The effects of purchase and consumption on beef quality attribute beliefs: a study of tourists visiting Vanuatu

Figures & data

Table 1. Beef perception and consumption characteristics.

Variable	Description	% of respondents
Meat consumption	Vegetarian	10%
	Rarely eat meat (1–2 × per month)	2%
	Occasional meat eater (once a week)	7%
	Heavy meat eater (every day)	14%
	Moderate meat-eater (2–6 × per week)	67%
	I love the taste of beef	83%
Attitude to beef (% strongly and somewhat agree)	I eat beef whenever I can	32%
	I choose beef at a restaurant if it’s on the menu	24%
	I am reducing my meat consumption for health reasons	28%
	I am reducing my meat consumption for environmental reasons	20%
	I am reducing my consumption for animal welfare reasons	14%
	I love the taste of beef	83%
Awareness of Vanuatu beef prior to visiting (First visit)	Definitely yes	10%
	Maybe yes	7%
	Not sure	11%
	Definitely not	72%
Have eaten Vanuatu beef (at the time of the survey)	Yes	90%
	No	10%
Associate with Vanuatu cuisine (% definitely yes)	Fish and seafood	55%
	Beef	27%
	Chicken	12%
	Pork	9%
	Veal	1%

Figure 1. Model of the quality perception process (Steenkamp, 1990).

Figure 2. Conceptual model.

Figure 3. Research Model: The development of product quality beliefs.

Table 2. Sample characteristics.

Variable	Description	% of respondents
	Male	46%
	Female	54%
Age (years)	19–29	10%
	30–39	15%
	40–49	25%
	50–59	26%
	60–69	17%
	70–79	4%
	80–89	1%
Education	High school	20%
	Some college	17%
	Bachelor’s degree	35%
	Postgraduate degree	25%
	Other	3%
Income ($AUS)	Less than $40,000	18%
	$40,000–$59,000	13%
	$60,000–$79,000	24%
	$80,000–$89,000	6%
	$90,000–$99,000	9%
	>$100,000	30%
Home country	Australia	66%
	New Zealand	19%
	New Caledonia	1%
	Europe	9%
	North America	3%
	Other	3%
Length of stay	2–6 days	15%
	1–2 weeks	46%
	3–4 weeks	8%
	5 weeks to 6 months	23%
	More than 6 months	8%
Accommodation	Hotel	16%
	Resort	58%
	Backpackers	2%
	Private home/apartment	12%
	Airbnb	1%
	Other	11%
Number of visits	First time	58%
	2–3 times	25%
	> 3 times	17%

Figure 4. Comparison of the importance of attributes of beef for tourists when travelling overseas.

Figure 5. Change in the strength of credence and experience attribute beliefs before and after purchase and consumption.

Table 3. Changes in tourists’ beliefs regarding the quality attributes of Vanuatu beef before and after visiting.

Attributes	Awareness before and after visit
	Before	Now	Change	% Change	Significance
Great taste	3.5	4.2	0.7	20%	0.001
Tender	3.4	4.1	0.7	22%	0.001
High quality	3.3	4.1	0.8	24%	0.001
Naturally raised	3.9	4.2	0.4	9%	0.002
Organic	3.8	4.2	0.4	12%	0.001
Produced without antibiotics	3.6	4.0	0.4	11%	0.008

Table 4. Beliefs regarding quality attributes of Vanuatu beef before purchase and consumption.

Construct	Measure	Factor loading	Cronbach’s Alpha
Credence quality attributes	No antibiotics	0.86	0.89
	Naturally raised	0.69
	Organic	0.65
Experience quality attributes	Tender	0.93	0.95
	High quality	0.85
	Great taste	0.79

Table 5. Percentage of variance explained – Beliefs regarding quality attributes before purchase and consumption.

	Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Factor	Eigenvalues	% of variance	Cumulative %
1	5.50	40.7	40.7
2	0.76	37.8	78.5

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

Table 6. Beliefs regarding quality attributes of Vanuatu beef after purchase and consumption.

Construct	Measure	Factor loading	Cronbach’s Alpha
Credence quality attributes	Organic	0.90	0.89
	Naturally raised	0.89
	Produced without antibiotics	0.81
Experience quality attributes	Tender	0.94	0.87
	Taste	0.90
	High quality	0.80

Table 7. Percentage of variance explained – Perception of quality attributes after purchase and consumption.

	Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Factor	Eigenvalues	% Variance	Cumulative %
1	4.0	40.4	40.4
2	2.6	26.2	66.6

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

Table 8. Quality attributes of beef that are important to tourists.

Construct	Measure	Factor loading	Cronbach’s Alpha
Credence quality attributes	Naturally raised	0.90	0.91
	Organic	0.81
	No antibiotics	0.76
Experience quality attributes	Tender	0.86	0.79
	Great taste	0.81
	High quality	0.75

Table 9. Percentage of variance explained – Importance of attributes.

	Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Factor	Eigenvalues	% of variance	Cumulative %
1	3.5	44.0	44.0
2	2.2	27.0	71.0

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

Figure 6. Comparison of importance scores for credence and experience quality attributes.

Table 10. Regression analysis for variables predicting credence quality beliefs - before purchase and consumption.

Credence (before)	Adjusted R^2	β standardised	Standard error	t-value	Sig
Excluded variables:	0.011
Experience (Importance)		0.058	0.218	0.349	0.728
Credence (Importance)		0.178	0.099	1.070	0.289

(p ≤ .05* p ≤ .01** p ≤ .001***).

Table 11. Summary of results of hypotheses.

Hypothesis	Result
H1a: Tourists perceive credence and experience quality attributes as distinct constructs before purchase and consumption.	Supported
H1b: Tourists perceive credence and experience quality attributes as distinct constructs following purchase and consumption.	Supported
H1c: Tourists perceive the level of importance of credence and experience quality attributes as distinct constructs.	Supported
H2a: There is a positive relationship between the level of importance tourists place on credence and experience attributes and their beliefs regarding these attributes before purchase and consumption.	Partially supported
H2b: There is a positive relationship between the level of importance tourists place on credence and experience attributes and their beliefs regarding these attributes after purchase and consumption.	Partially supported
H3a: There is a positive relationship between tourists’ beliefs regarding credence quality attributes before purchase and consumption and their beliefs regarding credence attribute beliefs after purchase and consumption.	Supported
H3b: There is a positive relationship between tourists’ beliefs regarding experience quality attributes before purchase and consumption and their beliefs regarding credence quality after purchase and consumption.	Not supported
H3c: There is a positive relationship between tourists’ beliefs regarding experience product quality attributes before purchase and consumption and their beliefs regarding experience quality attributes after purchase and consumption.	Not supported
H3d: There is a positive relationship between tourists’ beliefs regarding credence product quality attributes before product purchase and their beliefs regarding experience quality beliefs after purchase and consumption.	Not supported

Table 12. Regression analysis for variables predicting experience quality beliefs before purchase and consumption.

Experience (Before)	Adjusted R^2	β standardised	Standard error	t-value	Sig
	0.16
Credence (Importance)		0.419**	0.101	3.326	0.002
Excluded variables:
Experience (Importance)		− 0.044	–	−0.288	0.774

(p ≤ .05* p ≤ .01** p ≤ .001***)

Table 13. Regression analysis for variables predicting credence quality beliefs - after purchase and consumption.

Credence (After)	Adjusted R^2	β standardised	Standard error	t-value	Sig
	0.51
Experience (Importance)		0.246**	0.122	2.255	0.030
Credence (before)		0.659***	0.086	6.050	0.000
Excluded variables:
Experience (before)		−0.124	–	−0.693	0.493
Credence (Importance)		−0.031	–	−0.212	0.833

(p ≤ .05* p ≤ .01** p ≤ .001***).

Table 14. Regression analysis for variables predicting experience quality beliefs – after purchase and consumption.

Experience (After)	Adjusted R^2	β standardised	Standard error	t-value	Sig
	0.16
Credence (Importance)		0.421**	0.368	3.01	0.004
Excluded variables:
Experience (Importance)		0.184	–	0.936	0.355
Credence (before)		0.168		1.187	0.242
Experience (before)		0.156		1.007	0.455

(p ≤ .05* p ≤ .01** p ≤ .001***).

Steenkamp, J.-B E. M. (1990). Conceptual model of the quality perception process. Journal of Business Research, 21(4), 309–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(90)90019-A

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, N. Lees upon reasonable request.