RIPPLE

Ce document rapporte les résultats d'un projet de recherche sur les images régionales et la promotion des produits et services de qualité dans les régions en difficulté de l'union européenne. Il comprend deux partie. La première partie présente les résultats d'une analyse comparative des facteurs explicatifs des comportements des concsommateurs de plusieurs pays de l'UE (application du concept de probabilité des causes). La deuxième partie présente les résultats d'un système d'aide à la décision construit dans le cadre du projet RIPPLE (RIPPLE DSS-- conçu et prorammé par JP.Bousset), pour évaluer exante les conséquences de certaines stratégies/politiques sur le développement des produits régionaux.

This paper reports some results of RIPPLE research project. RIPPLE project is about the use of regional images for the promotion of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the European Union.

This paper reports two research results:

1. ConsumersAttitudes reports the results of a comparative analysis of the main explanatory factors of consumer behaviour relating to regional quality products in five EU countries. Bayesian Network Technology was used to process data collected in the consumer task of the RIPPLE programme. Consumer's country of origin was shown to be the main factor of difference between the study countries. But the distinction between consumers from the North and those from the South of Europe does not appear so evident, and rather than a marked typology, the analysis suggests a set of indistinct groups partly overlapping. In addition, consumers’ knowledge, perception and attitude are as important in explaining behaviour patterns as the socio-demographic factors. Moreover, these four groups of factors strongly interact to influence consumer behaviour.

2. StrategiesForTheFuture reports the results of RIPPLE DSS in an attempt to bring the future down to a manageable scale by pointing out and assessing current strategies and by computing the possible implications of the dissemination of the best of these. Dissemination is through means of "scenarios". Scenarios are not predictions. Rather, by offering a basis for discussing the consequences of certain possible future strategies/ policies, they would be communication devices to bound the uncertainty of the future. In other words, by making more transparent both positive and negative ripple effects of the dissemination of certain strategies, the scenarios generate some focus of attention that could have implications in the construction of future institutional policies and structures. They can be viewed as ex ante cost-benefit analyses, which would support the decisions of public institutions.