📈 economics

Sustainability perceptions and consumer brand preferences: Evidence from the milk and dairy products market in Azerbaijan

This study of 545 consumers in Azerbaijan's dairy market reveals that sustainability perceptions—particularly regarding health and food safety, followed by ethical and animal welfare practices—positively influence consumer brand preferences, suggesting that credible communication on these dimensions is crucial for dairy producers in emerging markets.

Original authors: Seymur M. Guliyev, Rasim Abutalibov

Published 2026-11-04

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CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Seymur M. Guliyev, Rasim Abutalibov

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

Every time a shopper picks up a carton of milk, they are making a choice that goes far beyond price and taste. They are weighing invisible qualities: how the cows were treated, whether the factory polluted the air, if the food is safe to drink, and if the company behind the label acts with honesty. These invisible qualities are what researchers call sustainability perceptions. For decades, scientists have known that people care about the world around them, but they have struggled to understand exactly which of these concerns actually drives a person to choose one brand over another. Does a worry about climate change matter more than a worry about animal welfare? Does the promise of a safe, healthy product outweigh a company's good deeds in the community? In the complex world of food shopping, these questions are not just academic; they determine what ends up in our refrigerators and how businesses decide to operate.

A team of researchers in Azerbaijan decided to map out these invisible weights by looking directly at the people doing the buying. They focused on the milk and dairy market, a sector where the link between the consumer and the farm is particularly strong. The researchers gathered 545 people from the capital city, Baku, who regularly buy dairy products. They asked these shoppers to rate their feelings about four specific areas of responsibility: how much a brand cares for the environment, how well it treats animals, how safe and healthy the food is, and how transparent and socially responsible the company is. The goal was to see if these feelings about a company's character actually connected to the shoppers' preference for specific brands.

The study found a clear and consistent pattern: when consumers feel that a brand is responsible in any of these four ways, they are more likely to prefer that brand. It is not just one type of responsibility that matters; all four dimensions showed a positive link to brand preference. However, the strength of these links varied significantly. The most powerful driver for shoppers was the assurance of health and food safety. When people felt confident that a dairy product was safe and healthy, their preference for that brand increased the most. This suggests that for daily essentials like milk, the immediate concern for personal well-being and safety is the primary lens through which consumers view a company's sustainability efforts.

The second strongest influence came from ethical and animal welfare practices. Shoppers who believed a brand treated its animals well and acted ethically showed a strong preference for those products. This indicates that moral concerns about how food is produced hold substantial weight in the minds of these consumers, even if they are slightly less dominant than the direct concern for safety. The other two factors, environmental responsibility and social transparency, also mattered. Consumers who felt a brand was good for the planet or open and honest about its operations tended to like that brand more. Yet, the influence of these factors was smaller than that of safety and animal welfare, suggesting that while people care about the broader world, their daily purchasing decisions are anchored first by what they perceive as safe and ethical.

The researchers were careful to note that their work shows a connection, not a cause-and-effect rule. Because they asked people what they thought at a single moment in time, they cannot prove that a new safety label will instantly change buying habits, only that people who already value safety also tend to prefer brands they see as safe. The study relied on a specific group of people in one city, so the results describe that particular community rather than every consumer everywhere. Furthermore, the data came from what people said they would do, not a record of what they actually bought in a store. Despite these limits, the findings offer a clear picture of the current mindset in this market: trust in a brand's ability to provide safe, healthy, and ethically produced food is the most significant factor shaping consumer loyalty. For dairy producers, this suggests that while talking about the environment is valuable, the most effective way to win a customer's heart is to first prove that their product is safe and their animals are treated with care.

Technical Summary: Sustainability Perceptions and Consumer Brand Preferences in Azerbaijan's Dairy Market

Problem Statement
This study investigates the relationship between consumer sustainability perceptions and brand preferences within the milk and dairy products market in Azerbaijan. While sustainability is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional construct influencing consumer decision-making, its specific impact on brand preference in emerging markets remains under-explored. The research addresses a gap in understanding how distinct dimensions of sustainability—specifically environmental responsibility, ethical and animal welfare practices, health and food safety assurance, and social responsibility and transparency—collectively and individually influence consumer evaluations of dairy brands. The study aims to determine whether favorable sustainability perceptions translate into a preference for specific brands in a context where local food branding research has previously focused on demographic variations rather than sustainability drivers.

Methodology
The research employs a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design.

