Perceived quality of and satisfaction from sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) in China: Confirming relationships through structural equations

Abstract

A. Chiang, B. Schnettler, M. Mora, and M. Aguilera. 2018. Perceived quality and

satisfaction with sweet cherries (Prunus Avium L.) in China: Confirming relationships

through structural equations. Cien. Inv. Agr. 45(3): 210-219. In recent years, Chile has been

the Chinese market’s main supplier of fresh sweet cherries. The aim of this study was to develop

a relational model with two working hypotheses to model Chinese consumer satisfaction with

sweet cherries as a result of the quality perceived by intrinsic and extrinsic attributes. One hundred

and ninety-three buyers in the Sanyuanli Market in the Chaoyang District, Beijing, were surveyed

using closed-ended questions on a Likert scale. To develop a model that fulfilled the indicated

objective, an exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent system of structural equations were

used to confirm the relationships, presenting an adequate goodness-of-fit test to accept the model

according to the literature. Among the main results, it was determined that consumer satisfaction

with sweet cherries is explained by the perceived intrinsic quality, where medium size and color

are the determining attributes, and the product price, Chilean origin and delivery time explain

the perceived extrinsic quality (critical ratio of 2.937 and p-value of 0.003). Finally, the intrinsic

quality positively and significantly influences Chinese consumer satisfaction with sweet cherries,

in contrast to the results for perceived extrinsic quality, which are not statistically significant.