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1 – 10 of 167Tilottama Ghosh Chowdhury, Feisal Murshed and Adwait Khare
The purpose of this study is to propose that high categorization flexibility’s positive influence on hedonic or affect-laden choice is attenuated by conservation and nutrition…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose that high categorization flexibility’s positive influence on hedonic or affect-laden choice is attenuated by conservation and nutrition mind-sets. Further, categorization flexibility can also promote utilitarian or cognitively superior preference and may have a role in steering customers toward healthier dietary choices.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experimental studies document that the pro-utilitarian impact of food categorization flexibility can be facilitated by priming conservation mind-set and nutrition mind-sets.
Findings
The results of this study show that conservation and nutrition mind-sets not only mitigate the earlier-demonstrated facilitative influence of food categorization flexibility on hedonic food preference, but also facilitate utilitarian food preference.
Originality/value
The current study provides the first evidence that food categorization flexibility can facilitate both hedonic and utilitarian preferences. The findings contribute to literature streams on categorization flexibility, resource-scarcity and hedonic versus utilitarian consumption. In addition, the findings offer specific prescriptions about encouraging customers to choose utilitarian and relatively more healthful food options, which in turn will improve the general welfare of the society.
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Teija Räihä, Kerttu Tossavainen, Jorma Enkenberg and Hannele Turunen
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of school staff on a nutrition health project implemented via an ICT‐based learning environment in a secondary school (7th…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of school staff on a nutrition health project implemented via an ICT‐based learning environment in a secondary school (7th to 9th grades).
Design/methodology/approach
The study was a part of the wider European Network for Health Promoting Schools programme (ENHPS; since 2008, Schools for Health in Europe SHE) in Finland, and particularly its sub‐project, From Puijo to the World with Health Lunch, which sought to renew secondary schools' nutrition health education by developing and utilising an ICT‐based learning environment using participatory action research. The data were collected by means of recall interviews conducted with 12 teachers, two school health nurses and two school catering managers after the nutrition health project ended. The data were analysed with qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti software.
Findings
The findings regarding the views of the school staff – teachers, school health nurses and school catering managers – on the nutrition health project implemented via an ICT‐based learning environment at the end of the three‐year educational development project revealed five main categories: the basis of multidisciplinary education in nutrition health, motivation to lifelong nutrition health learning, school community support of nutrition health activities, operational ICT culture in the nutrition health project and ICT for the nutrition health project process.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of school staff consisted of two secondary schools in Eastern Finland, and the results cannot be generalised widely due to the small, geographically defined sample. However, the results are suggestive for other schools elsewhere in Finland.
Originality/value
Development of a nutrition health project via an ICT‐based learning environment as a project involves the entire school staff and all the pupils. It also enables renewing of the nutrition health curriculum. Pupils use ICT in their everyday activities, thus the school staffs have to manage and update their knowledge and skills in ICT and new action environments to promote pupils' nutrition health learning today and in the future.
Ji Yan, Kun Tian, Saeed Heravi and Peter Morgan
This paper aims to investigate consumers’ demand patterns for products with nutritional benefits and products with no nutritional benefits across processed healthy and unhealthy…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate consumers’ demand patterns for products with nutritional benefits and products with no nutritional benefits across processed healthy and unhealthy foods. This paper integrates price changes (i.e. increases and decreases) into a demand model and quantifies their relative impact on the quantity of food purchased. First, how demand patterns vary across processed healthy and unhealthy products is investigated; second, how demand patterns vary across nutrition-benefited (NB) products and non-nutrition-benefited (NNB) products is examined; and third, how consumers respond to price increases and decreases for NB across processed healthy and unhealthy foods is investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Here, a demand model quantifying scenarios for price changes in consumer food choice behaviour is proposed, and controlled for heterogeneity at household, store and brand levels.
Findings
Consumers exhibit greater sensitivity to price decreases and less sensitivity to price increases across both processed healthy and unhealthy foods. Moreover, the research shows that consumers’ demand sensitivity is greater for NNB products than for NB products, supporting our prediction that NB products have higher brand equity than NNB products. Furthermore, the research shows that consumers are more responsive to price decreases than price increases for processed healthy NB foods, but more responsive to price increases than price decreases for unhealthy NB foods. The findings suggest that consumers exhibit a desirable demand pattern for products with nutritional benefits.
Originality/value
Although studies on the effects of nutritional benefits on demand have proliferated in recent years, researchers have only estimated their impact without considering the effect of price changes. This paper contributes by examining consumers’ price sensitivity for NB products across processed healthy and unhealthy foods based on consumer scanner data, considering both directionalities of price changes.
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The contemporary production, distribution, and consumption of food is today interconnected at the global level in the form of a global food chain, constituted by the relations…
Abstract
The contemporary production, distribution, and consumption of food is today interconnected at the global level in the form of a global food chain, constituted by the relations between all the producers, distributors, and consumers of food in the World. A chain where the international trade law constitutes a conditioning element, which through the legal adoption of neoliberal ideals facilitates the strengthening of the agribusiness sector.
