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There is a need for new protein sources to feed the world in a sustainable way. Converting non-food-grade “woody” side streams into food containing proteins will contribute to this mission. Mushroom forming fungi are unique in their capability to convert lignocellulosic substances into edible biomass containing protein. Especially if substrate mycelium can be used instead of mushrooms, this technology could be a serious contribution to addressing the protein challenge. In this Perspective, we discuss challenges toward production, purification, and market introduction of mushroom mycelium based foods.

The paper presents an integrated framework of success and failure factors of agricultural cooperatives and its applicability based on a review of recent literature and an illustrative case study. We identify six categories of success and failure factors: the societal environment, quality of management, strategy, member base, commitment, and product aspects. Contrary to expectations that failure factors mirror success factors, the framework shows that the two represent distinctive features in at least some of the distinguished categories. The analysis of an agricultural cooperative in Peru, selected and presented as an illustrative case study, shows the applicability of the framework for the analysis of success and failure factors of cooperatives., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 14, No 1 (2023)

Background: Eating habits must change substantially in order to address the urgent societal challenges of personal, public and planetary health. Research surrounding various facets of the dietary transition remains siloed, hindering breakthroughs. Scope and approach: We argue the scientific case for transdisciplinary research centered around the transition to healthy, sustainable, and acceptable diets. This transition requires tackling the broad societal challenges of engaging consumers in the diet transition, improving nutritional health and achieving environmental sustainability of foods and food systems. Key findings: The crucial synergies and trade-offs from addressing single challenges in isolation are discussed, as well as obstacles when considering the collaboration between the multiple scientific disciplines concerned with the dietary transition. Currently, interactions between these challenges remain understudied and/or ambiguous, in part due to a lack of interoperable data and standards. Intersectional research entry points acting at the intersection of the three challenges are explored: food taste and texture reformulation, food pricing strategies and food literacy. The implementation of such cross-cutting interventions urgently requires both the generation of new data and exploitation of the breadth of existing data. Researchers must therefore be facilitated to find, access and use interoperable data to model and measure food intake and all its determinants. Conclusions: The dietary transition requires underpinning by a research infrastructure that supports access to transdisciplinary data, facilities and research tools, alongside training and capacity building. Filling these unmet data, tools and training needs is the first step towards delivering breakthrough innovations to foods and food environments, mobilizing consumers to engage in the dietary transition.

Obesity is increasing worldwide, and in many countries, the problem is particularly serious among lower-income groups. Front-of-pack nutritional warning labels are a prominent regulatory tool to fight obesity and have been implemented or are currently being debated in many countries. Existing studies document that warning labels incentivize consumers to substitute away from unhealthy products. However, not much is known about equilibrium price changes in response to consumers’ utility for warning labels. Using household purchase data in the cereal category, this article studies the adjustments of prices after the mandatory introduction of warning labels in Chile. The authors develop a model showing that warning labels lead to higher prices of labeled cereals, as is also observed in data. In contrast, prices of unlabeled products tend to drop or at least increase less, incentivizing price-sensitive consumers to remain in the category. The authors decompose postlabeling market share adjustments into a pure label effect that fixes prices at initial levels after regulation and a total effect that accounts for price reoptimizations. Their findings point to self-enforcing effects of a warning label regulation as the price adjustments amplify policy makers' goal of reducing unhealthy food intake, especially because market forces incentivize low-income segments to choose healthier alternatives.

Purpose To advance marketing research and practice, this study aims to examine the application of the innovative, mobile-applicable neuroimaging method – mobile functional near-infrared spectroscopy (mfNIRS) – in the field of marketing research, providing comprehensive guidelines and practical recommendations. Design/methodology/approach A general review and investigation of when and how to use mfNIRS in business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing settings is used to illustrate the utility of mfNIRS. Findings The research findings help prospective marketing and consumer neuroscience researchers to structure mfNIRS experiments, perform the analysis and interpret the obtained mfNIRS data. Research implications The application of mfNIRS offers opportunities for marketing research that allow the exploration of neural processes and associated behaviour of customers in naturalistic settings. Practical implications The application of mfNIRS as a neuroimaging method enables the investigation of unconscious neural processes that control customer behaviour and can act as process variables for companies. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to provide comprehensive guidelines and applied practical recommendations concerning when and how to apply mfNIRS in marketing research.

