Search results

The increasing desire of consumers for socially responsible luxury products combined with fluctuating supplies in consumer markets are leading various industries to seek alternative sources to be able to meet the needs of its customers. One possible solution that may meet the demands of the future is lab-grown products. Because these products confer multiple benefits, this study aims to investigate the most effective ways to appeal to consumers by aligning the benefits of the products with their values as marketers seek to find effective promotion for these items.

We examine the effectiveness of an ethical positioning strategy for two types of luxury lab-grown (synthetic) products among high versus low materialism consumers in three experiments.

Findings suggest that a positioning strategy stressing product ethicality is more effective for low materialism consumers, whereas the strategy is less effective, and may even backfire, for high materialism consumers. The impact on social status consumers perceive from a lab-grown product explains why this effect occurs among low materialism consumers. Therefore, marketers should take caution and use specific appeals for different segments based on values such as consumers’ materialism levels.

If lab-grown products represent the wave of the future, it is important to understand how consumers will respond to this emerging technology and how promotion strategies may enhance their evaluation.

To examine the market potential for lab-grown meat (LGM) in Australia by: (1) determining consumers' willingness to consume LGM; (2) exploring heterogeneity in both consumers' willingness to consume LGM and food choice values; and (3) characterizing unique consumer clusters (segments) using socio-demographic, behavioral and psychosocial factors.

Latent class cluster analysis was conducted using online survey data obtained from a nationally representative sample of 1,078 Australian food shoppers.

Six consumer clusters were identified, each distinct in their degree of willingness to consume LGM and in their food choice values. Three clusters (49% of consumers) indicated some willingness to consume LGM. One segment, “Prospective LGM eaters” (12%), appeared “very willing” to consume LGM. These consumers were more likely to be younger (<35 years); university-educated; have greater prior awareness of LGM; stronger beliefs regarding the potential self- and society-related benefits of growing demand for LGM; and higher trust in diverse information sources.

Insights on the characteristics of each cluster provide useful information for the industry on how to tailor product development and marketing strategies to address the needs of consumers with the greatest potential to consume LGM.

This is the first consumer research on the topic of LGM to explore market opportunities for LGM in Australia using a nationally representative consumer sample.

This paper aims to model and estimate how celebrity chief executive officers (CEOs) credibility (i.e. expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) is related to their brand image (i.e. functional, sensory/visual). This paper further examines the effects of consumer materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and the image of their brand.

A total of 260 participants knowledgeable of CEOs and their corresponding brands completed an online questionnaire in a cross-sectional study. The data were analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Celebrity CEOs’ expertise and attractiveness are positively related to both functional and sensory/visual images of their brands. Results also demonstrate the positive effect of materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image.

The research was conducted in one country (France) using a cross-sectional design. Additional studies in other settings or countries should be carried out to establish the generalizability of results and strengthen causality inferences.

CEOs need to understand and manage their key role as celebrities, given the direct influence they may have on consumer brand perceptions and behavior.

This study refines the relationship between celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image. It is the first to introduce and validate the effect of consumer materialism on the perception of celebrity CEOs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perceptions of more sustainable protein alternatives to conventional meat.

A mixed method design of interviews and an online survey identified key drivers and barriers to the consumption of laboratory-grown meat, edible insects and plant-based meat substitutes, with meat attachment accounted for in analyses. Differences between personal preference and perceptions of alternative proteins’ role in addressing global environmental concerns were also explored.

Findings indicated that plant-based substitutes were favoured for personal consumption for moral and ethical reasons and edible insects were least favoured due to aversion. Meat attachment was significantly associated with personal willingness to consume alternative proteins in each of the three cases. Results challenged previous research that had proposed that when considering the effectiveness of certain alternatives in addressing global environmental issues, people may advocate them but not want to consume them personally. Results imply that the congruity of these perceptions is more complex.

Avenues for future research, including applications for exploring tailored marketing are suggested based on the preliminary findings of this study.

This study asked consumers to consider three alternative proteins alongside one another for the first time, exploring how meat attachment is associated with perceptions and quantifying the congruity of consumers’ personal perceptions and global perceptions of these alternative proteins.

For decades, America has been the major source of industrial innovation. In recent years, that has begun to change as other countries challenge America's supremacy. In order to counter these new cradles of innovation around the world, U.S. enterprises face some difficult strategic and operating decisions.

The Indian diet is rich in all the essential nutrients required for the well-being of human life. Probiotics have always been part of our traditional diet but microbiota of traditional fermented foods has not been explored. This study aims to analyse various traditional Indian fermented products for their probiotic nature.

Fermented indigenous products such as kanji, vegetable pickles and curd were prepared under controlled conditions and stored at ambient temperatures for shelf life studies. During the shelf life study, pH, titratable acidity and Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count were estimated.

LAB counts ranged between 106 and 108 cfu/g in all the products, reflective of the probiotic nature of the products. Growth was observed even at low pH of 2.77 in product such as lemon chilli and ginger pickle. The 16S RNA-based sequencing technique was used for the identification of probiotic organisms present in the product. Enterococcus lactis, enterococcus durans, bacillus subtilis and lactobacillus plantarum were detected in the products.

