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An increasing non-drinker population is developing, but much research focusses on alcohol misuse, rather than the experiences of those who abstain or consume little alcohol, particularly within student populations. This student co-constructed qualitative research aimed to understand alcohol abstainer and light drinking students’ university experiences and perceptions of university alcohol cultures, given recent trends in alcohol drinking behaviour.

Ten UK undergraduate students (six males, four females; 21–26 years), five alcohol abstainers and five light alcohol drinkers (AUDIT-C), participated in semi-structured focus group interviews.

Thematic analysis of transcripts identified participants’ negative experiences of pre-university social pressures in navigating no or low alcohol drinking identities, which impacted university expectations. Participants perceived alcohol drinking cultures as remaining prevalent on university campuses and possibly used for profit and recruitment. Alcohol dominant university-sanctioned social events, alongside limited other provisions, impacted initial university transitions and belonging. However, students reported co-existing realities between such cultures and simultaneous peer acceptance of their no or low drinking status, finding similar others and long-term friendships not impacted. Due to this, student participants called for universities to take urgent action in changing pervasive university alcohol cultures, which they felt no longer aligned with changing student behaviours and perceptions.

Guided by findings, we provide important implications for prevention work and future research, including the importance of social context interventions. We also highlight the value of student co-creation and external partnerships within such work.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between food sponsorships and gender stereotypes, focusing on how patriarchal beliefs influence consumers’ purchase intentions in sports.

The research comprised two studies. In Study 1, n = 161 participants participated via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. Study 2 involved n = 250 participants who completed a cross-sectional and self-administered survey.

Study 1 indicated an apparent gender-based categorization of certain foods and beverages: beer and red meat were predominantly perceived as masculine, while yogurt, salads, and wine were seen as feminine. Further, brands like Budweiser and Red Bull were mainly seen as masculine, while Chobani and Smoothie King were perceived as feminine. Moreover, findings indicate that foods, especially those rich in protein or linked to BBQ and spicy tastes, are considered more masculine by men than women in sports settings. Further, Study 2 findings unveiled a significant relationship between patriarchal beliefs and both attitudes (ß = 0.327, p < 0.01) and subjective norms (ß = 0.525, p < 0.01) towards masculine brands.

The two studies’ results underscore the profound impact of gender stereotypes shaping sports fans’ perceptions of food items and the brands sponsoring them. This inquiry significantly augments the current understanding of the nuanced interrelation between the paradigms of social role theory and the theory of planned behavior, particularly within the ambit of sports-related sponsorship by food and beverage brands and its consequent influence on consumer purchasing inclinations.

This chapter begins with a brief history of the ways in which alcohol has been ingrained in American culture since the arrival of European settlers and their enslavement of African people. The chapter then addresses important aspects of alcohol and other drug use among college students. Because of the popularity of alcohol and cannabis among college students, they occupy the primary focus of the chapter, although other psychoactive drugs are briefly discussed as well. The chapter draws from data collected by the Healthy Minds Study, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) and the American College Health Association (ACHA) in describing the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use among college students, as well as trends in the use of both substances. The reasons college students drink and use cannabis are explored, as are the many consequences, including academic, legal, physical and interpersonal. The chapter examines a number of prevention strategies that colleges have used to minimize the negative consequences of substance use, including large-scale scare tactics, educational efforts and norming campaigns, as well as individually tailored programs; the effectiveness of each is reviewed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of social presence in enhancing positive behaviors in the virtual reality (VR)-based wine tourism context through an innovative approach.

Two sequential experimental studies were conducted to test proposed hypotheses using Web and head-mounted display (HMD) VR formats. Specifically, Study 1 probed the influence of social presence on mental imagery, which subsequently impacted destination visit intention, drinking intent and memorable experience. Study 2 used a field experiment to explore the boundary effects of environmental cues (nature versus social) on social presence and a series of behavioral intentions using an HMD format.

The findings represent one of the first efforts to unravel the influence of social presence on positive behaviors through mental imagery and the moderating role of environmental cues.

This research enhances the understanding of wine tourism, drawing upon social presence theory and stimulus-organism-response framework.

The outcomes provide valuable insights for wine tourism marketers in developing innovative marketing strategies by addressing the usage of social presence and environmental cues in a VR setting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to enrich the existing knowledge of wine tourism by exploring the role of social presence and environmental cues in both Web and HMD VR formats.

This paper aims to explore practice innovation and organizational resiliency during exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. This inquiry focuses on the extreme disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required service firms to recodify long-established service scripts, adapt digital and physical material elements of the service encounter and ultimately reconfigure a system of practices. The specific context is forced practice innovation in Starbucks servicescape (kiosks and coffeehouses). Starbucks is best known for its custom beverages and third-place strategy. Their strict adherence to a complex service script and unique ordering practices altered during pandemic stay-home disease prevention mandates.

Thematic coding consistent with prior research on practice innovation and diffusion and a grounded theory methodology was conducted. Data were triangulated and analyzed within and across a variety of sources. These include field notes from direct observation, interviews, focus groups, firm-authored collateral in the form of marketing communications and third-party authored secondary sources such as news, social media, blogs and forums.

Data reveal how practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of a system of practices, which support organizational resiliency and can force brand evolution, in prolonged exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic required service industries to adapt and recodify service scripts and alter physical and digital elements of service encounters. While the pandemic affected all firms in the sector, we argue that Starbucks' established scripts and third-place strategies, which characterized the brand experience, were particularly vulnerable. We find that practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of practice elements – competences, meanings and materiality – and restructures the service encounter. Practice codification, transposition, adaptation and stabilization support organizational resiliency and brand evolution. We find that Starbucks' brand experience emphasis on the third place is reconceptualized from an in-person community-based retailscape to a platform-based strategy necessitating script recodification and practice adaptation. Our analysis of Starbucks' kiosks and coffeehouses illuminates how a distinctly branded service encounter is constituted by a system of practices that can be reconfigured and diffused anew in the face of disruption.

