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This research investigates the effect of imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the likelihood of purchasing SSBs. We design and test an experimental framework that examines this and the effects of providing an explanation about the presence of an SSB tax and information about the negative health effects of consuming SSBs. Consistent with Elbel, Taksler, Mijanovich, Abrams, and Dixon (2013) and Taylor, Kaplan, Villas-Boas, and Jung (2019), we find that imposing a tax, in addition to increasing the conspicuousness of the tax by explaining the presence of a tax (and in some cases, the negative health effects) reduces the likelihood of purchasing an SSB anywhere from 8.39% to 18.15%. We contribute to the public health and tax policy literature by testing consumer choice in a controlled experimental setting and considering the effect of individual differences on the choice to purchase SSBs. Imposing a tax on SSBs may be an effective tool for decreasing SSB consumption that is made more effective when the tax is conspicuous.

This chapter examines the interrelationships between internationalization and product diversification among the world's l35 largest food and beverage enterprises. Based on the argument that food and beverage enterprises enjoy economies of scope when moderately diversifying into new countries and product areas, but encounter resource constraints when extremely diversified and internationalized, we expect to find an inverted U-shaped relationship between the two strategies. Nevertheless, we find that the relationships between the two strategies show both an inverted U-shaped (when geographic diversification is the dependent variable and product diversification the independent one) and a U-shaped pattern (when product diversification is the dependent variable and geographic diversification the independent one). These results imply that the relationships between internationalization and product diversification among food and beverage enterprises are more complex than currently conceived.

This paper explores environmental accountability and downward accountability role of nongovernmental organisations (henceforth NGOs) under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the food and beverage industry of Nigeria. The paper relies on empirical data gathered from qualitative interviews of three stakeholders – accountants, Corporate Social Responsibility Officers (CSROs), CEOs and NGO CSROs. It employed theoretical conceptualisation of environmental accountability and NGO's downward accountability. Analysis shows that despite the existence of attributes of environmental accountability such as sense of responsibility on the part of corporations and citizens' rights to demand for and enforce accountability, passivity of citizens' right caused by vulnerability prevails. The finding also shows that downward accountability roles of NGOs in the industry have been framed as that of enhancing activities in the value chain. Part of this is RecyclePay project that funds education for the poor. Thus NGOs' downward (environmental) accountability in Nigeria has potential to promote environmental well-being, beneficiary's economic empowerment and education for the poor, thereby simultaneously addressing vulnerability. It shows that vulnerability may induce a different conceptualisation of environmental accountability than that of a normal democratic setting where the citizens are deemed to have right to demand and enforce (environmental) accountability. This paper contributes to our understanding of (environmental) accountability and downward accountability role of NGOs within an emerging market context.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) shape the economic landscape of many countries, acting as the foundation of entrepreneurship, on the one hand, and functioning as a highly sensitive organism requiring special treatment, on the other. The resurgence of the interest in SMEs dates back to about 50 years ago, triggered by an observation of a substantial growth in the number of employees of SMEs operating in highly developed countries and of the resulting increasing role of such enterprises in generating national income. Earlier, it was commonly believed that the significance of SMEs was marginal in the economic reality, especially compared to large enterprises, often considered almost the only driving force behind the economic growth and development of a given country.

Although nowadays SMEs play an important part in both economic and social spheres, they tend to be defined in various ways. The applied criteria are of a quantitative and qualitative nature. Hence, the first part of this chapter offers a description of SMEs presented in these two perspectives. This is followed by a set of statistical data illustrating the significance of SMEs in the global and European economy. This background provides a means to define the food & beverage sector in the context of manufacturing, trade and services and to describe its present condition on the European market. A special emphasis is placed on the situation in six countries that took part in the studies: Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland and Russia.

This chapter explores the development of advertising regulations governing food advertising to children in Australia since the 1940s. By introducing the advertising and marketing self-regulatory system, the Australian Government is taking a neoliberal approach, advocating for the free market to initiate and sustain the country’s economic development, instead of greater government regulation. By examining the primary and secondary literature, such as government reports and research, and newspaper and academic articles, this chapter outlines different regulatory initiatives adopted by both the government and food industry to limit food and beverage advertising to children on television and online, in order to prevent obesity rates increasing in children. This chapter synthesizes and critically evaluates food industry and public health studies, government and non-government reviews, and other research studies to evaluate the influence of self-regulation on Australian television food advertising within the neoliberal context since the 1990s. It contributes to the literature on food advertising regulations for children in Australia by offering evidence of how the government, public health authorities and the food industry have attempted to keep pace with changes in the advertising, marketing and media industries by developing and reviewing advertising codes. It identifies the loopholes that exist in these self-regulatory codes and concludes that Australia’s current advertising regulatory arrangements are failing to protect our children from unhealthy food marketing on television, especially on relatively under-regulated online platforms such as social media and branded websites. The issues identified in this chapter could aid the food and beverage industry, as well as the self-regulatory system, to offer comprehensive and applicable solutions to combat Australia’s obesity crises by implementing new legislations that align with different marketing practices.

Time-series models of the demand for alcoholic beverages have been criticized for use of annual data; omitted variables; mis-measurement of advertising; simultaneous equations bias; and inadequate attention to nonstationarity and dynamics. This paper reappraises the relationship between alcohol advertising, price, and consumption in a manner which speaks to these issues. Using quarterly data from 1970:1 to 1990:4 on three beverages (beer, wine, and distilled spirits), we find evidence of cointegration between beverage consumption, prices, advertising, and real income. Elasticities obtained from the estimated cointegrating vectors indicate that long-run beverage demands are both price and income inelastic. Moreover, after correcting for each of the problems described above, advertising has virtually no influence on the steady-state level of alcoholic beverage consumption.

A two-stage Rotterdam model is estimated to determine the effects of advertising on the demand for non-alcoholic beverages in the United States. Results suggest that advertising has no effect on the demand for non-alcoholic beverages taken as a group. However, the hypothesis that advertising has no effect on the distribution of demand within the non-alcoholic beverage group is firmly rejected. Coffee and tea are most affected by other beverage advertising, and milk the least. Similarly, juice advertising exerts the largest influence within the beverage group, and milk advertising the least. Overall, however, the major determinants of the consumption pattern are relative prices and structural change.