Measuring Consumers’ Perceived Risk on Varietal Level: A Mixed Methods Approach Applied to Wine

Abstract Perceived risk (PR) is a product-specific factor in consumer decision-making. With different varietals, the complex wine category causes significant consumer uncertainty. However, research on consumers’ varietal-specific PR is scant. The study followed a novel exploratory sequential mixed methods approach to investigate consumers’ PR of South African Chenin blanc wine. Qualitative interviews enhanced the content validity of two PR scales used in a sequential quantitative online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM) tested construct validity (n  = 1669), and ANOVA identified Chenin blanc perceived risks. Outcomes suggest that strategies should aim to reduce consumers’ perceived functional, time and financial risks of Chenin blanc wine. This study’s findings illustrate the importance of a qualitative phase in PR research, previously a quantitative-dominant domain. Existing PR scales cannot be blindly adopted to investigate varietal-specific risk. The methodology paves the way for future varietal-specific PR studies and contributes to food and agricultural marketing literature.