Reducing food waste: an investigation on the behaviour of Italian youths

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 731-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovica Principato ◽  
Luca Secondi ◽  
Carlo Alberto Pratesi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the knowledge of youths concerning food waste as well as to identify factors that influence changes in behaviour concerning food wasted and planning shopping for preventing it. Design/methodology/approach – The data used were collected from a sample of 233 students at Roma-Tre University in Italy. Probit models were specified to identify factors affecting food waste reduction in both pre-shopping and consumption phases. Findings – Results show that the more aware youths are concerning food waste, the more likely they are to reduce leftovers. In contrast, the concern about food freshness increases waste. A greater awareness of the consequences of food wasted increases the likelihood that youths will make a shopping list. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the study can be found in the non-probabilistic sampling design used for the collection of data. Practical implications – This study provides information for both social marketers and policy makers. New educational campaigns against food waste should be carried out by providing them with a realistic perception of food waste as well as by teaching young consumers how to recognize the level of freshness of food. Originality/value – This study provides a first insight of the factors that influence food waste reduction as well as the habit of making a shopping list from an individual perspective.

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hind El Makrini

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the managerial determinants of the export success of Moroccan small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based on resource-based view (RBV) of a firm. Design/methodology/approach – The quantitative design was employed involving a questionnaire completed by 100 managers of Moroccan SMEs. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to confirm or reject eight hypotheses. Findings – It was found that management export commitment and management customer orientation are the main managerial factors in the export success of Moroccan SMEs. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to one context, and it followed a cross-sectional approach. Export success was measured by only subjective method with Likert scale. The study suggests that further investigations can be made to incorporate other factors affecting export success. Practical implications – The results offer insights into the practices of Moroccan exporting SMEs and recommendations for policy makers as well as an indication for further research. The research can also be used in teaching. Originality/value – First, the tested model is one of few that consider developing country contexts. Second, this research can serve as a guide for future researchers who intend to study export success in other developing countries, particularly in Maghreb regions where there is a gross dearth of research. Therefore, the study is of significant value to practitioners and scholars alike.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-159
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Savelli ◽  
Barbara Francioni ◽  
Ilaria Curina

Purpose This paper aims to address the food waste phenomenon by investigating the relationship between healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity and by considering the mediating role of food waste preventing behavior on such a relationship. Design/methodology/approach Based on an online survey of 1,941 UK millennial consumers, the research hypotheses were tested using the PLS-PM approach to structural equation model. Findings The results reveal that both the consumption of healthy food and the habit of eating at home enhance food waste reduction. Moreover, the findings corroborate the mediating effect of the food waste preventing behavior on the relationship between a healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity, thus underlying its role as an effective mechanism able to improve the influence of healthy lifestyle dimensions on food waste intensity. Practical implications The paper offers three levels of practical implications directed to public institutions, private manufacturers and retailers. Social implications The study underlines the key relevance of ad hoc educational programs aimed at improving the overall awareness of young consumers about food waste damages, by specifically identifying the main features on which these programs should focus. Originality/value This paper adds knowledge by helping to explain how and why a healthier lifestyle could translate into food waste reduction. Moreover, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of preventing behavior by proposing a rich overview of strategies to adopt to avoid food waste.


2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (11) ◽  
pp. 2578-2591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blazenka Knezevic ◽  
Natasa Kurnoga ◽  
Ivan-Damir Anic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the knowledge, awareness and concern of young consumers towards avoidable and “edible” food waste, and identify groups of individuals based on their attitudes. In addition, this study describes demographic and behavioural characteristics of each group. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected by a questionnaire conducted among university students in Croatia. Factor and cluster analyses were applied to identify the groups of individuals with similar attitudes towards food waste. Findings Results show that there are five factors that represent the knowledge, awareness and concern about food waste of young people – awareness of food waste problem; concern about economic aspects of food waste; health concern; concern about environmental impact of food waste; and awareness and concern about expiration date. Based on those factors, four groups of consumers were identified: consumers concerned about economic effects of food waste; unaware consumers neglecting food waste; well-informed consumers; and fully aware consumers, but not ready to take health risk. Practical implications The results of the study can be used by marketers and policy makers when planning food waste reduction activities to focus their campaigns towards consumer niches, based on the typology of young consumers. Originality/value This study provides a typology of university students based on their knowledge, awareness and concern about food waste in Croatia, as an example of a transition and new EU member state, where the issues about food waste are relatively new and underexplored topic.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 504-510
Author(s):  
Gunjan M. Sanjeev ◽  
Richard Teare

