La presente tesis doctoral, de acuerdo con el informe correspondiente autorizado por el órgano re... more La presente tesis doctoral, de acuerdo con el informe correspondiente autorizado por el órgano responsable del programa de doctorado, se presenta como un compendio de publicaciones. No obstante, además de incluir los artículos publicados, también se enumeran otros trabajos realizados en el marco de esta línea de investigación, y que están en proceso de elaboración, para su posterior evaluación y, en su caso, publicación. Las referencias completas de los artículos constituyen el cuerpo de la tesis doctoral. Los trabajos incluidos en este documento son los siguientes:
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific re... more HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Changes in consumer's lifestyle and food consumption patterns provides a great opportunity in dev... more Changes in consumer's lifestyle and food consumption patterns provides a great opportunity in developing functional food sector. Nowadays food is not only used to satisfy hunger and provide necessary nutrients for human but it is also used to prevent disease and improve the physical and mental well-being of consumers. Such a functional food is considered also the Wheatgrass. Comprehensive data from number of studies has revealed the multitude effects of wheatgrass in thalassemia, hemolytic anemia, cancer, asthma, allergy, inflammatory bowel disease and detoxification. However, there is a very limited number of studies on chemical screening of the wheatgrass. The aim of this research is to do a chemical screening of wheatgrass, apple juice and sour cherry/apple juice profiles, by conducting chemical, physical and physic-chemical analysis such as pH, Total Titrable Acidity (TTA), Total Soluble Solids (TSS) oBrix, Chlorophyll A mg/l, Chlorophyll B mg/l, Total Chlorophyll mg/l, Vit C g/l, Total polyphenolic index, antioxidant activity and minerals including P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Na, Zn for three juices subject of this research and then be able to compare nutritional values among them. Based on the findings of this research we can suggest that wheatgrass may be considered as a potential raw material for fruit processing industry as a nutritional value added superfood, as an excellent source of health promoting phytonutrients such as Chlorophyll, Vitamin C, Polyphenols, Minerals and high Antioxidant activity.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less... more The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less studied area. The typically related attributes of consumer judgement in the case of low involvement can vary widely, ranging from price sensitivity to habits. However, assessing the role of brand reputation and trust from a sensory perception perspective is not a common approach. This paper examines the impact of trust on consumer value judgements for a frequently consumed beverage such as mineral water. Combining trust and sensory attributes with the Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) framework provides insights into the weight of taste, trust and reputation in product evaluation. A tasting experiment was carried out using a representative systematic random sampling method. A mixed method was applied; EDT was used to analyze quantitative data and grounded theory methodology was performed in the case of qualitative data. Results indicate complete assimilation for the most preferre...
Effects of expectations conveyed by geographical origin in the evaluation of Gjirokastra's ch... more Effects of expectations conveyed by geographical origin in the evaluation of Gjirokastra's cheese are studied in tasting experiment setting. The experimental design elicited Willingness to Pay (WTP) of consumers in three different information conditions. Partial assimilation demonstrates that the role of origin in product evaluation is important.
The main objective of this paper is to analyse consumer preferences regarding organic-attribute s... more The main objective of this paper is to analyse consumer preferences regarding organic-attribute sensitiveness in food products. Five-ordered Likert scale is used to assess the importance given to organic attribute to different food categories of daily consumer basket. The aim of this study is also to understand the correlation of socio-demographic characteristics of consumers and importance given to organic feature to each of food product category. This study will give feedback to policy makers and researchers in future Willingness to Pay (WTP) studies.
The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer p... more The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer perspective using disconfirmation of expectations approach. Origin equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of origin awareness and origin associations. Repeated measure Anova is used to analyse origin equity. Binary logit was used to get insight to the associations made to origin and demographics the effect in choosing one or other association. Disconfirmation of expectations theory comforts the use origin bounded equity as an extension of. customer brand equity Binary logit shows that expectations are not related to the associations made to origin while demographics show a significant effect. Older people associate origin with better taste, high income and young people relates origin with traditional aspects, low educated people with safety issues and females with high nutritional values. The Consumer based origin equity approach give insights in the process of product m...
this paper investigates the consumers' preferences (the case of Albanian consumer) for origin... more this paper investigates the consumers' preferences (the case of Albanian consumer) for origin attribute of a familiar product (Feta type cheese) by using payment card Contingent Valuation method. The segmentation procedures such as Principal Component Analyses and k-Mean clustering identified five consumer segments namely: 1) best option buyer; 2) food safety buyer; 3) price driven buyer; 4) experienced buyer; 5) low-involved buyer. The familiarity with the product characteristics, the consumption experience, and the relationship buyer-seller are the main moderators of the origin importance in the process of preference creation. Income, age, family size and marital status are the main socioeconomic variables influencing WTP.
