Abstract As global pressures on food systems intensify, cellular agriculture has emerged as a sustainable alternative to conventional food production. Drawing on consumption value theory and food neophobia, this study investigates adoption readiness for cellular agriculture across five Asian countries: Singapore, Vietnam, China, Japan, and South Korea. A survey of 3005 participants and cluster analysis identified three consumer segments: Open-Minded Seekers, Hesitant Observers, and Resistant Evaluators. Open-Minded Seekers exhibited the strongest adoption readiness and the highest ecological, experiential, functional, symbolic, and epistemic values of novel food technologies, coupled with low food neophobia; they were primarily urban, more educated, and concentrated in Vietnam and China. Hesitant Observers showed moderate values, moderate adoption readiness, and higher food neophobia, were largely urban and educated, with greater representation in Singapore and South Korea. Resistant Evaluators exhibited low values, high neophobia, lower adoption readiness, and were more likely to be less educated, and predominantly from Japan. Multinomial logistic regression further revealed that demographic factors significantly influenced the likelihood of belonging to which segment. These findings advance theoretical understanding by linking multidimensional consumer values and neophobia to cellular agriculture adoption and segmentation across diverse Asian contexts. They also provide practical guidance for policymakers, industry, and marketers to design targeted strategies that foster engagement with cellular agriculture across different consumer segments.
Lin et al. (Mon,) studied this question.