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We investigate discrepancies between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) in the context of a stated choice experiment. Using data on customer preferences for water services where respondents were able to both ‘sell’ and ‘buy’ the choice experiment attributes, we find evidence of non-linearity in the underlying utility function even though the range of attribute levels is relatively small. Our results reveal the presence of significant loss aversion in all the attributes, including price. We find the WTP–WTA schedule to be asymmetric around the current provision level and that the WTP–WTA ratio varies according to the particular provision change under consideration. Such reference point findings are of direct importance for practitioners and decision-makers using choice experiments for economic appraisal such as cost–benefit analysis, where failure to account for non-linearity in welfare estimates may significantly over- or under-state individual's preferences for gains and avoiding losses respectively.

With this study we investigate the preferences of an important category of consumers of organic products (regular consumers of organic food or RCOFs) allowing for preference heterogeneity. A survey instrument was developed to elicit preferences for important qualitative and quantitative attributes of extra virgin olive oil. The survey was administered via questionnaire to a random sample of 198 RCOFs in organic food stores of Naples, Italy. The choice task was organised around a fractional factorial main effects orthogonal design. Each respondent made eight choices to rank‐order nine product profiles in terms of their individual preference. Product attributes included price, origin of production, type of certification and visual appearance. Interestingly, the set of observed responses appears to display significant preference heterogeneity for origin of production and price. Once heterogeneity and correlation among repeated choice by the same respondent are accounted for by means of random‐parameter panel logit models, the fit increases dramatically with respect to the more restrictive fixed‐parameter logit models. Results also suggest that price plays an important role as quality proxy, while visual appearance is not significant in preference modelling and the type of certification programme has a fixed effect.

The presence of respondents with apparently extreme sensitivities in choice data may have an important influence on model results, yet their role is rarely assessed or even explored. Irrespective of whether such outliers are due to genuine preference expressions, their presence suggests that specifications relying on preference heterogeneity may be more appropriate. In this paper, we compare the potential of discrete and continuous mixture distributions in identifying and accommodating extreme coefficient values. To test our methodology, we use five stated preference datasets (four simulated and one real). The real data were collected to estimate the existence value of rare and endangered fish species in Ireland.

Under investigation is Prosecco wine, a sparkling white wine from North‐East Italy. Information collection on consumer perceptions is particularly relevant when developing market strategies for wine, especially so when local production and certification of origin play an important role in the wine market of a given district, as in the case at hand. Investigating and characterizing the structure of preference heterogeneity become crucial steps in every successful marketing strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources of systematic differences in consumer preferences.

The paper explores the effect of inclusion of answers to attitudinal questions in a latent class regression model of stated willingness to pay (WTP) for this specialty wine. These additional variables were included in the membership equations to investigate whether they could be of help in the identification of latent classes. The individual specific WTPs from the sampled respondents were then derived from the best fitting model and examined for consistency.

The use of answers to attitudinal question in the latent class regression model is found to improve model fit, thereby helping in the identification of latent classes. The best performing model obtained makes use of both attitudinal scores and socio‐economic covariates identifying five latent classes. A reasonable pattern of differences in WTP for Prosecco between CDO and TGI types were derived from this model.

The approach appears informative and promising: attitudes emerge as important ancillary indicators of taste differences for specialty wines. This might be of interest per se and of practical use in market segmentation. If future research shows that these variables can be of use in other contexts, it is quite possible that more attitudinal questions will be routinely incorporated in structural latent class hedonic models.

This paper aims to understand how companies addressed and revisited their sustainable development goals (SDGs) engagement during COVID-19.

The study conducts semi-structured interviews with the sustainability managers of 16 Italian listed companies acting for the accomplishment of the SDGs. Then, the interviews’ transcripts and the companies’ sustainability reports were thematically analysed to tease out relevant findings.

The findings show that companies have intensified their SDGs efforts during COVID-19, implementing an approach closer to the “Sustainability for Braving Crisis”. The findings unveil the transformational mechanisms which determined and facilitated this improvement at three levels of the business SDGs engagement: “WHY” (general awareness and motivations), “HOW” (governance mechanisms, organizational structure and stakeholder dialogue) and “WHAT” (SDGs identification and prioritization and actions for the SDGs). These findings uncover the mechanisms through which a global crisis may prompt and catalyse sustainable business practices, acting as i) an inspirational and empowering event, ii) an organisational lever and iii) a reference point.

This research has important implications for practice and policy, as it offers managers and stakeholders guidance to understand how companies have reshaped their sustainability practices during the pandemic and drives future corporate responses in times of crisis.

