Scholarly record

RESEARCH ON THE DETERMINANTS OF FRUIT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY IN BULGARIA

Simeonka Petrova

Abstract

In the modern world, sustainable consumption is developing as one of the most influential areas in economic theory and practice. The concept of sustainability is gaining particular importance for economies and their future development. In sustainability research, the focus on food consumption, and specifically fruit consumption, is a relatively new approach. The main objective of the present study is to systematize and interpret the basic determinants of the behavior of consumers of food products, as well as of fruits, through the focus of the fundamental principle of sustainability and on this basis to deduce the manifesting dependencies. To clarify the determinants, it helps to consider various economic concepts - Engel's, Keynesian theory and other empirical works in the studied subject. Respondents of the study are households from Bulgaria. The analysis of fruit consumption in the context of sustainability is based on data on the budgets of Bulgarian households in the period 2009-2021, released by the National Statistical Institute. The specified twelve-year period ensures the tracking of the dynamics and trends in the studied economic phenomenon. The formulated hypothesis is tested using the method of linear regression and correlation using the statistical software - IBM SPSS Statistics. The results help reveal the relationships between household fruit expenditure and their income as economic determinants. On the basis of the obtained results, the importance of the change to sustainable patterns of consumption, specifically of fruits, for the economic well-being of households and for the future development of the economy is assessed.

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