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.     

Cultivating sustainability consciousness through mindfulness: An application of theory of mindful-consumption

Achieving sustainable development is a significant hurdle that societies around the world face in the present era. The on-going global discourse on sustainability revolves around the dual objective of developing sustainability consciousness while fostering social and economic progress. However, despite its relevance to humankind, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that explain what influences an individual's sustainability consciousness. To fill this void, we borrow from the theory of mindful-consumption and explain why and how mindfulness impacts sustainability consciousness. Besides, given that material wealth is experiencing an unprecedented boom, we examine the moderating role of materialism on the aforesaid relationship. Demographic factors such as age (Gen Y vs Gen Z) and gender (male vs female) were also employed as moderators in the study. A sample of 726 was collected through a survey instrument and analysed using SMART PLS to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and sustainability consciousness with materialism acting as a significant moderator. The model relationships did not vary across the two generational cohorts (Gen Y and Gen Z) significantly. The results further revealed that the impact of materialism was stronger for females than males, depicting gender to be a significant moderator on the proposed relationships. The current work is among the very few studies that empirically validate the influences of mindfulness on the entire gamut of sustainability (including environmental, economic, and social aspects); and has major implications for academicians, practitioners, and policy makers passionate about sustainability.     

Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving

Transdisciplinary research is often promoted as a mode of knowledge production that is effective in addressing and solving current sustainability challenges. This effectiveness stems from its closeness to practice-based/situated expertise and real-life problem contexts. This article presents and tests one approach within transdisciplinary research, which specifically focuses on increasing the participation of actors from outside of academic in knowledge production processes, called transdisciplinary (TD) co-production. The framework for TD co-production focused on five focal areas (inclusion, collaboration, integration, usability, and reflexivity) in three research phases (Formulate, Generate, Evaluate). This paper tests and evaluates the use of this framework in five research projects. The results discuss how the focal areas and research phases dealt with many crucial issues in transdisciplinary knowledge production. They stimulated a high level of stakeholder participation and commitment to the research processes, and promoted knowledge integration and reflexive learning across diverse sectors and disciplines. The approach, however, came up against a number of practical barriers stemming primarily from institutional, organizational and cognitive differences of the participating organizations. While TD co-production increased the usability of the results in terms of their relevance and accessibility, it paradoxically did not ensure their anchoring in respective institutional and political contexts where societal change occurs.     

Corporate social responsibility: The disclosure–performance gap

As increased stakeholder pressure requires companies to be transparent about their CSR practices, it is essential to know how reliable corporate disclosure mechanisms are, testing the gap between corporate social responsibility claims and actual practice. This study benchmarks corporate social responsibility policies and practices of ten international hotel groups of particular importance to the European leisure market. We found that corporate systems are not necessarily reflective of actual operations, environmental performance is eco-savings driven, labour policies aim to comply with local legislation, socio-economic policies are inward looking with little acceptance of impacts on the destination, and customer engagement is limited. Generally larger hotel groups have more comprehensive policies but also greater gaps in implementation, while the smaller hotel groups focus only on environmental management and deliver what they promised. As the first survey of its kind in tourism, both the methodology and the findings have implications for further research.     

Short-haul city travel is truly environmentally sustainable

With rising interest in and concern about climate change and environmental sustainability, and the significance of the tourism industry worldwide, the impact of tourism-related activities and behaviors on the environment has become a key area of research. In particular, transport related to tourism has come under scrutiny for its contribution to the ecological footprint of tourism of a destination, mostly accounted for by the dominance of air travel. This study contributes to research in this area by identifying the types of travel situations in which tourists make environmentally friendly choices about travel modes and, consequently, which types of tourism destinations should seek to develop and promote in order to minimize the environmental impact of the tourist sector on both an individual destination and global scale.     

