Discursive power as a source of legitimation in food retail governance

In the food sector, retailers often present themselves as guardians of consumer interests, with superior efficiency and effectiveness in the governance of food, in relation to public actors. Concerns about retail governance institutions, such as private standards or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), mainly emphasise a lack of input legitimacy, that is legitimacy relying on democratic procedures. Less often concerns are raised regarding output legitimacy, that is legitimacy based on the effectiveness of retail governance institutions. Based on concepts of discursive power, this paper explores how retail corporations establish their claim to legitimacy in food governance via concepts of output legitimacy. The paper pursues its aim by performing a critical discourse analysis of retailers' discursive strategies identified here as imperialist, recursive, symbiotic and ironic.     

Consumer acceptance of food irradiation: a test of the recreancy theorem

Consumers living in both developed and developing nations rely upon foods that have been produced and processed in many countries and in a wide variety of ways. Therefore, it is not surprising that they express concerns about the safety of their food supplies. A technology proposed to improve consumer trust in food safety is irradiation. Despite extensive education efforts and endorsements given by many health‐related organizations worldwide, food irradiation has been slow to gain widespread acceptance. This ineffectiveness of diffusion efforts might indicate a need to broaden our theoretical perspectives of consumer acceptance of controversial technologies. Most theoretical approaches explain acceptance primarily as a function of perceived risks associated with a technology. The recreancy theorem, in contrast, explains acceptance as a function of public trust in societal institutions to effectively manage a technology. This study investigated the extent to which the recreancy theorem explained acceptance of food irradiation by US consumers, while statistically controlling for perceived risk and social‐demographic variables. The study used a longitudinal field design to survey one adult each in 116 households located in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area during the first large‐scale market test of irradiated food. The results indicate that the recreancy theorem might provide a valid conceptual approach to gaining a broader understanding of consumer acceptance of controversial new technologies.     

A Heuristic Model for Establishing Trade-Offs in Corporate Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems

Consumer trust is a key prerequisite for establishing a market for credence goods, such as “green” products, especially when they are premium priced. This article reports research on exactly how, and how much, trust influences consumer decisions to buy new green products. It identifies consumer trust as a distinct volition factor influencing the likelihood that consumers will act on green intentions and strongly emphasizes the needs to manage consumer trust as a prerequisite for the development of a market for green products. Specifically, based on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, it is found that lack of consumer trust is a barrier for the development of a market for organic food in Thailand. Two focus groups and ten in-depth interviews revealed low knowledge about and low trust in organic food, certification, control, and labeling. Further, a mall-intercept survey (N = 177) revealed that lack of (especially) system trust reduces consumer expectations about benefits of buying organic food, and it makes them less likely to buy organic food. Mistrust in the control system and in the authenticity of food sold as organic has a significant negative impact on self-reported buying behavior. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Trust,authentic pride,and moral reasoning: a unified framework of relational governance and emotional self‐regulation

This conceptual article introduces behavioral perspectives into the governance arena and undertakes a psychological assessment of managerial decision making in organizations by elaborating on the treatment of trust and (authentic and hubristic) pride in the extant literature. While trust is conceived by governance scholars as a device for monitoring relationships with others, we argue that authentic pride, contrary to hubris, could operate as an attribute of emotional self‐regulation allowing corporate leaders to govern the social behavior of their own self. Contrasting the features of trust and authentic pride, we advance several propositions to capture their relevance and simultaneous importance as viable governance mechanisms in light of a manager's level of cognitive moral reasoning. Our study builds a unified theoretical framework of governance which integrates human agency, psychological states, and moral judgment to foster a deeper understanding of complex self‐regulatory processes that are activated by decision makers in the execution of their roles.     

