Social or environmental consciousness? Exploring the consumption of cooperative wines among European citizens

Although the role of wine cooperatives in supporting sustainability has been deeply analysed on the supply side, the study of consumers’ perception and behaviour when choosing these wines is still scarce. This paper analyses the attitudes, preferences and the willingness to pay (WTP) of European consumers, both when they purchase cooperative-produced wines and in their attitude to consuming these wines. Their preferences between cooperative-produced and organic wines were compared with the aim of understanding whether they prioritise the social aspects of the cooperatives or the environmentally friendly aspects of organic production. A survey among 3,295 individuals in different European countries was carried out. The data were firstly analysed by means of univariate tests to assess consumers’ heterogeneity and by a bivariate probit model to explore the drivers of attitude and behaviour; then a multinomial logit and a random parameters logit framework were adopted. We found an association between familiarity with cooperative and organic wines and thus the propensity to buy these products and a higher WTP for organic than cooperative wines. Our findings suggest that producing organic wines might be a strategy for wine cooperatives to better target the market.