We develop a theoretical framework and propose a relevant empirical analysis of the soybean-complex prices’ cointegration relationships in a high-frequency setting. We allow for heterogeneous expectations among traders on the multi-asset price dynamics and characterize the resulting market behaviour. We demonstrate that the asset prices’ autoregressive matrix rank and the speed of reversion towards the long-term equilibrium are related to the market realized and potential liquidity, unlike the cointegrating vector. Our empirical application to the soybean complex, where we control for volatility, supports our theoretical results when the price idleness of the different assets is properly accounted for. Our analysis further suggests that the presence of cointegration among assets is related to the time of day and the contract maturities traded at a given time.

Crop improvement is a key innovation area in the pursuit of sustainable food systems. However, realising its potential requires integration of the needs and priorities of all agri-food chain stakeholders. In this study, we provide a multi-stakeholder perspective on the role of crop improvement in future-proofing the European food system. We engaged agri-business, farm- and consumer-level stakeholders, and plant scientists through an online survey and focus groups. Four of each group’s top five priorities were shared and related to environmental sustainability goals (water, nitrogen and phosphorus efficiency, and heat stress). Consensus was identified on issues including considering existing alternatives to plant breeding (e.g. management strategies), minimising trade-offs, and addressing geographical variation in needs. We conducted a rapid evidence synthesis on the impacts of priority crop improvement options, highlighting the urgent need for further research examining downstream sustainability impacts to identify concrete targets for plant breeding innovation as a food systems solution.

We examine persistence and cross-market liquidity spillovers in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange soybean complex futures markets. A multidimensional liquidity measure is derived from the limit-order-book, and a Vector Heterogeneous Autoregressive model estimates high-resoluted liquidity from 30 s to one trading day. We find traders' order placement influenced by the liquidity of related markets. Liquidity persistence and positive liquidity spillovers mainly occur within 30 s, whereas spillovers for longer horizons are mostly negative. Findings are important for hedgers that hedge the crush and traders who wish to capitalize on the short-term deviation of price relationships.

A central collective action issue in agricultural cooperatives is the free-rider problem, a prevalent form of which arises when members systematically side-sell to competing chain actors. Despite the plethora of studies on side-selling's antecedents, little is known about side-selling's actual consequences, particularly from the standpoint of cooperative members. In two studies, we aim to deliver a member-based assessment of side-selling's influence on critical cooperative benefits and explore possible solutions. In the first study, with survey data from 128 members of four fruit cooperatives in Greece, we show that side-selling has a negative effect on perceived cooperative benefits, even in the presence of other collective action issues (e.g., the influence costs problem). In the same study, we posit and demonstrate that side-selling's aversive impact on cooperative benefits can be appeased when members think that their cooperative's transparency regarding cooperative activities is high. In the second study, with interview data from 20 members, we find that different punitive (e.g., expelling members) and collaborative (e.g., fostering trust) solutions are considered effective. Accordingly, our article advances extant knowledge of an issue that strikes at the heart of cooperative activity and offers valuable insights to cooperative decision-makers seeking to confront it.

Successfully launching new products on the market can be a challenge for companies. One of the factors predicting the success of new products is how atypical consumers perceive a new product to be. Existing studies in separate research domains have shown how individual factors can predict atypicality perceptions. Yet, no research to date has combined these individual factors to examine whether these are all the predictors for atypicality or whether there are more reasons underlying consumer perceptions of atypicality. With an exploratory, qualitative method, the current research examines the factors predicting consumers’ atypicality perceptions. The findings support the existence of seven factors that were previously identified in existing research, and reveal two new factors predicting atypicality perceptions. Moreover, we explore the relationships between these factors, product information that consumers need, and consumers’ emotions. The findings indicate that, only when consumers understand the product benefits, consumers are likely to experience positive emotions towards the product and need more information about its accessibility. Together, the current findings provide a framework that integrates different streams of literature on atypicality and sheds new light on the reasons why consumers perceive products as atypical.