The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer p... more The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer perspective using disconfirmation of expectations approach. Origin equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of origin awareness and origin associations. Repeated measure Anova is used to analyse origin equity. Binary logit was used to get insight to the associations made to origin and demographics the effect in choosing one or other association. Disconfirmation of expectations theory comforts the use origin bounded equity as an extension of. customer brand equity Binary logit shows that expectations are not related to the associations made to origin while demographics show a significant effect. Older people associate origin with better taste, high income and young people relates origin with traditional aspects, low educated people with safety issues and females with high nutritional values. The Consumer based origin equity approach give insights in the process of product m...
This paper aims to map the ecosystem services (ES) provided by a reputed agropastoral ecosystem i... more This paper aims to map the ecosystem services (ES) provided by a reputed agropastoral ecosystem in the south of Albania and ascertain whether social capital affects the level of importance attributed to them. A perception analysis of both buyers and sellers of ES within the pastoral ecosystem is undertaken. The pastoral ecosystem is mainly evaluated for cultural services such as tradition, enhancing the area’s image, and environment ES. The strong inclination towards cultural ES and socioeconomic services indicates a lack of awareness of both buyers and sellers of ES in the local community regarding the environmental aspects of their ecosystem. However, participants showing a higher radius of trust with high linking social capital are more likely to confer very high importance to environmental services. Similarly, the cultural ES (traditional aspect) of the pastoral ecosystem is affected by cognitive and structural social capital. These are interesting findings for public policymaki...
Edmond Rexhepi, Harallamb Paçe, Hekuran Vrapi, Arbenita Hasani, Elena Kokthi Faculty of Agricultu... more Edmond Rexhepi, Harallamb Paçe, Hekuran Vrapi, Arbenita Hasani, Elena Kokthi Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana. Koder Kazmez, Tirana 1001, Albania Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Prishtina 'Hasan Prishtina'. Bulevardi B.C, Prishtina 10000, Kosovo Faculty of Economics and Information Technology, European University of Tirana. Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 70, Tirana 2023, Albania.
New medit: Mediterranean journal of economics, agriculture and environment, 2015
Albania is moving forward in the process of alignment with EU legislation in agriculture, food an... more Albania is moving forward in the process of alignment with EU legislation in agriculture, food and rural development sectors. In the years to come, the harmonization with the EU legislation will be the main workload for the Albanian policy makers. The role of consumers and their perception of new food-related regulations should be the main focus for policy makers in order to adapt and respond with the new policy instruments to consumer concerns. This paper aims at analyzing which type of potential label information is of interest to Albanian consumers in food products. We investigate consumer preference for different attributes of food products such as COOL (Made in Albania), pesticide-free, chemical- free, Organic production and Organic Certified Product, using an ordered five-point Likert Scale method. Ordinal regression is applied to investigate socio-economic effects on responses. Results show that consumers link domestic products with more safe products. High-income earners and...
This experimental research measured the contribution of brand and product to the globally perceiv... more This experimental research measured the contribution of brand and product to the globally perceived quality of two well-known brands – namely, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The assimilation-contrast approach was used to analyze the effect of brand on consumer perceptions. The experimental design elicited consumer preferences through liking scores in three different information conditions. Consumers did not differentiate in a blind test between the two tested products. In the label test, Coca-Cola received a higher score than Pepsi, indicating a stronger preference for the Coca-Cola brand. However, in conditions of full information, Pepsi received a higher score. From a methodological perspective, this research suggests that the assimilation-contrast approach is appropriate for evaluating brands from a consumer perspective in different cultural contexts.
