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Article
Publication date: 18 May 2023

Gervaise Debucquet, Mélanie Dugué and Mireille Cardinal

Collective catering sector is increasingly offering alternative and more sustainable food propositions, but their success rests on their reception by guests and changes induced in…

Abstract

Purpose

Collective catering sector is increasingly offering alternative and more sustainable food propositions, but their success rests on their reception by guests and changes induced in individual behaviors. The authors investigate food-change determinants by examining the relationship between food behavior at staff restaurants and at home.

Design/methodology/approach

In an experiment over four days conducted in three staff restaurants, the authors monitored the behavioral changes and motivations of guests (n = 599) offered choices between standard and sustainable options for meat, fish, dairy products, fruit-based desserts and a vegetarian dish. The calculation of a “sustainable consumption score,” based on actual consumption at a restaurant by a subsample (n = 160) of guests gives an indication of interest for sustainable options.

Findings

Higher overall choices were observed for vegetarian dishes and for the sustainable meat options rather than for the sustainable fish and desserts options, thus suggesting contrasted perceptions of the sustainable alternatives. The results revealed two profiles of consumers with contrasting scores. The “lower receptive guests” had lower commitment to sustainable food at home and at staff restaurants, while the “higher receptive guests” found in the intervention meaningful propositions for pursuing their existing at-home commitment.

Research limitations/implications

Long-term research would be required to verify whether repeated sustainable offers can break down deep-rooted choices and instill durable changes among consumers with lower commitment to sustainable food. This research contributes to the identification of some types of food that are more suitable for sustainable-oriented interventions.

Practical implications

Some food triggers are identified to further norm activation among the lower receptive profile of consumers.

Originality/value

By addressing continuities/discontinuities between at-home and at-restaurant consumption and mobilizing the “norm-activation” concept, the authors question the efficiency of sustainable food offers at work.

Details

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

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2023

Amit Sharma, Laure Saulais and Yidan Huang

Strategies to promote more sustainable consumer choices have been gaining interest among tourism and hospitality scholars. In particular, behavioral economic theories of…

Abstract

Purpose

Strategies to promote more sustainable consumer choices have been gaining interest among tourism and hospitality scholars. In particular, behavioral economic theories of decision-making have gained popularity in the past decade, led by behavioral interventions (BIs) such as the nudge movement. This paper aims to present a critical reflection on this recent trend, with a specific focus on whether these BI approaches are an adequate tool to contribute to long-term behavioral changes, one crucial aim of the promotion of sustainable consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a critical review of recent significant academic works in the field, this paper reflects on how nudge principles are applied in the hospitality and tourism sectors, as well as the usual justifications given for their use. This paper then discusses the potential limitations, both theoretical and practical, of using these short-term focused approaches to decisions that intend to have long-term outcomes and aims.

Findings

BIs in hospitality and tourism have the potential to create long-term sustainable changes through a more comprehensive view of behavioral factors influencing decisions; however, such approaches would need to be strongly embedded in theoretical arguments that question “how” and “why” behavior change could be sustainable in the long term. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to address these concerns for future research.

Research limitations/implications

This critical reflection proposes a comprehensive framework that will help guide stronger theoretically motivated identification, design and empirical testing of BIs and nudges. Industry can eventually benefit from theoretically stronger interventions that provide a balance between the short-term and long-term influence of BIs to attain customer loyalty and eventually greater value for business stakeholders.

Originality/value

This reflection paper critically reviews the basis of BIs and recommends a framework to strengthen their theoretical arguments. This reflection focuses on the theoretical critique of BIs and nudges to ensure long-term behavior changes are sustainable. The paper also proposes a comprehensive framework that incorporates well-founded theoretical models to enhance BIs and nudge literature.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 June 2014

Madeline Gunn and Oksana Mont

– The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why choice editing is being used as a tool to promote sustainable consumption, using the choice editing of fish as a case study.

2800

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why choice editing is being used as a tool to promote sustainable consumption, using the choice editing of fish as a case study.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is explorative in nature and is based on a case study of choice editing of fish as a product category that has undergone fairly widespread choice editing. The case is built on primary empirical data from three Swedish and four British retailers collected through semi-structured interviews. These retailers are of different sizes, but together represent over 50 per cent of the food retail market in both Sweden and the UK taken by market share.

