
Riccardo VecchioUniversity of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Agriculture
Riccardo Vecchio
PhD
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126
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Introduction
Riccardo Vecchio is an Associate Professor in Agricultural Economics at the University of Naples Federico II, Department of Agricultural Sciences. His research interests focus on consumer behaviour, with emphasis on experimental economics mechanisms.
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (126)
The current food environment exposes individuals to continuous unhealthy signals. The present study investigates the effectiveness of a default option nudge-framed as a Dish of the Day-in guiding healthier food choices of Millennials (aged between 19 and 30 years old), a demographic particularly vulnerable to unhealthy eating. A between-subjects fi...
In this study, we define, categorize, and systematically describe best practices and barriers to implementing preference elicitation lab‐in‐the‐field experiments with farmers based on qualitative, in‐depth interviews with researchers from the Research Network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy (REECAP). Following an assessme...
Risk is a pervasive factor in agriculture and a subject of great interest to agricultural economists. However, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the knowledge held by farm advisors, students, and economists with regards to farmers' risk preferences. Misconceptions about farmers’ willingness to take risks could lead to misguided advi...
Despite the benefits of sustainable innovations in the agricultural sector being widely recognized, their adoption rate remains below the level designated by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. To understand the reasons behind this phenomenon, the current systematic literature review (SLR) provides a comprehensive overview of factors affecting...
Purpose
The scenario of clean wines is rather articulated, and many consumers perceive diverse types of wines as a homogeneous category, not actually related with the true characteristics of the products. Additionally, most often, individuals turning to these wines are driven either by health concerns or environmental consciousness or by curiosity....
BACKGROUND
Several public interventions have been designed in recent years to urge the intake of vitamin D supplements among the senior population to avoid the direct and indirect consequences associated with vitamin D deficiency. However, the effectiveness of these public campaigns remains quite limited. In an online survey, the current study inve...
The 2020 certification of natural wine (NW) in France has unleashed a heated debate in Europe. However, knowledge about NW consumer profiles and preferences in a comparative perspective remains scarce in the academic literature. This study aims to define the perceptions, preferences and profiles of wine consumers who support a NW label. For this pu...
Current study investigates whether a private, sustainability claim has an impact on individuals' sensory and non-sensory expectations (halo effect) and quantifies such impact on individual monetary preferences. An incentive-compatible artefactual field experiment was performed by recruiting regular buyers and consumers of the investigated product (...
This study analysed consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for wines with different sustainability features, namely natural, biodynamic, and organic, and explored the drivers of individual preferences for these wines. An online survey was conducted with a sample of 501 Italian regular wine consumers. To elicit WTP for natural, organic, and biodynamic...
A reduction in meat consumption is crucial for addressing public health problems, especially in industrialized countries. Among low-cost interventions, emotionally provocative health-information strategies could be effective options in fostering meat reduction. Through an online experimental survey, administrated to a quota-based national sample (N...
Helping mothers make the healthiest choices for their children when eating out can contribute to preventing the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, particularly in economically disadvantaged classes. Herein, we tested whether two different nudges (a default option and a social norm prompt) could guide low- and middle-income mothers towa...
We replicate Bocquého et al. (2014), who used multiple price lists to investigate the risk preferences of 107 French farmers. We collected new data from 1430 participants in 11 European farming systems. In agreement with the original study, farmers' risk preferences are best described by Cumulative Prospect Theory. Structural model estimates show t...
Population aging, the epidemiological transition, and associated lifestyle changes are among the major drivers of the increased incidence and prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Preparing for change is essential to ensure progress towards achieving the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The first step for health car...
While there is evidence of consumers’ interest in wine sustainability, acceptance of innovations in wine production is not guaranteed. The current study addresses this issue by analyzing consumers’ acceptance of fungus-resistant grape (FRG) wines, a sustainable innovation that can substantially reduce the need for chemical inputs in viticulture. To...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate consumer acceptance for a set of innovations that can be applied to the production process of extra-virgin olive oil. The final purpose is to verify whether, and to what extent, consumer acceptance of innovations varies depending on the type of technology used and the profile of consumers.
Design/methodology/...
Similar to other foods, the concept of natural wine is much debated due to the lack of a clear and regulated definition, leading to a proliferation of heterogeneous norms and standards proposed from different natural wine associations at national levels. The current study explored the aspects which mediate individuals’ information and perception of...
