Food or ‘virtual’ food? The construction of children's food in a global economy

This paper explores the pattern of change and development in the marketization and reconstitution of food products for children. It is in the past few decades that global corporations’ search for new markets has come to focus intensely on children. In the eyes of global corporations, children are a huge, multibillion dollar market. Childhood may be understood as a social construction but its form is historically specific. At present, the market is defining and reconstituting cultural meanings of childhood without being contested by other significant groups in society. The paper goes on to explore how transnational corporations have transformed the production and marketing of food. The paper discusses the food risks and the challenges faced by the fast food industry which specifically targets children. The reconstitution and the rebranding of popular children's food is producing ‘virtual’ food rather than real food. We live in an era where childhood offers untold opportunities in the northern hemisphere. However, the global market has come to dominate and define the social construction of childhood. Other cultural forms of identity outside of consumerism are not making the same impression. The food risks associated with the global processing of food and the health risks that have been linked to these new food forms ultimately has consequences not only for children but for society as a whole.     

Evaluating food hygiene inspection schemes: ‘Scores on Doors’ in the UK

Food hygiene inspection results previously kept confidential from the public may now be released, and this gives food authorities the opportunity to publish these ratings, known as ‘Scores on Doors’, allowing consumers to make informed decisions when deciding where they will eat. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) is supporting trials of some of these schemes, which will involve more than 60 of the 400 local authorities, some of which have yet to launch their schemes. Other food authorities are running disclosure schemes independent of the FSA pilot scheme. The FSA has commissioned an evaluation of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes to determine which is the most effective scheme with a view to launching a consistent nationwide scheme. A survey of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes reveals many differences in the way they operate. This includes differences in the interpretation of scores, the extent of information that is disclosed, the communication channels used to disclose information, the amount of publicity provided for businesses and the public, the publicity given to the schemes by local media, and whether businesses are scored retrospectively or scored at inspection following the launch of the scheme. The implications of these variables for a comprehensive evaluation of the schemes are explored.     

Asian food: the global and the local

Advertising practice makes use of emotional cues and addresses consumers' rising desire for social connection. Research has investigated emotions within advertising, but mainly focused on negative or positive emotions. Traditional academic approaches to the analysis of persuasion according to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) tend to emphasize central processing and thus rational advertising cues. Moreover, the role of motivation within the ELM is underspecified. We introduce the Zurich Model of Social Motivation to the regulation of social distance and investigate the specific feeling of care and security. This feeling may serve as motivational component and emerge as persuasion instrument within advertising. We seek to find means to activate viewers, independent from involvement. As we initially apply the model, we match constructs from advertising research to the framework. The feeling of care and security is determined by the autobiographical fit, the amount of personal resemblance, and familiarity with the cue. Realism of the story describes the (psychological) distance, whereas emotionality of the story refers to relevancy of the objects shown. We apply a structural equation modelling approach to test our hypotheses with smart partial least squares. Autobiographical fit is the strongest driver, followed by the realism and emotionality of the story. The feeling of care and security significantly predicts attitude toward the advertisement Group comparison according to Chin by the level of involvement shows that all causal relations remain stable for both sub-groups. Our findings suggest that specific emotional cues may have a special role within information processing and that there is no need to always focus on the central route of processing.     

Organic and local food consumer behaviour: Alphabet Theory

Semi‐structured interviews are conducted to understand why consumers buy organic and/or local foods. The interview findings are consistent with existing theoretical frameworks for explaining environmentally significant behaviour: Value‐Belief‐Norm (VBN) theory and Attitude‐Behaviour‐Context (ABC) theory. Findings show that organic food shoppers in particular are motivated by values, beliefs and the creation of norms. However, the interviews indicate that knowledge (K), information seeking (IS) and habit (H) are also important in understanding why consumers choose organic and local foods. Incorporating demographics (D) as well, the resulting VBN‐ABC‐D‐K‐IS‐H or ‘Alphabet Theory’ is presented as a new framework to explain organic and local food purchase behaviour.     