Combining verbal analysis protocol and wireless audiovisual observation to examine consumers' supermarket shopping behaviour

The study investigates the benefits of using a verbal analysis protocol combined with wireless audiovisual observation technology to collect information about consumer behaviour in real‐life environments. A sample of consumers (n = 36) were given a task to select food products in 11 different categories in a supermarket. Combining methods enabled simultaneous collection of multiple forms of qualitative and quantitative data by recording data simultaneously from different perspectives: the consumer's visual range; the wider shopping environment, to provide context; the consumer's verbalizations. Qualitative data on extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affect decision making and quantitative data on product selection time were taken as an example of rich and real‐time data obtained using the combined methods. Audiovisual material was analysed by Usability Test Software 2.0, verbal analysis data were sorted by a database programme and quantitative data were processed using SPSS 17.0. The study design provided sensitive verification of the nature of consumer interaction with the shopping environment: e.g. during the product selection time (average 23 ± 10 s/product), the interaction with the environment varied between individuals and among products selected. The approach represents a useful technique to enable the value of consumer input to direct innovation in consumer‐oriented product development. It also offers new perspectives to consumers and authorities and related organizations to understand shopping behaviour and the role of critical factors behind the food choices at the supermarket.     

Organic food corporate image and customer co-developing behavior: The mediating role of consumer trust and purchase intention

The impact of organic food corporate image on customers' surpassing purchasing behavior is absent in prior literature. Based on the S–O-R framework, the current study focuses on organic food member customers to explore the influence of corporate ability (CA) image and corporate social responsibility (CSR) image of organic food company on the consumption behavior and co-developing behavior of customers. The consumer samples came from 269 member customers of an organic food enterprise in southwest China. The results show that organic food company CA and CSR image positively affect consumer trust and co-developing behavior. CSR image enhances consumer trust and co-developing behavior than CA image does. Additionally, consumer trust and purchase intention play a multi-step mediating role in the relationship between corporate image (CA and CSR) and consumers' co-developing behavior. In conclusion, our findings provide new insights for understanding the relationship between the corporate image of organic food and the co-developing behavior of customers. The research results provide support for organic food companies that can effectively promote consumer trust, continuous purchase, and active engagement in the co-development of products and services by creating an image of ability and social responsibility.     

Systems Mapping of Consumer Acceptance of Agrifood Nanotechnology

Application of nanotechnology in the agrifood system and the rising number of nanofood products on the market are creating concerns among consumers and other stakeholders. These concerns and other potential barriers to the commercialization of agrifood nanotechnology products may limit the ability to capture its full potential. Understanding the emerging trends and the links between underlying values, expressed attitudes, and actual behaviors involving consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology is important for governance, risk regulation, and the achievement of the full potential of agrifood nanotechnology. The purpose of the study was to use systems mapping to examine and analyze critical links between consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology and factors such as trust, stakeholders, institutions, knowledge, and human environmental health risks. The study used a meta-analysis of the risk perception literature and solicited the opinions of experts to develop the systems map. Factors affecting consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology are dynamic, complex, interactive, and interdependent, and consumer decisions to accept agrifood nanotechnology were found to be the results of complex feedback structure. This study suggests several consumer policy and programmatic levels in the system toward enhancing consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology products where warranted.     

Alternative Regulatory Cases Challenging Consumer Policy

By means of the concept of postmodern politics, we provide insights into how alternative regulation is challenging consumer policy. New actors, new forms of interaction, and new goals are emerging alongside established forms of consumer policy. In particular, we examine two alternative regulatory cases: trust marks and consumer-generated information systems. They both exemplify alternative regulation of electronic commerce, which has facilitated regulatory innovation for over a decade. On the basis of our analysis, we suggest that governmental consumer policy cannot imitate the alternative regulatory solutions. We also encourage governmental actors to consider building bridges to consumer networks. This would broaden the scope of consumer policy and be in line with the modes of operation of governmental actors. Consumers are themselves contributing to this rethinking of governmental consumer policy. By networking, consumers provide each other with empowering information on consumption. Doing so on the massive scale enabled by information and communication technologies, they are challenging conventional consumer policy, which can no longer address consumer needs as it could in the pre-Internet days. New issues are emerging for consumer policy to address, and networked consumers are already contributing to policy.     