Consumers’ preferences for products derived from genetic improvements and innovations in plant breeding are often conditioned by technophobia and negative public imaginaries. The current study addresses this issue by analyzing consumers’ monetary preferences for a win-win innovation (generating gains for both private actors and the community) in th...
Previous studies have shown that credence attributes play an important and often undervalued role in consumers’ product evaluation and purchasing behavior. By contrast, the factors moderating these effects have received less attention by scholars. The current study uncovers the moderating effects of consumers’ psychographic characteristics (i.e.: s...
The present study aims to extend the existing literature on EVOO consumers by assessing the importance of health claims in selecting EVOO products by jointly accounting for consumer preferences for the many search, experience, and credence attributes potentially available on EVOO, as well as by accounting for attitudinal and psychographic individua...
During the last 20 years, sustainability has become an important issue in the wine sector. The increase of producers’ awareness and consumers’ interest has prompted the emergence of wines labeled as organic, biodynamic or natural. The current letter aims to stimulate future research dealing with consumers’ acceptance and interest towards wine with...
The current study assesses consumer preferences toward different production methods of clementines (Citrus clementina). Based on a survey of Italian urban individuals (N = 345), responsible for household food purchases, it investigates whether clementines produced by means of integrated farming system are perceived as a desirable alternative to org...
Health claims have been introduced in food labelling to support consumers’ awareness of healthy food choices and to enhance a healthy diet. Even though many countries around the world have developed legislation and guidelines to regulate the introduction of health claims on food labels, there is the evidence that many consumers do not understand th...
The astringency of red wine represents an important factor of quality and liking evaluation by consumers, but it is sometimes associated to a negative feature. We studied the differences in astringency subqualities of Sangiovese wines between consumers and trained assessors. Wines belonging to three denominations (Chianti Classico, Toscana, Morelli...
The use of ultrasounds for the extraction of extra-virgin olive oil is an emerging technology capable of improving both the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. However, this technology has not been introduced yet on the market mostly because of the uncertainty about consumers’ acceptance. This study aimed to investigate...
This study aims to analyse the influence of alternative formats of health warnings on French and Italian Millennial consumers’ choices of beer and wine. Two Discrete Choice Experiments were built for wine and beer and two Latent Class choice models were applied in order to verify the existence of different consumer profiles. Results show that young...
The purpose of this study is to examine consumers' reactions to the introduction of nutrition and ingredient labelling for wine, a product that is so far still exempt from mandatory nutrition and ingredient labelling. It also analyses the effect of positive and negative information about the use of ingredients in wine on consumers' choice. Represen...
Participant attentiveness may represent a major concern for all researchers using online self-report survey data, as findings from non-diligent participants add noise and can significantly decrease results reliability. Therefore, attention checks have become a popular method in survey design across social sciences to capture careless or insufficien...
Innovation is fundamental for all agri-food companies to increase competitiveness. Being extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) a traditional food product (TFP), the main obstacle to innovation is its traditional nature. This study evaluated consumers’ acceptance for an EVOO with a naturally increased content of poliphenols, as it has been extracted through...
While the medical community supports the growth of citrus consumption as part of a healthy diet, there is limited knowledge about consumer preferences for these fruits. The current study analyzed the purchasing patterns and drivers of fresh citrus fruits from a convenience sample of 346 Italian food shoppers. Results revealed that clementines were...
Globally, bitterness in food is not a preferred attribute by consumers, for several reasons. In the case of Extra Virgin Olive Oil its presence is fundamental as it is a healthiness indicator, being strictly linked to the antioxidant content. The current study aimed to assess the extent of Italian consumers' preferences for bitterness taste of Extr...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate whether consumer preferences differ for wines with diverse price points and second, to analyze the effect of denominations of origin information on preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
In, total 150 regular wine buyers expressed their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for 12 red wines...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate sparkling wine consumption behavior and preferences of a large sample of US consumers ( n =1,096) exploring the differences among genders and generational cohorts.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample has been drawn from Wine opinions, a specialized market research company with a large online p...
In recent years, the public debate on the health and sustainability of palm oil and its use by food industries has strongly influenced consumer choices. Consequently, palm oil-free products have asserted their image as healthier and more sustainable food products. The current paper contributes to the extant knowledge on consumers’ perception of pal...
Can nudging be used as a strategy helpful to lower consumers’ aversion to bitter taste?