This study shows that a crisis may be a powerful lever to intensify business sustainability practices towards a better contribution to the SDGs.

This study focuses on how companies have revised their SDGs practices when faced with a global crisis such as COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics focussing on their links and differences, also to understand how companies move respectively in these field; to understand how companies sometimes move away from the basic and deep meaning of these concepts, landing in a merely utilitarian sphere of personal advantage where ethics, instead of being an irreplaceable and essential stronghold, is found to be a fiction or just an instrument.

The methodology used assumes a theoretical critical approach and, based on the vast literature on the items, is based on a conceptual analysis of the themes of sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics and of the behaviour that companies can adopt in the three contexts. A critical approach to these issues and concepts can effectively help us to understand how companies are responding to external demands and to the challenges of responsibility and sustainability, which are becoming increasingly pressing.

Ethics, sustainability, CSR and social and environmental reporting are distinct constructs with different meanings but linked by important conceptual and operational relationships.

The results of the research are the consequence of the application of a critical approach based on a theoretical analysis of the concepts under study. It would be interesting to support the results achieved with empirical research studies.

This conceptual path helps scholars and companies themselves to understand the difference between the three key concepts analysed. Only by understanding the basic meaning will it be possible to really make one’s own and pursue it in the correct way.

Nowadays, the authors are overwhelmed by these three concepts which are used as synonyms and incorrectly. This leads to confusion and misunderstandings. Knowledge of the characteristics and differences between these concepts and their concrete applications is of great importance.

This study tries to provide a critical discussion of how the three concepts intersect and differentiate, leading to concrete results or results that have nothing to do with their meaning. There are no conceptual papers in the literature that deal with the three concepts and also analyse the implications on the real world.

The different senses of the term information in physical, biological and social interpretations, and the possibility of connections between them, are addressed. Special attention is paid to Hofkirchner's Unified Theory of Information (UTI), proposing an integrated view in which the notion of information gets additional properties as one moves from the physical to the biological and the social realms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

UTI is compared to other views of information, especially to two theories complementing several ideas of it: the theory of the hypertextual documental universe (“docuverse”) and the theory of integrative levels of reality. Two alternative applications of the complex of these three theories are discussed: a pragmatical, hermeneutic one, and a more ambitious realist, ontological one. The latter can be extended until considering information (“bit”) together with matter-energy (“it”) as a fundamental element in the world. Problems and opportunities with each view are discussed.

It is found that the common ground for all three theories is an evolutionary approach, paying attention to the phylogenetic connections between the different meanings of information.

Other theories of information, like Leontiev's, are not discussed as not especially related to the focus of the approach.

The paper builds on previously unnoticed affinities between different families of information-related theories, showing how each of them can provide fruitful complements to the other ones in clarifying the nature of information.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate sparkling wine consumption behavior and preferences of a large sample of US consumers (n=1,096) exploring the differences among genders and generational cohorts.

The sample has been drawn from Wine opinions, a specialized market research company with a large online panel of US wine consumers. Data were collected through a survey mailing model, administering a structured questionnaire.

Findings reveal that consumption frequency between genders is not statistically different and women generally prefer sparkling wines priced below $15. Baby Boomers is the generation with the lowest sparkling wine consumption frequency. Furthermore, Generation X and Baby Boomers have the highest consumption frequency in the price range $15–$19.99, while Millennials in the $10–$14.99 one.

The study sheds light on the changing consumer attitudes to create competitive advantages for wineries. Specifically, it provides valuable marketing insights into the peculiarities of sparkling wine consumption for each generation (e.g. price-point preferences and type of wine).

This paper investigates whether board gender diversity is associated with the propensity to prioritize environmental issues in the material topic list on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based reports.

Regressions analyses are performed using a sample of 755 firm-year observations from Italy over the 2018–2022 period. The data were obtained from hand-collection on GRI-based reports and Refinitiv Eikon database. Board gender diversity is measured through three proxies: the natural logarithm of the number of women directors, the ratio of female representation on board and the Blau index reflecting the proportion of women/men on board. Additional tests are also developed.

Results show that board gender diversity positively influences the propensity to rank environmental issues at the top of the material topic list on GRI-based reports.

Since the study focuses on the Italian context, results cannot be subjective to an extensive generalization to other countries.

This study highlights the importance of strengthening the female participation on board to prioritize the firm’s impact on environment within the materiality assessment of sustainability reporting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the association between board gender diversity and the highest ranked environmental material topics, thus contributing to better understand the role of women directors on materiality assessment within sustainability reporting.