These observations emphasise the need to undertake in-depth analysis of the viability of LAB in these fermented Indian foods for improving their nutritional properties. A need exists to explore and popularise more indigenous fermented products as probiotics.

India has a very rich and diverse food culture which differs from one region to other. This is because of difference in climatic conditions which has led to variety of food products. There are many products prepared locally and are not studied scientifically. This study aimed to explore these products for the presence of LAB which could have a probiotic potential.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers' reactions to a new kind of green food product that is the so-called lab-grown meat (LGM). This kind of meat does not derive from animal or vegetal cultures but is produced on the basis of “tissue-engineering” technologies, by injecting muscle tissue from an animal into a cell culture, allowing cells to “grow” outside the animal's body. By considering the similar nutritional characteristics of traditional types of meat, and the potential in terms of sustainability, the authors investigate the effect of the advertising, communication focus promoting LGM-based meat, on consumers' willingness to buy (WTB) and word-of-mouth (WOM), by shedding light on the moderator role of consumers' environmentalism and status consumption orientation tendency in influencing such relationship.

Through an exploratory research design, the authors conducted a study based on a two-cell experiment that manipulated the advertising communication focus by using a hamburger made of synthetic meat related to a fictitious brand called “Gnam”, to manipulate the advertising communication focus (sustainability vs. taste), then evaluating consumers' WTB, WOM, environmentalism and status consumption orientation.

Results show that the communication focus (sustainability vs. taste) exerts a positive effect on consumers' WTB and WOM, and how such effect is magnified both by consumers' environmentalism and status consumption orientation, in the attempt to show other a green status and their green consumption tendency.

Despite the promising results, the study does not consider other consumers' individual differences, i.e. as for the role of age, or cultural differences.

Practically, this study suggests marketers and managers how to design effective marketing campaigns to incentivise LGM-based food products purchase, and promote positive WOM, on the basis of certain consumers' individual differences useful to segment their clientele in terms of environmentalism, and status consumption orientation tendency.

Socially, this study may contribute to incentivising the use of alternative forms of meat as a food product not deriving from animal or vegetal culture, coherently with recent sustainability worldwide claimed goals.

This is the first paper to investigate consumers' reactions to LGM-based food products, by shedding light on the fundamental role of consumers' individual differences.

Studies the development in the UK of the market for no‐and low‐alcohol beers and lagers (NAB/LABs) since the late 1970s. Shows from annual sales figures for the total market and of advertising expenditures how the growth of the market has been related to levels of promotional investment. Also shows the extent to which British brewers have tried to climb on board the NAB/LAB bandwagon and as a result have introduced a profusion of products, most of them without serious promotional support, and many of them of dubious quality. Takes the view that if the NAB/LAB sector is to grow into a sizeable part of the UK beer market then a rationalization of products should occur and products that continue should be well‐supported and of high quality.

This paper aims to explore how Living Labs might be evaluated, building on the current efforts of the European Network of Living Lab (ENoLL) to encourage new members, and complementing their existing criteria with elements from business model development strategies – specifically the Business Model Canvas (BMC) (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).

First, it is explored how Living Labs have emerged, at the intersection of transition management, open innovation and collaborative consumption. It is then suggested that the BMC could be a complementary tool in Living Lab evaluation.

This tool helped identify three important elements missing from current ENoLL evaluation criteria: identification of the cost structure, customer segments and the revenue stream. The case study of an Energy Living Lab created in Western Switzerland is used to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of different evaluation criteria; this paper is then concluded with some ideas on how future research might contribute to further strengthening Living Lab evaluation process towards long-term “sustainability”.

This article will be of value for ENoLL to refine their evaluation criteria for the next “wave” of application. It could as well help living labs to reflect on how to keep a living lab alive.

The global shipping industry has been rocked by a wave of disruptive innovation driven by a thriving ecosystem of digital technology start-ups that have emerged in the last few years and set up offices in Greece. After the appearance of COVID-19, entrepreneurial leadership has grown in importance for guiding commercial shipping through times of exceptional circumstances. The problem is that there is a lack of understanding of the experiences of Greek digital entrepreneurs launching their tech start-ups within the maritime sector – from the initial vision to a real-world innovative business disruptor. We aim to answer the questions of who the Greek digital entrepreneur in the maritime sector is and how their entrepreneurial actions contribute to a growing knowledge base of digital entrepreneurship for future theoretical research and professional practice. This single-subject, archival case study demonstrates the social and commercial value of the “who” and “how” of digital entrepreneurship in the maritime sector through the case of Harbor Lab, an Athens-based start-up that disrupted the maritime industry through innovative use of emerging technologies to calculate disbursements (port expenses) and through the establishment of a horizontal, empathetic, open workplace culture. The outcomes of this study contributed a fresh perspective of scholarly knowledge on digital entrepreneurship for future theoretical research and professional practice.