Nadia Palmieri and Flavio Boccia
According to recent studies, young people are most inclined to waste food, and an important category is represented by students. Unlike other young people, they possess several…
Abstract
Purpose
According to recent studies, young people are most inclined to waste food, and an important category is represented by students. Unlike other young people, they possess several characteristics that influence their food waste behaviour. For these reasons, this study aims to identify the elements that influence students’ behaviour towards food waste in Italy to provide insights on how to reduce food waste among young consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
In this exploratory research, a Web survey involving 1,066 Italian students was used, and, after a factor analysis, a hierarchical multiple linear regression model was applied.
Findings
The findings showed that, at a young age, the food thrown away and the reasons are positively associated with food waste, while the family size and the actions that students adopt to prevent food waste are negatively associated with it.
Practical implications
Recognizing that students are the people who will shape the food waste scenario of the future, it is important to implement educational paths about it and to raise consumer awareness. The findings might provide interesting insights on how to develop educational campaigns for specific target groups, such as students. In fact, the results underline that local institutions and retailers should be involved in educational campaigns aimed at both addressing the motivations behind food waste and improving the actions people take to prevent it.
Originality/value
The paper revisits the issue using a relatively large sample of Italian students (youths aged 16–18 years). The results provide valuable insights on how to approach hypothetical Italian students in view of the potential development of new strategies for reducing food waste.
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Nadia Palmieri, Maria Angela Perito and Claudio Lupi
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the current literature on consumer acceptance of cultured meat and to investigate the main factors that might affect it.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the current literature on consumer acceptance of cultured meat and to investigate the main factors that might affect it.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a sample of 490 consumers in Italy, using a web-based survey. The empirical analysis follows an exploratory approach based on the training and checking of a random forest model.
Findings
An important finding of this study concerns the overall positive perception of cultured meat on the part of the interviewees in a country that is the fifth-largest meat producer at the European level. Age, environmental and ethical issues, and scepticism about new food technologies are the most important factors that guide consumer acceptance of cultured meat. The results suggest that in order to increase cultured meat acceptance it would be important to inform and educate consumers towards new food and new food production methods.
Research limitations/implications
The sample analysed in this study is not representative of the whole national population, as it happens in most papers dealing with new food.
Originality/value
Although the conclusions of this exploratory study cannot be over-generalized, the results provide interesting insights on how to increase cultured meat acceptance in view of the possible development of a new market for cultured meat.
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Nadia Palmieri, Maria Angela Perito, Maria Carmela Macrì and Claudio Lupi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors that may affect Italian consumers’ willingness to eat insects. Italy is a fairly special case among Western countries…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors that may affect Italian consumers’ willingness to eat insects. Italy is a fairly special case among Western countries: in many Italian regions, there is old traditional food with insects.
Design/methodology/approach
Data come from a sample of 456 consumers living in four Italian regions. The empirical investigation involves several steps: modification of class distributions to obtain a balanced sample; model estimation using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator; model evaluation using out-of-sample classification performance measures; and estimation of the “effect” of each explanatory variable via average predictive comparisons. The uncertainty associated with the whole procedure is evaluated using the bootstrap.
Findings
The interviewed consumers are generally unwilling to eat insect-based food. However, factors such as previous experience, taste expectations and attitude towards both new food experiences and sustainable food play an important role in shaping individual inclination towards eating insects.
Research limitations/implications
The sample analysed in this study is not representative of the whole national population, as it happens in most papers dealing with entomophagy.
Originality/value
The paper revisits the issue using a relatively large sample and sophisticated statistical methods. The likely average effect of each explanatory variable is estimated and discussed in detail. The results provide interesting insights on how to approach a hypothetical Italian consumer in view of the possible development of a new market for edible insects.
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Maria Bonaventura Forleo, Luca Romagnoli and Nadia Palmieri
The study aims to provide important insights into environmental attributes that are relevant to consumer's choices in purchasing canned tuna fish, and how much these attributes…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to provide important insights into environmental attributes that are relevant to consumer's choices in purchasing canned tuna fish, and how much these attributes and socio-demographic individual characteristics relate to the frequency of consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey of 251 Italians was carried out. Socio-demographic variables and environmental attributes of the product that consumers pay attention to were considered in a two-step analysis: a cluster analysis used to create a segmentation of people's profiles that are further characterised; a binary logistic regression to assess the significance of attributes in relation to the frequency of canned tuna consumption.
Findings
Among attributes that respondents pay attention to when purchasing canned tuna, the country of origin is the aspect most considered, while other characteristics with a higher content of environmental sustainability received minimal attention. Three clusters emerged: the smallest one, insensitive to sustainability issues; an intermediate group which is mindful of sustainability attributes; and the biggest cluster which is “sustainability inconsistent.” Moreover, respondents who reported concerns about the environmental impacts of tuna production are less likely to consume the product than other consumers; attention paid to the method of farming, the presence of children and a young age show willingness to consume tuna.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on canned tuna consumption by focusing on the attention that consumers pay to environmental product attributes in their purchasing choices. The relevance of this topic might be envisaged in relation to several environmental issues associated with tuna production and consumption, and to the economics and strategies of the tuna industry, being canned tuna among the most internationally traded seafood products.
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Natalie Barker-Ruchti and Laura G. Purdy
Gymnasts worldwide have turned to media to speak out about their experiences of abuse in sport. More formally, services to report abuse have been recognised as important; however…
Abstract
Gymnasts worldwide have turned to media to speak out about their experiences of abuse in sport. More formally, services to report abuse have been recognised as important; however, we know little about athletes' experiences of the process. Therefore, we consider in this chapter how (former) athletes experience the process of reporting abuse and maltreatment. This chapter begins with a narrative poem that was created using direct quotes from an interview with a former gymnast, Lisa (pseudonym), who described her involvement with her national gymnastics federation's reporting process. We then examine reporting services and discuss the reasons why (former) athletes may not report abuse and maltreatment. As a conceptual framework, we present the pixie model of women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) as the root of the culture of fear, control and silence that prevents gymnasts from reporting their experiences, and discuss factors that enable the reporting of abuse and maltreatment. To illustrate the ways the WAG pixie model shaped Lisa's reporting experience, the poem presented at the outset of this chapter is extended to a narrative about her engagement with reporting processes. The chapter concludes with a call to put abuse and maltreatment on the sports governance agenda, the development of trauma-informed processes and further research on reporting abuse in sport.