Title: Exploring consumers' attitudes towards paper products that could be derived from transgenic plantations in Greece

Authors: Lambros Tsourgiannis; Vassiliki Kazana; Anastasios Karasavvoglou; Christos Antonios Tsourgiannis; Giannoula Florou; Persefoni Polychronidou

Addresses: Region of East Macedonia and Thrace, Regional District of Xanthi, Department of Accountancy, School of Business and Economy, Kavala Institute of Technology, 45 Iraklias Street, Xanthi 67100, Greece ' Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management at Drama, Kavala Institute of Technology, 1st km Drama – Mikrohori, Drama 66100, Greece ' Accountancy Department, School of Business and Economy, Kavala Institute of Technology, Ag. Loukas, Kavala 65404, Greece ' Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Centre for Seed Certification in Xanthi, Department of Rural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, 45 Iraklias Street, Xanthi 67100, Greece ' Accountancy Department, School of Business and Economy, Kavala Institute of Technology, Ag. Loukas, Kavala 65404, Greece ' Accountancy Department, School of Business and Economy, Kavala Institute of Technology, Ag. Loukas, Kavala 65404, Greece

Abstract: This paper aims at exploring consumers' purchasing behaviour towards paper products that could be derived from transgenic plantations. Field interviews were conducted to a randomly selected sample of 205 consumers, who declared that they would buy such paper products. Principal Components Analysis indicated that the main factors affecting consumers' purchasing behaviour towards those products are potential environmental impacts of biotechnology use in forest trees, marketing issues relevant to paper products and product characteristics. Moreover, potential environmental and economic impacts mainly influence consumers' attitudes towards biotechnology use in forest trees. Through cluster techniques three groups of consumers with similar consumption behaviour were identified: a) opportunists; b) consumers with environmental concerns about biotechnology use; c) consumers interested in marketing issues. Discriminant analysis was performed to predict cluster membership and a non-parametric test to profile each consumer group according to personal characteristics and attitude towards biotechnology use in forest trees.

Keywords: consumer behaviour; paper products; genetically modified trees; GM trees; Greece; consumer attitudes; transgenic forest plantations; purchasing behaviour; principal component analysis; PCA; environmental impact; biotechnology; clustering; forest trees.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDATS.2015.068748

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 2015 Vol.7 No.2, pp.156 - 171

Published online: 12 Apr 2015 *

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