Consumer adoption of bioeconomy products

The future progress of bioeconomy processes ultimately depends on consumers’ willingness to adopt and pay a price premium for novel bio-based products. In order to better understand whether and how consumers are willing to adopt such products, it is pivotal to understand under which circumstances they switch from fossil-based options to more sustainable bio-based product alternatives. In this chapter, we provide an overview of existing research about consumer preferences for bio-based products. We first introduce a comprehensive theoretical background about the innovation-decision process applied to bio-based products. We then summarize the factors that influence this process, which include the characteristics of the decision-maker,the product and the decision-making context. Building on these insights, we lastly discuss promising strategies to increase the demand for bio-based products.