Purpose The paper aims to profile the theme issue of Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes titled “How is the need for innovation being addressed by the Indian hospitality industry?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editor, contributors from the industry and academia and the theme issue outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editor to reflect on the rationale for their theme issue question, the starting-point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process. Findings It highlights recent innovations that have taken place in the Indian hospitality industry especially in the areas of customer service, cost competitiveness, culinary management, revenue management and technology. Practical implications As hotel sector investment in India intensifies, this theme issue will be of interest to hoteliers, policy makers, analysts and others interested in the role that innovation can play in helping to facilitate differentiation between competing hotel products and services. Originality/value There is limited literature available on industry innovations in the Indian context. All the papers in this theme issue were written after several cycles of interaction between academics and practitioners and so they incorporate real–time, relevant and contemporary data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ylva Fältholm ◽  
Cathrine Norberg

Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain increased knowledge about gender diversity and innovation in mining by analyzing how women are discursively represented in relation to these two concepts, and in doing so establish how diversity management is received and communicated in the industry. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on analysis of texts including references to gender diversity and innovation in mining found on the web. The tool used to retrieve the data has been WebCorpLive, a tool designed for linguistic analysis of web material. Findings Although increased female representation is communicated as a key component in the diversity management discourse, based on the idea that diversity increases innovation and creativity, closer analysis of texts on diversity and innovation in mining shows that what women are expected to contribute with has little explicit connection with innovation. Research limitations/implications The study contributes with increased knowledge about diversity management by providing an example of how it is received in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Practical implications The findings indicate that for diversity management to have a real effect in mining, it needs to be based on gender equality and social justice motives, rather than on a business case rationale – the principal motive today. To enable this change, stereotypical gender patterns, as shown in this study, need to be made visible and problematized among policy makers, practitioners and actors on all levels of the industry. Originality value The study contributes with new knowledge about gender in the mining industry previously not attended to by using a method which so far has been sparsely used in discourse analysis, although pointed out as promising.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sucheta Agarwal ◽  
Veland Ramadani ◽  
Leo-Paul Dana ◽  
Vivek Agrawal ◽  
Jitendra Kumar Dixit

Purpose The ascent of women enterprising community (WEC) in a couple of decades draws the attention of various government and non-government bodies. Literature has mentioned various studies that focus on the factors affecting the success or failure of women entrepreneurs (WEs), but understanding of the ranking of the factors depending on the experiences of different WEs is needed. This study aims to identify the significant factors essential for the growth of WEC. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the factors through interview of 33 WEs having different entrepreneurial experiences (less than 1 year, more than 1 year but less than 10 years and more than 10 years of experiences) from different regions of Uttar Pradesh, India, and with the help of analytical hierarchical process, ranks the factors affecting the sustainable growth of WEs. Findings Through analysis, significant factors have been identified such as determination, education, entrepreneurial resilience, personal satisfaction and provide employment, and these factors have been analysed according to the different experiences of WEs. An investigation of ranking these factors of WEC, especially in the emerging nations, can assist policymakers in designing projects that improve the mindfulness associated with women enterprise and define the compelling methodologies. Practical implications The growth of the WEC is significantly affected by gender orientation ways of thinking as driven by entrepreneurship models. Originality/value This study gives a direction to policymakers by emphasizing on significant factors of various stages of enterprise development for the encouragement of WEs in the emerging economies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 492-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqar Ahmed ◽  
Arsalan Najmi ◽  
Hafiz Muhammad Faizan ◽  
Shaharyar Ahmed

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the factors affecting Muslim consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for Halal food, products and operations by employing theory of reasoned action.Design/methodology/approachThis study has used quantitative research methodology and collected data from 350 questionnaires from a densely populated city of Pakistan. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe results show that the concerns about Halal, religiosity, perception of usefulness of Halal and product ingredients have a significant impact on WTP for Halal foods, while attitude has an insignificant impact on WTP. Moreover, the extent of demand for Halal certification is significantly affected by WTP.Originality/valueThe study highlighted the concerns of the Muslim consumers with respect to Halalness of the products and operations despite living in a Muslim country. It is recommended that the policy makers, food authorities and health institutions should conduct regular inspections of foods, products and producers’/manufacturers’ operations to ensure that all the procedures from manufacturing of the raw material till the finished goods follow Islamic principles to make them completely Halal.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammadkarim Bahadori ◽  
Ramin Ravangard ◽  
Mahya Tohidi Nezhad ◽  
Naeimeh Pourtaheri ◽  
Sayyed Morteza Hosseini-Shokouh

