Consumer Innovativeness in Food Industry: From Literature Review Some Indications for Business Practices

Abstract

In order to foreshadow the forthcoming
and significant advances in the food area, this article
traces the evolution of consumers' behaviors across
time via an examination of the relevant literature,
although in broad strokes. The ultimate goal is to
shed light on the most important tendencies that drive
today's customer decisions in the food industry.
Methodology. The basis of exploratory research is a
comprehensive literature review on the topic of
consumer receptivity to innovation.
Findings. Not only will shifts in consumer behavior,
but also the requirement of incorporating such shifts
into the innovation process, acknowledged by
corporations, impact the current trend toward
creating new goods in the food area.
Constrained studies. The inability to conduct such an
empirical survey to quantify consumer
innovativeness, notably in the food area, is due to the
objective difficulty of identifying a consensual
definition of innovation.
Implications in the real world. Studies have been
conducted to better understand the new approach of
consumers to the food offer, which is helpful for the
companies in the definition of product innovation
politics, in light of the profound changes intervened
in the life system of consumers on the one hand, and
the succeeding each other of events that have
profoundly conditioned the agro-food sector on the
other.
The novel nature of the research. Given the dearth of
literature on the topic of consumer innovation, and
especially in the agro-food sector, the current study
is novel in its effort to theoretically systematize the
idea of consumer propensity toward innovation in the
food sector