Consumer trust in animal farming practices – exploring the high trust of Finnish consumers

Trust in animal farming is a complex phenomenon and it is expressed in heterogeneous ways in different cultural contexts. Nordic countries are typically known as high‐trust societies in terms of food issues. Based on group interviews among Finnish consumers, this paper explores how citizen–consumers express trust and distrust regarding animal farming practices and whether it is possible to identify different forms of trust among different consumer groups. The foundations of emotional trust in animal farming have been weakening due to urbanization and the structural change in agriculture. Ordinary shoppers responded to this situation by transferring responsibility for farm animal welfare to public authorities, relying on habitual policy‐generated trust in animal farming. In contrast, gastronomes and organic consumers actively cultivated their emotional trust in livestock production by creating new kinds of contacts to farming. Gastronomes, organic consumers and vegetarians especially acknowledged the complexity of the claims made in farm animal welfare politics. As trust in food has arguably become a subject of active negotiation in Finland, the foundations for the habit‐based policy‐generated trust may be partly weakening, creating more space for the politicizing of food issues and the developing of alternative sources for regaining trust in food production.     

Give your hunger a new option: Understanding consumers' continuous intention to use online food delivery apps using trust transfer theory

The recent growth of online food delivery apps (OFDAs) centralized the restaurant's business in electronic distribution platforms. Recently, a few researchers have attempted to understand consumer behaviour towards using OFDAs. However, various aspects related to the usage of OFDAs have not been explored. Drawing from trust transfer theory, the purpose of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the trust transfer from OFDAs to restaurants and to address the boundary condition of trust transfer by examining the moderating effect of perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution (PEDR) between trust in OFDAs and trust in a restaurant. The model was tested via structural equation modelling (SEM) using data obtained from 836 users of OFDAs through structured questionnaire. The results show that trust in OFDAs positively influence the trust in restaurant, which ultimately leads to the consumers' continuous purchase intention. Further, PEDR positively moderates the relationship between trust in OFDAs and trust in a restaurant. Additionally, disposition to trust and online reviews significantly develops consumer trust in OFDAs. The present research makes substantial theoretical and practical contributions as it develops a trust transfer mechanism by considering an emerging mobile-commerce field. The study provides a first theoretical outlook on consumers' continuous intention to use OFDAs, using trust transfer theory, which has not been considered so far. The findings provide information for food delivery platforms on how to manage conflict resolution to succeed in the market and help restaurants in selecting the most effective food delivery platforms with which to collaborate.     

Genetically Modified Foods

ABSTRACT

This study outlines the controversy surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and how it impacts North American based food service companies' marketing policies. Recent developments have made foods derived from GMOs a strategic marketing challenge for food service franchise and chain operations. Headlines such as “Why McDonalds Pulled Frankenfries from Menus” have unwittingly put restaurants on the frontline of the battle over foods made from GMOs (Martin, 2000). A survey method was used to explore food service operations' views regarding consumer acceptance of GMOs, right to know issues (labeling) and the benefits of GMOs, as well as food service companies' strategic response to this emerging technology. Findings indicate that food service establishments were generally concerned about customer opinions and tend to prefer government mandated labeling of GMOs. They also tend to feel that GMOs offer potential benefits to their industry and that customer concerns may fade over time.     

Bringing complexity and convergence governance to consumer policy

Consumer policy is already being shaped by a combination of governance models. This position paper argues that complexity‐oriented convergence models are a timely addition. Modern day consumer policy is characterized as interactive and integrative, replete with shifting boundaries and coalitions and evolving roles for each of state, market and society. This paper focused on governance in the consumer policy arena, arguing that this process needs to acknowledge and reconcile complexity. After describing the basic tenets of complexity theory, two characteristics of contemporary tri‐sector interaction (i.e., sector blurring and sector distortion) were discussed. These boundary characteristics necessitate the need for approaches that can accommodate complexity during consumer policy governance. Three examples of the latter were profiled: sector convergence, network governance and cross‐sector governance. These conceptualizations accommodate the dynamics, complexity and emergence of contemporary consumer policy governance.     

