in the U.S., we examine consumer preference for external attributes of several (okra, yardlong bean, and Asian long pu...

Common marketing strategies include emphasizing products' "green" or environmentally friendly attributes and characteristics to appeal to a growing market of environmentally conscious consumers. While previous studies have used product labels such as "eco-friendly," "environmentally friendly," and "sustainable" to investigate consumer preferences,...

Pesticide laws focused on school grounds/athletic fields are beginning to take shape around the United States. A body of literature has examined the health implications of pesticides on school children and faculty and staff. However, little research has examined the impact of changing pesticide regulations on grounds/field quality and expenses. Our...

Plants are often merchandised with minimal packaging; thus, consumers have only the plant (intrinsic cue) or information signs (extrinsic cues) on which to assess the product and base their purchase decision. Our objective was to segment consumers based on their preferences for certain plant display attributes and compare their gaze behavior when v...

Given the rise in health-related issues associated with changing food consumption patterns, we examine the role of not only demographics on food-away-from-home expenditures by meal occasion, but also transactional specific variables (e.g., promotion, ordering, and both facility and meal characteristics) and past away-from-home expenditures. Our res...

Participants from 6 locations viewed 5 unique plant displays with 3 manipulated signs per display to total 27 total treatment images. Three signs spanned the back, upper portion of each display to (a) identify the plants, (b) convey a fabricated horticultural production method (conventional, energy-saving, sustainable, or water-saving), and (c) con...

This study adds to the consumer choice literature by linking consumers’ environmental concern (EC) orientations (egoistic, altruistic and biospheric) to willingness to pay (WTP) premiums for proenvironmental attributes. Results from a mixed-ordered probit model showed that individuals were willing to pay a premium for energy-saving production pract...

The varying terms associated with local and organic have the potential to confuse consumers as to their true meaning, especially with respect to production practices. For these reasons we examined the perceptions and misperceptions of the terms local and organic, specifically focusing on differences between U.S. and Canadian consumers. Our results...

During the past decade, Canadian consumers have developed a keen interest in local and organic foods. In response, the Canadian government established standards to regulate their labeling. However, many retail and media outlets offer varying definitions that fit their needs. Consumers utilize this often conflicting information to formulate their un...

Consumers in today's marketplace have seemingly endless choices with regards to produce. Peach growers and retailers in Ontario, Canada, have begun taking steps to increase demand for their products. This study investigates the impact of those strategies on the market. Using conjoint analysis and market simulations, we evaluate the peach market to...

The terms local and organic are becoming common in most retail environments, especially in the merchandising of produce. Recent studies have examined the perceptions and misperceptions of these terms, as well as shown that consumers are willing to pay price premiums for produce. Another area of research has focused on the consumer characteristics t...

Prior research has demonstrated that consumers vary in the value they assign to product attributes. Our study sought to investigate the relationship between product attribute relative importance and visual activity. We photographed plant displays and showed them to 330 volunteer (compensated with $30) participants at six North American universities...

Some consumers are becoming more interested in and purchasing products that are locally grown and/or ecologically friendly. Market segmentation and product targeting are efficient methods to allocate a firm’s scarce marketing resources in order to supply heterogeneous markets. This study’s objective was to identify consumer segments, focusing on th...

Our interests for this project were driven by an interest in the impact of smartphone ownership and Internet search behavior on product purchasing related to gardening products and items and how search and purchase were similar to (or different from) non-gardening information and products. Given the sharp rise in use of smartphones and mobile media...

The U.S. green industry, which includes businesses such as nursery and greenhouse growers, input suppliers, wholesalers, mass-merchandisers, independent retail operations, and landscape design and maintenance firms, has experienced considerable growth and modernization over the last several decades. With recent economic downturns, however, signific...

Prior research has shown consumers are willing to pay price premiums for products labeled local, organic, and sustainable. However, there tends to be a disconnect between what these labels represent and what consumers perceive them to be. This study sought to better understand these differences and examine differences between U.S. and Canadian cons...

Concepts of eco-friendly and sustainable products have become increasingly popular topics of investigation in many disciplines. Consumer products are increasingly being advertised by promoting their green or environmentally friendly attributes and characteristics, with the expectation of appealing to a larger consumer base. Consequently, the need t...

Some consumers are becoming more interested in and purchasing products that are locally grown and/or ecologically friendly. Market segmentation and product targeting are efficient methods to allocate a firm's scarce marketing resources to supply heterogeneous markets. This study's objective was to identify consumer segments, focusing on their garde...