The U.S.–Brazil relationship opportunity: Business synergies for a dynamic global environment

The U.S.–Brazil relationship features an intersection of public and private sectors characteristic of the post‐2000 dynamics of international business and governmental relations. As a triple helix reference for the private sector, the public sector, and academia, this article explores how further alignment of public and private interests of the United States and Brazil can improve the bilateral relationship between the two largest countries in the Western hemisphere. The first section recaps the U.S.–Brazil public relationship and cultural perspectives shared between Brazil and the United States. The second section reviews the relevance of the U.S.–Brazil relationship in Brazil's economy and business marketplace. Sections 3 through 5 discuss specific trade, investment, and tax agreements that can be mutually beneficial for the United States and Brazil. The final section recommends further areas for public–private cooperation between the United States and Brazil.     

Local and organic food on wheels: exploring the use of local and organic food in the food truck industry

An exploratory study approach was used in this research to examine the use of local and organic food in Toronto’s food truck industry, the rationale for its use, and the challenges that food truck owners face in sourcing it. Results showed that all-but-one of the food trucks sourced local or organic food for their menu and were motivated by fresh taste/quality, social responsibility and customer preference. While there were challenges with utilizing organic/local food due to seasonality and cost, food trucks found they can derive benefits by way of increased patronage, menu differentiation, and competitiveness.     

Measuring physical access to ‘healthy foods’ in areas of social deprivation: a case study in Cardiff

This paper examines some characteristics of ‘food deserts’– areas of social deprivation which have poor physical access to food shopping – in a large British city, Cardiff. The stereotype of the ‘food desert’ is critically examined, emphasizing the importance attached by residents of such areas to easy access to food shopping, especially in multiple supermarkets. The case study of Cardiff briefly discusses the identification of potential ‘food deserts’, and then examines the structures of ‘healthy food’ availability and prices in four areas of the city (two in the inner city, two in the outer city) where physical access to large multiple supermarkets is poor. The analysis shows that the local shops in these areas cannot compete generally with large supermarkets on either availability of items or their prices, but that the local shops in the inner city areas are rather more competitive than those in the outer areas. Implications for research and policy formulation are finally discussed.     

The local and the global: exploring traits of homogeneity and heterogeneity in European food cultures

One type of boundary rarely explored in international marketing are the cultural boundaries dividing Europe into regions with individual cultural backgrounds and different consumption patterns. This article explores information about such patterns of food consumption based on information from a database originating from a 1989 pan-European lifestyle survey comprising around 20 000 people in 15 European countries divided into 79 regions. The degree of homogeneity in the different nation-states and regions was analysed. The article contributes with new, specific empirical evidence about Europeans' food-related behaviour and attitudes and provides culture-based explanations and interpretations of observed differences and similarities. It is shown that nation/language boundaries still have a strong impact on European food cultures.     

Family meals and disparities in global ecosystem dependency. Three examples: Ghana,Russia and Sweden

This article highlights globalization in terms of dependency on local and global ecosystems when it comes to family diets. In an exploratory case study, one typical meal in three household settings in different parts of the world: Ghana, Russia and Sweden, is examined. Food paths are traced to compare the scale of ecosystem dependency. The result shows that ecosystem dependency varies greatly with implications for environmental impact. The Swedish household, as opposed to the Ghanaian and the Russian, is not dependent on local ecosystems for food provision, but increasingly on global systems. Opportunities and constraints for lowering environmental impacts related to diets in different economies are discussed. It is concluded that it is of great importance to create awareness in high‐income countries of the dependency on the global ecosystem and the resulting environmental impacts. It is in these countries that opportunities are available for change towards more sustainable diets. It is suggested that further research need to explore in greater depth how ecosystem dependency differs and how that translates into broad spectra of environmental impacts, considering other dimensions of sustainable development as well.     

Local residents’ perception about tourism and foreign residents: A Spanish case study

It is important to learn about local residents’ perceptions in relation to tourism and the presence of tourists who eventually become foreign residents, since tourism development is bound to have consequences of an economic, sociocultural, and environmental nature. This paper has collected quantitative as well as qualitative information to analyze those effects in the case of a tourism destination located on Costa Blanca (Spain). The impact of tourism development is additionally associated with local residents’ satisfaction with their municipality. According to the conclusion reached, a connection exists between that satisfaction amongst local residents and the availability of new business opportunities, the development, and maintenance of good relationships between local residents, foreign residents and tourists, and the international atmosphere that arises as a result.     

