La indagación de motivaciones en el consumo de alimentos: aspectos conceptuales y metodológicos del Means-end Chain
Palabras clave:
means-end chain, motivaciones, atributos de calidad, alimentosResumen
La evaluación de la calidad alimentaria que realizan los consumidores es una de las áreas más problemáticas en el estudio de su comportamiento. Dicha complejidad se explica, en gran medida, por el hecho de que las decisiones de consumo están influenciadas por una multiplicidad de factores culturales, sociales y económicos.
Para efectuar análisis apropiados, las investigaciones requieren de la aplicación de métodos que identifiquen los conceptos empleados en la valoración de los alimentos y, además, es necesario tener en cuenta la medida en que tales conceptos difieren entre consumidores. Estos abordajes metodológicos intentan superar las limitaciones de algunos modelos económicos, que emplean los precios relativos o el ingreso disponible como variables explicativas del comportamiento del consumidor y que asumen que otras influencias de tipo cultural, social y económico, como las percepciones sobre la calidad de los alimentos, son variables latentes o no observables.
La aplicación de estos métodos “alternativos” permite identificar las vinculaciones existentes entre los atributos concretos de los alimentos, las consecuencias que los consumidores creen que están asociadas a estos atributos y los criterios de valoración de orden superior presentes en sus procesos cognitivos. Un tipo de enfoque que utiliza como idea central este esquema de análisis es el conocido como Means-end Chain Analysis.
El objetivo del artículo es efectuar una presentación del enfoque y de las metodologías de indagación de datos y análisis de información asociadas al mismo, a fin de evaluar su utilidad para el diseño de aplicaciones empíricas que exploran las motivaciones subyacentes en el consumo de alimentos.
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Derechos de autor 2007 Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales
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