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This study aims to investigate how attributes associated with local food (intrinsic product quality; local support) motivate purchase behaviour. Previous research assumes heterogeneity in consumer motivation, but this has never been formally assessed. As such, the influence of local food attributes in motivating product use is integrated into a model in which consumer values and personal characteristics/situational variables are specified as moderators.

Eight hypotheses are tested using data collected from a quota sample of respondents recruited via an online panel of 1,223 shoppers. A three-stage analysis is used using structural equation modelling. Moderation effects are tested using both latent interactions and multiple-group analysis.

Shoppers purchase local food more frequently as a consequence of local support rather than intrinsic product quality. Unpicking these relationships reveal that local support has an amplified effect when local identity is higher, and when the shopper is either female or of an older age (55 years plus). Surprisingly, the influence of intrinsic product quality is equivalent by gender, age and location (rural/urban).

Marketers promoting locally produced foods should focus on both the intrinsic attributes of local food as well as the role it plays within the local community. The latter is more likely to be successful with communications aimed at women and older consumers.

With previous studies focusing on how local food attributes influence favourable consumer behaviours, the current study unpicks these relationships by examining heterogeneity in responses. This is the first study to concurrently use attributes, values and personal characteristics/situational variables in explaining shopping behaviour for local food.

Nicotine is consumed by one in five of the global adult population, mostly by smoking tobacco cigarettes. Modern electronic cigarettes came onto the market from around 2007 and have considerable potential to improve population health by displacing tobacco smoking. The purpose of this study is to map the use of e-cigarettes, but this is difficult due to absence of data sources for many countries.

The global number of vapers was estimated to be 68 million in 2020. New data in 2021 offered an opportunity to update that estimate. The method of assumed similarity was used for countries with missing data. The average prevalence of vaping was calculated for each World Health Organization region, World Bank income classification group and the legal status of e-cigarettes in each country. The number of vapers was calculated for the adult population. The estimate was refined by adjusting for changes in market value size and the actual year of surveys.

Population prevalence data on e-cigarette used were available for 48 countries. We estimate that there were 82 million vapers worldwide in 2021: 9.2 million in the Eastern Mediterranean region; 5.6 million in the African region; 20.1 million in the European region; 16.8 million in the Americas; 16.0 million in the Western Pacific region; and 14.3 million in South-East Asia.

Global, regional and national estimates of the numbers of vapers are important indicators of trends in nicotine use, and monitoring the uptake of vaping is important to inform international and national policy.