Emma Beacom, Lynsey Elizabeth Hollywood, Christopher McLaughlin, Sinead Furey, Ruth Price, Una McMahon-Beattie and Amy Burns
The purpose of this study is to investigate the proportionality of market brand (MB) foods versus supermarket own brand (OB) foods sold on promotion and to compare their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the proportionality of market brand (MB) foods versus supermarket own brand (OB) foods sold on promotion and to compare their healthiness.
Design/methodology/approach
An existing dataset containing nutritional information about a variety of foods on promotion (n = 6,776) from 48 stores across 8 retail chains in Northern Ireland (NI) was reanalysed. Product healthiness was measured using a score aligned to the Food Standards Agency's Front of Pack nutrient labelling system. MBs and OBs were considered as a whole and in their respective subsets–international/national and regional MBs, and premium, mid-market and value tiered OBs.
Findings
Results found a balance in favour of health (52.4% amber/green versus 47.6% red) across retailers' promotions in NI. Further, OB products were often found to be superior to MBs with regards to overall healthfulness, and regional brands were found to be less healthy than international/national brands.
Research limitations/implications
Findings rationale further retail research to compare nutritionally OB and MB product types, and further consumer research regarding important attributes of OBs.
Practical implications
Retailers should communicate the comparative healthiness of their OBs in comparison to MB alternatives, in addition to communicating comparative price savings. There is opportunity for retailers to increase visibility of mid-market and value OB tiers, and for regional MBs to improve the nutritional profile of products in line with the consumer trend for health.
Originality/value
This study provides a contribution by using data on OBs and MBs on promotion, and by investigating the nutritional differences between different tiers of OB and MB products.
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Dawn Surgenor, Christopher McLaughlin, Una McMahon-Beattie and Amy Burns
The aim of this research is to examine the impact of video-based learning on the cooking skills development of students. More specifically, exploring the first stages in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to examine the impact of video-based learning on the cooking skills development of students. More specifically, exploring the first stages in the learning process through embedding declarative knowledge utilising both video content and learner profiles, with the purpose to make teaching practice more effectively and efficiently targeted.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative social experimental approach was employed. The sample consisted of 414 students from three post primary schools in Northern Ireland. Students were randomly allocated into both control and experimental video content groups. All participants were made aware of ethical procedures and the nature of the study.
Findings
Through the application of latent class analysis (LCA), three distinct types of students were classified. Class one (n = 250) students were termed independent learners, class two (n = 88) students were motivated and benefited from video-based learning and class three (n = 52) students demonstrated an inability to apply information because video did not assist in embedding declarative knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
Implications from this research inform content generation for video-based cooking skills.
Practical implications
Given the unprecedented move towards online teaching in 2020 due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions, there is increasing interest in targeting resources effectively to meet the requirements of all learning groups. This paper fulfils an identified need to study how video impacts on skills development and learning within specific learning typologies.
Originality/value
This research will be of interest to educationalists in promoting a cost-effective resource in line with constructivist values to streamline and meet the needs of individual learners.
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Lisa Meneely, Amy Burns and Chris Strugnell
An understanding of consumer behaviour will enable service providers to segment their client base and target specific customer groups with strategies designed to meet their retail…
Abstract
Purpose
An understanding of consumer behaviour will enable service providers to segment their client base and target specific customer groups with strategies designed to meet their retail needs. Hence, an insight into and understanding of how consumers interact with and evaluate a retail offering will help improve customer service and satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in consumers' food retail behaviour with regard to the demographic variable of age, based on the older population. This paper focuses on food shoppers aged over 60 years living independently in Northern Ireland. The retail geography in Northern Ireland has changed and whilst affecting all consumers has impacted to a greater degree on older consumers. This and the fact that the over 60 age group is increasing demographically illustrate why this consumer segment is worthy of greater consideration.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative methodological approach is employed and data are collected using a consumer questionnaire (n=791). The questionnaire is analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15.
Findings
The results show that as age increases older consumers' retail buying and food‐related behaviour changes. A decline in patronage of multiple retailers is evident as age increases; as is consumers' perceived value of multi‐purchase promotions and nutritional confidence. Alongside increasing age there is an apparent increase in the use of local shops, the enjoyment gained from shopping, the difficulty experienced in accessing food retail sites and the problems experienced when cooking.
Practical implications
This paper suggests that age may be used to differentiate between customer groups and retailers must take age into consideration when providing a product offering and in retail provision for the elderly consumer.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils a need for information on older consumers' retail behaviour in Northern Ireland and offers advice to food retailers attempting to better serve this increasingly important consumer segment.
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Dawn Mc Dowell, Una McMahon-Beattie and Amy Burns
The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of structured and consistent practical cookery skills intervention in the 11-14-year age group. This paper reviews the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of structured and consistent practical cookery skills intervention in the 11-14-year age group. This paper reviews the impact and development of statutory and non-statutory cooking skills interventions in the UK and considers limitations in relation to life skills training. Currently practical cooking skills are mainly derived from two sources namely the non-statutory sector (community cooking interventions) and the statutory sector (Home Economics teaching).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper compares the two interventions in terms of effective long-term outcomes. Non-statutory cooking interventions are generally lottery funded and therefore tend to be single teaching blocks of, on average, six to eight weeks targeting mostly low-income adults and the literature emphasises a deficit of empirical measurement of the long-term impact. In contrast Home Economics classes offer a structured learning environment across genders and socio-economic groups. In addition it is taught over a substantial time frame to facilitate a process of practical skills development (with relevant theoretical teaching), reflection, group communication and consolidation, where according to current educational theory (Kolb, 1984) learning is more thoroughly embedded with the increased potential for longer term impact.
