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Article
Publication date: 2 March 2023

Hajar Fatemi, Erica Kao, R. Sandra Schillo, Wanyu Li, Pan Du, Nie Jian-Yun and Laurette Dube

This paper examines user generated social media content bearing on consumers’ attitude and belief systems taking the domain of natural food product as illustrative case. This…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines user generated social media content bearing on consumers’ attitude and belief systems taking the domain of natural food product as illustrative case. This research sheds light on how consumers think and talk about natural food within the context of food well-being and health.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a keyword-based approach to extract user generated content from Twitter and used both food as well-being and food as health frameworks for analysis of more than two million tweets.

Findings

The authors found that consumers mostly discuss food marketing and less frequently discuss food policy. Their results show that tweets regarding naturalness were significantly less frequent in food categories that feature naturalness to an extent, e.g. fruits and vegetables, compared to food categories dominated by technologies, processing and man-made innovation, such as proteins, seasonings and snacks.

Research limitations/implications

This paper provides numerous implications and contributions to the literature on consumer behavior, marketing and public policy in the domain of natural food.

Practical implications

The authors’ exploratory findings can be used to guide food system stakeholders, farmers and food processors to obtain insights into consumers' mindset on food products, novel concepts, systems and diets through social media analytics.

Originality/value

The authors’ results contribute to the literature on the use of social media in food marketing on understanding consumers' attitudes and beliefs toward natural food, food as the well-being literature and food as the health literature, by examining the way consumers think about natural (versus man-made) food using user generated content of Twitter, which has not been previously used.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 125 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 June 2017

Ruta Aidis and R. Sandra Schillo

The purpose of this paper is to present a new index summarizing women’s leadership in entrepreneurial ventures (WLEV) in the context of venture capital (VC) firm portfolios…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a new index summarizing women’s leadership in entrepreneurial ventures (WLEV) in the context of venture capital (VC) firm portfolios. Gender representation among VC portfolio firms is a concern for academics, and increasingly for practitioners aiming to reap the benefits of gender diversity.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the institutional theory and gender role congruity theory, the authors present dimensions of women’s involvement in leadership roles in VC-funded companies. As previous research has not provided standard definitions, the authors clarify the relevant dimensions. In addition, the authors present an empirical analysis of 153 VC fund portfolios and demonstrate women’s involvement across the three key dimensions forming the WLEV Index: involvement in leadership, management and founding of portfolio companies.

Findings

The authors present a summary of WLEV index aligned with previous research. The index has suitable characteristics for future research and introduces a first comparison with existing statistics. The authors’ findings show relatively low scores of women’s leadership in the VC portfolio companies investigated, especially as compared to average USA companies.

Originality/value

This paper introduces standardized definitions for women’s leadership in terms of: women-led, women-founded and women-managed. This paper also introduces a methodology and constructs an index to uniformly compare VC firm portfolio companies according to all three dimensions of women’s leadership. These contributions can be expected to form the basis of future research on gender representation in VC portfolio companies.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Ajax Persaud and Sandra R. Schillo

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individual innovativeness and social factors shape consumers’ purchase decisions of organic products.

3392

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individual innovativeness and social factors shape consumers’ purchase decisions of organic products.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on an online survey of 988 Canadian participants. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships between social identity, social influence, perceived value and purchase intention within a multi-group framework to show the moderating effect of consumer innovativeness.

Findings

The results show that the two social dimensions – social identity and social influence – influence purchase intention and the perceived value of organic products partially mediates these relationships. Further, the personal characteristic, “consumer innovativeness”, moderates these relationships.

Research limitations/implications

Although the sample consists of a higher proportion of younger participants, the results are consistent with theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, which underscores the importance of generational differences in organic product purchases.

Practical implications

Managers need to develop a more nuanced understanding of how social influence and social identity play different roles in the purchase intentions of consumer innovators vs later adopters. This knowledge can guide practical segmentation, targeting, positioning and promotion strategies.

Originality/value

This study complements the individual innovativeness predispositions literature by showing that the consideration of social factors leads to a more nuanced understanding of consumers’ purchase intention than either set of factors separately. It also contributes to the literature on adoption of organic products by introducing consumer innovativeness dimension as a key factor.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 January 2021

Ajax Persaud, Shu Wang and Sandra R. Schillo

Currently, the bulk of research on marketing innovation focuses on various firm-level dimensions using relationships from the technological (product and process) innovation…

Abstract

Purpose

Currently, the bulk of research on marketing innovation focuses on various firm-level dimensions using relationships from the technological (product and process) innovation literature. Research on industry-level differences in marketing innovation is lacking. Testing relationships form the technological paradigm in the context of the marketing innovation paradigm is also lacking. This paper aims to present empirical evidence on both aspects using a large-scale data set.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses two large-scale datasets, each consisting of approximately 4,000 Canadian enterprises in 18 industries. The data was collected by Statistics Canada in 2009 and 2012 through its nationwide Survey of Innovation and Business Strategies program. Two widely used theoretical frameworks, resource-based view of the firm and the competitive perspective, are used to generate constructs and hypotheses in relation to marketing innovation. The data was analyzed using multi-level logistic regression.

Findings

The findings show that industry-level competition is a much more important driver of marketing innovation than firm-level competition. The authors also show that marketing constructs that are significant in the context of technological innovation are also significant for marketing innovation.

Research limitations/implications

This study extends the firm-level literature by providing evidence of how industry-level dynamics enhances marketing innovation. The study also provides empirical evidence from Canadian enterprises that complement those from other countries.

Practical implications

A deeper understanding of the drivers of marketing innovation can enable managers to enact innovation strategies that can enhance organizational performance, differentiate themselves and enhance customer engagement and brand image.

Originality/value

As one of the few studies to examine industry-level differences in marketing innovation, the authors show that disaggregating competition into industry-level and firm-level provides a clearer picture of how competition advances marketing innovation. Additionally, this study is the first of its kind to provide empirical evidence on Canadian enterprises, thereby complementing evidence on marketing innovation from other countries. Thus, this study makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the emerging marketing innovation literature.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 36 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

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