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For many people, food intake management is a challenging process, as food is always in abundance and the appetite control system is challenged and potentially overpowered by habits, routines and cues in the external environment. The present thesis focuses on satiation and satiety expectations and inferences as a guide for food intake, both within and across consumption episodes. More specifically, the role of physiological cues, claims on food packages and packaging design in the development of satiation/ satiety expectations and their effect on food intake is studied. This thesis takes as a starting point that feedback from previous consumption experiences is important for the development of satiety and satiation expectations. In addition, it is expected that satiation and satiety expectations also can be inferred ‘on the spot’, either explicitly (as from satiety claims), but potential also implicitly and more intuitively (as from packaging design and other factors in the eating context).

This study is a result of the interdisciplinary project Co-Innovation for Quality in African Food Chains (CoQA). The objective of the research was to improve the quality of pasteurised pineapple juice taking the characteristics of the Beninese pineapple marketing system into account. The specific objectives were to: (i) evaluate the adaptation of Beninese pineapple marketing system to the introduction of the pasteurised pineapple juice business; (ii) assess the extent to which pineapples with physical damage (i.e., of potential less quality) can be used for pineapple juice production; (iii) review the present state-of-the-art on the effect of processing on pineapple juice quality and (iv) evaluate the effect of pasteurisation on the microbiological, physicochemical and nutritional quality of pineapple juice. Chapter 2 of this thesis revealed that wholesalers are the main suppliers to both consumer-merchants and juice manufacturers. However, juice manufacturers’ preferences are different from those of consumer-merchants. More specifically, juice manufacturers prefer large pineapples from 'Kona Sugarloaf' variety and believe that pineapples with physical damage can be used to produce pasteurised pineapple juice. This offers wholesalers the opportunity to sell pineapples that are not demanded by consumer-merchants, but it was found that wholesalers are not engaged in any specific sorting and grading activities to fulfill the wants of the pineapple juice manufacturers. We learned that the reason for the lack of adaptation of the system is caused by the lack of responsiveness of wholesalers due to such factors. The results imply that, in the development context, the adaptation of the marketing system to a development intervention needs to be managed and the effects of interventions need to be considered beyond the primary target group. In other words, complementary marketing interventions should focus on the other actors of the marketing system. As juice manufacturers co

Consumers eat at various sequential occasions throughout the day. The current thesis addresses the question of how one consumption episode can affect the amount of consumption at a subsequent episode. The thesis focuses specifically on how the social context during a consumption episode affects subsequent consumption, and on when consumers rely on hunger and satiety cues in sequential consumption episodes., Dit proefschrift richt zich op de vraag hoe een consumptiemoment de hoeveelheid consumptie op een later moment kan beïnvloeden. Gedurende de dag eten consumenten op verschillende momenten. Specifiek richt dit proefschrift zich op de vraag hoe de sociale context van een consumptie-episode latere consumptie beïnvloedt en op de vraag wanneer consumenten zich laten leiden door honger en verzadigingssignalen in opeenvolgende consumptiemomenten.

Consumers often have a positive attitude to the option of receiving personalized nutrition advice based upon genetic testing, since the prospect of enhancing or maintaining one’s health can be perceived as empowering. Current direct-to-consumer services over the Internet, however, suffer from a questionable level of truthfulness and consumer protection, in addition to an imbalance between far-reaching promises and contrasting disclaimers. Psychological and behavioral studies indicate that consumer acceptance of a new technology is primarily explained by the end user’s rational and emotional interpretation as well as moral beliefs. Results from such studies indicate that personalized nutrition must create true value for the consumer. Also, the freedom to choose is crucial for consumer acceptance. From an ethical point of view, consumer protection is crucial, and caution must be exercised when putting nutrigenomic-based tests and advice services on the market. Current Internet offerings appear to reveal a need to further guaranty legal certainty by ensuring privacy, consumer protection and safety. Personalized nutrition services are on the borderline between nutrition and medicine. Current regulation of this area is incomplete and undergoing development. This situation entails the necessity for carefully assessing and developing existing rules that safeguard fundamental rights and data protection while taking into account the sensitivity of data, the risks posed by each step in their processing, and sufficient guarantees for consumers against potential misuse.