Findings

The findings suggest that the main business case choice editing is the creation of a responsible brand image and is often based on pressure from wider societal norms. The case for choice editing is therefore ultimately reliant on consumer recognition of sustainability issues as valuable, and it is unlikely to be taken up when retailers see no added brand value in acting responsibly on a certain issue. Clearer product-based indicators and stronger governmental regulation of unsustainable products may enable further choice editing for sustainability by retailers. NGOs and the media also play a critical role.

Originality/value

To enable further choice editing for sustainability by retailers, there is a need for clearer product-based indicators and stronger governmental regulation of unsustainable products.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 42 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 December 2018

Tim Gruchmann, Imke Schmidt, Sarah Lubjuhn, Stefan Seuring and Martine Bouman

Although research has been conducted on logistics social responsibility (LSR) on the one hand, and sustainable consumption on the other hand, the interlinkages between LSR and…

1467

Abstract

Purpose

Although research has been conducted on logistics social responsibility (LSR) on the one hand, and sustainable consumption on the other hand, the interlinkages between LSR and sustainable consumption still lack conceptualization and empirical evidence. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study empirically the interplay between logistics services and sustainable consumer choices. Such an analysis allows an investigation of consumer-choice-centered sustainable logistics practices to promote LSR in supply chains (SCs).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on expert interviews and in-depth consumer interviews, the authors conducted a three-stage qualitative, exploratory study with regard to sustainable logistics practices explicitly taking a consumer-choice-centered perspective into account.

Findings

As a result, consumer-choice-centered LSR categories were identified and discussed against the consumer social responsibility (ConSR) and other disciplines’ literature. In particular, consumer communication is necessary to enhance consumers’ awareness of sustainable logistics as current consumption behavior still hardly considers logistics services. Also, context- and situation-dependent SC configurations as well as financial incentives for sustainable consumption patterns promote more sustainable logistics services choices by end consumers.

Practical implications

Resolving certain frictions and rewarding positive behavior eases consumer’s decision making. By doing so, retailers need to support logistics service providers by stressing the benefits of more sustainable products and services as well as implementing more sustainable pricing schemes. Due to the consumer preferences, it is also important to achieve a context and situation dependent configurations to provide opportunities for more sustainable trade-offs.

Originality/value

The people dimension in SC management is seen as a promising field as the behavioral dynamics of consumers is rarely investigated in SC research. In this line, the study attempts to advance the theoretical underpinnings of corporate social responsibility in sustainable SCs. Therefore, this study contributes to theory by enriching the concept of LSR to include a consumer-choice-centered perspective and gives managerial as well as ethical implications on ConSR accordingly.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 August 2017

Paola Mancini, Andrea Marchini and Mariarosaria Simeone

This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of…

5138

Abstract

Purpose

This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of sustainability in the food products that affect consumer choices with a dual purpose: to identify and define “sustainable consumption” behaviour in broad sense and to investigate empirically the factors affecting the real consumption behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ understanding, motivation and use of sustainable labelling in order to understand the role sustainability information plays in the food products market.

Design/methodology/approach

Two focus groups in order to investigate consumer motivation and behaviour in-depth and to prepare the questionnaire. Identification of the outcomes that could summarize sustainable consumption combining: purchase of local products, consume only seasonal fruit, prefer products with recyclable packaging, attention to the fat content in foods, give importance to traceability and purchase products only in the place of origin. Identification of the “at risk” virtuous consumer, using a binary logistic regression approach, taking into account demographic characteristics, the food and nutrition value system, experience, knowledge, institutional factors and marketing.

Findings

Results from the focus groups are mainly in line with the empirical analysis, highlighting the key role of education in influencing consumer attitude and behaviour. Consumers give little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection and have little knowledge of environmental problems. The virtuous consumer appears to give importance to a better food nutrition value system, to pay more attention to ingredients and instructions on the label, to be more attentive to environmental and sustainable attributes, to be concerned about product quality and to be slightly influenced by brands and special offers.