Balancing health,harmony and hegemony: Parents' goals and strategies in children's food related consumer socialization

Parents play a pivotal role in socializing their children for healthy eating. The objectives of the present study were (1) to identify food socialization outcomes valued by parents, and (2) to study how parents socialize their children for (healthy) eating at home and during food shopping. Including both parents' perceptions of valued food socialization outcomes and associated processes addresses a significant gap in the food socialization literature. The study used semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with parents of young children. Data were subsequently analysed by interpretive, thematic procedures. The sample consisted of middle‐ to high‐income families from two cities in Denmark. Findings reveal four main food socialization goals valued by parents: (1) Nutrition and Health, (2) Healthy Relationship with Food, (3) Food Assimilation and (4) Self‐Regulation and Autonomy. Parents prioritized children's acquisition of a healthy relationship with food which included preserving family relations and harmony, more than strictly attending a nutritious diet, contrasting the focus on the nutritional value of diet usually emphasised by public health authorities. The study therefore concludes that parents' notions of what constitutes healthy diets for their children is not completely aligned with common nutrition‐oriented recommendations. Also, fathers were found to play a very active role in their children's food‐related consumer socialization. The findings underline the importance of addressing the priorities and strategies of both mothers and fathers when marketers and policy makers target contemporary families regarding children's food socialization.     

The role of trust in the relationship between consumers,producers and retailers of organic food: A sector-based approach

Given current environmental concerns, the organic food market is an important issue in terms of sustainability. The consolidation of this market is based on trust. Many consumers rely on partial information to assess the quality of organic food and cannot determine its authenticity with certainty. They are led to trust the actors of the organic food chain and the government. In addition, numerous industrial and sanitary scandals have highlighted the need for the actors of the sector to establish relationships based on trust and transparency in order to guarantee the traceability of products and to protect the health of consumers. This research examines the impact of trust and confidence in producers and retailers on the intention to purchase organic food. To address this research issue, we conducted an online questionnaire survey of 316 organic food consumers in France. The results show the central role of quality as a strategy for building and maintaining trust with producers and retailers. They show for the first time the positive impact of trust in producers on trust in retailers. The results of this research allow us to provide advice to growers and retailers to maintain trust and promote purchase intent.     

Consumers’ attitudes,trust and willingness to pay for food information

Market failure can be corrected using different regulatory approaches ranging from high to low intervention. Recently, classic regulations have been criticized as costly and economically irrational, and thus, policy makers are giving more consideration to soft regulatory techniques such as information remedies. However, despite the plethora of food information conveyed by different media there appears to be a lack of studies exploring how consumers evaluate this information and how trust towards publishers influence their choices for food information. In order to fill such a gap, this study investigates questions related to topics that are more relevant to consumers, who should disseminate trustful food information, and how communication should be conveyed and segmented. Primary data were collected both through qualitative (in‐depth interviews and focus groups) and quantitative research (web and mail surveys). Attitudes, willingness to pay (WTP) for food information and trust towards public and private sources conveying information through a new food magazine were assessed using both multivariate statistical methods and econometric analysis. The study shows that consumer attitudes towards food information topics can be summarized along three cognitive‐affective dimensions: the agro‐food system, enjoyment and wellness. Information related to health risks caused by nutritional disorders and food safety issues caused by bacteria and chemical substances is the most important for about 90% of respondents. Food information related to regulations and traditions is also considered important for more than two‐thirds of respondents, whereas information about food production and processing techniques, lifestyle and food fads are considered less important by the majority of respondents. Trust towards food information disseminated by public bodies is higher than that observed for private bodies. This behaviour directly affects WTP for food information provided by public and private publishers when markets are shocked by a food safety incident. WTP for consumer association (€1.80) and the European Food Safety Authority (€1.30) are higher than WTP for the independent and food industry publishers that cluster around zero euro. Furthermore, trust towards the type of publisher also plays a key role in food information market segmentation together with socio‐demographic and economic variables such as gender, age, presence of children and income. These findings invite policy makers to reflect on the possibility of using information remedies conveyed using trusted sources of information to specific segments of consumers as an interesting soft alternative to the classic way of regulating modern food markets. JEL codes: D12, D18, D89, Q18.     