Sustainability practices of family firms: the interplay between family ownership and long-term orientation

Sustainability practices are critical for family firms, as they relate directly to the continuity of the business and relationships with important stakeholders, such as members of the local community. Nevertheless, not all family firms wish to adopt sustainability practices. To examine this, we draw upon the socioemotional wealth perspective in order to develop a theoretical model of the direct negative effects of family ownership on the adoption of sustainability practices. We also suggest moderating effects of long-term orientation (LTO) on this link. Our model is tested on a sample of 195 family firms in the tourism and hospitality sector. The results support our hypothesis that family ownership negatively influences the adoption of sustainability practices. Additionally, LTO moderates the relationship between family ownership and the adoption of sustainability practices, such that family owners with a high LTO are more likely to adopt this particular practice compared to those with a low LTO.     

The nexus between sustainable practices in hotels and future Gen Y hospitality students’ career path decisions

This study explored tertiary hospitality students’ attitudes and overall perceptions about green and sustainable practices; and how these may impact their future career paths in the hotel industry. A thematic analysis with data from 12 semi-structured interviews with students in a hotel management school in Australia was used to identify patterns and interpretive themes. Results revealed positive attitudes among Generation Y hospitality students towards working in a green and sustainable hotel environment. Implications highlight the need for sustainability education in the curriculum of tertiary education providers and strong emphasis on sustainability practices in employee training programs. The results also suggest possible impacts of sustainability practices in recruiting and hiring in the hospitality industry and how this may affect future hospitality employees and leaders.     

Value co-creation in sustainable tourism: A service-dominant logic approach

To mainstream sustainability, we need to understand the value gained from sustainability by users. We apply a user-centred design methodology to develop an agile, iterative, incremental and reflexive process to understand the sustainability value proposition for Lufthansa City Center travel agents. We analyse the failure of sustainability communications within the online platforms used by these agents and explore why the agents factor out sustainability information during the customer sales process. We identify how agents and customers understand sustainability, and we explore opportunities to co-create sustainability value. Furthermore, we prototype, and then test, methods of empowering travel agents to communicate sustainability to their customers as a value-adding proposition.     

Improving sustainable supply chain performance through organisational culture: A competing values framework approach

This research adopts the institutional and relational view theories to empirically test the impact of organisational culture (OC) on sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) and further examines the impact of external integration on their relationship, drawing on a study in the food manufacturing industries in the UK and Greece. Using the mixed method approach, structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was first used to empirically analyse the data from a survey of 315 firms. In addition, insights from 11 interviews from top managers were qualitatively used as the basis to enrich and confirm the findings from the quantitative study. Our findings revealed that in the context of global supply chains only developmental, hierarchical, and group culture components of the competing values framework (CVF) as a model for assessing OC are conducive for achieving a higher SSCP. Although developmental, hierarchical and group cultures are instrumental for SSCP, a strong external integration is still required. Thus, external integration was found to mediate the relationship between the dimensions of OC and SSCP. The results further confirmed a positive relationship between all the dimensions of OC (developmental, group, hierarchical and rational culture) and external integration and a positive impact of external integration on SSCP. This research expands the institutional and relational view theories to examine the effect of OC (using CVF) on SSCP and further reveals the extent of external integration needed in the relationship to enhance SSCP in global supply chains. Supply chain managers are encouraged to adopt integrated competing values, namely, developmental, group, and hierarchical cultures to intensify the external integration in the supply chain to overcome several sustainability challenges and improve SSCP.     

高投资、宏观成本与经济增长的持续性

过去20多年,中国高投资—高增长的发展模式以宏观成本积累为代价。增长是中国今后相当长时期的主题,但是以高成本为代价的高投资—高增长发展模式的持续性如何?本文从理论上说明了中国高投资的政府激励机制及宏观成本边界和高成本增长的临界点;进而指出,在开放经济中,资本流动、外部需求和供给冲击构成高成本投资模式的现实约束,政府必须权衡粗放式高增长的宏观收益和成本,制定相应的政策来约束低效率的投资行为,实现全社会的福利优化。