Development of a food and health strategy for Cardiff

This keynote address will cover the background to, research involved in and presentation of a Food and Health Strategy for Cardiff. The work involved:

• 1 A rapid appraisal of over 20 initiatives, which promote the availability and consumption of safe, healthy and sustainable food within Cardiff.
• 2 Recommendations for membership of a food and health strategy working party.
• 3 The preparation of a framework document as a starting point for the working party.
• 4 The meeting of the working party and key‐stakeholders to produce a final strategy for Cardiff incorporating sustainable development, food quality, safety and hygiene, food availability, education and nutrition.
• 5 Ensuring that the Cardiff strategy reflected the broad aims and objectives of already existing pertinent documents, e.g. National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease, National Service Framework for Diabetes, Nutrition Strategy for Wales, Cardiff Strategy for a Healthy City, A Community Strategy for Cardiff, Local Sustainability Strategy for Cardiff.

The presentation will consist of key findings in terms of best practice, evaluation of successful initiatives and intercollaborative working.     

Conflict,Participative Decision‐Making,and Generational Ownership Dispersion: A Multilevel Analysis*

This study examines how participative decision‐making and generational ownership dispersion affect conflict in a sample of privately held U.S. family firms. Our study utilizes a hierarchical linear model approach to investigate “cross‐level” effects between variables from different levels of analysis. Participative decision‐making among family members was found to be associated with cognitive and relationship conflict. Furthermore, the relationship between participative decision‐making and conflict as individual‐level variables was moderated by generational ownership dispersion, a firm‐level variable. When ownership was dispersed through multiple generations, participative decision‐making was found to be positively related to cognitive and relationship conflict; however, in one‐ and two‐generation ownership firms participative decision‐making was found to be negatively related to cognitive and relationship conflict.     

Expenditure patterns on food and non food items of Khayelitsha households,Western Cape,South Africa

Food insecurity or lack of access to adequate and nutritious food is a major determinant of under‐nutrition. Expenditure patterns accompanied by unemployment, low level of education, inflation and high food prices have a direct negative impact on food availability within households (Moller, 1997). Ghany and Schwenk (1993) found that as household income increases, the proportion of expenditures on food decreases, the proportion of expenditures on clothing, rent, fuel, and light stayed the same and that of sundries increased. The aim of this study was to investigate household expenditure patterns on food and non‐food items in Khayelitsha. A total of 20 households (10 from the formal and 10 from the informal settlements) were randomly selected from those willing to participate in the study. A questionnaire with open ended and closed questions was used to collect data. The questionnaire comprised four sections namely: biographical information, socio‐economic information which used wealth quintiles to assess households’ social economic status, total expenditure information and a food/hunger scale was used to assess households’ food availability. The findings revealed that households from informal settlements spent more money (62.2%) as a proportion of their income on food compared to households from the formal settlement (39%). There was higher unemployment rate (100%) at the informal settlement compared to the formal settlement (40%). Wealth quintiles scales did not reflect the social status of the households as equipment and assets owned by households were only used as fallback position during times of economic hardships. Households used different purchasing strategies; food and non‐food items were mainly purchased from outside the township (60%). Forty percent of the households bought their items from local shops and spazas because they allowed them to buy items whenever little money was available or to take items on credit. All the respondents preferred to buy bread and small items from spazas and local shops. Prices of items in the spazas and local shops were higher compared to prices of items in bigger shops outside the townships. The food/hunger scale and wealth quintiles showed that informal settlement households were more food insecure (as they were all unemployed and about 50% of the households ran out of food always) and had fewer assets compared to the formal settlement households. The implications of these findings underscore the need to improve socio‐economic conditions of low resource households through empowerment programs. These programs can be in the form of training in management/decision making, work related skills/literacy (to help them access formal employment), business management/income generation skills (to help them to be self‐employed), budgeting, and food gardening. This approach can help to increase the resource base and alleviate food insecurity in low resource households.     

Education and the empowerment of women in household decision‐making in Spain

It was analysed whether investment in the education of both women and men serves to empower wives resulting in more balanced household decisions being taken on matters related to consumption and financial management. They considered that household decision‐making could be made by mainly the wife, mainly the husband or the couple acting jointly. They then applied multinomial probit models to the Spanish Living Conditions Survey of 2010. Results show that, when controlling for demographic, family and labour market characteristics, the level of education of both the husband and wife has a positive effect in terms of a more egalitarian decision‐making process in relation to three areas of expenditure: daily shopping, expensive purchases of consumer durables and significant expenditure on children. However, only women's education has a positive effect on borrowing money and no effect of education is observed with regard to the use of savings. Results are less conclusive for households where decisions are taken primarily by the wife or husband, since men's education increases the role of husbands in the household making‐decision process whereas no effect of wives' education is observed.     