Indian food in the UK: personal values and changing patterns of consumption

This qualitative study examined the consumption of Indian foods among groups of English and Indian people living in the UK. Both convenience and freshly made Indian foods were included in the research. The aim was to explore attitudes (based on ethnicity) towards, and the consumption of, Indian foods. The means–end model and laddering methodology were used in interviews with 24 respondents, 12 from each group (English and Indians). The personal values ‘social life’, ‘health’, ‘adventure’, ‘enjoyment’ and ‘savings’ were found to be the most important for English respondents whereas ‘enjoyment’, ‘good life’, ‘health’, ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ were the most desirable value ends for Indians. The results provide an insight into English and Indian peoples’ perceptions of Indian food that can be used in promotion and marketing positioning of branded Indian foods, sauces and accompaniments.     

The recognition and valuing of patient knowledge: a way forward

The health care that patients receive, particularly in acute care settings, is mainly based in biomedical knowledge. The scientific method of investigating health conditions has directly contributed to the development of this knowledge. This has made a significant contribution to increased survival rates, reduced recovery periods and extending the duration of life. The influence of consumerism on health‐care management has led to an expectation of increased patient involvement when making decisions about their treatment options. This assumes that the provision of information helps improve patients' understanding of the diagnosed health condition and assists them to make ‘good’ decisions. Accordingly, there is a greater focus on providing information to patients. The information provided to patients mostly involves explanation about the biomedical aspects of their health condition. However, patients also desire information about how the health condition will affect their everyday life. We call the understanding of the implications of this information ‘everyday knowledge’. Provision of this information can assist patients by helping them realize their expectations and providing reassurance to both patients and their significant others. Unfortunately, everyday knowledge that assists patients to understand and manage their daily life has not been as systematically researched or examined. While biomedical knowledge has been extensively developed and promoted through funding regimes, everyday knowledge has not benefited from the same support. The interactions in health‐care settings are influential in the generation and use of knowledge. Practises that encourage sensitivity by health professionals to each patient's situation need to be identified and implemented. An increased focus on the inclusion of everyday knowledge alongside biomedical knowledge is likely to enhance the relevance of the information that patients currently receive.     

The retail sector in the Nordic countries: A description of the differences, similarities, and uniqueness in the global market

We present an overview of the retail sector in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. We apply the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and the Concentration Ratio to estimate the market concentration in the retail sector in each of those countries. The level of concentration in the retail trade in the Nordic countries is relatively high as compared to other European countries, which is reflected in low customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Nordic countries have a relatively high proportion of their total population living in the capital area, and we consider how that affects their retail trade.     

Consumer quest for embeddedness: a case study of the Brantford Farmers' Market

Farmers' markets (FMs) in the US, Canada and Britain are often held as one key response to the unsustainability of conventional food production systems, as they provide consumers with a potentially more comprehensive valuation venue for their food purchases. This paper categorizes and examines the range of consumer motivations at the Brantford FM in Ontario, Canada using the concept of embeddedness. Though not a simple concept, embeddedness proves useful for framing non‐economic values sought by consumers at FMs in a way that helps to build our understanding of the context‐specific quality of patron motivations at FMs. In the study, values of social embeddedness (social interaction, knowledge of vendors, etc.) and spatial embeddedness (food freshness, supporting the ‘local’, etc.) emerge as core sets of consumer motivations at this FM, while natural embeddedness values (organic production, ‘food‐miles’ concerns, etc.) are less strongly held. This case study helps advance that specific sets of embedded values are expressed at FMs – consumer motivations partly reflect their historic and situated contexts, while contributing to our understanding of the importance of the embeddedness concept to alternative food system arguments for change.     

Who buys from farmers’ markets and farm shops: The case of Germany

In this article, we analyze the influence of sociodemographic factors and consumer attitudes toward direct marketing products and sources (outlets) on the frequency of buying food from farmers’ markets and farm shops. By conducting an intercept survey with pedestrians in 2011 and 2012, we interviewed a total of n = 550 consumers. The target regions of the study were the Eastern German federal states. The study uses two ordered logit regression models to investigate consumers’ shopping behaviour at farmers’ markets and farm shops separately. We find that different factors significantly influence consumers’ buying behaviour at the two direct marketing outlets. Specifically, both a more favorable view toward the freshness of directly marketed foods and the intention to support local producers are positively related to consumers’ purchase frequency from farmers’ markets. In contrast, consumers’ purchase frequency from farm shops is significantly influenced by their perception of the cost of the products, confidence in food producers of directly marketed products, perception of the safety of the food and perception of the accessibility of farm shops. The study results indicate that considering consumer behaviour separately for different direct marketing channels for food rather than considering the entire category of local food outlets may provide new and valuable insights.     

