Great expectations: Exploring Aging Consumers’ Expectations of Institutional Food

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore consumer expectations of institutional food and their antecedents. The thesis consists of three papers that aimed to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the content of various expectation types in the institutional food context, and how do expectation types intersect? 2) Can individual characteristics explain expectations of institutional food, and is it possible to identify groups of aging consumers with distinct expectation levels? and 3) How do individuals’ internal factors contribute to drive various expectation types of institutional food? The research questions were investigated using a mixed-methods approach. Paper 1 used qualitative in-depth interviews to establish a foundation and aid in the development of measurement scales for expectations. Papers 2 and 3 employed quantitative surveys to validate the measurement tools and investigate the influence of internal factors on expectations. The results identified multiple expectation types of institutional food and linked them to specific consumption goals and functions (Paper 1). Aging consumers have different normative expectations of institutional food based on individual differences (Paper 2). Individual psychological determinants largely influenced normative expectations, while sociocultural determinants influenced predictive expectations of institutional food (Paper 3). In sum, this thesis contributes with new perspectives on how future institutions can meet institutional food expectations and has practical implications for designing consumer-centric policies. Future research should experimentally investigate the effect of meeting different types of aging consumers’ institutional food expectations and continue to explore food expectations in other types of institutions to test the external validity of the findings.