Food Retailing, Consumers and Sustainable Development – DIACODD

Various methods will be used to attain these objectives:
* a literature review of retailers’ sustainable development practices as well as an analysis of retailers’ discourses; interviews with retailers
* a qualitative study of consumers and their perception of sustainable development
* a quantitative study with consumers in order to develop an evaluation tool with the Institut Repère

The results are first to construct a well-thought out database of practices linked to sustainable development in the different distribution channels, then to establish an evaluation tool using verbal and non-verbal measurements of the influence of action concepts on consumers’ commitment. Indeed, the constant discrepancy between the benefits and good image of sustainable development measured with the public and the difficulty of creating lasting demand likely to favour practices linked to sustainable development prompts us to focus on social desirability bias in surveys on this topic. The data on fair trade, for example, reveals a significant – and continuing – disparity between the positive image of fair trade and the growth of purchases of fair trade products by households.

The ongoing intention is to contribute to knowledge on the subject of sustainable development not only for researchers but also for all stakeholders, public authorities and local councils, NGOs (consumer associations), the media and, of course, the actors of the retailer/consumer dyad. There is also an incentive aspect, since the dissemination of data on sustainable development performance and its impact on citizen-consumers accessible through the implementation of our tool may be used as a possible barometer of the introduction of a more sustainable food system.

Consequently our long-term objective is to introduce this evaluation tool and apply for a patent on it. The tool will allow us to compare the performance of retailers both in France and throughout Europe in order to help them increase their competitiveness while incorporating the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social).

The objective of this program is to observe and analyze the dyad retailers / consumers and to conceptualize and measure its influence in the development of an application for sustainable food. We are interested in the food chain and focus at the retailers that are between the producer and the consumer: Indeed, they can directly influence the consumer in the offer they develop, both for classic retailing (integration of sustainable development in their own private label brands, SEO and prioritizing product oriented sustainable development) that for specific retailers like Biocoop or activists. Their influence may extend to the tools and communication messages on sustainable development (eg, the penguin mascot of sustainable development at Monoprix) and the products they manufacture themselves (label brands). Moreover, the building of commercial centers that take into account the reduction of CO2, that incorporate green materials (solar panels ...) are all signals taking into account their environmental impact by retailers. This research will pay particular attention to general retailers (Carrefour, Casino, Leclerc, Auchan, Super U) which represent over 80% of food purchases in France as well as initiatives specialized distributors (Biocoop, Naturalia ...) and those came distributors solidarity economy (Artisans du Monde ...) or combinations activists (AMAP, associations for the maintenance of farming).
Accordingly, we seek to understand the impact of sustainable development practices of the different distribution channels on consumer behavior and turn our attention to the dynamic process of co-construction of a sustainable consumer demand. Therefore we will study the dyad distributors / consumers to understand how they interact. Indeed, consumers through their purchases may also play a role as active citizens and put pressure on distributors in sustainable development. We then propose a tool for assessing sustainable development practices distributors on consumer engagement.
This project will last 48 months: the first part will focus on retailing (24 months) and the second part onconsumers (24 months). In the first phase of this project, our goal is to uncover and classify integration of sustainable development into the practices of distributors. This first step will combine the literature review, field observation and interviews with the actors of the retailing (managers and employees) on the implementation of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental). It will lead to comparisons of the results obtained by these three methods of investigation and a typology of strategies and practices. The second stage of this project will try to understand how these strategies and practices can influence consumers specially in the development of behaviors oriented toward sustainable consumption in order to achieve the establishment of a tool.