Is there a possibility to identify characteristics of consumers that are more likely to not avoid bitter products?
The presence of some healthy phytochemicals in food can be paired with high bitterness, and consumers have a widespread avoidance toward bitter-tasting food. This causes a gap between preferences and healthy needs of consumers. Therefore, this review collected insights from literature belonging to different discipline domains in order to have a bro...
Technical improvements in the sustainability of wine making will likely proceed thorough a progressive refinement of processing strategies without substantial discontinuities. The new varieties obtained through interspecific crossings represent a new technological paradigm with remarkable effects on cropping conditions. Indeed, vineyards planted wi...
Food marketing strategies constantly use trendy messages, novel displays, colourful floor decals, compelling store arrangements and other environmental triggers to exploit consumers; nudges hold the promise to adopt the same interventions to increase healthier choices. The purpose of this systematic review is to frame the state of the art and resea...
The current study explored consumers' preferences for natural versus enriched foods and identified the underlying driving forces behind consumer interest towards both attributes. A laboratory experiment with 200 respondents was carried out, applying the incentive compatible Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism to measure consumers' willingness to pay...
This paper aims to analyse Generation Y consumers' preferences for, interest in and attitudes towards different formats of health warnings on wine labels in two countries with different legal approaches: France and Italy. A Discrete Choice Experiment was realized on a sample of 500 wine consumers. Three warning options were applied: the long-term e...
The current study combined hedonic liking with non-hypothetical experimental auctions to measure consumer preferences for bitter tasting food and identify individual socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics that influence bitter aversion. Furthermore, the research analyzed whether consumer preferences for bitter food were influenced by s...
Background: Nowadays there is a strong debate on the need to introduce mandatory nutritional information on alcoholic beverages labels, and particularly on wine, as a tool to promote more health-conscious drinking patterns in society. In 2018, the European alcoholic beverages industry presented a self-regulatory proposal, now under assessment by th...
The increasing demand for sustainable food products has driven manufacturers to adopt many sustainability claims, certifications, messages and other information tools to differentiate their goods. The results of an online survey, conducted in southern Italy on a sample of 305 individuals aged between 18 and 26 years, reveal that the level of visibi...
There is increasing interest toward insects as an alternative protein source in Western countries even though, so far, most Western consumers react with disgust and rejection. The literature on
consumer behavior has mainly investigated the willingness to consume insects with regard to human diet, revealing that providing information about the posit...
In this article, we present and critically discuss the current and future key challenges of non-hypothetical experimental auctions (EA) to measure consumer preferences for new food products/attributes. The paper is composed by two complementary parts: a commentary of the core issues, identified in literature, related to internal and external validi...
Nowadays, food has reached a great level of differentiation, linked to processes, products, and ethical issues as well (Aprile, et al., 2012; Grunert, 2002). Growing consumers awareness of specific product attributes related to health, origin, environment and ethical concerns is shaping a wider concept of food quality (Feldmann & Hamm, 2015; Gruner...
BACKGROUND
This study, by combining sensory and experimental economics techniques, aims to analyse to what extent the production process, and the information about it, may affect consumer preferences. Sparkling wines produced by Champenoise and Charmat methods were the object of the study. A quantitative descriptive sensory analysis with a trained...
This study reveals the consumer side of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the food industry, exploring awareness, preferences and willingness to pay for CSR of a representative sample of Italian households. The results clearly indicate that Italian consumers reveal a high level of awareness within clear, though heterogeneous, preferences for...
Freshwater scarcity is becoming one of the most pressing issues of the global environmental sustainability, and agriculture is the main responsible of that scarcity. During the last decade, there has been an increasing consumers’ environmental concern about the impact of food production on water usage. This paper investigates young consumers’ prefe...
In recent decades, consumer trust in the food sector has declined
because of several scandals that have affected the agro-food industry.
To recover their business reputation and trust, agro-food companies
are increasingly implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in
their production processes. CSR involves the whole supply chain, and
sever...
This chapter is intended to guide readers in the comprehension of experimental economics mechanisms, and their underlying rationale, so the experimenter will be aware of how to choose, and effectively apply, the most appropriate method for her or his specific research objective. In particular, we focus on two of the most frequently applied incentiv...
Consumers in industrialized countries are nowadays much more interested in information about the production methods and components of the food products that they eat, than they had been 50 years ago. Some production methods are perceived as less “natural” (i.e. conventional agriculture) while some food components are seen as “unhealthy” and “unfami...
