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The purpose of this paper is to examine how socio-economic and institutional factors impact UK food retailers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies as revealed in corporate communications and product marketing. Building on institutional theory, the authors empirically examine whether discourse in CSR reports aligns with commercial strategies.

Employing a mixed method approach the authors quantify quotes related to key CSR themes in annual reports and claims on new private label products launched in nine key product categories using information from Mintel’s Global New Products Database. These measures are grouped into eight distinct CSR themes across seven retailers and seven years (2006-2012).

Health and safety and environment are the leading themes in both data sets. Animal welfare, community and biotechnology and novel foods take the middle ground with differing use across reports and products. Fair trade, labor and human resources and procurement and purchasing are the least commonly described themes in reports and on products. Retailers focus on different CSR themes in reports and new products, which may be evidence of competitive rather than pre-competitive strategies.

This research shows that UK food retailers CSR strategies between 2006 and 2012 were more competitive than pre-competitive, which is in line with theory that suggests economic pressures decrease incentives to cooperate. However, this research is limited to innovation data and analysis of CSR reports. A more complete analysis would need to consider sales or consumption data, wider sources of corporate communications and independent measures of social, environmental and economic impact. The authors’ findings caution policy makers to be wary of retailers commitments to voluntary agreement pledges, particularly when the competitive environment and economic conditions are more challenging.

Firms are increasingly pressured to contribute to social and environmental domestic and international commitments. Business should enhance coordination between CSR offices and commercial divisions to develop more consistent and effective social responsibility programs.

This is the first attempt to compare the evolution of CSR discourse and marketing strategy over time and across businesses in a key retail market.

This paper aims to compare the use of front-of-pack nutrition claims made on 32,257 food labels launched in 2009 in the US and the EU.

Information from Mintel's Global New Product Database was analyzed, for 25,417 products launched in the EU and 6,840 in the US. The hypothesis was that “products launched in the US and EU have a different frequency of front-of-pack nutrition claims”. Using inferential statistics, significant differences (two-tailed Z-tests) in the number of claims are explored and compared to differences in legislation standards and consumer preferences.

The initial analysis revealed that there were six significant differences between the presence of the seven health and nutrition claims across 16 product categories in the US and the EU. Further analysis of the 16 product categories revealed a range of significant differences between the frequency of US and EU claims.

The emerging relevance of front-of-pack nutrition labeling as a marketing tool makes such differences pertinent. This paper marks the first systematic comparison of the use of claims between the US and EU.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the influence of shopping experience on consumer satisfaction shown in non‐food retail sectors has a similar effect in food retailing, specifically with large‐scale grocery retailers. The paper also investigates differences in shopping experience and its effect across different retail settings.

An empirical study of a customer satisfaction database combining satisfaction with store attributes across several large‐scale grocery retailers in the specialty, traditional, and discount sectors. Hierarchal regression is used to meaure the effect of a composite shopping experience index on overall satisfaction, after controlling for basic economic factors of food shopping such as product quality, assortment, availability, and prices.

There was support for three hypotheses, suggesting that: food shopping experience effects overall consumer satisfaction for grocery retailers; shopping experience varies across different grocery retail settings; and the effect of food shopping experience on consumer satisfaction varies across grocery retail settings.

Data report a single point in time and aggregate measures. Guidance is provided for food retailers wanting to further develop shopping experience to impact consumer satisfaction.

The paper gives important empirical support for the influence of shopping experience on customer satisfaction for large‐scale grocery retailers and across various retail settings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how e‐grocers develop their e‐fulfillment strategies to satisfy product‐specific customer needs for their grocery shopping on the internet. Findings from this paper are used to propose sustainable e‐fulfillment strategies for online grocery retailers.

Based on metrics of product information, customer service and e‐business quality, this paper conducted web content analyses of US grocery retailers in a longitudinal manner.

The research findings delineate a significant transition of e‐fulfillment strategies among grocery retailers. Evidence is found for the development of service metrics as well as strategic shifts in retail operations.

The use of a longitudinal approach provides insights into sustainable marketing strategies for online retailers to enhance consumers' perceived relative advantage and compatibility, and reduce perceived complexity in online grocery shopping.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the use of front of package (FOP) claims within product categories by private label (PL) products and national brands (NB). This research adapts an existing conceptual model exploring the marketing strategies of PL products and NBs.

Information for this study came from Mintel’s Global (2009/2011). There were 10,791 products launched in 2011 in the US database, 8,120 NB and 2,671 PL food and drink products. For 2009: 5,838 NB and 2,118 PL that gives 7,956 food and beverages products launched in USA.

PL and NB companies increased the usage of FOP claims, and also often moved in the same direction for some product categories. The greatest number of increases across product categories for PL and NB between 2009 and 2011 were Ethical-Enviromentally Friendly Packaging; Allergen; Fiber; Weight Control; Gluten Free; Kosher and No Additives claims. There were much less FOP that were decreased in usage. The claims that most frequently decreased were “Organic,” “Calories,” and “Vitamin/Mineral Fortified.” The categories that significantly decreased the “Organic” claim were Baby Food, Bakery, Breakfast Cereals, Fruit and Vegetables among PL product categories and Breakfast Cereals, Dairy, Side Dishes and Soup among NB categories.

The study is based on only a three-year time span. difference over a greater period of time could reveal more significant differences.

The evidence from this research indicates that PL brands are matching NBs as they look to using other attributes and benefits. However, as PL sales increase, retailer margins increase which can lead to further aggressive marketing by the PL brands.

The analysis of FOP claims for PL and NB over such a large sample has not previously been done.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Health and safety and environment are the leading themes in both data sets. Animal welfare, community and biotechnology and novel foods take the middle ground with differing use across reports and products. Fair trade, labor and human resources and procurement and purchasing are the least commonly described themes in reports and on products. Retailers focus on different corporate social responsibility (CSR) themes in reports and new products, which may be evidence of competitive rather than pre-competitive strategies.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Introduced into the literature a decade ago, grit originally defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals has stimulated considerable research on positive effects primarily in the academic and military contexts, as well as attracted widespread media attention. Despite recent criticism regarding grit’s construct and criterion-related validity, research on grit has begun to spill over into the work context as well. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the initial theoretical foundations of grit as a motivational driver, and present newer conceptualizations on the mechanisms of grit’s positive effects rooted in goal-setting theory. Furthermore, the authors also draw attention to existing shortcomings of the current definition and measurement of grit, and their implications for its scientific and practical application. After establishing a theoretical understanding, the authors discuss the potential utility of grit for human resource management, related to staffing and recruitment, development and training, and performance management systems as well as performance evaluations. The authors conclude this chapter with a discussion of necessary and potential future research, and consider the practical implications of grit in its current state.

Arguing that it is necessary to look into specific global leadership processes in specific contexts, this article focuses on collective global leadership in self-managed multicultural teams using an input-process-output model. Building on a study of nationally and culturally diverse self-managed teams, our work demonstrates that collective global leadership in these teams is critical for team performance (output). Our study also examines some of the affective or attitudinal antecedents of collective global leadership in self-managed multicultural teams (process) and their members’ goal orientations (input). Our findings suggest that a team learning orientation may greatly help multicultural teams overcome the liability of cultural diversity, create a positive intra-team environment, and enable collective global leadership. Our research also suggests that team performance orientation moderates the above effects.