The conceptualization of practice innovation as systems reconfiguration establishes a novel approach to understanding innovation in service ecosystems. The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique context to study a sector-wide exogenous extended service disruption. We focus on a firm with an elaborate pre-pandemic service script and commitment to a third-place brand experience guiding its system of practices. We reveal unique insights on practice innovation within service ecosystems during exogenous prolonged disruptions in which brands evolve through the recodification of service scripts and sustained reconfiguration of systems of practice.

Comfort foods consumption and linkages to stress coping strategies have received little attention in the business research on food products and services. This paper aims to explore comfort foods consumption among older Americans and how stress-coping strategies are related to their consumption frequency and variety of comfort foods.

Older Americans aged 50–99 years (N = 1,428) in the Health and Retirement Study were surveyed on their frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption and their consumption coping strategies. Data were analyzed and regression models were estimated.

Demographically, baby boomer, male, and non-Hispanic whites reported higher frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption. Comfort foods consumption in frequency and variety was significantly higher (lower) when “eat more” (“use alcohol”) was the endorsed coping strategy.

Research findings furthered research on the consumption of comfort foods among older American adults and added new insights into their coping behavior, both of which may help businesses be more targeted in serving comfort foods to the mature market and the public sector to tailor their services to older adults.

This chapter begins by covering four parenting styles and their effects on college students’ wellbeing. Next, the effects of parents’ divorce and parental death on college students are explored. In addition to relationships with their parents, the chapter also examines college students’ relationships with their friends. Friendships based on utility or pleasure are contrasted with those based on virtue. Next, the chapter explores the effects of college students’ friendships on various aspects of their academic performance (e.g., dropping out of school) and social lives (e.g., drinking behaviors). The role of social media in college students’ relationships is considered as well. The chapter concludes with a focus on college students’ romantic relationships.

This study aims to use a theoretical-based case study of two distinct ownership groups of the Jack Daniel’s brand to explore how rhetorical history (i.e. malleability of the past for strategic goals) may evoke and capitalize on different forms of nostalgia. Within, the authors configure four forms of nostalgia (i.e. personal, historical, collective and cultural) from the individual or collective interaction and level of direct experience one has with the past as lived or happened.

This study uses an historical research approach which involved the identification of primary and secondary sources, facility tour, source criticism and triangulation to create themes of rhetorical history infused with nostalgic narratives using compelling evidence through rich description of this fusion.

The findings reveal how nostalgia-driven narratives reflecting different collective longing for the re-creation of an American Paradise Lost used by Jack Daniel (i.e. the man) and later but differently by Brown-Forman. This study uncovers how the company’s inherited past was used rhetorically throughout its history, beginning with the nostalgic story of Jack Daniel and the distillery’s nostalgically choreographed location in Lynchburg, Tennessee. This study delves into this setting to highlight the importance of symbols, details, emotional appeals and communications for collective memory and identity development and to showcase the ways in which they are influenced by different types and forms of nostalgia.

This study adds to a limited number of studies focused on understanding the impact of founders on an organization’s brand and how that is malleable. This study responds to scholarly calls to study the influence of sequenced historical rhetoric on an organization and highlight the relevance of social emotions such as nostalgia for rhetorical history. Finally, the theoretical contribution involves the advancing and construction of a theory typology of nostalgia previously proposed by Havlena and Holak in 1996.

Virtual wine experiences (VWEs) replaced in-person wine experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and continue to be offered by some actors. This study aims to investigate the factors driving interest in VWEs and identify relevant traits of potential consumers to help assess VWEs long-term potential.

A representative sample of 399 Oregon and California wine consumers answered a structured online survey. The authors combine ordered logistic regression and qualitative techniques to analyze the data.

VWEs may effectively attract potential wine consumers and tourists. High interest in VWEs is associated with strong wine involvement and intentions to visit wine regions. Digitization, aversion to travel-related risk and convenience are other relevant drivers of VWE interest. The segmentation analysis revealed that consumers with a potentially higher interest in VWE have distinct traits.

Wineries and wine tourism destinations could leverage VWEs to attract wine tourists and consumers. The authors discuss specific characteristics of high-interest consumers.

Participants in VWEs interact with hosts and explore products in real time. This engagement has long-term marketing potential for attracting them as customers or visitors. The study provides strategic information for practitioners and academics on VWE interest drivers and potential demand, which is currently missing from the literature.

This study investigates the combined impact of two packaging cues (i.e. packaging material, recycled content claim) and a price premium on young consumers’ product perceptions and choices.

Experimental data were collected online via a questionnaire and a hypothetical choice task completed by 221 young consumers (i.e. 19–25 years). We manipulated two packaging cues for a liquid food product: the packaging material (glass vs plastic) and the presence (vs absence) of a recycled content claim (i.e. 100% recycled). We also manipulated whether a price premium was attached to these packaging variations.

The packaging material and the claim both had a significant influence on young consumers’ sustainability perceptions, and these perceptions extended to perceptions of various product attributes (e.g. healthiness, quality). When all products cost the same, participants were more likely to choose a glass bottle (i.e. 81%) than a plastic bottle, and a bottle with the recycled content claim (i.e. 79%) than a bottle without this claim. However, these preferences dropped significantly when a price premium was attached to these packaging variations.

While most studies have relied on surveys and qualitative methods to investigate consumers’ reactions to sustainable packaging, our research uses an experimental method to assess how packaging impacts young consumers’ perceptions and choices. Additionally, by manipulating the presence of a price premium, this study uniquely investigates the impact of such a premium on young consumers' willingness to choose sustainable packaging.