We investigated the effect of health and environmental information messages on purchases of meat and plant-based alternatives in a non-hypothetical online supermarket experiment. When controlling for observables, we find the health information nudge to be effective at motivating meat eaters to purchase plant-based meat alternatives. This effect is absent when providing environmental information or its combination with health information. We also find that meat eaters implicitly perceive meat to be healthier but environmentally unsustainable compared to plant-based alternatives. Our findings provide insights as to how to steer consumers towards meat alternative purchases under different information types in an online supermarket.

Why use open-ended questions? This chapter provides an up-to-date overview on the use of open-ended questions in novel rapid sensory methodologies and the potential applications in which they could provide unique benefits. Next, the step-by-step process is described (from task performance to analysis) with its pros and cons, with important considerations to follow. Examples with data from real, recently published case studies are provided to illustrate all the points raised in the chapter. Finally, the future trends of open-ended questions are discussed: Are social media currently useful for sensory science? How can the benefits of open-ended questions be boosted?

Cultured meat is still under development but could possibly serve as a meat alternative. As a result, the acceptance and perception of cultured meat have received considerable attention in consumer research. However, only few comparisons to meat or meat alternatives have been made, which makes it unclear how cultured meat compares to these products. This is the first study to directly compare cultured meat to plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA), fish, insects, and conventional meat. Dutch consumers (n = 288) evaluated their perception and willingness to consume (WTC) patties made from the five sources listed above. Consumer segmentation based on the WTC ratings was performed, and the resulting clusters were compared in terms of their preferences, perception of cultured meat, and demographic and psychographic variables. To see if naming affected consumers’ cultured meat perception, respondents were assigned to one of five naming conditions for cultured meat. The clusters analysis yielded three clusters, two of which showed moderate WTC cultured meat. The first cluster could be characterized as “meat lovers.” Their WTC was strongest for conventional meat, followed by cultured meat, and tastiness was their main driver of WTC. The second cluster's preference was fish, followed by PBMA, with naturalness, safety, and tastiness being their drivers of WTC. The third cluster's highest WTC was for PBMA, followed by cultured meat. Among their drivers of WTC were healthiness, sustainability, and animal friendliness. Psychographic variables were highly valuable in explaining the clusters. Finally, no effects of naming for cultured meat were observed. Practical Application: The results contribute to the design of guidelines to promote different meat alternatives considering specific target populations.

While products are regularly presented as gifts to apologize, little is known about the effect of an apology context on product evaluations and relationships. Past research suggests that recipients positively evaluate gifts. Instead, our five studies reveal that, when recipients receive an apology gift, they evaluate the gift and the giver-recipient relationship more negatively compared to regular products, to receiving regular gifts, or towards verbal apologies. This occurs because apology gifts remind the recipient of transgressions, and signal misunderstandings of recipients’ emotions. These findings highlight the importance of the gift-giving context when promoting products as gifts.

New breeding techniques may play an important role in improving food quality, global food security, and sustainability. Previous breeding techniques have, however, met with substantial resistance from society and its consumers. This study examined the role of associations and deliberation in the evaluation of (new) breeding techniques. Breeding techniques studied included conventional breeding, gene-editing, genetic modification (cisgenesis and transgenesis), marker-assisted breeding, and synthetic biology. By using focus group discussions that included individual tasks, we found that when participants rely on their spontaneous associations, they evaluate gene-editing similarly compared to genetic modification. However, after information provision and group discussion, participants obtained different levels of acceptance between techniques. Gene-editing was preferred over genetic modification. Perceived naturalness was found to be the main reason for the different levels of acceptance. These findings highlight the importance of associations and show that beliefs about naturalness remain crucial in understanding how consumers evaluate breeding techniques.