Robertson's model: a framework for exploration of World War II conservation consumption policy influence on fashion in the US

This paper studies pertinent materials related to the conservation of textile apparel and textile‐related natural resources that appeared in poster campaign communications published during the Second World War in the US. An examination of World War II poster campaign communications conveying the need for conservation efforts and rationing as communicated to consumers infers the historical context of the era. These poster campaign communications asked consumers to utilize fully of limited resources while maintaining a sense of individuality and trend‐setting creativity and fashion. World War II shortages and allocations influenced fashion innovations in women's apparel in the US. This paper provides a retrospective examination of innovative trends and the various conservation themes associated with women's fashion identify themes used to influence and to inspire Americans to reuse and recycle in support of the war effort. At no other time in history was voluntary textile conservation as prevalent in mainstream American culture as it was during the 1940s. Content analysis reveals reoccurring themes that appeared in the advertisements developed by the War Advertising Council in the 1940s and used in their poster campaign advertisements. Themes and conservation activities identified in their poster campaign communications included

• ? ‘America's New Role as Fashion Arbiters’;
• ? ‘Conserve Time, Money, Materials for National Defense Program’;
• ? ‘War Production Board General Limitations Order L‐85 – Fabric Conservation on Silhouette Dimensions’;
• ? ‘Fashion for Victory’;
• ? ‘Beauty in Peace and War’;
• ? ‘Fabric Conservation’;
• ? ‘Teaching Consumers How to Conserve’;
• ? ‘You're In the War Too’;
• ? ‘Wearing Clothes More’;
• ? ‘Changing Materials for War [Nylon]’.

In addition, print communications were categorized according to Robertson's adoption process model. This study found evidence that supports that Robertson's adoption process model was a useful tool in studying these poster campaign communications relative to Robertson's decision‐making process.     

Do family members agree on family purchase decision? – an empirical study among families in Hong Kong

Family decision making is one of the most important consumer decisions. It is complicated because all family members can be involved in the decision‐making process. The current study examined the impact of perceived buying preferences of individual family member on perceived family buying preferences. A new family decision‐making model with family members’ buying preference is proposed based on resources theory, social learning theory and family system theory. It is found that there is a synergy effect in a family decision‐making process. The synergy effect is expressed as positive correlations between individual family members buying preferences. Quota sampling was adopted to collect primary data in Hong Kong using triadic approach. Managerial implications and future research directions are suggested.     

Food choice: student consumers' decision‐making process regarding food products with limited label information

Food label information theoretically facilitates consumer decision‐making and food choice, but the extent to which consumers actually use this information during decision‐making is a subject of considerable debate. Therefore, this study focused on the importance of label information in student consumers' decision‐making process when exposed to limited label information food in a cafeteria environment. Because of a paucity of research in this area, a qualitative research approach that was exploratory in nature was used, accompanied by semi‐structured interviewing and a vignette. Undergraduate students from the North‐West University, Potchefstroom Campus, in South Africa served as the target population. The findings suggest that internal and product‐related strategies are applied when food choices are made whereby the importance of label information only features in the latter strategy. Student consumers with a label interest were more inclined to use label information strategies in the absence of complete label information to base food choice on. Those with a lack of label interest made use of alternative strategies using product and personal‐related information, such as freshness and product knowledge to make decisions. The decision‐making process was more complex because of insufficient label information and product appearance, and thus previous experiences and habitual purchasing became more important to participants. Student consumers should be supported to make healthier food choices through food manufacturers supplying cafeteria products with more complete label information and by providing students with the knowledge to use label information correctly through educational programmes.     

Exploring antecedents of healthy food choices: an Indian experience

Label information on food items is seen as a tool to facilitate better choices. Merely, provision of label information may not lead to the desired outcome. Comprehension and processing of label information during consumer decision making is crucial for better food choices. Based on the primary data obtained from 150 consumers of pre‐packaged food items, the research proposes a conceptual model for healthier food choices. Previously, a number studies related to consumer decision making have employed ‘label reading’ and ‘label use’ interchangeably. Present research advocates that label reading does not amount to label use. Findings from ordered probit model and path analysis suggest that comprehension of label information leads to increase in its perceived usefulness. Further, increased perceived usefulness facilitates better food choice. Instances of better food choices can be maximized by enhancing perceived usefulness and comprehension of label information through educational and awareness campaigns, especially in context of developing countries such as India.     

