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The study aims to have adults discuss experiences, practices needs and feelings related to health management, diet and food security.

A total of 22 immigrants were recruited from the Open School of Immigrants in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, to participate in focus group discussions. The discussions were audio recorded and thematically analyzed. Three major themes were developed: pathways to health care, nutrition management and experiences related to food shortages.

Most of the participants identified internet as the most commonly used way to obtain health advice; they also stated that unexpected ill-health is usually accompanied by feelings of fear, anxiety and loneliness. Immigrants, who had visited a public hospital in Greece, identified the language barrier as the most challenging issue, followed by the long waiting lists. Fear and anxiety of hospital visits was an important factor in their decision to vaccinate against COVID-19. Lack of time, high cost of healthy food and lack of knowledge were the most common obstacles to a healthy diet. One in two immigrants reported that they have faced food insecurity issues in the past. Stress, psychological distress and irritation were reported, due to food shortages, especially during the first few years of arriving in Greece. The exclusion of some foods, reduced portion sizes and buying cheaper foods were among the coping strategies to address food shortages.

The study offers an insight into immigrant’s experiences, practices and feelings about managing health issues and could be useful for health-care practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of digital platforms on the resilience of food entrepreneurs in non-Western countries before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study adopts a qualitative approach using cross-case analysis based on interviews with 17 restaurants in Iran’s touristic Torqabeh region. The data were collected before (2018) and after (2023) the COVID-19 outbreak.

The findings indicate that social and economic factors, particularly procurement and technological aspects of the food value chain, exhibited high resilience, enabling food entrepreneurs to revitalize their functions post-pandemic. The results reveal that digital platforms and online food shopping within food entrepreneurship contributed to this resilience by enhancing food distribution and potentially broadening equitable food access.

The main limitations of this research are linked to the research method, which focuses on qualitative coding, and its geographic focus on Iran, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. The key implications include providing additional insights into the resilience of food entrepreneurship, illustrating the varied effects of social, economic and legal factors on revitalizing food entrepreneurship and emphasizing the crucial role of digital platforms in advancing food entrepreneurship.

The study advances the understanding of resilience in food entrepreneurship, contributing to both theoretical and practical strategies in emerging market contexts and offering insights for future research.

The current work aims to present a review of academic literature that systematizes the body of knowledge related to marketing and consumer behavior in order to identify the most effective variables that encourage the consumer towards a proper and better lifestyle, accordingly the paradigm of management, marketing and technology efforts to promote a “better” society preventing obesity.

A literature review was carried out to examine the studies of marketing and consumer behavior published in international peer-reviewed journals over the last twenty-three years (2000–2023). Our review finally considered a total amount of 46 articles.

Findings elucidate three overarching themes and associated sub-hemes, encompassing: (1) Product design for obesity prevention, including aspects such as labeling, nomenclature, packaging and assortment; (2) Technology-supported preventive measures, involving mobile applications, self-monitoring, short message services and digital therapeutics; and (3) Marketing and communication strategies, incorporating social advertising, nudge, social influence and initiatives targeting childhood obesity prevention. Furthermore, a comprehensive research agenda is presented, delineating potential avenues for future investigations predicated on the utility of the results in fostering subsequent endeavors within the realms of: efficacy and effectiveness studies; personalization and tailoring; behavioral change techniques and gamification; user experience and acceptance; cost-effectiveness and implementation; as well as ethical and privacy concerns.

Main limitations are related to the characteristics of the analyzed literature, resulting in only English journal articles, book chapter and so on. Thus, other relevant contributions in different languages discussing interesting insights might have been neglected.

This study offers several insights to managers, marketers and policymakers involved in the issue of the obesity prevention. Since obesity represents a crucial challenge for public health at a global level, with its incidence reaching epidemic proportions in recent decades, the results may be extremely useful and powerful because suggesting – by employing a robust resulting corpus of knowledge on this domain – several practical features, actions and tactics to face such an important challenge. Moreover, this paper offers for scholar and researcher a systematized knowledge around the issues of obesity prevention, together with a detailed research agenda emerging by the critical analysis of the emerging insights, and to practitioners systematized useful insights to project and develop their future business strategies.

By providing several actions and tactics for obesity prevention (e.g. as for product labeling, naming, packaging, assortment; the exploitation of new technologies for mobile applications design, self-monitoring, short message service (SMS) alert systems, digital therapeutics; the role of social advertising, nudge, social influence) this work perfectly match the emerging societal orientation related to business, marketing and technology efforts to create a “better” society.