Consumers buying behaviour towards agri-food products: A mixed-method approach

This study aims to identify the factors that can influence consumer purchasing behaviour in the context of agri-food. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence theory, this study proposed a model to explain purchasing behaviour that included environmental factors as well as a set of cognitive processes. This study adopted a mixed method approach and in the first stage, a qualitative analysis was conducted to extract the constructs for the study. In the second stage, the quantitative analysis was performed by means of CB-SEM using 891 responses collected through a survey. This resulted in identifying the factors that influence agri-food purchasing behaviour. According to the findings, health consciousness and food safety concerns in the form of a stimulus have a positive relationship with agri-food image, agri-food label, and agri-food benefits acting as the organism. Similarly, the three organisms have a positive relationship with trust. Ethnocentrism is also found to have positive and significant association with trust. The combination of trust and ethnocentrism has consequences, in the form of agri-food purchase behaviour. The study's findings have significant implications for marketers and marketing strategists.     

Fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour: The moderating role of consumer social responsibility

This study aims to understand the drivers of fast‐food addiction and the role of consumer social responsibility (CSR) on the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption. Due to growing health concerns, an increasing number of consumers have been avoiding the consumption of fast food. Based on a sample of 539 respondents, all pertaining to generation Y in Pakistan, this study tests a model including addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Empirical results provide strong evidence that individual and sociocultural factors together with advertising practices influence consumers’ fast‐food addiction. Results also reveal that CSR moderates the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Interestingly, the present study pioneers the discussion on how addiction can drive anti‐consumption. The findings can help public policy makers and managers to understand consumers’ anti‐consumption tendencies and help promote healthier consumption habits.     

Reduced‐fat foods: the shopper’s viewpoint

The inclusion of reduced‐fat foods in the daily diet affords consumers the potential to reduce overall dietary fat. Nevertheless, despite an increased range of these food products throughout the market, there has remained a lack of widespread consumer acceptance. The aim of the study was therefore to understand why consumers choose or reject reduced‐fat foods. Ninety consumers were interviewed by means of a qualitative approach within food retail outlets in the United Kingdom. Thematic content analysis indicated that uptake or rejection of these products is influenced by health concerns, ‘goodness of fit’ with individual dietary health strategies, the preferences of different household members, perceived sensory properties and scepticism towards these products. The results imply a need to explore and innovate ‘natural’ fat substitutes and to improve the sensory quality of reduced‐fat products. Further research is required to determine how these foods are used within the household and incorporated within the overall diet. Policy must seek to restore consumer trust in reduced‐fat food products and the food supply generally.     

Relationships in Franchised Distribution System: the Case of the Spanish Market

The purpose of this article is to examine long-term inter-firm relationship management and to investigate empirically if trust and commitment are essential variables for relationship success. This study analyses both the relationship between two behaviours (cooperation and exchange information) and the development of trust and commitment as well as their effects on long-term orientation, satisfaction and performance. The unit of analysis is the dyadic relationship, assessing separately franchisor's and franchisees' perspectives, and comparing similarities and differences across perspectives (Anderson & Narus, ; Jap, ). The model proposed has been tested with 107 franchisors and 102 franchisees operating both in the retail (food and beverages, fashions, furniture …) and the service sector (estate agencies, education, dry-cleaner's, diverse services …) in the Spanish franchised distribution system. Results show that both commitment and trust are key variables for long-term relationship success from the franchisors perspective, but that from the franchisees side, trust is the key variable for relationship success.