Research limitations/implications

The findings from the empirical analysis confirm the results from focus groups even if it was not possible from the empirical analysis to investigate in-depth the marketing aspects concerning the food choice. This limit probably comes from the low number of observations. Further research will focus on these marketing aspects.

Practical implications

Products with sustainable attributes can become a strategic variable and allow companies to gain a competitive advantage, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This may encourage the development of new marketing channels based on the direct relationship between producer and the new consumer demand, increasingly sensitive to the food security issues.

Social implications

There is a potential interest and sensitiveness to having sustainable behaviour in a broad sense, but there is a lack of knowledge about how to behave to be sustainable. In the absence of binding rules, it is necessary that government promote information and campaigns to generate greater awareness on sustainability, aiming at increasing knowledge to drive the consumer’s choices. This may lead to virtuous results in terms of reducing social costs related to an unhealthy diet, food waste and unsustainable consumption.

Originality/value

The results show that despite the appearance of attention to the environment and to healthy food which is associated with this emerging critical consumer in the literature, there remains the problem of the consumer giving little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection. This is the problem of “rules of thumb” in purchasing decisions that prevail in the following situations: when consumers have an overload of information that exceeds their processing limits; when they tend to base their decision making on heuristics, focussing their choices on brands as a proxy for high-quality, product-related characteristics.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 119 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 July 2022

Julia Winterstein

Reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major tasks in the future, as food causes one-third of global emissions. Influencing customers' purchasing decisions…

Abstract

Reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major tasks in the future, as food causes one-third of global emissions. Influencing customers' purchasing decisions towards low-carbon food is thus decisive. Nudging has been proven to be an adequate mechanism to influence people towards sustainable food choices. Another relatively new approach is boosting, which promotes people's education, inducing autonomous decision-making. In the context of sustainable food, research on nudging and boosting is still at the beginning. Therefore, this chapter conducts a systematic literature review to identify, classify and assess the potential of cognitively oriented nudges and boosts towards sustainable food choices. The sample consists of 217 English-speaking papers published between 2011 and 2021. After three filtering steps, 21 scientific journal publications remained in the data extraction form. All articles are field experiments, comprising descriptive labelling, evaluative labelling, and visibility enhancements. The analysis shows that menu restructurings (e.g. placing a vegetarian option on the top of the menu) in restaurants are the most effective intervention to reshape customers' demands. Evaluative labels (e.g. traffic-light labels on the menu or product packaging) are the second most effective measure. They help people understand eco-related information and thus make better decisions. The effect of descriptive labels seemed small, as they provide no meaningful frame assisting people in processing the data. In conclusion, the research recommends applying cognitively oriented nudges and boosts to promote sustainable food choices and deduces practical implications for appropriate implementation and marketing.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 June 2023

Sadaf Mollaei, Leia M. Minaker, Jennifer K. Lynes and Goretty M. Dias

University students are a unique population with great potential to adopt eating habits that promote positive human and planetary health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to…

2363

Abstract

Purpose

University students are a unique population with great potential to adopt eating habits that promote positive human and planetary health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the current perceptions of sustainable eating behaviours among the students and to examine the determinants of sustainable eating behaviours.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from December 2020 to May 2021 through focus group discussions among university students in Ontario, facilitated through synchronous online sessions. There were 21 student participants during the course of five focus group sessions (4–5 participants per session) from various departments within the university. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed for main themes and concepts using open coding; deductive coding based on the framework by Deliens et al. as well as the literature; and inductive coding for emerging themes.

Findings

The students had different perceptions about what constituted sustainable eating behaviours, some of which were not based on fact. A variety of individual, environmental (macro, micro and social) and university characteristics were mentioned as factors influencing sustainable food choices, with “food literacy” and “campus food” being the top two factors.