The study shed lights the need for a holistic approach to obesity prevention, involving interaction between individual main topics. Importantly this is the first study to analyze the issue of obesity prevention by considering a multidisciplinary corpus of literature, analyzed trough an individual-centric orientation.

This study aimed to determine the factors affecting consumers’ perceptions and intention to purchase home meal kit services (HMK), a convenient home-cooked meal option, considering the moderating effects of monetary restriction, through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

This cross-sectional study used an online, self-administered survey to collect data from 374 US adults. Results were tested for variable associations via multiple linear regression and moderation analyses.

HMK adoption intention was positively associated with attitude and subjective norms but negatively associated with perceived behavioural control. Consumers’ HMK attitude demonstrated a significant positive relationship with food safety concerns and perceived time constraints. Income and financial constraints were significant moderators of the associations between TPB determinants and HMK intention. The findings emphasised the possibility of using HMK as a foodservice option for time-challenged consumers with food safety concerns.

This study addressed the limited research on HMK, a competitive meal option that foodservice businesses could implement to boost revenue. The study establishes the contribution in understanding the motivators and barriers that potentially affect consumers’ HMK behaviour through the lens of TPB. The results expand the scope of the TPB application in food-related research, providing a deeper understanding of antecedents and other factors on consumers’ HMK behavioural attitudes. Understanding this information will enable practitioners to develop strategies that meet consumers’ concerns when embracing this service to promote HMK.

This scoping review aims to explore how “food media”, “food messages” and “food content” are referred to in scholarly writing to enhance a shared understanding and comparability.

Following the PRISMA, ScR-guidelines, four scientific databases were screened on published manuscripts in academic journals, books and doctoral theses mentioning food media, content and messages within the prevalent meaning as in human communication.

Of the 376 included manuscripts, only a small minority (n = 7) provided a conclusive definition of at least one of the three earlier-mentioned concepts; 40 others elucidated some aspects of food media, messages or content; however, they emphasized different and, sometimes even, contrasting aspects. In addition, the review explores in which disciplines the manuscripts mentioning food media, messages or content occur, which methodologies are used and what target groups and media are most common.

Based on this aggregated information, a definition of food media, messages and content is proposed, aiming to enhance the comparability of diverse academic sources. This contribution invites scholars to critically reflect on the included media and content types when comparing studies on food media, messages or content.

Ever since China’s implementation of the open-door policy in 1978, there has been a remarkable transformation in the nation’s economic landscape. Undesirably, amidst the rapid urban development, the importance of prioritising and nurturing rural development in China has not received unwavering attention. Nevertheless, the Chinese government has embarked on many ventures to bridge the disparities existing amidst urban and rural areas, revitalise the rural economy, and enhance overall productivity. This paper enunciates the role of the Chinese government in prospering rural areas by implementing policies that align with the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs)- 1, 2 and 12.

This study employed a comprehensive methodology encompassing both primary and secondary research techniques to procure valuable insights and reviewed various Chinese government policies pertaining to rural revitalisation.

The study results demonstrate that throughout the policy implementation, China has contributed to the livelihoods of the rural communities and achieved SDG-1 (ending poverty) by 2030, ten years ahead of Agenda (2030). The country has also substantially improved its rural agricultural system by integrating modern science and technology and aiming to achieve SDG-2 (ensure food security) with the alignment of SDG-12 (sustainable production and consumption). The findings of this research indicate that despite some limitations in China’s rural revitalisation strategy, overall progress is seen in many aspects, particularly in achieving SDG-1, 2, and 12.

The Chinese government has made significant efforts to promote ecological, social, and economic development in rural areas through various national initiatives such as the “New Countryside” and “Rural Revitalisation” strategies. These initiatives have successfully alleviated poverty, increased food production, and ensured sustainable production and consumption. The discoveries presented within this article possess immense value, as they provide profound insights for policymakers, rural planners, and researchers who are fervently searching for viable solutions to tackle the intricate interplay between rural development and sustainability. Therefore, this study has the potential to greatly benefit policymakers from various nations, as they can adopt China’s rural revitalisation model as a means to successfully achieve SDGs 1, 2, and 12.

This study found that despite numerous initiatives to improve rural landscapes, China’s rural revitalisation approach still poses concerns as local governments are likely to focus on increasing income capacity rather than concentrating on establishing environmental governance.

The study explores the impact of food influencers on consumer behaviour in the social media context. It assesses the interplay between the number of followers an influencer has and the type of content this influencer communicates to the audience. Doing so, the research contributes to the strategic refinement of influencer marketing practices, especially in the food industry.