Information plays a vital role in the purchase decisions of retail lawn and garden consumers. Consumers have readily adopted personal computers and Internet technology as a way of seeking information and/or making purchases online. However, the extent to which horticultural consumers specifically seek information and make purchases online is not we...

Applied economics studies have started using cheap talk to mitigate hypothetical bias in stated preference studies. Despite some contradictory evidence about cheap talk's effectiveness, no known cheap talk study has taken into account how subjects' perception of the complexity of the experimental task can influence cheap talk's effectiveness in red...

We investigate how differences in the consideration of future consequences (CFC; Strathman, Gleicher, Boninger, & Edwards, 1994) influence consumers’ willingness to pay for edible and ornamental plants using data from second‑price auction choice experiments conducted in the U.S. and Canada (N = 159). Based the recent empirical and theoretical findi...

This paper measures the effectiveness of green industry firms' promotion and advertising expenditures in enhancing sales. Specifically the paper addresses the following three questions: 1) Are promotion and advertising expenditures effective in increasing sales of green industry firms? 2) What are the types of promotion and advertising efforts that...

Savvy marketers rely on the principles of customer segmentation and product targeting to more efficiently allocate scarce resources and effectively reach groups of consumers with similar likes, preferences or demands. Our objective was to identify and profile consumer segments with regard to their gardening purchases in order to determine whether t...

Consumers are placing greater emphasis on product packaging which is carrying over to biodegradable pots. While various forms of these eco-friendly pots have been available for several years, their marketing appeal was limited due to their poor appearance. With the recent availability of more attractive biodegradable plant containers, renewed inter...

The growth of the "buy organic" movement is driven by claims that organic food is healthier, and more environmentally and socially responsible. At the same time, the local food movement is gaining momentum and may potentially compete with the organic market as an environmentally friendly alternative. This study was conducted to understand whether t...

This study utilized and compared different econometric models to analyze conjoint analysis data to elicit floral customers' willingness to pay (WTP) for biodegradable plant containers. From the conjoint data, this paper shows that mixed tobit models or mixed ordered probit models generate more accurate results than the tobit, ordered probit models,...

This study facilitates a better understanding of the socio-demographics and consumption dynamics of wine consumers using the retailing ‘platform’ of the winery tasting room with them as visitors to it in a wine region environment. The overall aim was to gain some insights on gender and age generation-related consumer behaviour, wine type preference...

Organically and locally grown food products have become increasingly popular n recent years. However, unlike food products, consumers purchase most outdoor plants or their aesthetic value rather than their nutritional value. Many of the health concerns elated to food products might not be applicable to ornamental plants, so the demand for organic n...

Traditionally, Canadian producers and marketers use terms such as biocontrol, integrated pest management (IPM), organic, and sustainable to describe how their product was produced in order to elicit acceptance or premiums of their products. However, little if any attention has been paid to understanding what message this sends to consumers. This st...

Consumers increasingly place a greater emphasis on product packaging and this has carried over to the grower sector in the form of biodegradable pots. While various forms of these eco-friendly pots have been available for several years, their marketing appeal was limited due to their less-than-satisfying appearance. With the recent availability of...

Given recent consumer and market interest in more sustainableproducts and business practices, researchers conducted a nationwidesurvey of greenhouse and nursery crop growers to determine thecurrent state of the industry in terms of sustainability. Growerswere asked about the importance of sustainability, their viewsof state environmental regulation...

The objective of this paper is to look at producers’ gains from advertising expenditures by firm size in the Green Industry. This paper uses data from the 2009 National Nursery Survey with a representative sample of all 50 states with a total of 3,044 usable observations. Most of the literature focuses on evaluating the returns of checkoff programs...

When a consumer heads to a retail outlet to purchase fruit and vegetables, they are bombarded with a multitude of messages, such as price, quality, healthiness, and production practices. Of all the messages used, perhaps the most enigmatic is the term “organic.” Much research has been devoted to understanding how consumers feel about organic produc...

The National School Lunch Program’s effect on children’s diets has been extensively studied. Results have tended to be inconclusive regarding the effectiveness of the program. Utilizing more specific treatment groups, we find that participants in the National School Lunch Program do not consume a higher-quality diet at lunch than children choosing...