Pastoralists are people who, for their livelihood, depend on livestock raising using the natural pasture. Sustainability of pastoralist production is important for their livelihood as well as to the supply of animal-based protein. However, concerns with the pastoralist production system have also been voiced, particularly, on the ecological implications of the system. As a consequence, sustainability of the pastoral system and pastoralists that operate therein is a central issue in many debates among development practitioners, academics, and policy makers). Central to this debate is whether pastoralists can be expected to adapt their livestock production strategies to the varying availability of natural resources (i.e., pasture and water). Thus, herd size management in terms of stocking and destocking of livestock by pastoralists has become a central issue in the debate. The stocking and destocking decision in anticipation of changing external conditions can be conceived of as a marketing challenge to pastoralists, not only contributing to their livelihood and profit, but also to the sustainability of the system. As such, markets (and therefore, marketing) relates not only to economic and social aspects of sustainability, but also to the ecological aspects. This study investigates whether and how marketing can contribute to the sustainability of pastoralists. For this purpose, four lines of research are explored: (1) Is pastoralism in principle a sustainable production system?; If so under which conditions is such system sustainable?, (2) How does marketing relate to the conditions under which pastoralism is sustainable?, (3) Which concepts from the marketing literature can generate insights that potentially contribute to the sustainability of pastoralism?, and (4) How do these concepts empirically relate to the social and economic aspects of sustainability and to the resource dilemma that characterizes the ecological aspect of pastoralists’ sustainability? The thes

Social norms are major drivers of human behaviour and crucial in consumer decision making. Consumers often take expectations and behaviour of others into consideration when they decide what is appropriate and social norms thus profoundly influence their preferences and behaviour.

We use detailed panel data to demonstrate that the current economic and financial crisis raises MFIs financing costs, reduces the availability of funding, changed demand for loans and implies a deterioration of clients’ repayment behavior. We search for structural breaks in the times series of MFI performance indicators related to profitability, growth and portfolio quality. All performance indicators experience a negative shift. The timing of these shifts differs across the performance indicators and there are important geographical differences. Importantly, the extent of the impact depends on the funding structure of MFIs. MFIs attracting savings are significantly less affected.

Nutrigenomics is a recent discipline within nutrition sciences that aims at understanding how food components influence health status by affecting gene expression to eventually help maintain health and prevent disease. Nutrigenomics science has a potential consumer application in the form of so-called personalised nutrition: tailored dietary advice or even personalised food products that help consumers to select foods that are optimally aligned with their genetic constitution. However, due to the fact that nutrigenomics is an emerging science and personalised nutrition is still at an early stage of development, the views of both expert and lay stakeholders on the meaning, potential, and acceptability of personalised nutrition may still be divergent and developing. This dissertation takes up the challenge of understanding and anticipating public acceptance of nutrigenomics-based personalised nutrition. It aims to answer the central research question: What determines public acceptance of nutrigenomics-based personalised nutrition? For this purpose, three lines of research are explored: development of a conceptual research framework from existing literature, expert views on the future of personalised nutrition, and consumer evaluations of different scenarios under which personalised nutrition might enter the market place. The thesis’ theoretical contribution lies in an in-depth analysis of the concept of personalisation using marketing and consumer behaviour literature (chapter 2), and the development of a conceptual framework for consumer acceptance of food innovations (chapter 3). Empirically, results from a consumer study within a representative sample of Dutch consumers (chapter 5) reveal that freedom of choice, clear advantages, ease of applying personalised nutrition, and consensus among experts are important factors in enhancing consumer acceptance. However, the research in this thesis also shows that experts have not yet reached the necessary consensus on the s

