Co-generation of value in use by actors in food system across borders:a case study of miso export to France
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study examines how actors of the food system across borders co-generate value in use of an exported ethnic food, under the influence of different social contexts.Focusing on the export of miso from Japan to France, the research conceptualizes food export not as a unilateral delivery of pre-defined value, but as a socially embedded process in which meanings and value are jointly generated through use.While the Japanese government promotes miso exports by positioning miso as a core element of Japanese cuisine and emphasizing its cultural and health-related attributes, such approaches presuppose consumer interest in Japan and overlook how value in use may be interpreted differently in foreign markets.Previous studies on Japanese food exports have largely focused on value delivery and branding strategies, leaving underexplored how value in use is reinterpreted and regenerated under different social conditions.Drawing on service-dominant logic and theories of value in use, this study analyzes the structure and functioning of the export food system to France, a market where miso exports have grown rapidly in recent years.Empirical data were collected through a sixweek online community-based consumer study with French participants and qualitative case studies of three Japanese miso manufacturers and their French distribution partners.Consumer responses were analyzed using text mining and statistical methods to identify meaning of miso found useful through the actual use.To analyze how social context shapes the roles of actors and conditions of value cogeneration, Institutional Theory was adopted as an analytical framework.By examining the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pillars surrounding miso distribution in France, the study clarifies how legal frameworks, retail structures, commercial practices, and food culture influence distributors' activities and mediate the reconciliation of meanings between manufacturers and consumers.The findings reveal a clear divergence between the value propositions promoted by producers and policymakers, and the meanings generated by French consumers.Participants primarily valued miso as an easy-to-use seasoning that enhances everyday dishes, rather than as a symbol of Japanese culinary tradition or a health food.Information emphasizing cultural authenticity or health benefits had little impact on consumers' evaluations or recommendation intentions.At the system level, the study shows that while local distributors play a critical role in navigating institutional constraints and enabling value co-generation, insufficient sharing of market information with manufacturers hinders the ongoing reconciliation of meanings necessary for sustained export growth. ２(Ishitsuka, 2013).However, recent studies claim that the lack of practical guidance and precise follow-up by the government have resulted in slow movement by producers of traditional food products, who have very limited or no experience of exportation as most of them are small-to mid-sized manufacturers (Guo & Kikuchi, 2019).Findings derived from close analysis of best practices in the traditional food industry include suggestions that could inform such guidance.For instance, explicitly communicating the value and usage of the product, which is commonly but only implicitly shared by the consumers in Japan, helps attract interest of potential consumers in the foreign market (Dong and Takayanagi, 2017) and in doing so, it is important that such value and usage as well as the brand identity recognized among the members of the distribution channel are consistent (Inoue, 2018).Leveraging the Japanese retailers who are regarded by foreign consumers as the major provider of Japanese products helps to avoid miscommunication of value, usage and the brand, and at the same time eases the potential consumers' access to the product (Guo et al., 2017).These studies address the point of how to expand the export of Japanese food products in affiliation with the Japan brand in line with the MAFF's strategy.However, none of them question whether such branding is effective in generating higher demand for each of the prioritized products, in each of the different export markets.Communicating the value that is implicitly or explicitly shared as useful among the Japanese consumers may stimulate the acceptance of the product only by those consumers who are interested in Japan or in ethnic products in general.What remains largely unexamined is whether such value propositions are meaningful, useful, or even intelligible to the rest of the export market, which, by definition, can be described as those who are not necessarily interested in Japanese food.
Author: 山本, 陽子
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Tokyo University of Agriculture
OpenAlex ID: W7204743467