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The concept of sustainability is often viewed by organizational leaders as being abstract and difficult to apply in organizational reality. It is thus necessary to conduct more focused research to develop specific dimensions of the sustainability concept. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the social dimension of sustainability among supermarkets in Brazil.

Based on a literature review and the development of a framework of social business variables, the study examined which practices small and medium Brazilian supermarkets have adopted to promote the social dimension of sustainability. These companies were examined with the goal of relating the actions of each organization to their social performance.

The study found that the Brazilian supermarkets in the sample group practise social responsibility focused on strict regulations and labor laws; these practices conformed with existing legislation but did not address the development of broader actions or social projects. The results show continuities and discontinuities in the adoption of social practices among organizations in order to meet the requirements of labor legislation. The authors found a lack of social projects and greater integration into the community in which each supermarket operates.

The study contributes to research on social responsibility in retail, with a specifically Brazilian focus.

Over the past decade climate change has become an inescapable aspect of social responsibility for the major retail chains who have sought to incorporate the environmental considerations into their communication strategies. The purpose of this paper is to look more closely at communications campaigns based on environmental theme through social networks.

In this respect, social media can be considered a direct communication tool conducive to the promotion of sustainable development. Therefore, the paper is based on a year-long study of one group’s official Facebook page.

The conclusions highlight the need for retail chains to strengthen the perceived consistency of their communication strategies on this subject, in order to retain their credibility.

Encouraging consumers’ contributions via Facebook may be considered as a relevant practice for greening retail, on the condition that internet users are convinced of the value and interest of this process, as examples of a company’s concrete actions, which provide hard evidence of its stated commitments. The authors also point out the implications of the results in the emerging context of omni-channel retailing.

This paper provides two kinds of added value. First its explore retailers’ practice on the subject of green marketing. Second, it provides significant learnings regarding the potential impact of communication in social media.

The paper aims to identify retail models redistributing suboptimal food and their presence in Czechia. The author aims to give an overview of the status in comparison with other European Union countries and the form of such models in the Czech retail market concerning social super discount stores (SSDSs).

The analysis is based on data obtained from an empirical study conducted by the study of secondary materials, author store-check observations and interviews with owners of SSDSs. The theoretical part consists of a literature review on social enterprises, food wasting and the definition of certain food distribution formats such as social supermarkets, food banks and SSDSs. The criteria for the selection of the research sample for observation were chosen based on the research conducted in Austria by researchers from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

The research sample consists of 40 retail stores belonging to five retailers. The particular variables of the study are the number of stores, store size, range of categories and products, discount rates, location and the number of employees in the selected stores in Czechia.

This paper is a case study to identify and explore social retailing in Central Europe. This paper contributes to the emerging set of literature on social entrepreneurship, particularly in the field of retail for suboptimal food products.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the complexities of regularly implemented as well as irregularly occurring – sometimes improvised – instore logistics processes related to products which are declared unsaleable; and second, to identify the challenges and opportunities in managing instore logistics processes related to unsaleable products in grocery stores.

The authors apply an embedded case study approach. Within each case, i.e. dominant store format, the authors investigate the instore logistics processes of 32 retail and wholesale stores and focus further on those processes related to products declared unsaleable. The case study research methodology comprises in-depth interviews with store and category managers, point of sale observations and secondary data research.

The authors identified four different specific instore logistics processes depending on the residual product value of unsaleable products. The analysis of these processes suggests that establishing more efficient return, disposal, recycling, and most importantly, redistribution processes leads to various benefits such as cost savings, more effective and efficient operations, better use of resources and waste reduction, while at the same time supporting charitable institutions and people in need.

The contribution of this research are: first, to provide a better understanding of different ways of seeing and handling unsaleable products; and second, to reveal the significant importance of focusing on instore logistics beyond the point of sale with respect to the economic, ecological and social benefits to retailers, wholesalers and their stakeholder groups.

The authors seek to better understand the critical incidents and factors that influence the switching behaviours of back pain sufferers who use mainstream and/or complementary and alternative medicine (Edvardsson, 1998). That is, the purpose of this paper is to uncover how they switch between treatments and treatment providers; in particular, this research investigates two issues: the triggers of their switching and their switching paths, and how their emotions are involved in that switching. The contribution is the first empirical foundation for an understanding of these two issues in the context of back pain.

