Generation Z as Innovation Drivers in the Luxury Hospitality Sector. The Case of Cultured Meat

Research into the market for engineered, in vitro engineered, and cultured meat is limited, partly because it is new and partly due to perceptions that it is both unnatural and untested. This article reports on a study that explores its potential as a unique luxury food experience. Eighteen semistructured interviews were undertaken to explore Generation Z views on and acceptance of cultured meat and its role in the luxury hospitality sector. By drawing on the innovation diffusion model with reference to new cultured meat items such as “The World’s Best Burger,” the study suggests that, after reassurance about the technological processes involved in creating cultured meat and clear information about what value it adds as a luxury item, participants were open to trying cultured meat when positioned as a luxury good and expressed willingness to repeatedly purchase it despite the cost. Luxury restaurants emerge as powerful conduits for accelerating cultured meat adoption among Generation Z consumers by functioning as reassuring and safe “innovation theaters” that systematically foster each stage of Rogers’ adoption process and add new dimensions to the model when applied to this emerging gastronomic context.