Yasmina Baba, Zein Kallas and Carolina Realini
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the appropriateness of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to measure consumers’ acceptance and preference for eggs enriched with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the appropriateness of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to measure consumers’ acceptance and preference for eggs enriched with omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids as a health claim and to compare its results with the traditional nine-point hedonic scale.
Design/methodology/approach
The AHP was used as a multi-criteria decision analysis. Data were obtained from a face-to-face questionnaire completed by 122 consumers in a controlled environment in Cataluña (Spain).
Findings
Results showed the capacity of the AHP to analyse consumers’ acceptance and preferences. An agreement between the AHP and the nine-point scale was found showing that n-3 enriched eggs had lower flavour acceptance, conventional eggs had higher yolk colour acceptance, and conventional and the free-range eggs had similar and higher odour acceptance than the other egg types. The most important attributes that determine preferences for egg purchase were the type and the egg price followed by the origin and the egg size.
Research limitations/implications
The AHP approach seems to be a reliable tool to evaluate consumers’ hedonic preferences. However, further testing on other food products with larger sample size is needed.
Originality/value
The AHP methodology has been widely used in many fields in the last decades, but to the knowledge, not in the sensory field. In the Spanish market, studies that analyse consumers’ preferences and acceptance of eggs are scarce, and new insights are needed particularly regarding n-3 enriched eggs.
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Opeyemi Femi-Oladunni, Pablo Ruiz-Palomino and Israel Roberto Pérez Jiménez
This study aims to identify how Spanish consumers’ extrinsic preferences for food have evolved by examining the extant literature on food preferences in Spain, focusing on…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify how Spanish consumers’ extrinsic preferences for food have evolved by examining the extant literature on food preferences in Spain, focusing on food-related attributes and food-related values.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a synthetic review of the extant academic literature on Spanish consumer preferences for food-related attributes and food-related values from the mid-20th to the 21st century. This study uses key economic and social milestones that are most likely to influence food value chain actors to show how consumer preferences have evolved over the study period.
Findings
Spanish consumer food attribute preferences expanded as the food sector of the nation continued to grow, and value preferences showed a similar pattern from the mid-20th to the 21st century. The drivers of these preferences were trust, lifestyle, education (campaigns), sociodemographic factors and purchasing power.
Originality/value
Evaluating the extant literature’s contribution to consumer preferences for food-related attributes and values is important because it can aid in understanding the hierarchy and variety of consumers’ food preferences as well as the factors that drive these preferences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore how Spanish consumer preferences evolved between the mid-20th and 21st centuries.
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Patrizio Monfardini, Silvia Macchia and Davide Eltrudis
Knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs henceforth) rely heavily on knowledge as the primary resource to provide public services. This study deals with a specific kind of…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs henceforth) rely heavily on knowledge as the primary resource to provide public services. This study deals with a specific kind of KIPO in the judiciary system: the courts. The paper aims to explore the court’s managerial and organisational change resulting from the national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) reform in response to Covid-19, focussing on how this neglected KIPO responds to change, either by showing acts of resistance or undergoing a hybridisation process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a qualitative research design, developing an explorative case study to investigate the process of a court’s managerial and organisational change caused by NRRP reform and to shed light on how this neglected KIPO reacts to change, showing resistance acts and developing the hybridisation process. Thirty-one interviews in six months have been conducted with the three main actors in Courts: judges, clerks and trial clerks.
Findings
The paper shows that in this understudied KIPO, judges fiercely resist the managerial logic that decades of reforms have been trying to impose. The recent introduction of an office for speeding up trials (Ufficio Per il Processo (UPP)) was initially opposed. Then, the resistance strategy changed, and judges started to benefit from UPP delegating repetitive and low-value tasks while retaining their core activities. Clerks approached the reform with a more positive attitude, seeing in UPP the mechanism to bridge the distance between them and the judges.
Originality/value
Considering their relevance to society, courts must be more addressed in KIPOs' studies. This paper allows the reader to enter such KIPO and understand its peculiar features. Secondly, the article helps to understand micropractices of resistance that may hinder the effectiveness of managerial reforms.