Findings
The review identifies the limitations of too many community initiatives or “project-itis” (Caraher, 2012, p. 10) and instead supports the use of the school curriculum to best maximise the learning of practical cooking skills.
Originality/value
This review will be of particular value to educationalists and health policy decision makers.
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Jenny Bossaller, Christopher Sean Burns and Amy VanScoy
The purpose of this paper is to use the sociology of time to understand how time is perceived by academic librarians who provide reference and information service (RIS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use the sociology of time to understand how time is perceived by academic librarians who provide reference and information service (RIS).
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) of two phenomenological studies about the experience of RIS in academic libraries. The authors used QSA to re-analyze the interview transcripts to develop themes related to the perception of time.
Findings
Three themes about the experience of time in RIS work were identified. Participants experience time as discrete, bounded moments but sometimes experience threads through these moments that provide continuity, time is framed as a commodity that weighs on the value of the profession, and time plays an integral part of participants’ narratives and professional identities.
Research limitations/implications
Given that the initial consent processes vary across organizations and types of studies, the researchers felt ethically compelled to share only excerpts from each study’s data, rather than the entire data set, with others on the research team. Future qualitative studies should consider the potential for secondary analysis and build data management and sharing plans into the initial study design.
Practical implications
Most discussions of time in the literature are presented as a metric – time to answer a query, time to conduct a task – The authors offer a more holistic understanding of time and its relationship to professional work.
Social implications
The methodology taken in this paper makes sense of the experiences of work in RIS for librarians. It identifies commonalities between the experience of time and work for RIS professionals and those of other professionals, such as physicians and software engineers. It suggests revising models for RIS, as well as some professional values.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a better understanding of time, understudied as a phenomenon that is experienced or perceived, among RISs providers in academic libraries. The use of secondary qualitative analysis is an important methodological contribution to library and information science studies.
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Victoria Rodner, Amy Goode and Zara Burns
To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the…
Abstract
Purpose
To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the cosmetic servicescape. In doing so, the authors contribute to theorising of aesthetic and emotional labour within the services marketing literature, fleshing out the bodywork of influential others not as employees but endorsers, who act like the “walking billboards” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) for the cosmetic service industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a dual qualitative approach to data collection, coupling netnographic material from Instagram posts with 16 in-depth interviews with female Instagram users who have undergone or hope to undergo cosmetic surgery. Using mediated discourse analysis, the authors weave their visual and discursive data together for a richer account of the commoditisation of cosmetic surgery.
Findings
Adopting a postfeminist neoliberal lens, where women are viewed as aesthetic entrepreneurs who are constantly working on the body and the self, the findings of the study reveal how influencers’ aesthetic and emotional labour help package, propagate and demystify the cosmetic servicescape. Through their visual storytelling, we see how influencers help endorse (local) cosmetic services; commoditise cosmetic procedures through the conspicuous display of their ongoing body projects whilst masking the labour and pain involved; and how face-filters that use augmented reality (AR) technology foster new forms of (digitised) body dysmorphia.
Originality/value
The authors shed light on the darker side of social media and body-enhancing technologies, where tales of body transformation trivialise cosmetic intervention and AR technology induces a digitised body dysmorphia.
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Beth Seyala, Erin Burns, Shannon Richie, Amy L. Deuink and Valerie Lynn
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Chromebooks as an alternative to the traditional computer laboratory for library instruction in an academic environment. The results of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Chromebooks as an alternative to the traditional computer laboratory for library instruction in an academic environment. The results of this study could help inform the creation of a mobile instruction lab that students and librarians quickly construct inside any classroom with minimal effort and no software to manage.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was distributed to student participants. The survey contained two demographic questions followed by seven user experience questions related to the in-classroom use of Chromebooks; most questions were quantitative in nature.
Findings
The majority of respondents (84 percent) strongly or somewhat agreed that Chromebooks were easy to use, and 15 percent of the respondents reported some difficulty accessing the university’s Wi-Fi system while using the devices.
Research limitations/implications
This introductory study was limited to a survey population primarily comprised of lower-level undergraduate students in their first two years of study. Additionally, Chromebooks were not tested in an educational environment using G Suite for Education, which could increase the opportunities for use in an academic setting.
Practical implications
The study’s findings, combined with the portability and long battery life of Chromebooks, make them a candidate for a mobile instruction lab.
Originality/value
This research seeks to explore the viability of Chromebooks as an affordable and easy to manage alternative to wired instruction rooms, using a light laptop technology that is becoming increasingly familiar to college students.
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Mecca Antonia Burns, Bernard Mukisa, Lydia Sanyu and Denis Muwanguzi