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The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible cross-cultural consumer segments in the EU aquaculture market and provide direction and focus for marketing strategies for farmed fish products.

Selected psychographic constructs (i.e. category involvement, domain-specific innovativeness, subjective knowledge, suspicion of novelties and optimistic bias) are tested as segmentation basis with the objective of defining a number of cross-border consumer segments with distinctive and clear-cut profiles in terms of consumer perceptions towards farmed fish.

Based on the consumer psychographic profiles, three distinct segments are found: involved traditional, involved innovators and ambiguous indifferent, of which the first two constitute especially interesting targets for market positioning strategies for aquaculture products.

The results of the segmentation analysis opens new horizons in terms of positioning and differentiation of fish products from the aquaculture industry according to the most important potential market segments.

The current research brings insights into different pan-European consumer segments and their characteristics that allow for a corresponding differentiation strategy within the aquaculture industry. The fact that the segments tend to be uniform across all countries suggests a relatively homogeneous or converging European fish-related culture.

This study aims to investigate the effects of two types of expertise (self-service technology and service type) on the disconfirmation of customers’ expectations and the use-related outcomes of technology-based self-service (TBSS).

This empirical study pertains to the mandatory use of a national public transport chip card in The Netherlands based on a sample of 267 users of this TBSS.

The findings show that technology experts experienced a less positive disconfirmation of expectations and reported less positive evaluations of the new self-service than technology novices. Technology experts also showed lower intentions to engage in positive word-of-mouth than technology novices. The evaluation of the self-service by technology novices is more positive for those that are service experts as compared to service novices, while the evaluation by technology experts is more negative for those that are service experts as compared to service novices.

This study provides insight into how different types and levels of customer expertise affect individuals’ assessments of a TBSS upon its mandatory use.

For marketing managers and public policy-makers, understanding the multifaceted role of customer expertise enables more effective market segmentation and targeting, thus improving implementation of TBSS.

This research suggests that customers’ technology and service expertise have some counter-intuitive effects on TBSS use-related outcomes.

Although awareness of environmental sustainability has increased over the past few decades, the current market share of sustainable products remains low. Because of their market position, large-scale and high-volume consumer interactions, food retailers are appropriate venues to entice consumers to buy more sustainable foods. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which food retailers are perceived to have embedded sustainability initiatives in their marketing strategies and to have taken sustainable tactical measures on the store floor. In addition, the study considered the roles played by social identification (SI) and by perceived external prestige (PEP).

Based on a literature review and semi-structured qualitative interviews with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Dutch food retailers, the authors conducted an online panel survey among the managers of these food retailers.

The results of the study show the positive impacts of managers’ SI with a sustainable consumer group and managers’ PEP on the perceived environmental sustainability initiatives of Dutch food retailers. The study finds that managers’ SIs are powerful ways to engender employee loyalty. Moreover, organisations that are perceived to have more external prestige are perceived as being more capable of developing sustainability policies.

The current study combines views from CEOs of large Dutch food retailers with supermarket manager’s perceptions of sustainability initiatives on a strategical and tactical level of an organisation. It uses insights from CSR, food retail and SI theory literature to explain these perceptions.

To better understand fruit consumption and its determinants this paper aims to explore the relationship between the consumption of different types of fruit and other snacks and consumer taste preferences for sweet, salty and sour is explored.

Respondents (n=2,083) from Poland, Greece, Spain and The Netherlands filled out an online questionnaire in which the consumption of fresh fruit, sweet snacks, salty snacks, orange juice and dried fruit was measured as well as consumer self‐reported taste preferences and personal orientations towards health, convenience, price and routine behaviours.

A total of 29 percent of the total sample preferred salty tastes, whereas 21 percent preferred sweet tastes; 1 percent preferred sour tastes, and 39 percent indicated no preference. In contrast with the expectation that people who preferred sweet tastes consume more fruits and fruit products, the results imply that consumers with a sour taste preference consume more fruits and fruit products. In addition, consumers with a sour taste preference seem to be less convenience‐oriented and have more routine behaviours with regard to fruit. In contrast, consumers with a sweet taste preference eat more chocolate bars and are more convenience‐oriented.

The self‐reported measurement of taste preferences requires further justification to be used as a measurement instrument, e.g. formulation of the items, different cultures and linkage with preferences based on sensory testing.

These findings show that the sweet tooth hypothesis is much more complicated if we consider not only consumption, but also self‐reported taste preferences.

The paper explores self‐reported taste preferences, the sweet tooth hypotheses and fruit consumption.

This research aims to reach meaningful insights into fruit consumption motives. The study articulates contextual motives observed through inherent fruit characteristics (i.e. attributes and benefits) with personal motives that transcend the situation (i.e. emotions and cultural values).

This qualitative study used the focus group technique comprising eight groups of eight to 10 subjects (n = 94). The participants were frequent fresh-fruit consumers.

The analysis differentiates contextual motives from transituational ones. Older participants are motivated by taking care of health matters. They value fruit as an expression of their determination to take action and care for others. Younger participants are motivated by the experience of pleasure. Fruits have a hedonic value related to joy, being refreshing and tasteful.

Results serve marketers and decision-makers to better target motivations for fruit consumption enhancement. These motivations could be implemented by communicating specific fruit attributes that respond to short-term needs. In the long run, marketers could create fruit consumption campaigns that respond to deeper consumer values.

Designing fruit consumption campaigns aligned with individuals' motives could effectively strengthen the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. This study is helpful from the aspect of a public-policy approach expected to improve public health.

Consumers' fruit preference transcends tangible product characteristics to motives aligned with their goals, emotions and human values. This path merges two approaches: contextual motivations and the Means-end chain model. The first approach recognises short-term observable product characteristics, whereas the latter works on long-term values.

Self-efficacy has often been found to play a significant role in healthy dietary behaviours. However, self-efficacy interventions most often consist of intensive interventions. The authors aim to provide more insight into the effect of brief self-efficacy interventions on healthy dietary behaviours.

In the present article, two randomized controlled trials are described. In study 1, a brief self-efficacy intervention with multiple self-efficacy techniques integrated on a flyer is tested, and in study 2, an online brief self-efficacy intervention with a single self-efficacy technique is tested.

The results show that a brief self-efficacy intervention can directly increase vegetable intake and indirectly improve compliance to a diet plan to eat healthier.

These findings suggest that self-efficacy interventions do not always have to be intensive to change dietary behaviours and that brief self-efficacy interventions can also lead to more healthy dietary behaviours.