The present article aims to assess the environmental impact of the global food chain and engaging in the discussion of the adoption of more sustainable methodologies in the agriculture sector. By mobilizing the experience of participation in Civil Society Network for Food and Nutrition Security in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (REDSAN-CCPL), we will critically expose the causal link of the activities of transnational corporations of the agribusiness sector with its environmental and public health impacts, particularly with cases in Global South countries (countries of the Community of Countries of Portuguese Language, CCPL).
At the end, and, following closely the current discussion at the United Nations level for the creation of a Declaration of the Rights of Peasants, and the creation, in 2017, of a legal regime for family farming under the CCPL, we will present a defense for the legal recognition of family farming at the international level, as a legal and political strategy to preclude the negative environmental impacts of the agribusiness sector.
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Sandy Guardiola, Gillie Gabay and Howard R. Moskowitz
The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of consumer preferences and mind‐set regarding the transition to using renewable energy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of consumer preferences and mind‐set regarding the transition to using renewable energy.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is an experimental design of messaging (conjoint analysis).
Findings
The study uncovered different segments of individuals, with different mind‐sets, needing different types of messaging. Results show what marketing messages might best work to interest consumers in the transition to renewable energy. The study revealed two different mind‐set segments among respondents. The first segment comprised residents who preferred a gradual transition toward using 80 percent renewable energy, and 20 percent conventional energy, with no specific transition time span, and with no tax increases. The second segment comprised residents who preferred a five year, fixed‐time plan for the conversion to renewable energy sources (RES), along with service plans, and an accompanying “money back” guarantee.
Research limitations/implications
The study did not include the testing of pricing elements to the messaging about the transition to “green” process. Thus, insights concerning the interaction of financial concerns with mind‐sets in the transition to “green” are yet to be studied.
Practical implications
After identifying the segment to which each individual belongs, data permit the creation of a “typing tool” to identify segment membership, thus allowing more targeted and effective messaging when building awareness and demand for green power.
Originality/value
This is a pioneering study that looks at the “mind” of the customer, to investigate how different ideas and messaging drive the consumer's comfort level regarding the use of RES, and the future of their energy consumption and transitional needs. This is a multi‐disciplinary study incorporating public policy and marketing together with practical application.
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Parthiban S. Gopal and Gayathri Sathyanarayanan
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the severe impact on the abilities of urban poor women such as education skills, entrepreneurship qualities, employment skills, creative…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the severe impact on the abilities of urban poor women such as education skills, entrepreneurship qualities, employment skills, creative abilities and social skills, as they face many challenges like inequitable access to work and unacceptable living conditions influenced by an underlying mind-set in the society driven by gender socialization. Though there have been changes in the way we perceive the abilities of urban poor women from being a homemaker to participating in employment and access to education, one cannot deny that discrimination and bias based on gender socialization still exists in the society.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses secondary data through a systematic review where the inclusion criteria were framed on the basis of relevance, credibility and heterogeneity. However, as this is a concept paper, the study is bereft of empirical data.
Findings
In most cases, the ability and potential of women, such as educational skills, entrepreneurship qualities, employment skills, creative abilities and social skills, go unnoticed or, more often, not taken into consideration. Predominantly influenced by gender roles, not all abilities and skills are associated with women; this kind of labelling process refers to gender socialization. Ongoing in society for a long time to an extent, it has been accepted consciously or subconsciously by men and women. As a result, urban poor women, in particular, are further deprived of their capabilities, directly affecting their personal growth and economic status.
Originality/value
Poverty affects men, women, boys and girls, but it is experienced differently by people of different ages, ethnicities, family roles and sex. Moreover, due to women’s biology, social and cultural gender roles and culturally constructed subordination, they are labelled with specific roles dictated by various social agents; This labelling process refers to gender socialization. As a result, capable women with untapped skills, abilities and potential to learn, work, earn, play and develop are ignored or suppressed; hence, they go unnoticed, further intensifying poverty among poor urban women.
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Anita Ram, Anura Kurpad and Sumathi Swaminathan
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behaviors of India’s information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees in relation to diet, exercise…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behaviors of India’s information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees in relation to diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and social habits.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a qualitative research study, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Descriptive data were collected from a two-stage purposive sample of 28 IT-BPO employees from three IT companies and two BPOs in Bangalore, India.
Findings
The majority of interviewees reported having an unhealthy diet and/or sedentary lifestyle. Lack of time due to demanding work schedules was the largest barrier to diet and exercise. Call-centers were described as a social environment with a young workforce.
Research limitations/implications
Given the qualitative study design and limited sampling frame, results may not be generalizable. However, the qualitative data suggests that India’s young IT-BPO employees may be at greater risk of lifestyle-related diseases than the general population. The data also suggests that interventions incorporating social influence may be a promising solution, particularly at international call centers.
Originality/value
There is a lack of literature on the lifestyle of IT-BPO employees in India. The results from this study provide qualitative insight on the motives for health behaviors of IT-BPO employees, as well as the barriers and facilitators for leading a healthy lifestyle in this industry. The findings provide the framework for future workplace wellness interventions.
