Femke Damen, Ruud Verkerk and Bea Steenbekkers
Adolescence is a period in which autonomy grows and where children develop into independent and active consumers and a period in which their food choices are also becoming more…
Abstract
Purpose
Adolescence is a period in which autonomy grows and where children develop into independent and active consumers and a period in which their food choices are also becoming more autonomous. Snacking is known to increase during the period of adolescence and the snack choice of adolescents is often unhealthy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to know when adolescents perceive a snack as healthy. As healthiness perception could be linked to the perception of naturalness and sustainability of a snack, these are interesting product characteristics to study as well.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with 20 adolescents were conducted to characterize their perception of healthiness, naturalness and sustainability. Chocolate snack bars were used as a stimulus product.
Findings
All participants mentioned consuming snacks because they like them. Healthiness was seen as important but was not always a priority in adolescents' snack choices. Naturalness and sustainability were concepts which the adolescents were not aware of or did not perceive as important during snack choice. The adolescents mentioned experiencing natural products to be healthier compared to not natural products. The consequences of the discerned dimensions time, impact and effect of choices were rather limited for this target group.
Originality/value
Understanding the healthiness, naturalness and sustainability perception of chocolate snack bars by adolescents may help to better understand drivers for adolescents' snack choices.
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F.W.M. Damen and L.P.A. Steenbekkers
The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the ways consumers freeze and defrost meat, the reasons for their behaviour and the knowledge they have about the process of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the ways consumers freeze and defrost meat, the reasons for their behaviour and the knowledge they have about the process of freezing and defrosting. Consumers are aware of the microbiological safety risks involved in the consumption of meat. Therefore, many consumers freeze fresh meat to be able to store it safely for a longer period of time. In order to keep the quality of the meat, the freezing and defrosting process should follow certain basic principles.
Design/methodology/approach
In this explorative paper, oral interviews were held with families with young children about their habits concerning the freezing and defrosting of meat. Their knowledge about these processes and the related principles was assessed with help of multiple‐choice questions.
Findings
The paper finds that differences exist between knowledge and actual behaviour, which might result in a shortfall in the microbiological safety of the consumed meat.
Research limitations/implications
Actual behaviour when freezing and defrosting was not observed in the paper, but asked for in an interview. In a larger study observations might be a useful research method to be added.
Practical implications
The paper shows that a discrepancy exists between knowledge and actual behaviour. It is concluded that the actual behaviour might lead to microbiological risks. This could be studied in a supplemental research.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that consumer education about food storage and food handling is recommended.
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Beate Silvia Kölzer, Jasmin Geppert, Astrid Klingshirn, Harald Weber, Lilla Brugger, Antje Engstler, Jochen Härlen, Thomas Ertel, Thomas Gindele and Rainer Stamminger
More than 50 per cent of all German households own a freezing appliance and so far the market of frozen foods is constantly increasing (1 per cent from 2017 to 2018). Despite…
Abstract
Purpose
More than 50 per cent of all German households own a freezing appliance and so far the market of frozen foods is constantly increasing (1 per cent from 2017 to 2018). Despite frozen foods playing an important role in our everyday life, little is known about the consumer’s habits at home. The purpose of this paper is to uncover gaps in the knowledge about consumer behaviour when handling frozen food. Moreover, the impact of consumers on the quality of frozen products should be assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
A representative online survey was carried out to investigate different aspects of consumer behaviour concerning frozen foods. Respondents (n=2,053) were questioned about their general handling habits regarding eight different food groups: fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, pastries, ready-to-eat meals and leftovers. The focus was on freezing, pre-handling, packaging and thawing – depending on the age of those questioned and combined with best practice advice regarding quality storage of frozen products.
Findings
Most Germans have the opportunity to freeze food and keep their freezers full or medium loaded. Older participants act more efficiently towards quality storage, but more education about freezing and frozen storage would be generally helpful to maintain quality of frozen foods and increase utilisation of freezers, using their full preservation potential.
