Seminar Hannah Altenburg: How origin and process cues influence consumer processing and preferences for bio-based innovations

Hannah Altenburg is a PhD candidate at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg and former visiting researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.

Her research explores how consumers perceive bio-based innovations—products made from natural origins, e.g., algae, banana or mushrooms but developed through technical processes, e.g., lab-made. Drawing on grounded cognition theory, her experimental studies reveal how cues about a product’s plant-based origin vs. engineered process influence consumer responses—especially depending on how closely the product interacts with the body.

Abstract of her paper

This paper examines how origin and process cues influence consumer processing and preferences for bio-based innovations. These innovations are characterized by a duality of perspectives laying in their origin in biological materials (e.g., algae, banana) and the technical processes (e.g., lab made, 3D printed) through which they are developed. The grounded cognition theory of desire suggests that such cues shape consumer processing. Three experimental studies examined how consumers process bio-based innovations communicated as plant-based (origin cue) or engineered (process cue). Results reveal that origin cues positively influence consumer perception due to consumer processing that links bio-based innovations communicated with an origin cue to nature. However, this preference is attenuated for products that are body-distant, i.e., not worn or used close to the body. These findings have several implications for practitioners seeking to develop and market bio-based innovations.