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This paper aims to focus on the insights from the brand journey of Horlicks in India and evolution of the health food drinks (HFD) category.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on the insights from the brand journey of Horlicks in India and evolution of the health food drinks (HFD) category.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the key reasons for the slowdown in the HFD category and the descent of brand Horlicks in India. It follows the strategic decisions and actions that Horlicks’ parent GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare took over its journey of close to 100 years. It also highlights the cardinal mistakes that it made in distribution networks, brand extensions, etc. and how these could have possibly eroded the brand equity of Horlicks.
Findings
Horlicks as a brand made many strategic errors. It frequently and needlessly fiddled with unrelated categories in contrast to its nutrition agenda. It unnecessarily spent on developing brand extensions in unhealthy categories that customers did not value or relate to. It was strategically blinded by the dominance in two geographies and continued to be under-invested in distribution networks in others. In addition, it took too long to read the writing on the wall in terms of growing consumer consciousness about the presence of sugar and fats in health foods. Even when clear signals were available of the impending slowdown the HFD category faced, despite being the market leader in the HFD segment, it showed limited urgency to foster an innovation to bolster the category.
Practical implications
Companies need to focus on a sharp business model and not try to be everything for everyone. Companies that gain valuable insight of what its customers value and design their business model to satisfy these requirements have higher chances of surviving through the weft and warp of time.
Originality/value
The paper considers the context of the highly dynamic fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India. It is an industry where for some of the categories like HFD, the brand equity of the mother brand may or may not have a rub-off effect on brand extensions, or dominance in a particular geography may not translate to similar dominance in another geography owing to heterogeneity factor. In such a scenario, brands such as Horlicks, which do not have a consistent and coherent strategy, find it difficult to grow their market share or the category. It provides insights into the common pitfalls in brand development strategy and how it can be avoided.
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Rao Sanaullah Khan, John Vincent Grigor, Alan G. Win and Mike Boland
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a comparative account of NPD approaches between registered New Zealand food companies that are doing some sort of functional foods (FF…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a comparative account of NPD approaches between registered New Zealand food companies that are doing some sort of functional foods (FF) development (Group 1) and those that are not (Group 2); to generate a better understanding of differences and commonalities in their NPD approaches from resource-based view of competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted an exploratory approach using a quantitative survey across food manufacturing companies in New Zealand. The primary foci of this empirical investigation were: orientation towards the NPD, innovation processes, collaborative NPD links and routes to commercialisation.
Findings
The results (based on a 22 per cent response rate) show a significant difference (p<0.05) in the aims and mode of NPD between Groups 1 and 2. Further it was observed that food companies in Group 1 have significantly (p<0.05) more diverse external collaborations with broader aims to collaborate, in comparison with food companies in Group 2.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted in New Zealand and thus generalisability of the findings may have to be interpreted carefully.
Practical implications
The traditional NPD approach (independent and closed NPD), with loose intellectual property protection practices, dominates the food manufacturing industry in New Zealand. Research-oriented collaborations need to be strengthened in their scope and content to develop the innovative capabilities and capacities of small and medium enterprises (SME's) within future value-added food productions.
Originality/value
This research provides the comparative narration of innovation process of food manufacturing companies with reference to FFs development.
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Lia Zarantonello, Silvia Grappi, Marcello Formisano and Bernd H. Schmitt
This paper aims to advance the design-thinking approach in food from an engineering mind-set toward a positive psychology perspective by investigating how consumer experiences…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to advance the design-thinking approach in food from an engineering mind-set toward a positive psychology perspective by investigating how consumer experiences evoked by food-related activities can facilitate, stimulate and enhance individuals’ happiness and perceptions of life satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
A diary field experiment was conducted. Participants from a major European city were asked to reflect on their food-related activities, provide descriptions and answer questions on experiential stimulation derived from these activities in relation to happiness and perceived life satisfaction.
Findings
Food-related activities generally result in positive consumer experiences and psychological well-being. Experiential stimulation resulting from food activities is positively related to perceived life satisfaction directly and indirectly via pleasure and meaning. Although the authors found an overall positive relationship between these constructs, they also found differences based on the experience type considered. A “crescendo model” of experiences that details how experiences lead to happiness and perceived life satisfaction is presented.
Research limitations/implications
This study is largely exploratory. Future research should adopt an experimental approach and further test the relationship between experiential stimulation, happiness and perceived life satisfaction in the context of food.
Practical implications
The paper offers innovation teams in food companies a practical “crescendo model” that can be used to design product–consumer interactions.
Originality/value
The research bridges literatures on design thinking, psychological well-being and consumer experiences. By studying the relationship between experiences, happiness and perceived life satisfaction in the context of food, the findings contribute to research on food well-being by expanding the notion of happiness seen only as pleasure. The research also contributes to work on design thinking by offering an experiential framework that contributes to the notion of consumer empathy.
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