The role of tourism on the rural economy development and its diversification nowadays is well stu... more The role of tourism on the rural economy development and its diversification nowadays is well studied on the economy literature. All those studies mention that tourism is an important tool that can be used to improve the economic results of farms on the rural areas. The following study is a long term one that tends to show the changes of the farm strategies on the coastal area of Albania. The study is undertaken on two villages of the central western part of Albania, and there are analyzed the strategies of farm for a period of ten years 2001-2011. Taking into consideration that the main tourism type on the area is a coastal one, we see that the agriculture, at the beginning is the main economic activity of the farms, after that it serves as a complimentary for the tourism offer of the area and at the end, it disappears form the farms that now is changed in a completely or quasi completely in a service unit for the tourist of the area.
New medit: Mediterranean journal of economics, agriculture and environment, 2016
This study empirically evaluates the factors that determine willingness to pay a premium for a pr... more This study empirically evaluates the factors that determine willingness to pay a premium for a product’s geographical origin and the effect of socio-demographics in indicating one or another factor. The premium to origin is linked with the traditional aspect, low health risk and high nutritional values. Logistic regression shows that elder, highly educated people buying in dairy shops are less likely to pay a higher premium. Consumers who are more likely to pay more include: those on high incomes who place importance on origin and taste attributes during the buying decision process and, in so doing, link the extra cost with the fact that it comes from a traditional cheese-producing region.
Organic agriculture remains a black box attribute when considering consumer behaviour and prefere... more Organic agriculture remains a black box attribute when considering consumer behaviour and preferences in developing countries. This is due partially to a lack of awareness about such products in addition to a lack of trust in relation to the certification bodies responsible. Meanwhile, increasing demand for these products comes as a result of food intolerance and hygiene safety issues. Through this framework it is crucial to clarify the concept from the consumer perspective. The objective of this paper is to understand consumer perceptions regarding organic attributes and identify the characteristics considered by consumers when buying organic products. The relative importance index shows the sensitivity of Albanian consumers in relation to the organic attribute, mainly in fruit and vegetables. Through the Contingent Valuation Method it is estimated that the consumer will pay an average premium of 27.7% for organic vegetables and 28.3% for organic fruit. The segmentation approach in...
La presente tesis doctoral, de acuerdo con el informe correspondiente autorizado por el órgano re... more La presente tesis doctoral, de acuerdo con el informe correspondiente autorizado por el órgano responsable del programa de doctorado, se presenta como un compendio de publicaciones. No obstante, además de incluir los artículos publicados, también se enumeran otros trabajos realizados en el marco de esta línea de investigación, y que están en proceso de elaboración, para su posterior evaluación y, en su caso, publicación. Las referencias completas de los artículos constituyen el cuerpo de la tesis doctoral. Los trabajos incluidos en este documento son los siguientes:
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific re... more HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Changes in consumer's lifestyle and food consumption patterns provides a great opportunity in dev... more Changes in consumer's lifestyle and food consumption patterns provides a great opportunity in developing functional food sector. Nowadays food is not only used to satisfy hunger and provide necessary nutrients for human but it is also used to prevent disease and improve the physical and mental well-being of consumers. Such a functional food is considered also the Wheatgrass. Comprehensive data from number of studies has revealed the multitude effects of wheatgrass in thalassemia, hemolytic anemia, cancer, asthma, allergy, inflammatory bowel disease and detoxification. However, there is a very limited number of studies on chemical screening of the wheatgrass. The aim of this research is to do a chemical screening of wheatgrass, apple juice and sour cherry/apple juice profiles, by conducting chemical, physical and physic-chemical analysis such as pH, Total Titrable Acidity (TTA), Total Soluble Solids (TSS) oBrix, Chlorophyll A mg/l, Chlorophyll B mg/l, Total Chlorophyll mg/l, Vit C g/l, Total polyphenolic index, antioxidant activity and minerals including P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Na, Zn for three juices subject of this research and then be able to compare nutritional values among them. Based on the findings of this research we can suggest that wheatgrass may be considered as a potential raw material for fruit processing industry as a nutritional value added superfood, as an excellent source of health promoting phytonutrients such as Chlorophyll, Vitamin C, Polyphenols, Minerals and high Antioxidant activity.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less... more The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less studied area. The typically related attributes of consumer judgement in the case of low involvement can vary widely, ranging from price sensitivity to habits. However, assessing the role of brand reputation and trust from a sensory perception perspective is not a common approach. This paper examines the impact of trust on consumer value judgements for a frequently consumed beverage such as mineral water. Combining trust and sensory attributes with the Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) framework provides insights into the weight of taste, trust and reputation in product evaluation. A tasting experiment was carried out using a representative systematic random sampling method. A mixed method was applied; EDT was used to analyze quantitative data and grounded theory methodology was performed in the case of qualitative data. Results indicate complete assimilation for the most preferre...
