Questionnaire design

The questionnaire consisted of multiple-choice closed-ended questions. In the beginning of the questionnaire, a short description of the purpose of the questionnaire, statement of anonymity, and estimated completion time were provided. A short definition of meat substitutes was also provided to ensure that the respondents were familiar with the products in question.

The first set of questions focused on collecting data on the demographic elements of the respondents. The demographics included gender, age, and level of education.

After demographic questions, the current usage level of meat and meat substitutes was measured by collecting data on how often the respondents eat meat and how often they are using meat substitutes.

The background questions were followed by the questions that were designed to measure the respondents value orientation. Value orientations were measured by using a validated instrument: the environmental portrait values questionnaire (E-PVQ) (Bouman, Steg & Kiers, 2018). The E-PVQ was chosen because it has been widely validated by previous research. The E-PVQ is an adapted version of the commonly used environmental Schwartz value survey (SVS). The questions in E-PVQ measure same things as E-SVS, but they are worded in a more respondent-friendly way. According to Bouman et al. (2018) both the E-SVS and Q-PVQ are sufficient tools for measuring value orientation. However, according to their study, some respondents found the E-SVS questions more difficult to answer because the values are presented more abstractly. (Bouman et al., 2018) The E-SVS questions

are presented in table 1 below.

Table 1. E-PVQ measures. (Bouman et. Al., 2018).

E-PVQ measures Biospheric

Bio 1 It is important to prevent environmental pollution Bio 2 It is important to protect the environment

Bio 3 It is important to respect nature

Bio 4 It is important to be in unity with nature Altruistic

Alt 1 It is important that every person has equal opportunities Alt 2 It is important to take care of those who are worse off Alt 3 It is important that every person is treated justly Alt 4 It is important that there is no war or conflict Alt 5 It is important to be helpful to others

Egoistic

Ego 1 It is important to have control over other actions Ego 2 It is important to have authority over others Ego 3 It is important to be influential

Ego 4 It is important to have money and possessions Ego 5 It is important to work hard and be ambitious

In the E-PVQ questions, the respondents were asked to evaluate each statement on a scale of 1 to 6 (1= not like me at all 6= very much like me). The E-SVS uses an unsymmetrical nine-point Likert scale (from -1 to 7), which can make it difficult for respondents to differentiate answers between items in their scoring. Asking about values in a direct and abstract way places the original E-SVS questionnaire vulnerable to self-enhancement bias. The E-PVQ has been validated by previous research as an instrument to predict attitudes and behaviors. (Bouman et al., 2018;

Fotopulos et al., 2011) Because of these factors, the E-PVQ questions were chosen for measuring value orientations.

The respondent attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control regarding meat substitutes were measured by a set of statement evaluation. To measure attitude, statements about the perceived qualities of meat substitutes were presented and the respondents were asked to rank each statement on a scale of one to six (1= completely disagree 6=completely agree). The six-point scale was selected to complement the measure for the E-PVQ questions. Subjective norms were measured with statements about the perceived social pressure and attitudes of family and significant others. Perceived behavioral control was measured with statements about experienced convenience, decision-making power, and available resources. All of the statements were formed based on the literary review and theory of planned behavior. Each variable was measured with a set of three or more questions, which were later combined to sum variables for data analysis.

Finally, the behavioral intention was measured by asking the respondents to estimate if they are willing to consume meat substitutes in the future. This question was presented as binary value (yes or no). An open question was added to the end of the questionnaire to enable respondents to elaborate on their answers or to provide additional insights to the topic. All questions apart from the open questions were set as mandatory in order to avoid missing data.

The questionnaire was distributed online via social media. Facebook was chosen as the main channel for distribution because it was expected to provide a wide range of respondents from different age categories. As the targeted respondents were

Finnish consumers, all questions were translated into the Finnish language. The questionnaire is presented in full as Appendix 1 at the end of this thesis. The questionnaire was open for one week. The questionnaire was shared on the author s personal profile and reached 11 additional shares. In total 287 answers were collected during one week. As the sample for the questionnaire was collected mainly from the social circle of the author, the sampling was not completely random. The data collection method did not enable random sampling which can lower the reliability of the results. The demographic profile and descriptive statistics of the responses distribution are provided in more detail in the following chapters.