PurposeThis study aims to compare the expectations of non-collaborating professionals and the actual opinions of collaborating professionals regarding success factors of horizontal logistics collaboration (HLC) and investigates the reasons behind the observed differences.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a mixed-method approach. First, a survey is conducted to collect data from two samples representing collaborating and non-collaborating industry professionals. Second, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to compare the measurement models from the two samples and identify their similarities and differences. Third, a Delphi study is conducted to identify factors limiting collaborative behavior.FindingsThe results show that collaborating professionals exhibit lower levels of joint relationship efforts and trust than expected. This is primarily due to inadequate information sharing, poor collaboration formalization and the absence of a clear costs and benefits allocation mechanism.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that, in HLC, managers should give high importance to facilitating timely and complete information exchange, putting in place an acceptable costs/benefits allocation mechanism, formalizing the collaboration and prioritizing integrity over competency when selecting partners.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that shows the existence of differences between industry professionals' pre-collaboration expectations and the actual experiences in HLC. This is also the first study that points to the exact HLC enablers that fail in practice and the barriers responsible for it.

Firms often emphasize “green” benefits for products that are only partially more sustainable than alternatives (e.g., a more sustainable packaging with similar product ingredients). The current article posits that such strategies can lead to a perceived claim–fact discrepancy and examines to what extent this makes consumers feel deceived and detracts from attitudes and purchase intentions, even though consumers can intrinsically value the (partial) sustainability improvements. In addition, given that marketing communication often relies on puffery such as exaggerated language and (visual) hyperbole, the article also investigates the effect of the use of puffery versus more subdued claims. Findings from two experiments unveil that when the actual sustainability of packaged products is (partially) discrepant with an overt sustainability claim, this leads to higher perceived deception. The use of puffery has both pros and cons, such that it adds to perceived sustainability but also to perceived deception, and it moderates the effects of actual sustainability. Furthermore, the results provide initial support for the idea that sustainability improvements in only peripheral attributes (packaging) are perceived as more deceptive than sustainability improvements in only central attributes (product contents).

Fashion products made from repurposed materials (e.g., backpacks made from pineapple leaves) have become more prevalent nowadays, and their environmental sustainability is one of the core advantages. Yet, it is currently unclear how consumers respond to products made from repurposed materials. We conducted three experiments to examine the effects of three material features, namely function, sustainability, and distinguishability, on consumer preferences for fashion products made from repurposed materials. The results indicate that, when the function of repurposed materials is as good as that of conventional materials, consumers prefer a product made from repurposed materials over the same product made from conventional materials. Also, consumers in general prefer repurposed materials to be less visually distinguishable. Finally, when the sustainability of the repurposed products is emphasized, consumers appear more likely to choose products made from repurposed materials, even when these products have an inferior function. In conclusion, to promote fashion products made from repurposed materials, marketers may emphasize the function and sustainability of repurposed materials, and producers may manufacture repurposed materials that visually resemble conventional materials

This dataset includes qualitative information from focus group discussions with farm-level, agri-businesses and consumer experts on crop improvement strategies for future-proofing. Data were collected in a series of online workshops based on a semi-structured protocol that facilitated the appraisal of Cropbooster-P options and impact assessment and was supported by whiteboard software.

Food waste is one of society's biggest problems, with huge ecological, economic and social consequences. Hence, there is a necessity to derive a better insight in how consumers can be triggered to avoid food waste. Although it is generally known that motivations are important drivers of human behavior, limited attention has been paid to motivations in the food waste context and no viable measurement instrument exists that systematically takes into account the different motivations underlying the avoidance of food waste. Current scales related to food waste concern encompass attitude and awareness items only. The current paper aims to fill this gap and develops a 21-item Motivation to Avoid Food Waste (MAFW) scale. Since consumers may be driven by different motivations to avoid food waste, special attention is paid to the multidimensionality of food waste avoidance motivations. Specifically, the MAFW-scale consists of four motivations: environmental, moral, financial and social motivations. Three studies demonstrate the scale's internal reliability, test-retest reliability, nomological validity, and predictive validity. The MAFW-scale fosters research into the genesis of consumers’ food waste behaviors, and can serve as a tool to segment and target (un)motivated consumers.

