Adele Coppola and Sara Ianuario
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role Italian Producer Organizations (POs) play in implementing sustainability actions in the fruit and vegetable sector. In particular…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role Italian Producer Organizations (POs) play in implementing sustainability actions in the fruit and vegetable sector. In particular, it aimed at verifying whether environmental actions reveal different models with respect to implementation of sustainability and at analyzing the relationship between environmental strategies and specific POs’ characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
The work is based on a field survey carried out by submitting a questionnaire to POs. Collected data were processed by means of exploratory data and multivariate analysis techniques. A cluster analysis was used to classify POs with respect to their ability/will to translate views into sustainability actions.
Findings
Three different groups were identified with reference to the involvement in ethical and environmental actions. Results show that POs’ strategies often include interlinked economic and environmental objectives. In particular, product quality improvement often goes with the promotion of environmentally friendly techniques, while other environmental actions respond to a reduction costs rather than to a sustainability strategy.
Research limitations/implications
Only 38 out of 300 POs returned the questionnaire. Because of the small sample, the analysis has only an exploratory nature and aims at giving a first insight on how sustainability issues are intended and implemented in the agri-food sector.
Originality/value
Most works have analyzed environmental strategies at the company level. This study focused on POs in the agri-food sector as they can also represent the drivers of a sustainability pattern involving their members.
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Adele Coppola, Fabio Verneau, Francesco Caracciolo and Teresa Panico
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of socio-economic context in affecting the relationship between personal values and the purchase of fair trade (FT) products.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of socio-economic context in affecting the relationship between personal values and the purchase of fair trade (FT) products.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was based on data and information collected by means of a web-administered survey and was performed in two steps. First, an explanatory factor analysis on the Schwartz value system and a confirmatory factor analysis on socio-economic context variables were carried out. Second, the per capita GDP at provincial level and the predicted factor scores were used in an ordered probit model to explain the expenditure level of FT products.
Findings
The results provide evidence that the value system has an effect on the consumption of FT products, but the economic context, in particular the average wealth at province level, is also relevant and plays a role by either affecting FT product purchasing levels directly or interacting with personal values.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the electronic submission and the specific channel used in the survey, the sample cannot be considered as representative of Italian consumers, and thus the analysis has a merely descriptive (non-inferential) function.
Originality/value
While several studies investigated how personal values affect consumers’ behaviour directly or indirectly, very few studies analysed the way socio-economic context interacts with the value structure and the way both aspects influence ethical consumption. The present study analyses this last aspect and provides evidence of the role economic context plays in affecting the relationship between personal values and FT products consumption.
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Fabian Capitanio, Adele Coppola and Stefano Pascucci
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the main dynamics of the Italian food system, focusing on the relationships between the inclination to innovate and a set of firm…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the main dynamics of the Italian food system, focusing on the relationships between the inclination to innovate and a set of firm characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis includes two steps. In the first, principal component analysis is carried out in order to identify factors that can explain the features that differentiate Italian food firms. In the second phase the role of such factors on innovation behaviour is quantified by means of a logit model.
Findings
The empirical analysis showed that, in the Italian food sector, innovation adoption follows different patterns when product or process innovation is considered. In particular, the probability of introducing product innovation is influenced by the quality of human capital, the geographical context and, to a lesser extent, the age of the firm.
Research limitations/implications
The research is restricted in so far as it only considers the Italian food sector. Because the data survey is representative only at the level of the manufacturing industry as a whole and excludes firms with fewer than ten employees, the analysis for the food sector can only be indicative.
Practical implications
This paper provides a useful source of knowledge on the innovative behaviour of Italian firms. This highlights the need to provide for diversified intervention strategies to stimulate and enforce innovation in the Italian food sector.
Originality/value
The research provides some initial insight into firm perspectives in the role of innovations to enhance firms’ market competitiveness.
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Yilma Geletu Woldeyohanis, Adele Berndt and Yohannes Workeaferahu Elifneh
This study explores clothing disposal in a developing economy. It focuses on how consumers dispose of clothing and what motives influence them to use a specific disposal method.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores clothing disposal in a developing economy. It focuses on how consumers dispose of clothing and what motives influence them to use a specific disposal method.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews, a qualitative research method, were conducted with a purposive sample of 27 participants from diverse demographic backgrounds within the developing economy of Ethiopia. The interviews were coded and analysed using thematic analysis to identify categories and themes.
Findings
The findings reveal various clothing disposal methods, such as bartering, donating, gifting, repurposing and reusing, and discarding. Different motives drive consumers to use these methods, including economic benefits, altruism, and convenience.
Originality/value
The study bridges an important knowledge gap in literature mainly on three aspects, as highlighted by previous research. Theoretically, in addition to proposing a different perspective of bartering as a disposal method, the study investigates the motives behind clothing disposal methods from diverse consumer groups and proposes a conceptual framework to illustrate the link between clothing disposal methods and motives. Methodologically, the study addresses the call for a more inclusive and diverse sample, considering gender and varied socio-economic groups. Contextually, while previous research has focused on developed economies, this study explains clothing disposal methods and motives from a developing economy context, specifically Ethiopia.
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Elisa Giampietri, Adele Finco and Teresa Del Giudice
Investigating the drivers of consumers’ behaviour towards purchasing in short food supply chains (SFSCs) and clarifying their relationships, the purpose of this paper is to test…
Abstract
Purpose
Investigating the drivers of consumers’ behaviour towards purchasing in short food supply chains (SFSCs) and clarifying their relationships, the purpose of this paper is to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in order to predict the intention and the behaviour under investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research includes a literature review of SFSCs. To investigate all the variables (attitudes, subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and intention) underlying consumers’ behaviour towards buying in SFSCs, an exploratory survey with a TPB questionnaire and a principal component analysis have been carried out among university students in Italy. Using a system of simultaneous equations, the relationships among variables have been measured.
Findings
Findings illustrate that both attitudinal variables (i.e. sustainability, typicality and loyalty), SN and PBC play a key role in the consumers’ intention, that has a predictive effect on behaviour instead of PBC.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils the purpose to explain and predict post-modern consumers’ preferences towards SFSCs, in order to orient policy strategies to support SFSCs.