Situational factors in alcoholic beverage consumption

Abstract

Purpose Situational factors influence food and drink consumption, being how, when and where, not fully researched. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to address the influence of “where” in alcoholic beverage consumption. That is, the authors examine the influence of the place of consumption, comparing consumer behaviour at home and at hostelry outlets. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, beer was selected as the alcoholic beverage category. Then, a conceptual model of consumer behaviour was proposed and empirically tested through multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) on a sample of 525 beer consumers (home consumers=209 and hostelry consumers=316. Findings The findings show that the place of consumption influences alcoholic beverage consumer behaviour. While home consumers demand value for money, hostelry consumers seek for product perceived quality. Practical implications This research suggests the applicability of situational factors to the beverages market, providing a starting point for situational segmentation. Originality/value The authors’ major contribution is the empirical examination into how alcoholic beverage consumption behaviour is situational dependent.