The intense competition affecting the wine industry in recent decades has forced wineries and retailers to reshape their marketing strategies on the basis of consumer preferences. The current study aims to identify such preferences and the effects they might have in influencing consumer decisions. Preferences for different wine attributes as well a...
The introduction of health warnings on labels to correct externalities associated with alcohol consumption is heavily debated and has been explored from different perspectives. The current paper aims to analyse the interest and attitudes of Italian university students regarding health warnings on alcoholic beverages and to verify the existence of s...
Due to the worldwide importance of wine and frequent cases of fraud and mislabeling, in recent years there has been growing interest in developing analytical methods to determine the varietal origin of wines with some precision. In the first part of this paper we review varietal authentication based on the analysis of volatiles and phenolics, the c...
The present study examines the perceptions that French, Italian and Spanish consumers have about the possible health effects of what they consider to be a moderate wine consumption. Furthermore, it identified whether the following factors positively or negatively influence consumer opinion - wine appreciation, environmental awareness, environmental...
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the (1) role of gender, age, and education in the evaluation of multidimensional criteria of the purchase of functional products, which were (a) quality and organoleptic attributes, (b) attributes of packaging and labeling, (c) healthful properties, (d) functional components, (e) base product (carri...
In recent years an important trend in sustainable food consumption is represented by organic consumers. Organic agriculture not only preserves the environment but it also improves public health, bringing significant benefits both to the economy as well as to the social cohesion of rural areas. Based on these considerations the proposed paper aims t...
Our study examines wine consumers stated interest toward eco-friendly wines. A convenience sample of 301 Italian wine drinkers (i.e. over 18 years old and consumers of wine at least once a month) were interviewed by computer aided telephonic interviews (CATI), by a professional agency. Questions investigated respondents shopping patterns, attitude...
Literature suggests that wineries’ characteristics and ownership are strongly related to investments in sustainable practices. Nevertheless, no empirical study – to our knowledge – has been performed on the Italian wine industry. Results from a self-completed, structured questionnaire on wineries in the Prosecco district (N=130), performed in 2014,...
This research is aimed at investigating consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for conventional, organic and functional yogurts in two different information treatments. The basic information treatment provided respondents with yogurts labelled conventional, organic or functional while the second treatment included additional information. To elicit val...
Purpose
Consumer interest and willingness to pay for omega-3 enriched water buffalo mozzarella cheese are evaluated through an in-store experimental auction. We estimate individual willingness to pay for enriched mozzarella cheese and related it to self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations of omega-3 consumption, following Regulatory Focus the...
We compare willingness-to-pay information revealed through bids of the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) auction mechanism with inferred valuations and real market prices. Applying nine food products, in three different experiments in which individuals express both bids and inferred valuations, the former were consistently lower than inferred valuation...
The global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol launched in 2010 by the World Health Organization includes, amongst several areas of recommended actions, providing consumer information about, and labelling, alcoholic beverages to indicate alcohol-related harm. Labelling requirements worldwide for alcoholic drinks are currently quite divers...
In recent years the link between diet and disease has become well established, with studies increasingly pointing to the role of diet in disease prevention, as well as its ability to prevent chronic diseases affecting children. As a consequence, there are ever more functional products specifically targeting children, marketed in terms of the benefi...
Background:
The current paper analyses the evaluation of the costs and benefits of French wineries (N=69) participating in the sustainability program Terra Vitis, a widespread environmental certification scheme within the French wine industry.
Method:
An online questionnaire was sent to all Terra Vitis participants, in order to analyse the evalu...
Food waste is an important topic in the general context of food consumption sustainability and ethical consumption. Several studies have focused on environment-friendly labeling schemes based on different “ethical attributes,” such as organic, fair trade, and locally grown. However, the effect of a labeling scheme based on food waste prevention has...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ interest and preference for health warnings on wine label, and the key socio-demographic and attitudinal variables driving this interest.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were gathered, by a professional marketing company, through an on line survey with a sample of 300 Italians, ag...
This paper aims to contribute to the current debate on the inclusion of nutritional information and health warnings on wine labels, exploring consumers’ interest and preferences. The results of a survey conducted on a sample of Italian wine consumers (N=300) show the strong interest of respondents in the inclusion of such information on the label....