Coffee in capsules consumers’ behaviour: a quantitative study on attributes, consequences and values

Coffee in capsules consumers’ behaviour depends not only on the products’ attributes, but also the consequences perceived by them and the alignment with their values. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of the Attributes of coffees in capsules on the consequences perceived by consumers concerning their consumption and the effects of these Consequences on consumers’ Values.

This study developed a scale for assessing the perception of consumers of coffee in capsules about Attributes, Consequences and Values (A-C-V) regarding its consumption. A link to this survey’s electronic questionnaire was posted on the social networks Facebook and Peabirus. This research sample is for convenience and accessibility and has 213 consumers of coffee in capsules. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was the statistical method used for data analysis.

Attributes have two sub-dimensions (Own attributes and Functional attributes), while Consequences have three sub-dimensions (Handling Benefits, Rational Benefits, Convenience Benefits) and Values have just one dimension. Also, SEM has shown a statistically significant positive relationship between A-C-V perceived by consumers of coffee in capsules. These results confirm the hypotheses developed based on the Means-End Chain Theory (MEC).

As academic contributions, this paper develops a structural model that quantitatively demonstrates the impacts of Attributes perceived by consumers of coffee in capsules on the Consequences of consumption and its effects on their Values. The present survey is the first in the literature that uses structural models contemplating A-C-V. As managerial contributions, this survey provides relevant information to the decision-making of several stakeholders of the chain of coffee in capsules.