Adolescents' perceptions of family communication patterns and some aspects of their consumer socialization

This study examined the effects of family communication patterns (FCP) on adolescent consumers' decision‐making styles and influence in family purchase decisions. Two underlying dimensions of FCP (concept‐orientation and socio‐orientation) were measured separately for mother–child communication and father–child communication and regressed on adolescents' use of the selected decision‐making styles and influence in purchase decisions involving durable products and nondurable products for their own use. Results show that only mother–child communication patterns have significant associations with adolescents' decision‐making styles and family purchase influence. Specifically, mothers' concept‐oriented communication was positively linked to children's use of utilitarian decision‐making styles (e.g., careful and deliberate decision making) and social/conspicuous decision‐making styles (e.g., recreational and hedonic decision making) as well as to children's influence in family purchase decisions involving both durable and nondurable products for themselves. On the other hand, mothers' socio‐oriented communication was linked positively to children's use of undesirable decision‐making styles (e.g., confusion by overchoice) and negatively to children's influence in family purchase decisions. This study also investigated the presence (or absence) of a same‐gender effect in the relationships between parent–child communication orientations and children's consumer socialization outcome. If present, a same‐gender effect would be indicated by a greater influence from the same‐sex parent's communication orientations on the adolescent's decision‐making styles and influence in family decisions relative to that of the opposite‐‐ sex parent's communication orientations. Comparisons of the two gender‐group regression results revealed no systematic pattern that suggests the presence of such an effect. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Independent decision making of adolescents regarding food choice

The adolescence period is the stage in the life cycle in which individuals begin to develop independent decision making related to their social environment including their dietary intake. The period is fundamental in the development of longer term eating habits that may be reflected in adulthood. This study aimed to investigate the decision‐making process of adolescents and their dietary behaviour in the achievement of a balanced diet and to determine the underlying factors that may affect these choices. To meet this aim, a three phase data collection was utilized. In phase 1, a baseline questionnaire (n = 239) measured factors affecting dietary behaviour and the barriers in the achievement of a balanced diet. Phase two employed and measured respondents’ (n = 235) independent decision making by rating nineteen menu choices which reflected all options of dietary guidelines. This was analyzed through conjoint analysis. In phase three a subsample (n = 55) from the first two phases completed a food map which determined underlying reasons for food decisions and choice behaviour. Results revealed that when adolescents are given free choice they tend to follow an unbalanced diet with some diets raising concerns for their current and future health. Fifty‐seven percent of respondents displayed serious concerns in their dietary choice of which 18% were identified as requiring immediate intervention. The most noticeable factors affecting dietary choice were the desire to eat foods high in fat and carbohydrates and low in fruit and vegetable consumption. Food‐mapping indicated prior knowledge and attitudes had no effect on the choices made but that that behaviour of parents in the preparation of meals at home and peers in the selection of snack choices had the most influence on the unbalanced diet.     

Empirical research in electronic meeting systems a demand side approach

This study set out to empirically research the time spent by managers in meetings and to identify the requirements of an information technology system for supporting meetings. It does this by investigating the time commitment, efficiency, main problems, and benefits of meetings. In addition, it examines managers’ attitudes towards information technology support for meetings. To fulfill this aim, more than 1,000 mainly middle level managers were surveyed.

It emerges that a total of 22.4% of working time is spent in meetings; 34% of this time expenditure is rated inefficient. The opportunity for collective decision making and exchange of information are seen as the main benefits whereas the failure to identify critical items and agendas without priorities and targets are seen as the main problems. Analysis of their attitudes towards technological support of meetings shows that managers in principle have a positive attitude toward the idea. They specifically wish to see particular support for the preparatory and follow‐up phases and tools to support qualitative‐creative tasks.     

Compromise and attraction effects in food choice

Food choices are being implicated as a key driver in the rising rates of obesity, as well as associated with other health problems that impact both individuals and society as a whole (Cawley and Meyerhoefer). Calorie listings, whether provided on menus or packaged goods, increase consumer's awareness of the calories in potential food choices and, as a result, make consumers more likely to evaluate a product relative to others in the choice set based on this attribute (e.g. choosing a higher or lower calorie option). In this research, we explore whether the provision of calorie information, when presented in the context of other food options, will result in (1) compromise effects, whereby individuals select intermediate (or middle) options in a choice set, and (2) attraction effects, whereby individuals gravitate towards items that are similar to others but also dominate these items in the choice set. In two experimental studies we find evidence for the compromise effect and the attraction effect. These findings extend work demonstrating that the context in which food decisions occur can impact choice, and builds on existing knowledge regarding the consequences of providing calorie information for food items. Although most work has shown that making calories salient has a beneficial impact on the accuracy of consumer calorie estimates and food choice, in this work we show that the compromise and attraction effects – two well‐established findings in decision‐making literature – can actually shift consumers to either higher or lower calorie options. This carries important implications for consumers making choices in information‐rich choice environments.     

