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This chapter contributes to the present debate on food loss and waste. Many international and nongovernmental organizations see reducing food loss and waste as a priority for reducing global hunger and resource waste. The aim of this chapter is threefold. First, it questions whether the definition and methodology used for estimating the actual magnitude of food loss and waste is based on sound economic reasoning. Second, it investigates whether the inference concerning the potential for reducing global hunger is valid. Third, it questions whether there is a moral problem compared to wastage of some other consumer goods or the use of them for luxury reasons.

The definition of food waste and loss is crucial for quantifying its magnitude – how much is wasted by humans, fed to animals, and distributed to food banks. The aggregation problem is not solved adequately. It is highly questionable to aggregate all food items independently on the content of calories in kilograms. One kilogram of bread contains fewer calories than one kilogram of meat. It is questionable to consider food as loss or waste if the cost of avoidance would be higher than the value for the reduced loss or waste. Moreover, what is the cost to the hungry population for transferring food waste?

The purpose of this paper is to explore apparel-related issues experienced by plus-size female teens around the functional, expressive, and aesthetic consumer needs model. The goal was to uncover any issues which have interfered with or restricted apparel purchases.

A mixed methods research design was employed to collect body measurements with the use of a 3D body scanner and conduct in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of 30 plus-size females aged 12-17 years and their families.

The current US sizing system does not fully meet the measurement needs of this study group. Functional fit requirements often dictate the apparel purchased by plus-size female teens. Expressive and aesthetic desires often go unfulfilled by the apparel that satisfied their functional needs. Confusion over apparel size designations interfered with brand and store loyalty and resulted in fewer purchases from both physical and online stores.

Plus-sizes are the fastest growing segment of apparel and offer brands and retailers substantial opportunity for market growth. Plus-size female teens desire to increase their apparel purchases, but have been hindered by certain product development and merchandising practices. Participants made suggestions for brands and retailers to increase sales in the plus-size female teen market.

This study is unique by uncovering previously unknown issues regarding apparel fit and purchase behaviors of the plus-size female teens as well as relating participant’s advice to the apparel industry on this target market.

The main purpose of this paper is to identify, screen and prioritize customer requirements (CRs) for men’s denim jeans. Moreover, the effect of demographic factors on the primary evaluation criteria has been examined.

The study was initiated by the growing complaints about denim jeans products of a local manufacturing company. First, 24 CRs were identified from the literature and customer complaints. Then, a survey was conducted to rate the identified CRs and solicit more CRs through closed-ended and open-ended questions, respectively. From the survey, 368 usable responses were collected while the participants were shopping in 14 local retail shops. After analyzing the data using factor analysis, univariate and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and content analysis, the resulting 15 criteria were prioritized by experts’ pairwise comparisons employing the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

Factor analysis extracted six components (primary criteria) including design cues, pocket design, comfort, size and fit, fashionability, and extrinsic cues from the CRs included in the closed-ended questions. MANOVA showed that age and frequency of purchasing denim jeans significantly affected the primary criteria, while educational level and frequency of wearing denim jeans did not. The weights from the fuzzy AHP revealed that colour fastness, price, durability, fabric weight, workmanship, side pocket design and fit as the most important CRs. Moreover, consumers preferred regular fit, stitched round side pockets, patch back pockets and stretchable denim fabric.

The limitations of the study are discussed in the body of the paper in Section 7.

The paper presents exploratory findings on denim jeans evaluation criteria in a developing country’s context. Moreover, the application of fuzzy AHP for prioritizing denim jeans’ CRs is unique.

This paper aims to investigate, using stakeholder map methodology, showing power, urgency, legitimacy and concerns of different actors, the current state of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Switzerland. Previous research on CSR in Europe has made few attempts to identify stakeholders and their contribution to this topic.

To derive this map, publicly available documents were explored, augmented by 27 interviews with key stakeholders (consumers, media, government, trade unions, non-profit organisations [NPOs], banks, certifiers and consultants) and management of different companies (multinational enterprises [MNEs], small- and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] and large national companies). Using MAXQDA, the quantified codes given for power, legitimacy and urgency were triangulated between self-reporting, external assessments and statements from publicly available documents and subsequently transferred into stakeholder priorities or, in other words, into positions in the map. Further, the codes given in the interviews for different CSR interests and the results from the document analysis were linked between stakeholders. The identified concerns and priorities were quantitatively analysed in regard to centrality and salience using VennMaker.

The paper identified SMEs, MNEs and cooperating NPOs as being the most significant stakeholders, in that order. CSR is, therefore, not driven primarily by regulators, market pressure or customers. Further network parameters substantiated the importance of SMEs while following an unconventionally informal and idiosyncratic CSR approach. Hence, insights into these ethics-driven, unformalised business models that pursue broader responsibility based on trust, traditional values, regional anchors and the willingness to “give something back” were formed. Examples of this strong CSR habit include democratic decisions and abolished hierarchies, handshake instead of formal contracts and transparency in all respects (e.g. performance indicators, salaries and bonuses).

In total, 27 interviews as primary data that supplements publicly available documents are clearly only indicative.

The research found an innovative, vibrant and practical CSR model that is emerging for reasons other than conventional CSR agendas that are supposed to evolve. In fact, the stakeholder map and the CSR practices may point at a very different role businesses have adopted in Switzerland. Such models offer a useful, heuristic evaluation of the contribution of formal management systems (e.g. as could be found in MNEs) in comparison to the unformalised SME business conduct.

A rarely reported and astonishing feature of many of the very radical SME practices found in this study is that their link to commercial strategies was, in most cases, not seen. However, SMEs are neither the “poor relative” nor the abridged version of CSR, but are manifesting CSR as a Swiss set of values that fits the societal culture and the visionary goals of SME owners/managers and governs how a sustainably responsible company should behave. Hence, as a new stance and argument within CSR-related research, this paper concludes that “informal” does not mean “weak”. This paper covers a myriad of management fields, e.g. CSR as strategic tool in business ethics; stakeholder and network management; decision-making; and further theoretical frameworks, such as transaction cost and social capital theory. In other words, this research closes scientific gaps by at once applying quantitative as well as qualitative methods and by merging, for the first time, network methodology with CSR and stakeholder research.