On 29 September 2020, JPMorgan was ordered to pay a settlement of $920.2 million for spoofing the metals and Treasury futures markets from 2008 to 2016. We examine these cases using a visualization method developed in particle physics (CERN) and the messages that the exchange receives about market activity rather than time-based snapshots. This approach allows to examine multiple indicators related to market manipulation and complement existing research methods, thereby enhancing the identification and understanding of, as well as the motivation for, market manipulation. In the JPMorgan cases, we offer an alternative motivation for spoofing than moving the price.

Genome editing helps to develop plant varieties that address future agricultural challenges such as climate change adaptation, resource efficiency and sustainable productivity. Nevertheless, associated aspects relating, besides others, to the regulation of genome editing, intellectual property rights and potential environmental and health aspects lead to fierce discussions within the European Union. In these discussions, values and moral aspects play a decisive role. To support and set the stage for an open-minded dialogue, the communication behaviour and needs of specific stakeholder groups has been analysed by means of two online surveys. The surveys considered sources and channels used for information sourcing and dissemination, conveyed content and relevant target audiences. In addition, the degree of trust of stakeholders in different information sources was assessed. Stakeholders included representatives from academia, civil society organisations (including environmental and consumer organisations), journalists, the farming community, the seed and plant breeding sector and policymakers across Europe. Our analysis suggests that, in general, a high level of trust is associated with representatives from academia, and that safety-related aspects, transparency and sustainability are considered very important topics across the different stakeholder groups. In addition, social media seem to play a subordinate role for inter-stakeholder communication but is of higher relevance for reaching out to the public.

Traditional foods are often perceived to be high in fat and energy-dense and therefore individuals that aim to adopt a healthy diet could be discouraged to consume them. To date, consumer research investigating the interlink of healthy and traditional eating attitudes is lacking. We conducted a cross-country study with a total sample of 5928 consumers from 10 countries worldwide and used the Theory of Planned Behavior as a theoretical framework, to examine the mediating effect of attitude towards traditional eating on the behavioral intention to adopt a healthy diet (target behavior). Our results showed a general positive attitude towards adopting a healthy diet. The model showed that Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Control Beliefs related to the Behavioral Intention of adopting a healthy diet are all significantly correlated with the Attitude towards traditional eating (ATT-TE). Moreover, results indicated that the ATT-TE positively and significantly influence the behavioral intention of adopting a healthy diet. However, if we look at the country level, the effects of the ATT-TE are very heterogeneous. This could be due to the different perception between the interlink of traditional food and healthiness among people, which is often culturally dependent. Several practical and policy implications could include i) policies to increase familiarity with and appreciation towards traditional healthy food, ii) opportunities for campaigns to strengthen the regional marketing of traditional and healthy products, and iii) variations in positioning and messaging emphasis, based on consumer perceptions on the healthiness of traditional food.

TikTok influencer videos are becoming increasingly popular for promotional purposes and are appealing to adolescents. Yet, the products' level of integration into the storyline of such videos influences their recognizability as advertisements, which is concerning as they expose adolescents to unhealthy social media food marketing, leading to unhealthy consumption. This study investigated whether a sponsorship disclosure in a TikTok influencer video with different levels of product-plot integration increases adolescents' persuasion knowledge and impacts their brand outcomes. This between-subjects 2 × 2 experiment included 245 Dutch adolescents with a mean age of 13.6 (SD = 1.42). Participants watched a TikTok video in which the brand Doritos was shown passively or integrated into the storyline, with or without a disclosure. The sponsorship disclosure significantly increased recognition of advertising (F(241) = 4.48, p = .035) and understanding of persuasive intent (F(241) = 13.28, p =

