Time-Saving Food Preparation Pattern and its Relationship to Income and Age Cohort in Korea

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between consumers’ perception of time scarcity and its determinants, focusing on their food preparation behavior. Using cluster analysis, consumers are classified according to their time allocation for food preparation. Two clusters of consumer groups—those with relatively time-spending and time-saving lifestyles—are identified depending on the survey questions associated with food preparation time. A binomial logit model in which the derived clusters are included as a dependent variable in the form of binary variables is estimated to analyze the effects of the determinants of the time-saving lifestyle. The effects that impact the probability of consumers being classified into the time-saving lifestyle are estimated to be significantly different from one generation to another and across the income cohorts. The demographic factors influencing consumers to be in the time-saving lifestyle are found to be marriage, education level, number of family members, wife’s labor force participation, and residence in an urban area.

This study investigates the relationship between consumers’ perception of time scarcity and its determinants, focusing on their food preparation behavior. Using cluster analysis, consumers are classified according to their time allocation for food preparation. Two clusters of consumer groups—those with relatively time-spending and time-saving lifestyles—are identified depending on the survey questions associated with food preparation time. A binomial logit model in which the derived clusters are included as a dependent variable in the form of binary variables is estimated to analyze the effects of the determinants of the time-saving lifestyle. The effects that impact the probability of consumers being classified into the time-saving lifestyle are estimated to be significantly different from one generation to another and across the income cohorts. The demographic factors influencing consumers to be in the time-saving lifestyle are found to be marriage, education level, number of family members, wife’s labor force participation, and residence in an urban area.