Foundation of the personalized smoothie startup LIVBON : an analysis of consumer acceptance

: an analysis of consumer acceptance

Abstract

This paper deals with the topic of entrepreneurship. The objective of this paper is to provide an assessment of the research questions, whether the introduced startup LIVBON - a personalized smoothie venture – is in demand and which psychological factors explain the willingness to buy. The research question and the validation of the business plan are investigated using a survey and a financial model. To crystallize the demand and the resulting personality traits, this thesis examines seven constructs related to the big five model: extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, innovativeness, and healthylifestyle, alongside the control variables of price consciousness, monthly salary, and gender. The constructs were hypothesized individually to determine their impact of the willingness to buy a product from LIVBON. The survey with 19 questions, including ten items measuring personality, was adopted from the BFI-10 model with a reliability of 85% and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.7. The largest contributor to LIVBON is "monthly salary" (ß = -.307), followed byhealthy lifestyle (ß = .316), price consciousness (ß = .257), innovativeness (ß = .221), andgender (ß = .220). Surprisingly, an important finding is that it is not personality that plays a role in selection, but attitude. Salary and healthy lifestyle, which play the largest role in LIVBON selection, should be emphasized. The company is profitable in month 13 related to the financial model.

Date of Award	24 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Cotter Salvado (Supervisor)