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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 August 2024

Alexandra Waluszewski, Alessandro Cinti and Andrea Perna

Limiting the use of antibiotics in food animals is a cornerstone of contemporary EU policy. Despite that marketing of antibiotics for growth promotion and nutrition has been…

Abstract

Purpose

Limiting the use of antibiotics in food animals is a cornerstone of contemporary EU policy. Despite that marketing of antibiotics for growth promotion and nutrition has been banned since 2006, the use is still high and varied. This paper aims to investigate the forces behind the different usage patterns in Italy, with one of the EU’s most extensive use of antibiotics in animals, versus Sweden, with the union’s most restricted use, including how these usage patterns are related to EU and national policies.

Design/methodology/approach

The industrial network approach/the 4R resources interaction model is adopted to investigate the major forces behind the different antibiotic usage patterns. Furthermore, the study relies on the notion of three main characteristics related to the use of a resource activated in several user settings (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2008, pp. 20–22). The paper investigates the Swedish and the Italian using settings, with a minimised, respectively, extensive usage of antibiotics. The study is exploratory in nature and based on qualitative data collected through a combination of primary and secondary sources.

Findings

The paper underlines the importance of integrating forces for policy to succeed in attempts to reduce the use of a particular resource. It reveals that Sweden’s radically reduced use was based on great awareness, close interactions between animal-based food producers and policy – and that integrating forces were supported by an era of state-protected food production, with promising ability to distribute the cost of change. The Italian characteristics hindering the integration of forces mounting for reduced use were restricted awareness, top-down business and policy interactions – and a great awareness about the difficulties of distributing the cost of change.

Originality/value

The study deals with the analysis of forces affecting the different usage of antibiotics within two EU settings. The investigation, based on the industrial network approach’s notion of connectivity of economic resources, that is, of exchange having a content and substance beyond discrete transactions, reveals how indirect related contextual forces, neglected by policy, have an important influence on the ability to achieve change, in this case of antibiotics usage patterns.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 39 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 February 2024

Mehrgan Malekpour, Federica Caboni, Mohsen Nikzadask and Vincenzo Basile

This paper aims to identify the combination of innovation determinants driving the creation of innovative products amongst market leaders and market followers in food and beverage…

1904

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the combination of innovation determinants driving the creation of innovative products amongst market leaders and market followers in food and beverage (F&B) firms.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is based on the case study methodology by using two types of data sources: (1) semi-structured interviews with industry experts and (2) in-depth interviews with managers. In addition, a questionnaire adapted from prior research was used to consider market and firm types.

Findings

Suggesting an integrated theoretical framework based on firm-based factors and market-based factors, this study identified a combination of determinants significantly impacting innovative products in the market. Specifically, these determinants are competition intensity and innovation capability (a combination of research and development (R&D) investment and marketing capabilities). The study also examined how these determinants vary depending on whether the firms are market leaders or market followers.

Practical implications

This research provides practical insights for managers working in the F&B industry by using case studies and exploring the determinants of developing innovative products. In doing so, suitable strategies can be selected according to the market and firm situations.

Originality/value

The originality of the study is shown by focussing on how different combinations of market and firm factors could be applied in creating successful innovative products in the food sector.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 August 2024

Ricardo Santos, Amélia Brandão, Bruno Veloso and Paolo Popoli

This study aims to understand the perceived emotions of human–artificial intelligence (AI) interactions in the private sector. Moreover, this research discusses the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the perceived emotions of human–artificial intelligence (AI) interactions in the private sector. Moreover, this research discusses the transferability of these lessons to the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This research analysed the comments posted between June 2022 and June 2023 in the global open Reddit online community. A data mining approach was conducted, including a sentiment analysis technique and a qualitative approach.

Findings

The results show a prevalence of positive emotions. In addition, a pertinent percentage of negative emotions were found, such as hate, anger and frustration, due to human–AI interactions.

Practical implications

The insights from human–AI interactions in the private sector can be transferred to the governmental sector to leverage organisational performance, governmental decision-making, public service delivery and the creation of economic and social value.

