The Evolution of Fast Food in a Customer-Driven Era

Customers are important for every company and their changes in taste, behavior, and way to decide strongly influence companies' strategy. The food sector follows the new trends and tries to adapt its way to do business, leveraging on innovation and sustainability. In the food sector, an innovation can be linked to tradition. There is a limited change in the offer and fast food restaurants' innovating is key to survive. Thus, authors analyzed how both International Hamburger Foodservices (IHF) such as McDonalds and Burger King, and Local Hamburger Foodservice (LHF), such as M**Bun and Burgheria, are changing their strategies to meet customers' needs. Authors focused on the Piedmont area, in particular the Turin area, which has a long culinary tradition, hostings of important food events, and an increasing trend of new fast food restaurants.

Ecodesign Strategies and Customer Value

Despite increasing attention to environmental issues, studies of ecodesign reveal that the market and the customer are two of the main external barriers to the effective implementation of ecodesign in industrial companies. Moreover, studies adopting this perspective mostly evidence the difficulties in interpreting customer perception as a source of customer value. Contributions exploring specific techniques that may be useful to support ecodesign strategies in a customer-based perspective are scarce. To fill this gap in the literature, this chapter revises the literature on ecodesign, adopting a customer-based perspective focusing on the controversial results regarding eco-products and customer value. To identify techniques suitable to support ecodesign strategies in a customer-based perspective, and considering the challenges affecting customer perception of eco-products, the chapter shows—through an empirical analysis conducted on ecological washing machines—how conjoint analysis can be successful in this aim.

Life Cycle Management and Sharing Economy

The life cycle sustainability assessment based on Life Cycle Thinking is currently considered the most crucial paradigm that includes three kinds of sustainability variables. Life cycle management (LCM) is the most holistic approach in promoting sustainable value creation, embedding the social, economic, and environmental dimensions as a management tool. LCM is mainly applied in the manufacturing and products chain, whereas it is understudied in the service industry. This chapter proposes the development of the LCM general framework and the definition of indicators for the assessment of sustainability in the urban shared mobility. The research framework has been tested in the transportation sector focusing on car sharing context.

Innovative Business Models in Digital Firms

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development intends to improve efforts of governments, societies, and companies to deal with major social and environmental problems affecting contemporary societies. From a business perspective, companies can find a propulsive boost of innovation looking at different models of production and use of services/products. This new perspective is radically changing the ways companies and consumers interact, and the role of companies in supporting the achievement of SDGs through service innovation is becoming pervasive. In addition, the emerging digital economy represents a great opportunity opening up to sustainability-oriented service innovation and firms are developing their competitive advantage based on the introduction of new digital business models. This chapter explores this issue through an explorative case study based on the MyTaxi business model. Implications for managers and researchers and opportunities for future research are highlighted.

B Corp Certification for a Circular Economy Approach and a Sustainable Pathway

The “loop” approach of the circular model, which aims to live in the business or market environment, requires a radical evolution of the production techniques, management, and skills in a new concept or idea for the market. Circular Economy results from a long awareness-raising process connected with problems concerning environmental protection. The dissemination of circular economy supposes the adoption of business models which will eventually enable environmental sustainability oriented behaviors, an efficient use of resources, and the respect of ethical, social, and environmental values. Benefit Corporations are companies pursuing these objectives. This chapter identifies and discusses the potential of B Corp certification to apply the principle of Circular economy. In particular, a compared multiple analysis of case studies is used to evaluate how the requirements of the scheme of certification influence the potential circularity of the enterprises analyzed.

How Industry 4.0 Changes the Value Co-Creation Process

The chapter analyses the literature on Industry 4.0 to understand the effect that Industry 4.0 has on customer co-creation process. The chapter is conceptual and is based on a literature analysis—conducted through ISI-Thompson Web of Science—that answers two research question: (RQ1) if and (RQ2) how the Industry 4.0 changes the customer value co-creation process. The results are summarized into a conceptual framework that shows how Industry 4.0 transforms the creation of value for customers, of customers, and with customers. The implications encourage managers and policymakers to implement a wider range of enabling technologies along the various phases of the supply chain and to adopt a new way to manage the company itself and the relations with customers involving them in the co-creation of products.

Industry 4.0 in the Context of the Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability

Industry 4.0 and sustainability are trending topics in the industry and scientific research. However, there is currently no comparable study, which summarizes the impacts of Industry 4.0 on all three dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line at the same time. This chapter aims to present a comprehensive overview of Industry 4.0 in the context of the Triple Bottom Line of sustainability. For this reason, a systematic literature review is conducted to find out the current state of literature about this topic. The chapter presents a systematic literature review on 64 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been published between 2014 and 2019. An in-depth analysis of the content as well as an analysis of the empirical methodologies are conducted. To structure the existing knowledge, a framework is developed, and the findings are categorized into ecological and social aspects. On this basis the content is evaluated to discuss key findings and relating interdependencies.

Millennial's Involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has come to be regarded as a great strategic marketing tool and an important part of the business paradigm (Supanti and Butcher, 2019). Several authors (i.e. Choi and La, 2013) studied CSR as a driver of satisfaction and loyalty. This chapter focused on the behavior of Millennials to which CRS is an integral part of their lives. However, studies in the literature on this topic are limited. The chapter fills the gap of existing literature and increases knowledge on this issue by: (1) identifying, through factor analysis, the dimensions of CSR and (2) analyzing, through cluster analysis, the relationships between CSR and Customer Satisfaction (CS) and Customer Loyalty (CL) of different Millennials groups. The results show how the knowledge of the CSR conditions the behavior of millennials by helping to increase their level of satisfaction and loyalty.

The Effect of Packaging Material on Consumer Evaluation and Choice

Packaging is the last marketing communication tool a company can use before the purchase decision is made. It creates positive or negative brand associations and informs consumers about the product category, personality, and quality. This chapter explains the role of packaging material in influencing the product evaluation process. Specifically, a between-subjects experimental design was conducted to investigate if the product quality judgment and the purchase intention towards extra virgin olive oil differ between tetra-pak and glass bottle. Results showed attitude towards the product, pack and product evaluation, and perceived quality and risk was better in the case of the glass package compared to the tetra-pak. Similarly, the willingness to buy and pay was higher in the case of the glass package compared to the tetra-pak one.

Environmental Sustainability to Support Competitiveness

The interest of scientists and companies in understanding the business implications of environmental commitments is timely; however, a dilemma remains at the firm level: is environmental sustainability a strategic factor for business competitiveness? The author contributes to this international end interdisciplinary debate through a double analysis, theoretical and empirical. Starting from a systematic literature review, the main correlations between environmental commitments and business performance are identified in a scholar's perspective. Based on the results from an Italian survey, the main added values associated with certified environmental management system are verified with a manager's perspective. Finally, the findings obtained from theoretical and empirical points of view are compared, to discuss confirmations or contradictions and underline questions still open.