Consumer Product Perceptions and Salmon Consumption Frequency: The Role of Heterogeneity Based on Food Lifestyle Segments

Seafood consumers are vastly heterogeneous in terms of their knowledge, confidence, and perceptions about seafood. This article examines the relationship between consumer perceptions (healthiness, value for money, and convenience) and salmon consumption frequencies while modeling unobserved consumer heterogeneity by segmenting consumers based on their food-related lifestyle. We employ latent class analysis (LCA) that embeds the structural equation modeling (SEM) to ensure the latent nature of both the consumer segment and the food lifestyle measures are properly accounted for. The analysis is applied to five European countries (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and Sweden). We contribute to the literature by providing new insights into how food lifestyle may influence the salmon consumption behavior by highlighting the differences among food lifestyle segments in different countries.