The study employed an experimental between-subject design 2 (influencer type: micro vs macro) x 2 (content type: informational vs entertaining). It recruited 197 Prolific participants (45.7% female, Mage = 45.076), testing their perceptions towards the influencer and the endorsed product in the social media post.

There was a significant interaction between influencer type and content type on consumers’ attitudes towards and their willingness to buy the advertised product. Specifically, the notion that “the more followers, the better” may only be applicable when consumers peruse the content for entertainment purposes, whereas while they read it for information purposes, a micro influencer (with hundreds to thousands of followers) may have as much impact on consumer behaviour as a macro influencer (with hundreds of thousands to a million followers).

Our findings offer a nuanced understanding into the conventional wisdom that people often follow crowd behaviour. Using the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM), we explicate when the number of followers matters and when the content type prevails.

Linking platform governance and value, the article explains how platforms manage openness, which gives users access and authority, to shape the user experience and orchestrate interactive value co-creation within their ecosystem.

We adopted an abductive approach, drawing on an embedded multiple case study of platform-based local alternative food networks. The strong symbolic dimension embedded into that context allowed for a full exploration of value in its interactive nature.

Platform openness influences value creation directly, but also through two mechanisms: one behavioural, involving interactions between users and sides, and the other cognitive, involving users’ abstraction level. Value co-creation goes beyond the online space and occurs in complex sets of interactions between users. Digital platforms can thus generate intrinsic value co-creation that enhances their utility.

We have adopted a marketing channel theory reading of openness and mobilised a broader conception of value as well as cognitive science to explain how this key element of platform governance affects value creation.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to[1] review the industry analysis using Porter’s five forces and strength, weakness, opportunities, threats framework and understand how a firm can achieve a competitive advantage, analyze the stakeholder theory and the salience of stakeholder mapping for enterprises with large number of stakeholders, apply the Mendelow framework of stakeholder mapping in this context and integrate it with stakeholder engagement for small enterprises and examine and evaluate how new age enterprises can engage better with stakeholders to provide a higher value creation.

Ayushi Srivastava started her enterprise, Beeyond Foods, in early 2021 with the aim to provide unadulterated, raw honey to consumers. She also wanted to help the beekeeping community by providing the beekeepers with a fair price for the procurement of honey from the bee hives. Beeyond Foods was a small enterprise in India that sold two variants of honey to consumers. The first variant was sourced from the Himalayan region of India, whereas the second was sourced from the Western Ghats of India. The primary distribution channel was trade fairs, where Srivastava would assemble her stall and sell honey to potential customers. Furthermore, a part of the sales was also driven by an electronic channel, which was through the company website. Customers could place their orders, and the honey would directly be delivered to their homes. With a successful start to the business, Srivastava was interested to scale her business and reach more customers. However, she was mindful that there were multiple stakeholders involved in the business. Srivastava had to study the values and needs of each stakeholder, while simultaneously formulate a strategy to expand her reach. This case study is designed to teach the concept of stakeholder value creation for small business enterprises.

This case study is well suited for an entrepreneurship and strategy course at the postgraduate (Master of Business Administration) level. This case study can also be taught in a marketing course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS3: Entrepreneurship.

This study aims to understand client food preferences and how pantry offerings can be optimized by those preferences.

This study develops and administers customized surveys to study three food pantries within the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwestern North Carolina network. This study then categorizes food items by client preferences, identifies the key predictors of those preferences and obtains preference scores by fitting the data to a predictive model. The preference scores are subsequently used in an optimization model that suggests an ideal mix of food items to stock based upon client preferences and the item and weight limits imposed by the pantry.

This study found that food pantry clients prefer fresh and frozen foods over shelf-friendly options and that gender, age and religion were the primary predictors. The optimization model incorporates these preferences, yielding an optimal stocking strategy for the pantry.

This research is based on a specific food bank network, and therefore, the client preferences may not be generalizable to other food banks. However, the framework and corresponding optimization model is generalizable to other food aid supply chains.

This study provides insights for food pantry managers to make informed decisions about stocking the pantry shelves based on the client’s preferences.

An emerging topic within the humanitarian food aid community is better matching of food availability with food that is desired in a way that minimizes food waste. This is achieved by providing more choice to food pantry users. This work shows how pantries can incorporate client preferences in inventory stocking decisions.

This study contributes to the literature on food pantry operations by providing a novel decision support system for pantry managers to aid in stocking their shelves according to client preferences.