The global demand for providing nutritious, sustainable, and safe diets for a 10 billion population by 2050 while preserving affordability, reducing environmental impacts, and adapting to climate change will require accelerating the transition to sustainable agri-food systems. A plausible way to help tackle these challenges is by developing new plant varieties that have improved crop yield, plant nutritional quality, and sustainability (or resilience) traits. However, stakeholders, consumers, and citizens' concerns and appreciation of future-proofing crops and the acceptability of new plant breeding strategies are not well-established. These groups are actors in the agri-food systems, and their views, values, needs, and expectations are crucial in helping to co-design fair, ethical, acceptable, sustainable, and socially desirable policies on new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) and the transition to sustainable agri-food systems. In this study, we engaged with consumer experts and societal stakeholders to consider their perceptions, expectations, and acceptability of improving crops and NPBTs for future-proofing the agri-food systems. Our analysis points to a need for governments to take a proactive role in regulating NPBTs, ensure openness and transparency in breeding new crop varieties, and inform consumers about the effects of these breeding programmes and the risks and benefits of the new crop varieties developed. Consumer experts and societal stakeholders considered these strategies necessary to instil confidence in society about NPBTs and accelerate the transition to sustainable agri-food systems.

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of sustainability information disclosure on consumers' choice of order-to-delivery lead-time in relation to consumers' sustainability concern.Design/methodology/approachBased on two choice experiments with participants from the Netherlands (n = 348) and the United Kingdom (n = 1,387), the impact of sustainability information disclosure was examined in connection with consumers' concerns for environmental and social sustainability. Information on environmental impact (carbon emission) and social impact (warehouse workers and drivers' well-being) was considered and compared.FindingsDisclosing sustainability impact information significantly increased consumers' preference and choice for longer delivery times, with equivalent effects for environmental and social impact information. Consumers' relevant (environmental or social) sustainability concern as personality traits enhanced effects on preferences, as did priming of environmental concern.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research may consider differences between product categories or e-commerce companies' reputation in sustainability activities.Practical implicationsThe findings provide opportunities for online retailers to influence consumer choice of delivery time, especially through disclosing environmental and/or social sustainability information.Originality/valueThis study fills a gap in the literature on sustainability information disclosure to actively steer consumer choice of delivery time, particularly regarding the effect of social sustainability impact information in comparison to its environmental counterpart.

Virtual Reality (VR) involves the coupling of visual communication hardware and software. The technology is capable of offering transformative educational practice and is increasingly being adopted within the biochemistry domain to better understand complex biochemical processes. This article documents a pilot study for the efficacy of VR in biochemistry education at undergraduate university level, focusing on the citric acid cycle: a central process for extracting energy in most cellular life forms. 10 participants were equipped with a VR headset and electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors, then immersed within a digital environment where they were able to learn the 8 main steps of the citric acid cycle within a virtual lab by completing 8 levels of activity. Post and pre surveys were taken, along with EDA readings throughout the students’ interaction with VR. Research findings support the hypothesis that VR increase students’ understanding, particularly if students feel engaged, stimulated and intend to use the technology. Moreover, EDA analysis indicated that the majority of participants demonstrate enhanced engagement in the education-based VR-experience as measured by elevated levels of skin conductance, a marker for autonomic arousal and a measure of engagement in an activity.

In two 5-week randomized-controlled field studies, Canadian and US households were invited to make one meal per week from food that might otherwise be discarded, using flexible recipes. In the first study (Canada), tools to increase the salience of unused food (storage basket, clips to tag, or whiteboard) were also explored. A second study (US) examined a shorter program and the addition of follow-up reminders. Food waste was assessed with a self-reported food waste measure. Intervention groups reduced their food waste significantly versus baseline by 33% (Canada) and 46% (US) and versus control by 27% (Canada) and 33% (US). The salience tools (study 1) or duration (study 2) had no impact. Eight weeks after the intervention food saving continued although the intervention conditions no longer differed significantly from control. In the US, change in Perceived Behavioral Control partially mediated the impact of the intervention on food waste reduction.