Research limitations/implications
No open questions were asked due to the scope of more than 2,000 participants, which, in retrospect, would have been instructive.
Originality/value
Consumer handling of frozen food in Germany was investigated in a representative way for the first time, covering age groups from 18 to 69 and household sizes from 1 to >4 people, focussing on eight major food groups.
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Asyari Asyari, Mohammad Enamul Hoque, Perengki Susanto, Halima Begum, Awaluddin Awaluddin, Marwan Marwan and Abdullah Al Mamun
This study aims to explore the determinants that impact state Islamic University/Perguruan Tinggi Keagamaan Islam Negeri students’ intention to adopt online cash waqfs. In doing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the determinants that impact state Islamic University/Perguruan Tinggi Keagamaan Islam Negeri students’ intention to adopt online cash waqfs. In doing so, this study integrates knowledge of cash waqf and trust variables within the theory of planned behavior (TPB), allowing an examination of the mediating role of TPB variables and trust within the relationship between knowledge of cash waqf and intention for online cash waqf behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
To carry out an empirical analysis, the authors developed a well-structured questionnaire and distributed it to a group of students currently enrolled in PTKIN, obtaining 443 usable responses. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used for the dual purposes of data analysis and hypothesis testing.
Findings
This study demonstrates that factors such as attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, trust and knowledge of cash waqf have a significant and favorable influence on the intention to donate through e-cash waqf. Knowledge of cash waqf impacts attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and trust. The final analysis shows that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and trust partially mediate the relationship between knowledge and intention in the online cash waqf context.
Practical implications
The aforementioned elucidates the paramount importance of trust in shaping individuals’ tendencies to engage in cash waqfs. The insights mentioned have the potential to be used by cash waqf establishments to promote transparency and accountability, ultimately bolstering the confidence of potential donors.
Originality/value
The concepts of waqf and the use of online cash waqf as a means of donation in developing countries are relatively new. In this study, the intention of students to adopt online cash waqf was predicted for the first time by considering their knowledge of cash waqf and their trust in online cash waqf transactions.
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Jia Jin, Yi He, Chenchen Lin and Liuting Diao
Social recommendation has been recognized as a kind of e-commerce with large potential, but how social recommendations influence consumer decisions is still unclear. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Social recommendation has been recognized as a kind of e-commerce with large potential, but how social recommendations influence consumer decisions is still unclear. This paper aims to investigate how recommendations from different social ties influence consumers’ purchase intentions through both behavior and brain activity.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing behavioral (N = 70) and electroencephalogram (EEG) (N = 49) experiments, this study explored participants’ behavior and brain responses after being recommended by different social ties. The data were analyzed using statistical inference and event-related potential (ERP) analysis.
Findings
Behavioral results show that social tie strength positively impacts purchase intention, which can be fitted by a logarithmic model. Moreover, recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect mediate the effect of tie strength on purchase intention serially. EEG findings show that recommendations from weak tie strength elicit larger N100, N200 and P300 amplitudes than those from strong tie strength. These results imply that weak tie strength may motivate individuals to recruit more mental resources in social recommendation, including unconscious processing of consumer attention and conscious processing of cognitive conflict and negative emotion.
Originality/value
This study considers the effects of continuous social ties on purchase intention and models them mathematically, exploring the intrinsic mechanisms by which strong and weak ties influence purchase intentions through recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect, contributing to the applications of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model in the field of social recommendation. Furthermore, our study adopting EEG techniques bridges the gap of relying solely on self-report by providing an avenue to obtain relatively objective findings about the consumers’ early-occurred (unconscious) attentional responses and late-occurred (conscious) cognitive and emotional responses in purchase decisions.
