Cultivating change

: the role of consumer innovativeness and psychological factors on the attitudes towards indoor vertical farmed greens

Abstract

With the challenges of rapid urbanization, world population growth, and the climate crisis, the world is facing a dilemma. It is necessary to address these challenges through technological innovations, such as Vertical Farming (VF). However, in order to do that it needs the consumer's willingness to change their consumption behavior and a general positive mindset towards those innovations. A mixed-methods analysis was conducted to study the attitudes and behaviors towards VF products within this thesis. The study examined whether a consumer's degree of innovativeness has a significant effect on the attitudes towards buying vertically farmed greens. The results showed positive results. Therefore, it can be concluded that people with a higher likelihood to adapt innovations are strongly shaping the VF market. Surprisingly, the psychological factor of subjective knowledge about VF was not identified as a significant factor. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that attitudes towards vertically farmed greens are mainly affected by product characteristics such as freshness, healthiness, and quality. Another significant factor revealed by this study is sustainable consumption in the context of VF. As the results showed a general willingness to pay a price premium for vertically farmed greens, VF companies could exploit the premium price segment. Overall, the examination of the urban agriculture sector gives implications for marketers and researchers who aim to enter or further investigate the VF market. It suggests treating VF as an innovation with the need for education, which has the potential to gain a buyership within the German market.

Date of Award	26 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Miguel Rita (Supervisor)