Innovative developments in technology, such as the emergence of genomics as a plant breeding practice, hold the potential to change the supply side of the market. The success of these practices not only depends on the improved efficiency and effectiveness it brings, but also on how well they are aligned with consumer perceptions and practices in the market place. This stresses the importance of making the voice of the consumer heard early on in the development and application of these innovative plant breeding practices. The aim of this thesis is therefore to contribute to a better understanding of the consumer behavior perspective in the development of new tomato varieties based on plant genomics. The first chapter provides the theoretical basis for the four empirical chapters that follow. In this chapter, quality guidance models are discussed that take the consumer as a starting point in the product development. It also includes the role of information, about the product technology, on consumer perception and acceptance of both the technology and the products it brings about. Chapter 2 develops an elaboration of the Quality Guidance Model to more explicitly include the so-called credence attribute perceptions of consumers as a yardstick for product development. The results confirm that credence attribute perceptions need to be taken into account when the purpose is to develop consumer preferred products. Chapter 3 explores the extent to which the positioning of plant breeding technologies affect consumer preferences and shows that this effect primarily operates through making the credence attribute perceptions more salient in the consumer decision process. Chapter 4 explores consumer images for different plant breeding practices in more detail and shows that initial images of genomics may change as a result of further information exchange and elaboration. The final empirical chapter in this thesis (chapter 5) explores how mode of thought and reference point in the

Despite the fact that in the developed countries food safety standards are higher than ever, food safety incidents continue to occur frequently. The accumulation of food safety incidents might affect general consumer confidence in the safety of food. Therefore, in this thesis, the concept of general consumer confidence in the safety of food is further conceptualised, and embedded within an integrative framework that incorporates both its antecedents and consequences. General consumer confidence in the safety of food is determined by 1) consumer trust in societal actors, 2) consumer recall of food safety incidents and media coverage, 3) the perceived safety of different product groups, and 4) socio-demographic and personality characteristics. The behavioural consequences of general consumer confidence relate to information search and particular food choice behaviours. A measure for general consumer confidence in the safety of food is developed, showing that the construct consists of two distinct, although correlated, dimensions: optimism and pessimism. In the thesis, the construct of general consumer confidence in the safety of food is validated within its nomological network. The results show that optimism and pessimism are activated by different sources, and that consumer trust in societal actors, and consumer perceptions of the safety of meat are the strongest determinants of general consumer confidence in the safety of food. The framework is shown to be stable over time, and found to be applicable to an international context. In terms of the relationship between general consumer confidence in the safety of food and its behavioural consequences, it is shown that consumers low in general confidence in the safety of food are more likely to revert to specific risk relief strategies. A more in depth analysis of the role of trust in societal actors in shaping general consumer confidence in the safety of food, shows that the strength of the relationship between trust an

Keywords: people, profit, planet, marketing channels, contracts, sustainability, quality,LakeVictoria, conjointanalysis.Sustainable development hinges on a combined focus of its impact on society (people), the environment (planet) and to its economic value (profit). Increasingly, it is being recognized that these people, profit and planet dimensions are interlinked and an important challenge for public and private policy is to take them jointly into account. This inter-linkage is particularly evident in international channels that build on scarce natural resources from developing countries, which is the focus of this thesis. Specifically, we focus on how international marketing channels can be organized in order to enhance the balance between the people, profit and planet dimensions of the sustainable development such that small-scale primary producers from developing economies are integrated into the international marketing channels in a way that adds to the profitability of the channel and the welfare of the local communities, without compromising the sustainability of natural resources. We focus on contracts as mechanism to stimulate welfare, sustainability and quality at primary stages of the channel. We apply a number of theoretical approaches namely transaction costs economics, social - and network theory, and property rights theory to develop and test arguments for contracts to stimulate sustainable and quality-enhancing practices. We undertook both case study and conjoint analysis to develop and test our arguments.A situational analysis of the context in which primary producers operate lead to a conclusion that primary producers (i.e., fishermen) fail to implement sustainable and quality-enhancing practices because of major bottlenecks that they face such as the degradation of natural resources (i.e., fisheries), limited access to production facilities, information asymmetries and ineffective enforcement. An empirical analysis at fishermen and middlemen leve