Disconfirmation of taste as a measure of region of origin equity : An experimental study on five French wine regions

Purpose – Disconfirmation of expectations is the mismatch between the expected and blind evaluation of a product. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation between expected and perceived value (quality), focusing on wines from the French regions with varying levels of notoriety and image content. Design/methodology/approach – From the consumer's point of view, the hedonic evaluation of a product under full information (intrinsic and extrinsic) is considered as a measure of perceived quality. Generally, the perception of the quality of a product differs according to tasting conditions (blind, or full information). Based on previous literature on food marketing it is assumed that the change of preference between blind and full conditions reflects the influence of extrinsic information (here, the region of origin). Two types of results can be expected from disconfirmation: “assimilation” occurs when the final evaluation of the product changes in the direction of the expectation provided by the extrinsic cue, whereas “contrast” occurs when this change is contrary to the expectation. Five wines selected among regions with different reputation levels, and two groups of consumers, characterized by their level of expertise (trained/untrained students) are used in the experiment. Findings – The experiments suggest that disconfirmation may be used to measure and interpret region of origin equity on a behavioural basis rather than just attitudinal. Originality/value – Provides information resulting from research on disconfirmation of expectations.