U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model

Consumers in the U.S. increasingly prefer plant-based milk alternative beverages (abbreviated “plant milk”) to conventional milk. This study is motivated by the need to take into consideration varied nutritional and qualitative attributes in plant milk to examine consumers’ purchasing behavior and e...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tingyi Yang, Senarath Dharmasena
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
Series:Foods
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/2/265
_version_ 1797406226610388992
author Tingyi Yang
Senarath Dharmasena
author_facet Tingyi Yang
Senarath Dharmasena
author_sort Tingyi Yang
collection DOAJ
description Consumers in the U.S. increasingly prefer plant-based milk alternative beverages (abbreviated “plant milk”) to conventional milk. This study is motivated by the need to take into consideration varied nutritional and qualitative attributes in plant milk to examine consumers’ purchasing behavior and estimate demand elasticities which are achieved by a new approach combing hedonic pricing model with Barten’s synthetic demand system. The method of estimation is enlightened from the common practice of companies differentiating their products in multidimensions in terms of attributes. A research dataset was uniquely created by associating the products’ purchase data from Nielsen Homescan dataset with exclusive first-hand nutritional data. Estimations began with creating a multidimensional hedonic attribute space based on the qualitative information of different types of plant milk and conventional milk available to consumers and then calculating the hedonic distances by Euclidean distance measurement to reparametrize Barten’s synthetic demand system. Estimation results showed that the highest own-price elasticity pertained to soy milk which was −0.25. Three plant milk types had inelastic demand. Soy milk exerted substituting effects on all types of conventional milk products and vice versa. Soy milk, rice milk and almond milk entertained complementary relationships between each other and four types of conventional milk were strong substitutes within the group.
first_indexed 2024-03-09T03:22:17Z
format Article
id doaj.art-3e69eeb7517a4ec0996263cf49acb784
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2304-8158
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-09T03:22:17Z
publishDate 2021-01-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Foods
spelling doaj.art-3e69eeb7517a4ec0996263cf49acb7842023-12-03T15:06:49ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582021-01-0110226510.3390/foods10020265U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic ModelTingyi Yang0Senarath Dharmasena1Department of Economics, Shaanxi Normal University, No. 620, West Chang’an Avenue, Chang’an District, Xi’an 710119, ChinaDepartment of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, 210T AGLS Building, 2124 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-2124, USAConsumers in the U.S. increasingly prefer plant-based milk alternative beverages (abbreviated “plant milk”) to conventional milk. This study is motivated by the need to take into consideration varied nutritional and qualitative attributes in plant milk to examine consumers’ purchasing behavior and estimate demand elasticities which are achieved by a new approach combing hedonic pricing model with Barten’s synthetic demand system. The method of estimation is enlightened from the common practice of companies differentiating their products in multidimensions in terms of attributes. A research dataset was uniquely created by associating the products’ purchase data from Nielsen Homescan dataset with exclusive first-hand nutritional data. Estimations began with creating a multidimensional hedonic attribute space based on the qualitative information of different types of plant milk and conventional milk available to consumers and then calculating the hedonic distances by Euclidean distance measurement to reparametrize Barten’s synthetic demand system. Estimation results showed that the highest own-price elasticity pertained to soy milk which was −0.25. Three plant milk types had inelastic demand. Soy milk exerted substituting effects on all types of conventional milk products and vice versa. Soy milk, rice milk and almond milk entertained complementary relationships between each other and four types of conventional milk were strong substitutes within the group.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/2/265plant-based milk alternative beverageshedonic metric approachBarten’s synthetic modelconsumer demand estimationNielsen Homescan data
spellingShingle Tingyi Yang
Senarath Dharmasena
U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
Foods
plant-based milk alternative beverages
hedonic metric approach
Barten’s synthetic model
consumer demand estimation
Nielsen Homescan data
title U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
title_full U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
title_fullStr U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
title_full_unstemmed U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
title_short U.S. Consumer Demand for Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages: Hedonic Metric Augmented Barten’s Synthetic Model
title_sort u s consumer demand for plant based milk alternative beverages hedonic metric augmented barten s synthetic model
topic plant-based milk alternative beverages
hedonic metric approach
Barten’s synthetic model
consumer demand estimation
Nielsen Homescan data
url https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/2/265
work_keys_str_mv AT tingyiyang usconsumerdemandforplantbasedmilkalternativebeverageshedonicmetricaugmentedbartenssyntheticmodel
AT senarathdharmasena usconsumerdemandforplantbasedmilkalternativebeverageshedonicmetricaugmentedbartenssyntheticmodel