Effects of Subjective and Objective Knowledge on Apple Consumers Case of an Apple Producing Area in Korҫa, Albania

Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Effects of Subjective and Objective Knowledge on Apple Consumers Case of an Apple Producing Area in Korҫa, Albania

ErjonNexhipi, MSC

ABSTRACT: 

Apples are an important dietary part, it is reflected on the local consumer, the consumption model and the attitudes of local consumer to apples, apple cultivators or supply chain. However, the question of what makes the consumers to act different from each other, why some of them eat apples rarely and some others daily, is something that would help members of the supply chain to change their methods on short-term action in market and long-term strategies. This paper studies the way how subjective and objective knowledge interact with consumers’ knowledge, how do they relate to social-demographic data and how do they affect the attitudes of apple consumers. Comparison between three apple consumer groups according to its usage (consumption) – light, medium and heavy users – will be a contribution to completing the profiles of apple consumers in an area which is traditionally known to be cultivating apples like Korca in southeastern Albania. 323 interviews with apple consumers in Korca Region were conducted, analysis on descriptive statistical data were performed and later on, consumer groups were compared through non-parametric methods. The study confirmed what many other studies in developed countries already recognize that objective knowledge do not relate to consumer attitude, rather it has a significant relation to consumption. Whereas, subjective knowledge of apple consumers resulted to have a stronger relation with consumers’ attitudes, social-demographic data (gender, age, education, place of birth) and relation to objective knowledge. When comparing consumer groups based on consumption, it becomes evident that heavy consumers show high levels of subjective knowledge.

keywords: consumer knowledge, apple consumers, segments based on consumption, Albania.