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Pulque is a fundamental piece in the Mexican gastronomy and identifying consumers’ perception could help promote it and generate new opportunities of commercialization. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the underlying factors that influence consumers’ perception toward pulque, and second, to identify groups of consumers according to their perception.

A questionnaire was designed and applied to 220 consumers within points of sales. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was undertaken and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to identify different groups of consumers.

By means of EFA three factors were obtained: traditionality, bad reputation of pulquerías and functional beverage. In order to identify different consumption patterns among consumers, HCA was performed and three groups were identified: traditional, neo-consumers and neo-consumers in transition. The groups identified showed significant differences in their perception.

Pulque has recently gained interest in various consumer sectors, mainly among young consumers, who are consuming and promoting the beverage these days. In this sense, the results of this work could be used for its promotion and consumption in order to attract more consumers and make a contribution to the development of local economies.

This is the first work in Mexico to explore the perception of consumers toward pulque: the most important traditional fermented beverage in Central México. Results of this research suggest the appearance of a revaluation process among young consumers, more informed and with greater sensitivity toward traditional Mexican food, particularly in the case of pulque. Likewise, these results could be useful for producers and sellers to carry out commercial strategies and promote the drink.

Following the recommendation of the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations in agricultural innovation, for taking advantage of emerging technologies, in benefit of small-farmers, the present study explores one of the most ancient crops in the world that privileging the application of tacit knowledge, to become a succulent plant called agave, into the so-called drink of the gods, the mezcal. For this, the purpose of this study is to discover innovation opportunities and reconfiguring knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production of agave-mezcal from Oaxaca, Mexico, using emerging technologies

Following a qualitative-quantitative approach, the study was carried out with 44 mezcal producers from Oaxaca, Mexico, through face-to-face session, questionaries’ application and field visits, based on the model of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization (SECI) through Likert-scale questions, combining the non-parametric statistical analysis and digital compass, for the detection of technological opportunities

Basing on artisanal process, context-knowledge place, technological resources and SECIs model results, the opportunities must go in the route of labour in the logic of digital performance. In this sense, becomes relevant to develop an easy-use mobile application for improving the interaction of mezcaleros with external agents and another’s producers., A second proposal is the creation of mezcal-tech-hub, thinking as collaborative space, for promoting the interaction producer-to-producer and producer-to-external agent.

The value of the present study is the empirical description of knowledge dynamics interaction contained in the agricultural artisan production of agave-mezcal through SECI model; the identification of problems, failure or barriers contained in the knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production agave-mezcal; the proposal of innovation opportunities for reconfiguring the knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production agave-mezcal from a developing economy, using emerging technologies.

This paper examines social impact investing (SII), a growing source of investment from the Global North to the Global South celebrated as a new way of doing good in low-income countries, but bearing elements of neoliberalism that can reify post-colonial contexts.

A microfoundational, autoethnographic approach is used based on the author’s experiences and emotional epiphanies while engaged in an activist entrepreneurial enterprise. The author’s goal was to effect positive social change with Indigenous Mexican producers of mezcal liquor.

Despite the best of intentions and following best practices for SII, the expected altruistic outcomes were eclipsed by inadvertent post-colonial behaviours. Neoliberal foundations of financialization gave primacy to the perspectives and egos of the investors rather than meaningful impact for the Indigenous beneficiaries.

Based on the findings, three areas are presented for further research. First, how Global North social impact investors balance the ego of their motivations with the altruism of intended outcomes for beneficiaries. Second, what ownership structures of Global North investments allow for social benefits to flow through to intended beneficiaries. Third, how post-colonial power imbalances can be redressed to give an equal position to Global South beneficiaries as people, rather than financial metrics indicating only that they have become less poor.

By using autoethnographic methods that expose the vulnerability of the researcher, unique insights are generated on what happens when good intentions meet with a post-colonial context. The neoliberal underbelly of SII is revealed, and ways to make improvements are considered.

This review aims to summarize some of the relevant methodologies used to study traditional foods evaluated from the consumers' perspective. The analysis provided in this review will shed light on the methods as a valuable tool to stimulate research in traditional to promote cultural and nutritional revaluation of these products.

A systematic literature review was performed on 60 articles related to the study of traditional foods from the consumer's perspective.

Ten methodologies were found that address the study of this product category. European countries lead the research in traditional foods while research in Latin America, Africa and Asia is still incipient.

This review shows the potential of each method to be applied in the study of traditional foods as well as the positive implications that research about these products could bring to regions/countries with a great diversity of traditional products.

This review reveals the need to approach the study of traditional foods and encourage future research on them, which in turn, will contribute to the cultural and integral development of local communities, even to the recovery of ingredients and local raw materials.