Originality/value

Beyond the positive impacts of AI in government strategies, implementing AI can elicit negative emotions in users and potentially negatively impact the brand of private and government organisations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research bridging the gap by identifying the predominant negative emotions after a human–AI interaction.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 July 2024

Janez Dolšak

This study aims to analyse the effect of competition on retail fuel prices in a small European Union (EU) country with high market concentration.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyse the effect of competition on retail fuel prices in a small European Union (EU) country with high market concentration.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers use a panel data set to estimate a fuel price equation that includes supply and demand factors as well as time-fixed effects.

Findings

The study finds that more competitors in the local market decrease prices, whereas the high market share of oligopoly brands does not condition this effect. Additionally, independent brands set lower prices than wholesalers, and gas stations located near the borders of almost all neighbouring countries are associated with higher prices.

Research limitations/implications

The study suggests that Slovenia’s retail fuel market maintains competitive pricing despite high oligopolistic shares because of historical regulatory influences that shaped firm behaviour and pricing strategies, along with geographical and economic factors such as Slovenia’s role as a transit country. External competitive pressures from neighbouring countries and high levels of traffic, combined with the remnants of regulatory structures, help prevent market abuses and keep fuel prices lower than in other EU countries.

Practical implications

It also indicates that policy should encourage fiercer competition in the local market by increasing the density of gas stations, especially from independent brands.

Originality/value

These findings may be associated with specific country characteristics. This paper introduces unique findings that shed light on the impact of a small market on competition, with a particular focus on highlighting the effect of oligopolistic brands.

Details

Applied Economic Analysis, vol. 32 no. 95
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2632-7627

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 May 2024

Emma Beacom and Annmarie Bergin

This study identifies benefits and challenges of PL partnerships, and recommendations to improve the PL partnership process.

Abstract

Purpose

This study identifies benefits and challenges of PL partnerships, and recommendations to improve the PL partnership process.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data was collected via semi-structured interviews (n = 8) with Irish PL retail buyers (n = 4) and producers (n = 4). Data was coded and thematically analysed.

Findings

Three key themes were identified. Theme 1 provides an overview of the benefits of PL partnerships for producers (e.g. volume driven orders, increased efficiencies) and for retailers (e.g. unique products, meeting consumer demand). Theme 2 presents challenges of PL partnerships specific to small and large producers (e.g. small producers may need significant investment to upgrade facilities, while larger producers may require significant volume to justify adaptation of production lines). Challenges common to both (e.g. risks related to short-term contracts, concerns about brand identity) are also discussed. Theme 3 summarised recommendations for successful PL partnerships generally (e.g. setting clear expectations and goals, building rapport and trust), and recommendations specific to producers and buyers specifically (e.g. producers should diversify customers to reduce risk, and retailers should communicate needs and direction).

Originality/value

There is currently limited research on PL partnerships between producers and retailers. This study addresses this gap by identifying key aspects for producers to consider when entering PL partnerships and key aspects for retailers to be aware of to help improve the attractiveness and success of these partnerships.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 52 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Dorothy Ai-wan Yen, Benedetta Cappellini, Jane Denise Hendy and Ming-Yao Jen

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social…

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.

Findings

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.

Research limitations/implications

It is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.

Practical implications

Public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.

Social implications

The paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

Originality/value

This paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 41 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 10 September 2024

Mark Alan Rhodes II and Kathryn Laura Hannum

Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible…

Abstract

Purpose

Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible and intangible memory and heritage while planners and economists see industrial World Heritage, in particular, as a marketing ploy to redevelop deindustrialized spaces. Within this liminality, we explore the potential for geographical perspectives to solder such contradictions into transdisciplinary heritage assessments and tourism contexts. How might the spatial tools of landscape and scalar analyses expose alternative and sustainable futures within broader patterns of industrial heritage management and consumption?

Design/methodology/approach

Using three comparative cases, interview and landscape methods and conducting discourse analysis within a spatial and scalar framework, we explore the increasing presence of industrial World Heritage.

Findings

We present both an institutional reflection upon the complexities of heritage discourse across complex spatial configurations and the intersectional historical, cultural, political, environmental and economic geographies that guide and emerge out of World Heritage Designations. Framed scalarly and spatially, we highlight common interpretation, tourism and heritage management styles and concerns found across industrial World Heritage. We point out trans-scalar considerations for future municipalities and regions looking to utilize their industrial landscapes and narratives.

Originality/value

We believe that more theoretical groundings in space and scale may lead to both the flexibility and the applicability needed to assess and, in turn, manage trans-scalar and trans-spatial complex heritage sites. These perspectives may be uniquely poised to assess the complex geographies of industrial, particularly mining, World Heritage Sites.