Originality/value

This study presents a novel and holistic overview of how sustainable eating behaviours and sustainable foods are perceived among university students and identifies the perceived determinants of adopting sustainable eating behaviours. This study helps with identifying opportunities to promote sustainable eating behaviours among university students and the design/implementation of informed interventions and policies aimed at improving eating behaviours.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 24 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 July 2021

Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu, Fabiana Nogueira Holanda Ferreira and João Felipe Barbosa Araripe Silva

This paper aims to investigate to what extent sustainable and nonsustainable attributes can be used to characterize different clusters of consumers in an emerging market, where…

1493

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate to what extent sustainable and nonsustainable attributes can be used to characterize different clusters of consumers in an emerging market, where economic conditions can increase the relevance of price. Consumers seem reluctant to engage frequently in pro-sustainable behavior, mainly for financial reasons. However, purchasing decisions can be understood as a multidimensional process.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted quantitative and descriptive research employing a choice-based conjoint/hierarchical Bayes (CBC/HB) experiment in malls in a low-income city in northeast Brazil with 1,287 potential buyers of denim jeans. The conjoint analysis therefore collected data on preferences in the course of actual decision-making. The authors then took the individual part-utility from each respondent and ran a cluster analysis to identify similar groups in the sample. The classification and regression tree (CART) method was used to determine the relationship between the conjoint attributes and the sociodemographic characteristics.

Findings

The data demonstrate that buying decisions constitute a complex process of interplay between many different factors, often involving trade-offs between a wide variety of nonsustainable and sustainable attributes. The survey confirmed that price is still of paramount importance when it comes to consumer choices. The authors also found that sustainable attributes played a relatively more significant role than brand or origin of production. The authors identify notable differences between groups of consumers in the “pro-sustainable” and “non-pro-sustainable” clusters and different levels of importance regarding the sociodemographic characteristics.

Originality/value

Although price emerged as the most significant attribute, the research also demonstrates that there is a market in Brazil for products and practices based on a genuine commitment to the natural environment and social issues. The findings suggest that marketing managers and policymakers should consider different combinations of concerns over sustainability with product attributes and include sociodemographic variables rather than considering the textile market as uniform or thinking that there is no space for sustainability in fashion.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 November 2018

Roxanne van Giesen and Jorna Leenheer

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing…

2839

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing consumers on the origin and sustainability of products.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental field study was conducted in the Supermarket of the Future at the World Expo where sustainability information was displayed on interactive screens. There were three experimental groups: supermarket visitors who were put in a sustainability mind-set, supermarket visitors without a sustainability mind-set activation and non-visitors.

Findings

Store visitors extensively used the interactive displays, they intent to behave more sustainable in the future, and act more sustainable outside the food domain. Sustainability information through digital displays thus triggers consumers to think more about environmental concerns. Consumers who were activated to process sustainability information before entering the supermarket, show increased interest in the innovative shopping concept. Strong evidence that the increased interest translates into more sustainable consumer choices in the supermarket itself is lacking.

Originality/value

The authors obtain insight in consumer use of sustainability information presented on interactive displays in a retail environment and how this in turn affects behaviour. The study reveals that consumers can successfully be motivated to become more sustainable through interactive displays.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 47 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2020

Saad Mahmood Qureshi Qureshi

By using experiential learning theory, this study aims to examine how students engage in sustainable living practices that can improve their sustainability literacy and…

1356

Abstract

Purpose

By using experiential learning theory, this study aims to examine how students engage in sustainable living practices that can improve their sustainability literacy and behaviours. It also explores their motivations and enablers. In doing so, the research seeks to develop a curriculum model that may assist educators in designing learning activities for sustainable living.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study is conducted with 38 second-year undergraduate students on a sustainability-related module. Students are asked to engage in sustainable living practices for a six-week period. Descriptive statistics and inductive/thematic analysis are carried out on students’ reflective reports.

Findings

The results reveal five top sustainable living practices for students. The use of technology is revealed as an important enabler. Sustainable living motivations and approaches, and new skills are revealed. A sustainable living curriculum model is developed as a student-centric approach for fostering sustainability values.

Practical implications

The findings have implications for those teaching sustainability on the design of their learning content and activities by taking a student-centric approach to sustainable living. It also encourages active reflection throughout using an incremental learning process.

Originality/value

The research contributes to the existing literature by showing different choices and approaches for students’ sustainable living that can be considered when designing curriculum and educational activities to encourage maximum interaction in sustainable living. It develops a new curriculum model specific to sustainable living, and also builds on the concept of “learning by living”, an extension of learning by doing.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

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