Data Collection: Data were gathered via an online questionnaire administered in Baku, Azerbaijan, between January 3 and January 28, 2026. The study utilized convenience sampling to recruit 545 valid respondents who possess direct experience purchasing dairy products.
Measurement Instruments: The survey measured sustainability perceptions as a multidimensional construct comprising four latent variables:
1. Environmental responsibility (adapted from green consumption scales).
2. Ethical and animal welfare practices (adapted from ethical consumption measures).
3. Health and food safety assurance (adapted from food quality and safety scales).
4. Social responsibility and transparency (adapted from corporate social responsibility scales).
- Scale: All items were measured on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).
- Dependent Variable: Consumer brand preference was measured using eight items adapted from brand equity and repurchase intention scales.
Analytical Techniques: The analysis utilized IBM SPSS Statistics (v29) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The analytical sequence included:
1. Reliability Assessment: Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated to assess internal consistency.
2. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): Principal axis factoring with varimax rotation was used to confirm the dimensionality of the sustainability constructs.
3. Regression Analysis: Both bivariate (simple) and multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine the relationships between sustainability dimensions and brand preference.
4. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM): A structural model was estimated to test the proposed paths, reporting fit indices (CFI, TLI, RMSEA, SRMR) and path coefficients.

Key Results
The study reports positive associations across all tested dimensions, with varying magnitudes of influence:

Reliability and Validity: All constructs demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha values exceeding 0.70 (ranging from 0.83 to 0.91). The KMO measure was 0.92, and Bartlett's test was significant ( $p < 0.001$ ), supporting the factorability of the data. The four sustainability factors explained 69.1% of the total variance.
Bivariate Regression: All four sustainability dimensions showed statistically significant positive relationships with consumer brand preference ( $p < 0.001$ $p < 0.001$ ).
- Health and food safety assurance exhibited the strongest bivariate relationship ( $\beta = 0.56$ , $R^2 = 0.31$ ).
- Ethical and animal welfare practices followed ( $\beta = 0.49$ , $R^2 = 0.24$ ).
- Environmental responsibility ( $\beta = 0.42$ , $R^2 = 0.18$ ) and Social responsibility and transparency ( $\beta = 0.39$ , $R^2 = 0.15$ ) showed smaller but significant positive coefficients.
Multiple Regression and SEM: In the multiple predictor model, all dimensions remained significant positive predictors ( $R^2 = 0.55$ $R^{2} = 0.55$ ). The SEM results mirrored this ordering:
- Health and food safety assurance ( $\beta = 0.33$ )
- Ethical and animal welfare practices ( $\beta = 0.22$ )
- Environmental responsibility ( $\beta = 0.16$ )
- Social responsibility and transparency ( $\beta = 0.13$ )
- The structural model demonstrated acceptable fit ( $\chi^2/df = 2.41$ , CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.051).
Hypothesis Outcomes: All five hypotheses (H1–H5) were reported as supported, indicating that overall sustainability perceptions and each specific dimension are positively associated with consumer brand preference.

Key Contributions
The paper contributes to the literature by:

Contextual Evidence: Providing empirical evidence from Azerbaijan, an emerging market, regarding how sustainability perceptions influence dairy brand preference, complementing existing research from European and other contexts.
Multidimensional Operationalization: Treating sustainability not as a monolithic concept but as four distinct dimensions, revealing that "Health and food safety assurance" and "Ethical and animal welfare practices" are more strongly associated with brand preference in this specific market than environmental or social transparency dimensions.
Methodological Integration: Utilizing a combination of regression analysis and structural equation modeling on the same dataset to examine the proposed framework.

Significance and Claims
The authors claim that the findings suggest consumers' evaluations of responsible production are directly connected to their preferences for dairy brands. Specifically, the study highlights that in the surveyed Azerbaijani context, credible communication regarding health, safety, and ethical production practices may be particularly relevant for dairy producers and brand managers.

The paper maintains a modest stance regarding its claims:

Causality: The authors explicitly state that the cross-sectional design prevents causal interpretation.
Generalizability: Due to the use of convenience sampling in Baku, the results are not claimed to be representative of the entire Azerbaijani population or other markets.
Behavior vs. Intention: The study measures brand preference and intentions rather than verified purchasing behavior or willingness to pay.
Verification: The authors acknowledge limitations in the availability of original statistical outputs for independent verification and note that the reported coefficients are descriptive associations rather than established causal effects.

The study concludes that while sustainability perceptions are positively linked to brand preference, the relative importance of specific dimensions (particularly health/safety over environmental concerns) may vary by market context, warranting further research into the boundary between sustainability, health, and perceived food quality.

Technical Summary: Sustainability Perceptions and Consumer Brand Preferences in Azerbaijan's Dairy Market

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