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Mango seed, an agricultural food (agri-food) waste obtained during mango processing is generally discarded and causes environmental stress. In the present study, mango kernel was processed into flour and incorporated into macaron formulation. This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant potential, physicochemical properties, and sensory qualities of macaron after substitution of almond flour (AF) with 0% (control, MC-0), 20% (MC-20), 40% (MC-40), 60% (MC-60), 80% (MC-80) and 100% (MC-100) (w/w) of mango kernel flour (MKF).

Sensory evaluation was conducted using a nine-point hedonic scale (n = 90 young adults) to evaluate the acceptance towards MC-0 (control), MC-20, MC-40, MC-60, MC-80 and MC-100 macaron shells (without mango-flavoured ganache). The most preferred formulated and control macarons were subjected to proximate analyses according to the methods of Association of Official Analytical Chemists for moisture, ash, and protein, and American Oil Chemists' Society for fat. Carbohydrate content was estimated by difference. Physical analyses such as colour, pH and water activity (a_w) were performed using various instrumental techniques. Antioxidant activity of all macaron shell formulations was accessed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA). Sensory evaluation was repeated using a five-point hedonic scale to determine the acceptance of the most preferred macaron (with mango-flavoured ganache) among consumer panels of all age groups (n = 80).

The first sensory acceptance test revealed that macaron shell with 40% MKF substitution (MC-40) was the most preferred formulation among young adults aged 18–35 years old. Moisture and ash contents between MC-0 and MC-40 were found to be similar (p > 0.05), while significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed for the fat and protein contents. Antioxidant activity increased proportionally with increasing MKF substitution and exhibited significant improvement (p < 0.05) in MC-40. Approximately 93% of the panellists expressed their liking towards MC-40 in the second sensory acceptance test. Overall, this study demonstrated that 40% MKF substitution in macaron improved its antioxidant performance without compromising consumers' acceptance.

This innovative research features the incorporation of MKF in the development of an economical and healthier macaron. The results constitute industrial relevant findings pertaining to its application feasibility and nutritional properties. This research has contributed knowledge to the existing literature as well as benefitted food manufacturers to develop value-added products that could meet the needs and expectations of interested parties, including consumers, governmental organisations, health-cautious advocates and healthcare providers.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study on investor behavior in exchange-traded fund (ETF) markets. The standard feedback trading model of Sentana and Wadhwani (1992) is used in a sample of 18 ETFs contracts in Brazil, China, South Africa, Korea, Mexico and India, as well as three ETFs contracts in the US market.

The sample includes data on daily closing prices and net asset values (NAVs) for three ETFs from each of the emerging markets of Brazil, China, Mexico, Korea and India, as well as on three ETFs from the US market. The authors used the earliest start date available in the Thomson Reuters database pertaining to all of the ETFs, and all series ended on May 5, 2017, and applied the well-established Santana and Wadhwani (1992) seminal model to evaluate evidence of feedback trading in the sample.

The empirical analysis suggests that there is evidence of feedback trading in emerging markets such as Brazil, Korea, Mexico and India, while there is no such evidence for the US market. The results are consistent with the view that developed markets investors are prone to pursue fundamental-driven investment strategies, while emerging markets investors appear to have informational guided behavior.

Emerging markets still make up a very small part of the global ETF market, led by the USA. Nevertheless, it is extremely important that studies of this nature be gradually expanded as these markets grow, in order to verify how emerging markets compare to their developed counterparts in terms of the efficiency of information sharing and rationalization of its operations.

Emerging markets policy makers could benefit from these findings by stimulating new mechanisms that could minimize informational asymmetry and the persistence of so-called noise traders, a phenomenon observed recently in studies regarding ETF markets (Brown, Davies and Ringgenberg, 2018).

The behavior of investors was investigated by analyzing a sample of 18 ETFs from the emerging markets of Brazil, China, South Africa, Korea, India and Mexico, as well as three ETFs from the US market. Despite of being investigated separately both emerging (Charteris et al., 2014) and developed markets (Chau et al., 2011), the innovation consists in comparing those markets in a single study, pursuing to explain potential reasons for the differences observed between developed and emerging markets.