The qualitative technique of convergent interviewing was used. It involved conducting a series of long, initially rather unstructured interviews to converge on the important topic areas to the back pain sufferers and why they engage in their treatment behaviour.

This study investigated the triggers and categories of triggers that impact upon switching behaviours between bio-medical and CAT healthcare. Four main areas of findings were identified. First, although the literature identified four categories of triggers for switching, namely, situational, reactional, influential and personal characteristics, the findings of this research confirmed only two of these: reactional and situational triggers. The influential category of triggers was found to be more of a moderating factor between switching triggers and switching behaviours rather than a trigger factor on its own. Further, no evidence came to light that could confirm or disconfirm the roles of personal characteristics on switching behaviour and so this issue remains unresolved.

The methodology used in this research was an exploratory one and so the findings must be used with caution. Further research, using a more quantitative methodology, is warranted to confirm the findings of this research. Also, this research focused on a subset of switching issues and so might not provide a holistic framework. Future investigations should therefore consider and clarify the role of emotion, time and voice in the switching model devised from this study.

This paper provides new evidence on the reasons for back pain sufferers consuming different treatment modes and the reasons for their switching and includes an exploratory investigation of the role of emotions in this decision making.

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of consumer engagement with supermarkets' social media accounts. Drawing on regulatory fit theory and social sharing of emotions theory, the authors test if the content posted on the social media brand pages of supermarkets dealing with a topic of high social relevance, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulates social media consumer engagement and if and how the engagement is mediated by the arousal of positive and negative emotions.

The authors retrieved data from the Facebook accounts of the top 20 European supermarkets identified in the Deloitte 2020 Global Powers of Retailing report during the first wave of the pandemic from 1 March to 30 June 2020, collecting a sample of 2,524 posts from 8 different countries. After a content analysis to classify COVID-19 content, the authors applied the Baron and Kenny (1986) methodology to verify the hypothesised relationships.

The findings highlight a positive direct relationship between the social relevance of a topic (COVID-19) and social media consumer engagement mediated by the arousal of positive and negative emotions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest empirical research using Facebook data to investigate the role of the social relevance of content as an antecedent of social media consumer engagement with a specific focus on supermarkets. The paper contributes to the stream of social media literature investigating the antecedents of social media engagement behaviour, exploring the role of topics' choice and aroused emotions, which to date are both under-investigated.

The ‘consumer society’ has become a ‘consumer oligopoly’ in Britain as the big four supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, and Morrison have between them captured a 75% share of the grocery market. This has been achieved through globalisation, the attainment of large economies of scale, and major deployment of buying power. Total annual profits of the ‘big four’ UK supermarkets now stand at £3 billion, and several millions of this is spent on charitable causes and other CSR activities such as promoting sustainable development. However the spectacular growth of the supermarkets over the past fifty years has not been to the benefit of all. Some consumers have seen their access to healthy food curtailed as local shops have closed, and the quality of their diet has fallen; this is often referred to as the ‘food deserts’ phenomenon. The spatial scale of ‘food deserts’, the coping strategies employed by those affected by such ‘deserts’, and the solutions proposed to alleviate food access problems, are profoundly local in character, typically operating over distances of less than two kilometres. This paper suggests that a re‐focussing of the CSR activities of supermarkets towards the local scale can not only boost the social image of the supermarkets in fields where their impact is seen as negative, but can also be profitable for these corporations. Further benefits of a more local perspective include environmental advantages such as the maintenance of biodiversity and support for farmers whose incomes may be in decline. In tandem with a global commercial outlook, supermarkets have engaged with government at a national level to further their business interests. Simultaneously, governmental power within Britain has also moved from the local to the national level. In contrast, many organisations representing disadvantaged groups call for a localised, ‘bottom‐up’, approach. Britain's current centralised ‘top‐down’ approach to governance may be driven by financial pressures or ideological considerations, but this has nevertheless alienated some voters from government. This shift has prompted a certain disengagement with political processes for some individuals, and a shift towards ‘direct action’ tactics which may be damaging to commercial activities. It is argued here that a realignment of the supermarket's engagement with politics from the national to the local level is possible, financed by the resources the supermarkets currently devote to CSR activities. This re‐localisation of supermarket political activity would in fact pay dividends for the ‘big four’ retailers, because by helping to re‐build the legitimacy of national government it would create a more stable environment for business within the UK.

