Is it me or others who matter? The interplay between consumer values vis-à-vis status and affiliation motives as shapers of meat alternative interest.

This study is about the role of consumers' personal values (Self-enhancement, Openness to change, Self-transcendence, and Conservation) in consumers' interest towards meat alternatives. In addition, the underlying role of two social motives, status and group affiliation are analysed. A conceptual model with hypotheses was developed and validated, and the hypotheses were tested through PLS-SEM with data from four European countries (Finland, the UK, Germany, and Sweden, total N = 3600). The results show that self-focused personal values (Self-enhancement and Openness to change) are not associated with consumers' interest towards meat alternatives. The case is different with other-focused values. Self-transcendence had a positive connection to interest while Conservation had a negative relationship. Finally, the data suggest an underlying role of social motive status between Self-enhancement and interest and the same for group affiliation between Self-transcendence and Conservation and interest. Based on the results, strategies to support meat alternative adoption such as value activation through priming, cognition and emotion-driven marketing are proposed.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)