Consumer education between ‘consumership’ and citizenship: experiences from studies of young people

The aim of consumer education has been mainly to teach and educate students to act as informed, rational and prudent consumers. This perception of consumption as reasoned behaviour or action is inadequate in the late modern society, where consumerism is first and foremost characterized by globalization, cultural change and the liberation of the individual. The results of a research study involving Danish pupils aged 12–19 years present a picture of consumption connected both to material and non‐material aspects of life. Consumption as such has a significant impact on and meaning for the individual: it becomes a means by which human beings communicate and interact. Consumption is part of children's and young people's education and socialization, and plays a role in the development of identity and self‐image. Institutional consumer enlightenment and the education of students in school stand in contrast to informal consumer socialization and the education of individuals. The aim of formal consumer education may be described as ‘educating for critical consumer awareness and action competence’. However consumer education finds itself in the dilemma between ‘consumership’ and ‘citizenship’. This pilot study is aimed at understanding consumer socialization in order to improve formal consumer education and to reflect on how empowerment becomes part of consumer education.     

Customizing calories: How rejecting (vs. selecting) ingredients leads to lower calorie estimation and unhealthier food choices

Customization of food products has increased substantially in recent years while the desire for healthiness and an emphasis on understanding and providing calorie information continues to dynamically change the landscape of restaurant retail. The authors report four studies demonstrating that different customization routes (i.e., rejecting alternatives from a full product offering versus adding alternatives to a basic product offering) lead to systematic, but predictable, differences in consumers’ estimations of calories. In particular, this research finds that a rejection (vs. selection) customization process leads consumers to persistently estimate lower calories in the final product, which then improves evaluations of the retailer and leads to unhealthier food choices. These findings occur when consumers estimate calories of the exact same final product using the different paths to customization as well as when they create their own customized final product, while accounting for differences in the quantity and type of ingredients selected, suggesting a very general difference in estimations. This research has important implications for consumers who want to manage their weight and for firms that need to manage consumers’ health perceptions.     

The Doctrine of the Mean: Workplace Relationships and Turnover Intention

The present study examines the curvilinear relationships between LMX/TMX and team members' turnover intention simultaneously. That is, members with high LMX, TMX, or both are more likely to have turnover intention. Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 452 nurses, and we adopted the response surface methodology and polynomial regression to test our theoretical model. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that TMX has a U‐shaped relationship with turnover intention but not with LMX. In addition, the results indicate that both the congruence and incongruence of LMX and TMX result in higher turnover intention, but moderate levels of LMX and TMX have the lowest turnover intention. Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ownership concentration and corporate governance practices: substitution or expropriation effects?

The objective of this study is to analyze the relation between ownership concentration and corporate governance practices of a group of Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. We rely on the corporate governance index developed by the Report on Business (ROB) in 2002. Our empirical results are consistent with the expropriation effect argument that predicts a negative relation between deviation from the one share‐one vote rule and corporate governance best practices. In this context, the dominant shareholder has incentives to maintain weak internal controls in order to facilitate expropriation. In addition, consistent with prior research, our results give partial support to the substitution effect argument by showing a negative impact of ownership concentration on the board composition subindex. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The employment selection interview: disparity among research‐based recommendations,current practices and what matters to Human Rights Tribunals

We surveyed Human Resources (HR) professionals (N = 301) on their use of structure in employment interviews. We compared these data with research‐based recommendations and with elements of interview structure considered important by Canadian Human Rights Tribunals. Contrary to research‐informed recommendations, HR practitioners and Human Rights Tribunals appear to attach little importance to job analysis as the foundation for developing interview questions and to interviewer training. While Tribunals and the established research literature on employment interviewing favour standardization, this is of lesser concern to Canadian HR practitioners. Finally, there was convergence on valuing behavioural questions and note‐taking, but not on valuing interview panels. Implications of our findings for research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.