International audience; To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant- derivedproducts, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technicallychallenging imperative. The CropBooster- P project, a response to the H2020call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research toimprove crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing cropyield, nutritional quality, value for non- food applications and sustainability.However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and pri-oritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to takeinto account future socio- economic, technological and global developments, in-cluding numerous policy and socio- economic challenges and constraints. Basedon a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developedfour extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future devel-opments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct fu-ture plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approachesthat could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four futureworld scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options thatwould need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learningscenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. Inaddition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized poten-tial, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources ofnutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several meth-ods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some ofthe scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learningscenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are head-ing toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meetour food, feed and non- food biomass production needs in the coming decades.

Background There has been growing attention towards personalizing dietary advice to the specific lifestyle, phenotypic and genotypic properties of consumers. Consumer acceptance and advice adherence is critical for the success of services offering personalized dietary advice. However, more insight is needed in the current body of knowledge on the determinants of consumer acceptance and use of personalized dietary advice. Scope and approach This literature review provides an overview of the current knowledge on consumer acceptance, use and effectiveness of personalized dietary advice based on the four information flow stages in personalized dietary advice: (1) information provision from consumer to formulate a personalized dietary advice, (2) personalized advice generation, (3) advice provision to the consumer, (4) advice acceptance and adherence. Key Findings and Conclusions Results show that the extent to which each step in the cycle is considered in the reviewed studies varies strongly, with most emphasis on the advice adherence, such as changes in dietary intake. In contrast, it is less clear how consumer data is used to generate a personalized dietary advice. Based on the studies in our review, we identify aspects that play a role in the consumer acceptance of personalized dietary advice and the best design practices for creating a successful personalized advice. publishedVersion

Objective:To investigate the content of lunchboxes of primary school children and to examine children’s support and preferences for alternative healthy school lunch concepts.Design:A cross-sectional study among Dutch children from seven primary schools. The content of the lunchboxes was assessed by photographs. Support and preferences for alternative lunch concepts were examined via a self-reported questionnaire. Linear regression analyses were used to investigate the associations between children’s support and preferences and sex, educational group and migration background.Setting:The Netherlands.Participants:Primary school children.Results:A total of 660 children were included (average 9·9 years old). Most lunchboxes contained sandwiches and a drink. Few lunchboxes contained fruit or vegetables. The alternative school lunch concepts elicited mixed support among children. The lunch concepts ‘Sandwiches prepared by the children themselves’ and a ‘hot lunch buffet’ had the highest mean support, while the concept ‘a healthy lunch brought from home’ was the most preferred concept. Small significant differences were observed depending on sex, educational group and migration background.Conclusion:Lunchboxes of Dutch children contained sandwiches and a drink but rarely fruit and vegetables. Among different alternatives, children reported the highest support for the preparation of their own sandwiches in class or a hot lunch buffet. Future studies should investigate if these alternative lunch concepts improve the dietary intake of children.

We conducted a combined sensory and discrete choice experiment study with a 100% beef burger, a plant-based burger using pea protein, a plant-based burger using animal-like protein, and a blended burger with 70% beef and 30% mushroom involving US consumers. Respondents were either assigned to a blind or an informed tasting condition with information about the ingredients before tasting the burgers. Results reveal that (i) beef burgers are preferred over alternatives, (ii) consumers favor blended burgers over alternatives in the blind condition but demand decreases in the informed condition; (iii) consumers prefer the plant-based burger with animal-like protein over the one with pea protein.

This case study outlines the steps Oatly has taken so far to achieve its goal of becoming the largest ‘dairy and milk’ producer in the world. Oatly develops, produces and markets dairy and milk analogues, with an overriding ambition to promote structural changes in the dairy industry. Oatly’s approach relies on state-of-the-art technologies that can create dairy analogues and milk-like fluids. The resulting products are marketed under their own brand and promoted by provocative and innovative communication strategies that include storytelling, policy-related activities, social media campaigns and more traditional sales concepts. The company is constantly developing and opening factories that enable them to expand into foreign markets, whilst applying diverse marketing strategies. Following Oatly’s example, other retailers and food companies also expressed their interest in dairy and milk replacement products, increasing the market competition.