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Hussein F. Hassan, Hani Dimassi and Zeina Nakat Karam
The purpose of this paper is to assess level of food safety knowledge and self-reported practices among Lebanese food handlers in Lebanese households and to identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess level of food safety knowledge and self-reported practices among Lebanese food handlers in Lebanese households and to identify the association between knowledge/practices and socio-demographic characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,500 participants from different gender, age, area of residence, income, marital status and education. They completed a questionnaire of six questions about demographics, and 26 questions related to knowledge and self-reported practices in terms of food handling, storage, usage of kitchen facilities and personal hygiene subgroups. SPSS v23 was used for statistical analyses. Student t-test and analysis of variance were conducted. Significance level of 0.05 was used.
Findings
On average, participants scored 55.6±16.3, 51.3±25.7, 67.4±19.3 and 89.1±16.3 on food handling, storage, usage of kitchen facilities and personal hygiene, respectively, whereas the passing (score above 50 percent) rates were 64.5, 69.9, 90.5 and 99.1, respectively, for the different subgroups. Gender had significant (p<0.05) effect on food handling and personal hygiene; age, marital status and education had significant (p<0.05) effect on handling, usage of kitchen facilities and personal hygiene; area of residence had significant (p<0.05) effect on storage, handling and usage of kitchen facilities; income had significant (p<0.05) effect on handling and usage of kitchen facilities. Overall mean food safety knowledge and self-reported practices score was 63.8±12.6; passing rate was 86.2; gender, age, area of residence, education, marital status and income had significant (p<0.05) effect. Food safety self-reported practices and knowledge scores were significantly (p<0.001) related to a weak to moderate correlation coefficient (R=0.34).
Practical implications
The results confirm the need for ongoing educational initiatives to improve the relatively low food safety knowledge and practices among the Lebanese food handlers in Lebanese households.
Originality/value
No study has determined the food safety knowledge and self-reported practices of Lebanese food handlers in Lebanese households before.
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Ho Huy Tuu and Svein Ottar Olsen
The purpose of this paper is to test the relationships among perceived risk, consumer satisfaction and repurchase loyalty, and to explore the moderating role of knowledge on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the relationships among perceived risk, consumer satisfaction and repurchase loyalty, and to explore the moderating role of knowledge on the relationship between these constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
The results are based on a cross‐section sample of 846 households in Vietnam using self‐administrating questionnaires, with fish as a main research object, and analyzed using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction is negative and satisfaction has a significantly positive effect on repurchase loyalty. This study suggests that perceived risk has an indirect effect on repurchase loyalty through satisfaction. Besides direct effects on perceived risk and satisfaction, knowledge proves to moderate negatively both the relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction, and the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
This study mainly focuses on fish as a common food and considers the role of food risk with an emphasis on perceived health risk and subjective knowledge. Thus, future study should include other dimensions of risk, objective knowledge and other products. Other antecedents toward repurchase loyalty (e.g. price/value) or other moderators (e.g. ambivalence, personal characteristics) should be used in future studies.
Practical implications
Management attention should focus on reducing risks with which consumers may be faced through producing fresh or safe fish products, and communicating broadly safe signals of their products. Communication strategy should focus much more on improving knowledge and signing food safety for consumers with lower knowledge than the others.
Originality/value
This is believed to be the first study to empirically examine the combined role of perceived risk and knowledge within a satisfaction‐loyalty framework in the Vietnamese market.
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Charlene Elliott and Kirsten Ellison
The purpose of this paper is to explore the teenager perspectives of the meaning of food safety, and the implications of those meanings.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the teenager perspectives of the meaning of food safety, and the implications of those meanings.
Design/methodology/approach
Five focus groups were conducted with students (aged 12–14) from Calgary, AB. Participants were asked what food safety means to them and probed about their views on the relationship between food safety and packaged foods. Grounded theorizing informed the analysis.
Findings
Food safety was described as located within the system, located within the individual and located within the edible. Key to these teenagers’ understanding of food safety is the theme of food deception – a deception promulgated by food producers, manufacturers and advertisers who lack transparency about what they are actually selling. Teenagers draw attention to the risks associated with living in an industrialized food environment, and to the tension between safety and the industry-driven motive to sell.
