Unveiling Millennials’ Perceptions of Organic Products: A Grounded Theory Analysis in Ecuador and Peru

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have addressed  all my previous comments.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer!

Thanks 

Best regards

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

1. the next needs to be revised before publishing,

2. authors should justify the small sample in the text as limitation of the study

3. generations scheme

´  Baby Boomers ( 1946.-1964.):

´  Generation X ( 1965.-1980.):

´  Milenials (1981.-1996.):

´  Generation Z ( 1997.-2012.):

before publishing again I reccomend to follow demographic research or theoretical studies where generations are explained as above

4. the british food journal proposed a study on bikers and is not appropriate for the authors study of organic food (see some nutrition or agricultural food studies),

also it is closed to readers, references are closed, opening only by payment in order to open BFJ files. That is contrary to the open acces promoted by MDPI.

5.

Again the proposed text was not revised coording to thereviewers quest;

what means according to literature 1. Health 2. Habits 3. Environmental awareness 4. Environmental Knowledge 5. Attitude 6. Environmental values.

explain your hypothesis through the variables that have been surveyed.

best regards,

the reviewer.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you very much for the observations made on our research.

Below we provide our responses:

2. authors should justify the small sample in the text as limitation of the study

We have incorporated the requested changes (please review the text highlighted in yellow on page 13).

3-4. About generations scheme

In recent years, the sub-cohorts of millennials have been classified as presented in our research. Recent studies published in FOODS (MDPI) in 2024 have used this classification method for millennials and have applied the same starting and ending cohort ranges.

We suggest reviewing these MDPI publications and allowing us to maintain the age cohort established in our study.  

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13020213

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13020228

5. What means according to literature 1. Health 2. Habits 3. Environmental awareness 4. Environmental Knowledge 5. Attitude 6. Environmental values.

Thank you for your observation.

We have incorporated the definitions (please review the text highlighted in yellow on pages 7, 8, and 9).

About: explain your hypothesis through the variables that have been surveyed.

Dear editor, our study was qualitative and does not use hypotheses. For this reason, the study proposes research questions which were answered through the findings discovered in the study (RQ1, RQ2,RQ3 and RQ4). 

For the development of our study, we based it on a study published in Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, a journal of MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197106

Many thanks

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Analyzing the adjustments or improvements made by the authors, I understand that the suggested recommendations were made satisfactorily.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer!

Thanks 

Best regards

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article "Unveiling Millennials' Perceptions of Organic Products: A Grounded Theory Analysis in Ecuador and Peru" explores the factors influencing consumer decisions in purchasing preferences for organic products. A sufficient literature review has been carried out.

My main major concern is that your study is directed to the millennials’ perception, however, there is no any explanation why exactly this group of consumers is under study. In Introduction you write only “To bridge the existing knowledge gap, this study aims to elucidate how millennials perceive organic products and the determinants that affect their actual consumption behaviors”. However, there is no any description why the opinion of millennials is so important. This sentence could be logical, if in the literature review it turned out that previous researchers haven’t considered opinion of millennials. However, there is no any description of what consumer categories were taken into account by previous researchers. I suggest adding deep and detailed explanation of this issue, since it looks like this is the only scientific novelty in this manuscript.

Also, there are several minor questions to the authors:

1.       Is it possible to indicate what is the difference in price between an organically grown vegetable and a conventional one, where pesticides may have been used? Please, use one product as an example and present this difference in price in percentages.

2.       Could you please indicate the labeling mark of organic food products from different countries?

3.       In paragraph 3.4.3. Skepticism The sentence “Comparison of the barriers hindering the purchase of organic products by Ecuadorian and Peruvian Millennials” is in bold and not written in red. This is mistake?

4.       In Appendix A, the question mark in the Research Questions is reversed and needs to be removed.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors, 

general opinion:

the paper about mllenials and eco food  is interesting to the journal and readers.

It would be a contribution to scholarship and the existing surveys on food and consumers.

the paper has solid quality and clarity

the weakness of the paper is the small number of participants in the survey.

The  major changes to be done:

in introduction explain in general 

what means according to literature 1. Health 2. Habits 3. Environmental awareness 4. Environmental Knowledge 5. Attitude 6. Environmental values. 

then explain your hypothesis through these variables that you have surveyed

in the table 1 you respond to milenials,

while generation from 1979 to 1988 is generation Y,

also from 1988 -1994  is generation Z

then from 2000 it is Milenials. 

See in literature and explain each category and appropriate names .

in conclusions provide main highlights of the research and state limitations of the survey due to the small number of participants in the survey and on line tools for the survey. 

kind regards, 

the reviewer

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The subject and research context are interesting and relevant. However, there is a lack of better delimitation of the problem and research context. Why the "Millennial Generation" and not another generation, or a comparison between generations. More robust arguments are needed. The research method lacks a better description of the selection criteria for research participants and greater details about the process of collection, analysis and interpretation of data / research results. Considering the complexity of analyzing consumer behavior, from a specific generation (Millenials: Older, Mid and Younger Millenials) and from two countries (Ecuador and Peru), the number of participants, even in a qualitative-exploratory approach, is small. This weakens both the theoretical implications and the managerial implications of the research.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Dear Editor! See the box "Comments and Suggestions for Authors".

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf