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The purpose of this paper is to explore the social value food rescue enterprises can create for both their stakeholders and the wider community “in the meantime” whilst longer term solutions to the problems of insecurity and waste are sought.

FoodShare, a New Zealand urban-based social enterprise specialising in food redistribution, served as a case study for this research. Semi-structured interviews (n=13) were conducted with FoodShare staff and key stakeholder groups (food donors, financial donors, recipient agencies and volunteers). In addition, an anonymous online survey (n=40) was completed by the wider organisational volunteer network. The interview guides were structured around a new social value evaluation tool, Social Return on Investment, which is increasingly used to demonstrate the impact of such programmes. Deductive methods were used to code the resulting transcripts to identify key outcomes experienced by FoodShare’s stakeholders.

The outcomes of FoodShare’s work differed for the various stakeholders. For food donors, outcomes included “more involved relationships with community”, and “improved perceptions of corporate social responsibility”. Identified key outcomes for the financial donors included “key promotional opportunity” and “do something good”. For recipient agencies, important outcomes were “greater volume of food” and “increased reach”. Volunteers reported “meeting new people”, “a sense of accomplishment in helping others” and “learning new skills”. There were also a number of nutritional and environmental outcomes for the wider community.

Given the dearth of evidence on the societal value that is created in redistributing unsold food to people in need, this novel perspective makes a significant contribution to the literature in this area.

Examines the nature of a relatively new financial service, electronic cash. A qualitative study of students’ use of a specific form of electronic cash, namely Mondex, was undertaken. Attitudes and opinions were sought and the results presented within a theoretical framework of likely adoption. It was found that all students compared the performance of electronic cash with the traditional form of cash. A number of problems were encountered by students in relation to security, speed and complexity of use, although in some situations it was a preferred alternative. Concludes that these issues will need to be addressed but that electronic cash may have advantages in certain situations and that marketing effort should be concentrated on identifying niche opportunities or bundling appropriate services onto the card to provide a relative advantage for increasingly discerning consumers.

This study aims to investigate the mental health treatment journeys of stigmatized consumers using user-generated content (UGC) while also examining the role of UGC in the journey.

This study offers valuable insights from 68 distinct, stigmatized consumers through a qualitative content analysis of 73 YouTube product review videos related to ten antidepressants. Data is coded, combining inductive coding with theory to provide a nuanced interpretation. Applying the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation to traditional consumer journey concepts, the analysis of UGC is structured by a unique mental health treatment journey.

The findings show that consumers use UGC to destigmatize their mental health treatment by engaging in dynamic reflection throughout their journey, rather than following traditional feedback models. Unlike typical consumption patterns, where search is limited to the initial stage, these consumers search at every journey phase while sharing insights that offer valuable support to others which, sometimes they report, is reciprocated by viewers.

Theoretically, this study introduces an innovative framework blending psychological and marketing theories to address a gap in health-care service marketing literature concerning long-term mental health treatment journeys. By introducing the concept of dynamic reflection, it demonstrates how consumers actively engage in and share insights throughout their treatment process, differing from traditional feedback models, and highlights the impact of UGC on health-care service provision.

Findings could inform potential health-care provider interventions that may improve treatment effectiveness.

Although stigmatized consumers’ experiences have been examined, their treatment experiences have not been framed within a journey framework.

Whilst country-of-origin (COO) effects have been studied extensively since the 1960s, little research has explored these effects with respect to ecological considerations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the COO ecological image (CEI) construct by defining its facets across consumers and professionals from two different countries, namely, France and Australia.

Because of the exploratory nature of the research, the authors used two qualitative techniques, namely, semi-structured interviews and focus groups.

Findings indicate the CEI construct is composed of eight dimensions, namely, policy, technological, economic, people characteristics, natural, climatic, historical and eco-product features.

The research provides insights into the CEI construct and justifies future studies to develop a scale measure for it. However, the generalisability of the results must be considered limited due to the qualitative exploratory nature of the study.

The research offers implications for companies and policymakers by allowing them to understand how consumers form a CEI. It suggests new applications respective to how to leverage positive aspects of a CEI and how to mitigate negative ones.

The study extends the literature on COO by identifying the possible dimensions of the CEI construct, thus providing better insights into the little-explored link between COO and sustainable products.