The link between diet and health: an exploratory study of adolescents in Northern Ireland using foodmaps

A significant proportion of consumers in the UK continue to adopt a diet consisting largely of nutritionally unbalanced foods. The adolescent period has been identified as being formative in the development of long‐term eating habits as the individual achieves greater control over their food choice. By examining the current eating behaviour of a sample of adolescents, the aim of this study was to establish why they are not utilizing their knowledge to choose nutritionally balanced foods. A two‐stage data collecting procedure was adopted. In stage 1, respondents (n = 136) completed a questionnaire that measured demographic and social factors, knowledge, attitudes, pre‐existing behaviour with respect to food and the influence of family, peers, the media and government campaigns on their eating behaviour. In stage 2, a subsection of the respondents (n = 20) completed a foodmap, which revealed the network of relationships involved in the adolescents' decision‐making process by identifying the links among the foods consumed, the people they eat with and the places they eat in. Results emphasized the importance of the home environment and the continuing influence of parents on adolescents' eating behaviour despite the greater independence related to this stage of the life cycle. A proportion of the sample was found to have recognized the need to change their eating behaviour in order to lose weight, because of their sporting commitments or to improve their health. Recommendations from this study include the need for the various agencies involved in the promotion of balanced dietary behaviour to attend to the link among adult, family and adolescent, and the need for greater progress in enabling consumers to translate the theory of nutritional education into practice.     

SHACKLE AND MODERN DECISION THEORY

The paper discusses the role of George L.S. Shackle in fostering an unconventional approach to individual decision making. Up until the early 1970s Shackle was the single critic of the probabilistic approach to decision making who proposed an alternative formal corpus for dealing with uncertainty. The main aim of the paper is to analyse Shackle's non‐probabilistic conceptualization of individual decisions under uncertainty from a specific viewpoint, namely that of a possible connection between his theory and one of the most interesting recent approaches to decision under uncertainty, the so‐called non‐additive probability approach of Gilboa and Schmeidler. The paper shows that these developments in modern decision theory take Shackle's issue seriously and confirm that the reliance of strict Bayesian theory on probabilistic judgements based on point‐probability estimates, a reliance that Shackle intended to oppose, is untenable. Non‐additive decision theory also provides a usage of non‐additive probability distributions in choice that is an alternative to Shackle's approach of using a qualitative notion of probability, such as potential surprise.     

Enablers for end‐user entrepreneurship: An investigation on Italian food bloggers

This article examines unconventional entrepreneurship (accidental or end‐user entrepreneurs) to determine whether the decision‐making phase of the entrepreneurial process is collective. The analysis identified a virtuous circle that links knowledge, innovation, judgment, and decision making to collective interactions built on passion, experience, and sharing. To study food bloggers as unconventional user entrepreneurs, data were collected and analyzed using netnographic analysis. A supplementary online survey of food bloggers and their followers was also performed. Three groups of food bloggers are identified: amusing, functional, and fervent. Only fervent food bloggers, thanks to the virtuous circle built on passion, experience, and sharing as enablers, can be considered accidental or end‐user entrepreneurs.     

German Consumer Decision‐Making Styles

The lack of previous relevant consumer research in Germany, together with the need to test the generalizability of consumer decision‐making styles in different countries and with non‐student samples, prompted an investigation of German shoppers. The original U.S. eight‐factor model could not be confirmed completely, but support was found for six factors: Brand Consciousness, Perfectionism, Recreational/Hedonism, Confused by Overchoice, Impulsiveness, and Novelty‐Fashion Consciousness. Variety Seeking was novel to Germany and replaced brand loyalty and price‐value consciousness factors found in previous countries. Explanations for the differences are discussed as well as the marketing implications.     

Evaluation and Choice as a Satisficing Process

The question of whether individuals are rational or irrational in their decision‐making has long been an area of interest to academics and marketers, as the different decision styles require differing use of information sources and choice criteria by consumers during the buying process. As such, marketers would be required to adopt different communication strategies and stress different marketing mix or product features if they were to be successful in influencing the consumer’ s final choice.

The debate can be classified into whether or not consumers follow a formalised decision sequence of search and evaluation leading to final product choice. If consumers are not prepared to commit themselves to the cognitive and behavioural effort required by this formal process then they will satisfice their decision‐making, applying simplifying strategies to arrive at a satisfactory, although not the optimum, choice.