This study identifies the impact of supermarket environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) on consumers’ loyalty towards their supermarket. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R), this study demonstrates how positive and negative emotions mediate the relationships between consumers’ perceptions of ECSR and consumers’ attitudes towards their supermarket. This study draws from cultural theory and works on sustainability and examines the moderating effect of the cultural context on these relationships.

A supermarket intercept survey was conducted among 327 consumers in France and 444 consumers in Morocco. The proposed model was analysed using Amos 22.

ECSR’s impact on consumer loyalty varies across cultural contexts through the mediation of positive and negative emotions. The study also indicates how consumers’ levels of environmentalism moderate the direct effect of supermarket ECSR on consumers’ attitudes towards the supermarket.

Based on the S-O-R and cultural theories, this study demonstrates how the dimensions of the cultural context moderate the direct and indirect effects of ECSR on consumers’ loyalty towards their supermarket. Specifically, favourable perceptions of supermarket ECSR have an ambivalent impact on consumers’ attitudes through the mediation of negative emotions, such as shame, in more collectivist, low uncertainty avoidance and short-term oriented countries.

Tailored recommendations for supermarket managers interested in ECSR and operating in an international context are provided.

This research highlights the varying impacts of environmental actions in international retailing.

Using the S-O-R and cultural theories, this study reveals nuances to existing knowledge on the role of consumers’ emotions in international retailing. It reveals the salience of negative emotions after the perception of a positively valenced stimulus across distinct cultural contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a process model for the role transformation of vulnerable consumers through support services.

The study is based on four years of participant observation at a community-based support service and in-depth interviews with the consumers. Visual ethnography was used to document the process of the consumers' role transformation through service exchanges.

The main outcome of this study is a consumer transformation model, describing consumers' role transformation processes, from recipients to generic actors. The model demonstrates that vulnerable consumers will transform from recipients to quasi-actors before becoming generic actors.

Vulnerable consumers' participation in value cocreation can be promoted by providing social support according to their dynamic roles. By enabling consumers to participate in value cocreation, social support provision can become sustainable and inclusive, especially in rural areas affected by aging and depopulation. Transforming recipients into generic actors should be a critical aim of service provision in the global challenge of aging societies.

Beyond identifying service factors, the research findings describe the mechanism of consumers' role transformation process as a service mechanics study. Furthermore, this study contributes to transformative service research by applying social exchange theory and broadening service-dominant logic by describing the process of consumer growth for individual and community well-being.

Increasingly complex societal challenges call for new, innovative solutions that social hybrid business models can provide. Social supermarkets (SSMs) are one example offering access to affordable food to people living in poverty while reducing food waste of nearby retailers. Finding the “right” location is an essential part of this retail marketing strategy. However, limited research has attempted to investigate the specific conditions of locational planning for hybrid and nonprofit retail organizations. This paper illustrates the case of Austria where SSMs are well established.

A GIS-based white space analysis was carried out to identify potential neighborhoods or rural areas for new social supermarkets with sufficient nearby demand, supply and no existing SSMs. The empirical parameters for this spatial analysis can be transferred to European countries with similar ecosystems. The authors collected a unique data set of 79 (2014) and 88 SSMs (2019) and 4,665 (2014) and 4,211 (2019) food retailers as (potential) suppliers to SSMs. To determine demand, the authors relied on small-scale integrated wage and income tax data and unemployment rates (2011) from Statistics Austria.

Overall, Austria has very good spatial access to grocery stores, including to SSMs. SSM access increased especially in the capital of Vienna between 2014 and 2019. The GIS-based white space analysis identified several other regions where residents have a high demand for affordable food with sufficient potential suppliers of surplus food but no SSM yet. Neighborhood-level findings are released as part of a publicly accessible spatial decision support system.

The methodology allowed a specific definition of the key areas of relevance by matching the demand for SSMs, calculated as the number of people with low incomes in the respective regions in Austria, with the supply of SSMs, calculated as the amount of potential food loss prevention by nearby retail stores. These parameters have proven to help in identifying the white spaces and therefore can be used in Austria and other European countries with similar ecosystems.