PurposeAccording to the great importance of community health as well as the ever-increasing development of health technologies, the importance of designing an interactive model of factors affecting health technology assessment (HTA) can be highlighted. The purpose of designing and implementing the framework of health information system assessment is to ensure that the required accurate data which are necessary to measure the main health indicators are available. The purpose of this paper is to design an interactive model of factors affecting HTA.Design/methodology/approachThis is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study conducted in the Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education in the second half of 2017. A sample of 60 experts and professionals working in the field of health technologies are selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Two researcher-made questionnaires are used to collect the required data. The collected data are analyzed using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and MATLAB R2013a.FindingsThe results showed that “Legal dimension,” “safety,” “Effectiveness” and “Social dimension” were the affecting factors and net causes, and “Current application,” “Knowledge of technology,” “Ethical dimension,” “Costs” and “Organizational dimension” were the affected factors and net effects in the interactive model. Furthermore, “Legal dimension” with the coordinates C: [1.88, 1.27] and “Ethical dimension” with the coordinates C: [1.75, −75] were known as the most affecting and most affected factors in the interactive model, respectively.Originality/valueThe DEMATEL model is an appropriate tool for managers and policy makers to structure and prioritize factors influencing the HTA. Policy makers and decision makers can use this model for identifying relationships among factors and prioritize them. Because health policy makers and managers have a major role in formulating the regulations and guidelines related to the HTA, they should pay more attention to the legal considerations in their decisions and use the management tools to move the available resources toward implementing and enforcing rules and guidelines related to the HTA.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 996-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kea Tijdens ◽  
Miroslav Beblavý ◽  
Anna Thum-Thysen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems that skill mismatch cannot be measured directly and that demand side data are lacking. It relates demand and supply side characteristics by aggregating data from jobs ads and jobholders into occupations. For these occupations skill mismatch is investigated by focussing on demand and supply ratios, attained vis-à-vis required skills and vacancies’ skill requirements in relation to the demand-supply ratios. Design/methodology/approach Vacancy data from the EURES job portal and jobholder data from WageIndicator web-survey were aggregated by ISCO 4-digit occupations and merged in a database with 279 occupations for Czech Republic, being the only European country with disaggregated occupational data, coded educational data, and sufficient numbers of observations. Findings One fourth of occupations are in excessive demand and one third in excessive supply. The workforce is overeducated compared to the vacancies’ requirements. A high demand correlates with lower educational requirements. At lower occupational skill levels requirements are more condensed, but attainments less so. At higher skill levels, requirements are less condensed, but attainments more so. Educational requirements are lower for high demand occupations. Research limitations/implications Using educational levels is a limited proxy for multidimensional skills. Higher educated jobholders are overrepresented. Practical implications In Europe labour market mismatches worry policy makers and Public Employment Services alike. Originality/value The authors study is the first for Europe to explore such a granulated approach of skill mismatch.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Vahid Aqili ◽  
Alireza Isfandyari Moghaddam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the digital divide has become a common metaphor originating from now nearly obsolete phrases such as “information have and have nots” and “information rich and information poor”. The article aims to focus on several dimensions of the digital divide that pertain to service as well as the responsibilities of libraries.Design/methodology/approachThis article places emphasis on the role of librarians and information professionals in bridging the digital divide by indicating some aspects related to it as evidenced in the literature including its definition, aspects, factors affecting, and internet users.FindingsLibraries are treated as one of the major social tools which can solve the information divide rooted in the digital divide and contribute to the realization of democratic society.Research limitations/implicationsThis article revolves around the authors' points of view. So, further studies, especially comparative research between developed and developing countries which vary in terms of digital divide rate, can help to understand the real role librarians and information professionals play.Practical implicationsRethinking the digital divide, librarians must redesign and redefine their service menu for their customers through thinking functionally. They also need to review the various IT devices and information services available and examine which can be employed to present a more effective library service. In addition, policy‐makers should consider the vital role that librarians can play in the realization of knowledge‐based society and sustainable development.Originality/valueThis paper provides a theoretical basis for librarians to be more active and sedulous and policy‐makers to be vigilant and place much value for information sector and its professionals, particularly librarians working in various libraries.


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