Details

Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-5911

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 June 2023

Diego Monferrer Tirado, Lidia Vidal-Meliá, John Cardiff and Keith Quille

This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and…

2408

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and quality perception of the banking service. Consequently, this increases the quality of their relationship regarding satisfaction, trust and engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 734 vulnerable banking customers were analyzed through structural equations modeling (EQS 6.2) to test the relationships of the proposed variables.

Findings

Vulnerable customers' emotional disposition exerts a strong influence on their perceived service quality. The antecedent effect is concentrated primarily on the CSR towards the client, with a residual secondary weight on the CSR towards society. These positive service emotions are determinants of the outcome quality perceived by vulnerable customers, directly in terms of higher satisfaction and trust and indirectly through engagement.

Practical implications

This research contributes to understanding how financial service providers should adapt to the specific characteristics and needs of vulnerable clients by adopting a strategy of approach, personalization and humanization of the service that seems to move away from the actions implemented by the banking industry in recent years.

Originality/value

This study has adopted a theoretical and empirical perspective on the impact of CSR on service emotions and outcome quality of vulnerable banking customers. Moreover, banks can adopt a dual conception of CSR: a macro and external scope toward society and a micro and internal scope toward customers.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 42 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 August 2024

Svante Andersson, Ulf Aagerup, Lisa Svensson and Sanna Eriksson

This study aims to explore challenges and opportunities in the digitalization of the business-to-business (B2B) customer journey in different buying situations. It also…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore challenges and opportunities in the digitalization of the business-to-business (B2B) customer journey in different buying situations. It also investigates where in the customer journey digital marketing is most efficient.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adopts a single case study approach to examine a B2B company that implemented digitalization in its customer journey in different buying situations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, complemented by internal documents and information from the company’s website and social media, to identify reasons for and against the decision to digitalize the B2B customer journey.

Findings

Digitalization can offer firms a cost-effective and value-creating way to interact with customers in a B2B context. The B2B buying situation, however, plays a significant role in decisions on how to implement digitalization. Moreover, in the prepurchase phase, digital marketing is more effective in building awareness; in the purchase phase, personal selling is more effective in addressing customers’ needs.

Research limitations/implications

The use of a single case study cannot produce results directly generalizable to other contexts. However, the findings are applicable to the digitalization of B2B customer journeys in similar industrial contexts.

Practical implications

To successfully implement digitalization in the customer journey, B2B firms should choose digital tools according to different buying situations and phases in the customer journey, segment buyers by their needs rather than individual characteristics and integrate the sales and marketing functions.

Originality/value

This study contradicts prior research that claims that digital marketing can be used in a similar way in both B2B and business-to-consumer contexts. It further shows that the relevant demarcation is not between personal sales and digitalization but between automated digital marketing and individualized personal sales, regardless of medium.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 39 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 September 2024

Maria Del Mar Garcia de los Salmones, Angel Herrero and Patricia Martínez García de Leaniz

This paper aims to analyse the determinants of the intention to share a post about an environmental issue posted by a tourism destination on Facebook. The authors use the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the determinants of the intention to share a post about an environmental issue posted by a tourism destination on Facebook. The authors use the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model as a theoretical framework and consider cognitive variables (destination social responsibility, tourist social responsibility and three types of congruence) as antecedents of emotions and of the tourists’ response (intention to share). Specific factors related to the social platform (attachment and active use of social media) are also included.

Design/methodology/approach

The model was tested for two destinations with different positioning (green tourism versus sun and beach). For the sampling strategy, the authors conducted an online poll targeting Facebook users who had undertaken at least one trip in the previous year. The sample consisted of 1,001 individuals.

Findings

The empirical evidence obtained indicates that consumer–cause congruence is the most important variable for explaining the intention to share the post for both destinations, with the destination–cause congruence being non-significant. The authors also observed that active participation on the social network stimulated the intention to share this specific content.

Originality/value

Unlike prior research, this paper examined consumer motivators for engaging with online corporate social responsibility content for tourism destinations, specifically focusing on destination social responsibility in sustainable tourism. The model also incorporates three types of congruence, revealing variations in their impact on explaining the intention to share sustainability-related posts.

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