1st Conference on Economics and Politics of Chocolate
September, 16-18, 2012 – Leuven, Belgium
CONTEXT
We are interesting by
BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
SENSORY STUDIES
& CHOCOLATE
2
PLAN
Introduction
1. A small piece
Design
Results
2. The full tablet/bar
Elements
Design
Results
Conclusions
3
Introduction (1)
ABOUT CHOCOLATE
Interesting product for exploring consumers’ behaviors:
--- Important variety of characteristics (origin, organic,
fair-trade, ingredients, cocoa %, etc.)
--- Specific product with some infleunces and
interactions with human physiology and behaviors
Some experiments (not exhaustive): Tagbata & Sirieix
(2008), Mahé (2009), Teyssier et al. (2012), Kimura et al.
(2012), Torres-Moreno et al. (2012), Savastano (2012)…
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Introduction (2)
ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
--- generating behaviors in a controlled
environment (lab)
--- to test theories or to explore behaviors
--- includes real incentive systems (generally
with real money)
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1. A small piece --- Design (1)
HOW DO WE DECIDE WITH
&
???
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1. A small piece --- Design (2)
RISK AVERSION
--- MPL from Holt & Laury (2002)
--- 10 situations with increasing likelihood of lower
gain and choice between safe and risky lotteries.
--- real incentive with money and chocolate
DICTATOR GAME
--- sharing of a given amount (1.5€ / 10 miniatures)
--- real incentive with money and chocolate
48 PARTICIPANTS
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1. A small piece --- Results (1)
RISK AVERSION
--- after excluding for non-consistency
--- score on 10
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1. A small piece --- Results (2)
RISK AVERSION
--- Women (definitively) more risk averse
--- Men: more risk lovers with money
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1. A small piece --- Results (3)
DICTATOR GAME
--- sharing express in %
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Questions
How consumers react between blind tasting and
full information tasting ?
Is there difference between elicitation
methodologies ?
Correlations between buying intention,
willingness-to-pay and:
--- hedonic score
--- sensory descriptors
--- individual characteristics
--- individual opinion
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (1)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (2)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (3)
THE FOUR PRODUCTS
1.185 €
1.86 €
Prices in retail store (feb. 2012)
1.38 €
1.08 €
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (4)
INCENTIVE SYSTEM
--- to avoid hypothetical bias
--- subjects could really buy the products
--- In accordance with the elicitation methods, in a
precise random condition, subjects who give a WTP
higher than an offered price really buy the product
at this offered price
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (5)
ELICITATION METHODOLOGIES
BDM mechanism (Becker et al., 1963)
- for a randomly drawn product
- in a randomly drawn phase (A/D)
- if subject willing to buy the
product
- he/she randomly drawn a selling
price in a uniform price
distribution (market prices)
- WTP < selling price  no
exchange.
- WTP ≥ selling price  subject
buys the chocolate tablet at the
drawn selling price.
Random nth price (RNP)
auction (Shogren et al., 2001)
- for a randomly drawn product
- in a randomly drawn phase (A/D)
- a number n is randomly drawn
between 2 and N (number of
participants).
- after ordering all the WTP, n is
the price at which the (n-1) higher
WTP buy the product at this price.
Details: Lusk & Shogren
(2007), Lohéac & Issanchou
(2007)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Subjects
Students (master degree) from Dijon Business School
--- N = 53
--- 48 observations used due to absence in one part
Females (%)
Age (years)
Eat chocolate at least one time by month (%)
It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is an
organic product (score: 1 to 7)
It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is a fair
trade product (score: 1 to 7)
It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is
nutrionally good (score: 1 to 7)
It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is a
national brand product (score: 1 to 7)
I try to limit my intake of sugary foods (score: 1 to 7)
N
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
BDM
RNP
Male Female
All
treatment treatment
36%
73%
56.2%
23.1
22.8
23.5
22.6
22.9
68.2%
84.6%
66.7% 85.2% 77.1%
1.86
1.73
2.09
1.55
1.79
2.54
2.07
2.57
2.07
2.29
3.68
2.92
3.76
2.89
3.27
4.18
4.38
4.24
4.33
4.29
3.5
22
4.04
26
3.28
21
4.18
27
3.79
48
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (1)
WTP ELICITATION
--- 384 buying opportunities  145 real purchases
--- average WTP = 2.00 €
BUYING INTENTION (%)
WTP (€)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (2)
SENSORY ANALYSIS
--- Hedonic score
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (3)
SENSORY ANALYSIS
--- Intensity
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (4)
SENSORY ANALYSIS
--- MCO on hedonic scores (BLIND)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (5)
Link between hedonic score and buying intention
-- correlation between WTP and hedonic score: 55%
-- but low correlation between WTP and descriptors
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (6)
Due to treatment/session effect  split analysis by
treatment
WTP (€)
BUYING INTENTION (%)
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (7)
Probit on
buying
intention by
treatment
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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (8)
MCO
on
WTP
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CONCLUSION … (1)
In “a small piece”
- Women are more risk averse
-- Men are more risk lovers with money (chocolate
averse?)
--- Lower sharing with chocolate
In “the full tablet/bar”
- Methodological effect … but a session effect
-- Sugar, bitter & aroma have a weight in hedonic
score
--- strong link between hedonic score and buying
intention… but not with WTP
---- some other significant effects
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CONCLUSION… (2)
BUT
- A too small sample (N = 48)
-- Only one session by treatment
--- The name of chocolate are written on it
SOLUTIONS
- Reconduct the experiment  € € € €
-- To scrape the chocolate pieces …
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1st Conference on Economics and Politics of Chocolate
September, 16-18, 2012 – Leuven, Belgium