Originality/value
Individuals start to make independent decisions around food preparation and consumption as teenagers; as present and future consumers, it is valuable to learn their perspectives and knowledge about food safety. More importantly, food safety is not only simply a health-related issue but also a semantic one. This study moves beyond the knowledge deficit approach characterizing most research on the topic. Instead, it probes the range of meanings associated with food safety and how they are worked out, revealing that the teenagers’ construction of food as “risk objects” reveals different links to harm than the food safety interventions typically directed to them.
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Excellenzen meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren liebe Kollegen Es ist mir eine besondere Freude und Ehre, erstmals einen AIEST Kongress in der Sozialistischen Republik der…
Abstract
Excellenzen meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren liebe Kollegen Es ist mir eine besondere Freude und Ehre, erstmals einen AIEST Kongress in der Sozialistischen Republik der Tschechoslowakei zu eröffnen und dies in der prächtigen Stadt Prag, der Hauptstadt und dem kulturellen und politischen Mittelpunkt. Die Stadt ist durch ihr reiches Erbe an kulturellen Gütern besonders für unsern 34. Kongress geeignet. Auf den berechtigten Wunsch der Organisatoren des diesjährigen Kongresses hin haben wir das Thema “Tourismus und architektonisches Erbe — kulturelle, rechtliche, wirtschaftliche und marketing‐orientierte Aspekte” gewählt.
Shanmukh Devarapali, Ashley Manske, Razieh Khayamim, Edwina Jacobs, Bokang Li, Zeinab Elmi and Maxim A. Dulebenets
This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of electric tugboat deployment in maritime transportation, including an in-depth assessment of its advantages and disadvantages…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of electric tugboat deployment in maritime transportation, including an in-depth assessment of its advantages and disadvantages. Along with the identification of advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboat deployment, the present research also aims to provide managerial insights into the economic viability of different tugboat alternatives that can guide future investments in the following years.
Design/methodology/approach
A detailed literature review was conducted, aiming to gain broad insights into tugboat operations and focusing on different aspects, including tugboat accidents and safety issues, scheduling and berthing of tugboats, life cycle assessment of diesel tugboats and their alternatives, operations of electric and hybrid tugboats, environmental impacts and others. Moreover, a set of interviews was conducted with the leading experts in the electric tugboat industry, including DAMEN Shipyards and the Port of Auckland. Econometric analyses were performed as well to evaluate the financial viability and economic performance of electric tugboats and their alternatives (i.e. conventional tugboats and hybrid tugboats).
Findings
The advantages of electric tugboats encompass decreased emissions, reduced operating expenses, improved energy efficiency, lower noise levels and potential for digital transformation through automation and data analytics. However, high initial costs, infrastructure limitations, training requirements and restricted range need to be addressed. The electric tugboat alternative seems to be the best option for scenarios with low interest rate values as increasing interest values negatively impact the salvage value of electric tugboats. It is expected that for long-term planning, the electric and hybrid tugboat alternatives will become preferential since they have lower annual costs than conventional diesel tugboats.
Practical implications
The outcomes of this research provide managerial insights into the practical deployment of electric tugboats and point to future research needs, including battery improvements, cost reduction, infrastructure development, legislative and regulatory changes and alternative energy sources. The advancement of battery technology has the potential to significantly impact the cost dynamics associated with electric tugboats. It is essential to do further research to monitor the advancements in battery technology and analyze their corresponding financial ramifications. It is essential to closely monitor the industry’s shift toward electric tugboats as their prices become more affordable.
Originality/value
The maritime industry is rapidly transforming and facing pressing challenges related to sustainability and digitization. Electric tugboats represent a promising and innovative solution that could address some of these challenges through zero-emission operations, enhanced energy efficiency and integration of digital technologies. Considering the potential of electric tugboats, the present study provides a comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboats in maritime transportation, extensive evaluation of the relevant literature, interviews with industry experts and supporting econometric analyses. The outcomes of this research will benefit governmental agencies, policymakers and other relevant maritime transportation stakeholders.