This paper reviews the common assumptions of search and choice, suggesting a three‐stage model which can be used to guide marketing strategy. Research into the decision process used by consumers in the acquisition of a video recorder is used to illustrate the operation of the satisficing model. Implications for marketing strategy are then discussed.     

Consumer socialization,social structural factors and decision‐making styles: a case study of adolescents in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the process of consumer socialization will determine adolescents’ decision‐making styles. Eight decision‐making styles were conceptualized as outcomes of the socialization process, which is acquired via interaction with socialization agents, namely parents, peers, printed media, television commercials and in‐school education. The study also proposed five social structural variables (social class, gender, ethnicity, residence and religion) as being associated with the socialization agents and decision‐making styles. The study sample consisted of 934 adolescents between the ages of 16 and 19 years. The data were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire and analysed with the SPSS computer program. As a result of regression analyses, significant relationships were found between social structural factors and socialization processes, suggesting that the influence of socialization agents on adolescents may vary according to certain demographic characteristics. Significant relationships were also found between social structural factors and socialization processes. Peers appeared to be the most important agents of consumer socialization, contributing to a variety of desirable as well as undesirable consumer decision styles. Printed media and television commercials were also found to be significant sources of the acquisition of both desirable and undesirable decision‐making styles. Parents and in‐school education, however, were insignificant in the acquisition of any decision‐making styles among adolescents. Information obtained from this study could be useful to government agencies and consumer educators. The most revealing finding of this study is that parents did not contribute to the formulation of decision‐making orientation for adolescents. This points to the need for consumer educators to take steps in designing programmes that will involve parents as primary socialization agents at home; this may be facilitated via printed materials. Apart from this, the information can also be helpful in enabling marketers to be more effective in targeting various adolescent markets by formulating marketing strategies according to demographic factors, socialization process and decision‐making styles.     

On automated e‐business negotiations: Goal,policy, strategy,and plans of decision and action

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in automated e‐business negotiations. The automation of negotiation requires a decision model to capture the negotiation knowledge of policymakers and negotiation experts so that the decision‐making process can be carried out automatically. Current research on automated e‐business negotiations has focused on defining low‐level tactics (or negotiation rules) so that automated negotiation systems can carry out automated negotiation processes. These low‐level tactics are usually defined from a technical perspective, not from a business perspective. There is a gap between high‐level business negotiation goals and low‐level tactics. In this article, we distinguish the concepts of negotiation context, negotiation goals, negotiation strategy, and negotiation tactics and introduce a formal decision model to show the relations among these concepts. We show how high‐level negotiation goals can be formally mapped to low‐level tactics that can be used to affect the behavior of a negotiation system during the negotiation process. In business, a business organization faces different negotiation situations (or contexts) and determines different sets of goals for different negotiation contexts. In our decision model, a business policymaker sets negotiation goals from different perspectives, which are called goal dimensions. A negotiation policy is a functional mapping from a negotiation context to some quantitative measures (or goal values) for the goal dimensions to express how competitive the policymaker wants to reach that set of goals. A negotiation expert who has the experience and expertise to conduct negotiations would define the negotiation strategies needed for reaching the negotiation goals. Formally, a negotiation strategy is a functional mapping from a set of goal values to a set of decision‐action rules that implement negotiation tactics. The selected decision‐action rules can then be used to control the execution of an automated negotiation system, which conducts a negotiation on behalf of a business organization.     

Self‐reporting vs. observation: some cautionary examples from parent/child food shopping behaviour

Most studies on decision‐making in relation to consumption are based on self‐reported behaviour. This approach assumes that consumers can account for their decision‐making processes. However, several studies show that consumers are not always aware of what happens when they purchase goods because of the role of habit and routines, or a lack of willingness to account accurately for their purchases. A clear example of this is family decision‐making about food shopping. It is well documented that parents know that their children influence what they buy in supermarkets but it is also found that parents and children do not agree on just how much influence children have. Thus, a gap exists in the knowledge about what is actually happening in this grey zone of grocery shopping which seemingly cannot be solved through retrospective data collection. Family shopping is neither a completely rational nor conscious process, which makes the use of self‐reported behaviour problematic. This study discusses the limits of survey and interview approaches to parents' and children's shopping decisions in comparison with observations. An observational study of parent/child supermarket shopping in Denmark is used to exemplify the strengths of observation. Findings show that both parents and children are juggling a number of roles and apply a range of negotiation strategies which can explain why it is hard to account for who decided what afterwards. The article concludes that mapping certain types of consumer actions calls for other methods than self‐reported behaviour.