We assess the reduction of hypothetical bias in consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for products by applying a generic, short, and neutral cheap talk script in a retail setting. Using an open-ended elicitation mechanism with non-hypothetical, hypothetical, and hypothetical with cheap talk treatments, our results indicate that the hypothetical WTP...

Instead of virgin plastic, some growers are now using containers manufactured with alternative materials that can be planted directly in the soil and will degrade over time, thus eliminating the waste of disposing the pot into landfills. While previous studies have addressed certain aspects of consumer willingness to pay issue for biodegradable con...

This study used and compared hypothetical conjoint analysis and nonhypothetical experimental auctions to elicit floral customers’ willingness to pay for biodegradable plant containers. The results of the study show that participants were willing to pay a price premium for biodegradable containers, but the premium is not the same for different typ...

Savvy marketers rely on the principles of customer segmentation and product targeting to more efficiently allocate scarce resources and effectively reach groups of consumers with similar likes, preferences, or demands. Our objective was to identify and profile consumer segments with regard to their gardening purchases to determine whether there wer...

In recent years, the new trend for local and organic produce has transformed the landscape of fruit and vegetable purchasing. To this effect, "local" and "organic" logos have become the norm in many retail outlets. To examine the effects of different "local" and "organic" logos on Canadian consumers, a consumer survey was used to identify preferenc...

Given recent consumer and market interest in more sustainable products and business practices, researchers conducted a nationwide survey of greenhouse and nursery crop growers to determine the current state of the industry in terms of sustainability. Growers were asked about the importance of sustainability, their views of state environmental regul...

Currently, one of the most widely discussed topics in the green industry, which is promulgated by consumers exhibiting greater degrees of environmental awareness, is the issue of environmental sustainability. This has led to a desire for products that not only solve the needs of consumers, but are also produced and marketed using sustainable produc...

Data from the 2004 National Nursery Survey conducted by the USDA-CSREES S-1021 Multistate Research Committee (referred to as the Green Industry Research Consortium) were used to evaluate the effect of pricing influences and selling characteristics on total gross firm sales and gross sales of several plant categories (trees, roses, shrubs/azaleas, h...

Currently, one of the most widely discussed topics in the green industry, which is promulgated by consumers exhibiting greater degrees of environmental awareness, is the issue of environmental sustainability. This has led to a desire for products that not only solve the needs of consumers, but are also produced and marketed using sustainable produc...

The U.S. nursery and greenhouse industry has undergone major changes to production and marketing practices from 1988 to 2003. Using data from national surveys that have been partially funded by HRI, we examine the regional structural changes that have occurred during this period with emphasis on sales, advertising expenditures, and computer usage....

Copyright 2009 by Campbell, Nayga, Silva, and Park. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. We thank Ximing Wu for helpful discussions on modeling risky behavior and econometric issues.

This article reviews the results of 5 years of marketing research on Alabama satsumas and makes recommendations for future progress. Although there are only 28 ha of satsuma orchards in production in Alabama at this time, there are a number of encouraging developments that suggest considerable potential for expanding the industry such as microsprin...

Ninety-five consumers in seven grocery stores tasted unidentified peeled sections of three mandarins (a tangerine, a satsuma, and a clementine), and provided demographic and purchase information. Forty-four percent of the respondents preferred tangerines, 34 percent satsumas, and 22 percent clementines. The probability of preferring each of type of...

Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for novel products are needed to assess consumers' valuation of these products as well as for product adoption and optimal pricing strategies. Using experiments in a retail setting, we compare hypothetical and non-hypothetical WTP values between a Becker-DeGroot-Marshak (BDM) auction mechanism and conjoint analysi...

For most grocery stores, external quality standards require that premium mandarins be orange, unblemished, and large. Thus, for consumers to differentiate among the premium mandarins on any dimension other than price, additional positioning attributes must be evaluated. This study considered consumer preferences for price ($2.18/kg, $4.39/kg, or $1...

Satsuma mandarins (Citrus unshiu) have been produced intermittently along the Gulf Coast for over a century. However, very little is known about the market potential for this citrus fruit in today's consumer markets. This study evaluated consumer preferences for seven external attributes over a range of levels: price ($1.07, $2.18, or $4.39/ kg), c...

Healthy eating and food away from home expenditures are gaining increasing notoriety within the U.S. These issues are not only a concern for businesses, but governmental policy makers have also shown interest in both increasing nutrition for children and better understanding the behaviors of those consuming food away from home. For this reason, a l...