Effects of expectations conveyed by geographical origin in the evaluation of Gjirokastra's ch... more Effects of expectations conveyed by geographical origin in the evaluation of Gjirokastra's cheese are studied in tasting experiment setting. The experimental design elicited Willingness to Pay (WTP) of consumers in three different information conditions. Partial assimilation demonstrates that the role of origin in product evaluation is important.
The main objective of this paper is to analyse consumer preferences regarding organic-attribute s... more The main objective of this paper is to analyse consumer preferences regarding organic-attribute sensitiveness in food products. Five-ordered Likert scale is used to assess the importance given to organic attribute to different food categories of daily consumer basket. The aim of this study is also to understand the correlation of socio-demographic characteristics of consumers and importance given to organic feature to each of food product category. This study will give feedback to policy makers and researchers in future Willingness to Pay (WTP) studies.
The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer p... more The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer perspective using disconfirmation of expectations approach. Origin equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of origin awareness and origin associations. Repeated measure Anova is used to analyse origin equity. Binary logit was used to get insight to the associations made to origin and demographics the effect in choosing one or other association. Disconfirmation of expectations theory comforts the use origin bounded equity as an extension of. customer brand equity Binary logit shows that expectations are not related to the associations made to origin while demographics show a significant effect. Older people associate origin with better taste, high income and young people relates origin with traditional aspects, low educated people with safety issues and females with high nutritional values. The Consumer based origin equity approach give insights in the process of product m...
this paper investigates the consumers' preferences (the case of Albanian consumer) for origin... more this paper investigates the consumers' preferences (the case of Albanian consumer) for origin attribute of a familiar product (Feta type cheese) by using payment card Contingent Valuation method. The segmentation procedures such as Principal Component Analyses and k-Mean clustering identified five consumer segments namely: 1) best option buyer; 2) food safety buyer; 3) price driven buyer; 4) experienced buyer; 5) low-involved buyer. The familiarity with the product characteristics, the consumption experience, and the relationship buyer-seller are the main moderators of the origin importance in the process of preference creation. Income, age, family size and marital status are the main socioeconomic variables influencing WTP.
The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer p... more The objective of the present research is to examine origin bounded brand equity from a consumer perspective using disconfirmation of expectations approach. Origin equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of origin awareness and origin associations. Repeated measure Anova is used to analyse origin equity. Binary logit was used to get insight to the associations made to origin and demographics the effect in choosing one or other association. Disconfirmation of expectations theory comforts the use origin bounded equity as an extension of. customer brand equity Binary logit shows that expectations are not related to the associations made to origin while demographics show a significant effect. Older people associate origin with better taste, high income and young people relates origin with traditional aspects, low educated people with safety issues and females with high nutritional values. The Consumer based origin equity approach give insights in the process of product m...
This paper aims to map the ecosystem services (ES) provided by a reputed agropastoral ecosystem i... more This paper aims to map the ecosystem services (ES) provided by a reputed agropastoral ecosystem in the south of Albania and ascertain whether social capital affects the level of importance attributed to them. A perception analysis of both buyers and sellers of ES within the pastoral ecosystem is undertaken. The pastoral ecosystem is mainly evaluated for cultural services such as tradition, enhancing the area’s image, and environment ES. The strong inclination towards cultural ES and socioeconomic services indicates a lack of awareness of both buyers and sellers of ES in the local community regarding the environmental aspects of their ecosystem. However, participants showing a higher radius of trust with high linking social capital are more likely to confer very high importance to environmental services. Similarly, the cultural ES (traditional aspect) of the pastoral ecosystem is affected by cognitive and structural social capital. These are interesting findings for public policymaki...
Edmond Rexhepi, Harallamb Paçe, Hekuran Vrapi, Arbenita Hasani, Elena Kokthi Faculty of Agricultu... more Edmond Rexhepi, Harallamb Paçe, Hekuran Vrapi, Arbenita Hasani, Elena Kokthi Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana. Koder Kazmez, Tirana 1001, Albania Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Prishtina 'Hasan Prishtina'. Bulevardi B.C, Prishtina 10000, Kosovo Faculty of Economics and Information Technology, European University of Tirana. Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 70, Tirana 2023, Albania.
New medit: Mediterranean journal of economics, agriculture and environment, 2015
Albania is moving forward in the process of alignment with EU legislation in agriculture, food an... more Albania is moving forward in the process of alignment with EU legislation in agriculture, food and rural development sectors. In the years to come, the harmonization with the EU legislation will be the main workload for the Albanian policy makers. The role of consumers and their perception of new food-related regulations should be the main focus for policy makers in order to adapt and respond with the new policy instruments to consumer concerns. This paper aims at analyzing which type of potential label information is of interest to Albanian consumers in food products. We investigate consumer preference for different attributes of food products such as COOL (Made in Albania), pesticide-free, chemical- free, Organic production and Organic Certified Product, using an ordered five-point Likert Scale method. Ordinal regression is applied to investigate socio-economic effects on responses. Results show that consumers link domestic products with more safe products. High-income earners and...
This experimental research measured the contribution of brand and product to the globally perceiv... more This experimental research measured the contribution of brand and product to the globally perceived quality of two well-known brands – namely, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The assimilation-contrast approach was used to analyze the effect of brand on consumer perceptions. The experimental design elicited consumer preferences through liking scores in three different information conditions. Consumers did not differentiate in a blind test between the two tested products. In the label test, Coca-Cola received a higher score than Pepsi, indicating a stronger preference for the Coca-Cola brand. However, in conditions of full information, Pepsi received a higher score. From a methodological perspective, this research suggests that the assimilation-contrast approach is appropriate for evaluating brands from a consumer perspective in different cultural contexts.
The role of tourism on the rural economy development and its diversification nowadays is well stu... more The role of tourism on the rural economy development and its diversification nowadays is well studied on the economy literature. All those studies mention that tourism is an important tool that can be used to improve the economic results of farms on the rural areas. The following study is a long term one that tends to show the changes of the farm strategies on the coastal area of Albania. The study is undertaken on two villages of the central western part of Albania, and there are analyzed the strategies of farm for a period of ten years 2001-2011. Taking into consideration that the main tourism type on the area is a coastal one, we see that the agriculture, at the beginning is the main economic activity of the farms, after that it serves as a complimentary for the tourism offer of the area and at the end, it disappears form the farms that now is changed in a completely or quasi completely in a service unit for the tourist of the area.
New medit: Mediterranean journal of economics, agriculture and environment, 2016
This study empirically evaluates the factors that determine willingness to pay a premium for a pr... more This study empirically evaluates the factors that determine willingness to pay a premium for a product’s geographical origin and the effect of socio-demographics in indicating one or another factor. The premium to origin is linked with the traditional aspect, low health risk and high nutritional values. Logistic regression shows that elder, highly educated people buying in dairy shops are less likely to pay a higher premium. Consumers who are more likely to pay more include: those on high incomes who place importance on origin and taste attributes during the buying decision process and, in so doing, link the extra cost with the fact that it comes from a traditional cheese-producing region.
Organic agriculture remains a black box attribute when considering consumer behaviour and prefere... more Organic agriculture remains a black box attribute when considering consumer behaviour and preferences in developing countries. This is due partially to a lack of awareness about such products in addition to a lack of trust in relation to the certification bodies responsible. Meanwhile, increasing demand for these products comes as a result of food intolerance and hygiene safety issues. Through this framework it is crucial to clarify the concept from the consumer perspective. The objective of this paper is to understand consumer perceptions regarding organic attributes and identify the characteristics considered by consumers when buying organic products. The relative importance index shows the sensitivity of Albanian consumers in relation to the organic attribute, mainly in fruit and vegetables. Through the Contingent Valuation Method it is estimated that the consumer will pay an average premium of 27.7% for organic vegetables and 28.3% for organic fruit. The segmentation approach in...
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