This study explored the perceptual factors affecting consumers’ advertising avoidance on social networking sites (SNSs) in the context of mobile YouTube by relying on the psychological theory of reversal theory. The study employed an exploratory survey methodology via surveys adapted from prior research. The investigation then empirically tested these factors. The findings highlighted the need for SNSs platform owners and online advertisers that subscribe to online paid advertising to consider their options for mitigating the consequences of consumer advertising avoidance by understanding the bi-dimensional psychological profiles of target audiences. This would enable video-based SNSs platform owners and online advertisers that use these platforms to appreciate the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of consumers’ frames of mind and to personalize advertising content to cater for their individual psychological profiles.

An accumulating amount of research has documented the harmful effects of abusive supervision on either its victims or third parties (peer abusive supervision). The abusive supervision literature, however, neglects to investigate the spillover effects of abusive supervision through third-party employees’ (i.e., peers’) mistreatment actions toward victims. Drawing on social learning theory, we argue that third parties learn mistreatment behaviors from abusive leaders and then themselves impose peer harassment and peer ostracism on victims, thereby negatively affecting victims’ performance. Further, we posit that, if a victim has a proactive personality, this will weaken these indirect, negative effects. We conducted two studies, both with three-wave longitudinal data, to verify the hypotheses. The results of Study 1 evidence the significant indirect effects of abusive supervision on employee creative performance via both peer harassment and peer ostracism. Contrary to our moderation hypothesis, the analysis shows that victims’ proactive personality strengthens rather than weakens the negative indirect effects of peer harassment. Study 2 generally replicated the results of Study 1 with employee’s objective job performance as outcome. Our research contributes to the abusive supervision literature by highlighting a social learning process of third-party peer mistreatment, suggesting a spillover channel of abusive supervision on the victim’s performance.

Problematic use of social networking sites (SNS) has a negative impact on mental health. It has been found that people who score high on neuroticism are especially vulnerable towards engaging with SNS in a problematic way but it is not clear which psychological mechanisms explain this relationship. We addressed this issue by examining the mediating role of fear of missing out and self-control in the relationship between neuroticism and problematic SNS use. For this purpose, we conducted a cross-sectional study ( n = 151, 69.5% female, Mage = 26.23, SD = 7.52) and tested for parallel mediation using structural equation modelling. Neuroticism was found to be predictive of increased levels of problematic SNS use. Moreover, neuroticism was associated with both increased levels of fear of missing out and decreased levels of self-control. However, only fear of missing out was found to robustly mediate the relationship between neuroticism and problematic use of SNS. These findings suggest that fear of missing out could be an intervention target to prevent people scoring high on neuroticism from engaging in problematic SNS use.

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) characteristics on the antecedents of horizontal logistics collaboration (HLC). Specifically, the study compares the relationship between collaboration activities and outcomes for companies in and outside AFSCs.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a survey was used to collect data from different industries. Second, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to compare the measurement and structural models from different industry categories.FindingsThe results support the premise that collaboration improves trust and commitment in the relationship, which in turn enhance satisfaction. The results also show the existence of a minor influence of AFSCs characteristics on HLC antecedents, in the form of an indirect impact of dedicated investments on commitment.Practical implicationsThe factors having a significant influence on the collaboration outcomes and their respective effects are generally similar across food and nonfood supply chains, providing opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaboration experiences.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the body of knowledge on interfirm collaboration by considering the specificities of HLC. It also highlights the importance of conducting contingency research on collaborative experiences, as firms from different industry contexts operate under distinct operational conditions.

Blockchain technology, best known as the decentralised transactional ledger of Internet currencies such as Bitcoin, could provide possibilities for tracking the origin of timber products. As such, it could ease the complex job of timber procurement officers in companies that seek to purchase timber products from trustworthy origins. This study explores how trust among purchasers in suppliers of sustainable timber can be increased and the roles that blockchain technology could play as a factor influencing purchasing decisions. The study examines the attributes influencing purchaser trust in timber products, revealing that the country of origin is the strongest predictor of purchaser trust, followed by the price level for the timber product, the presence of a certification scheme, and the duration of the relationship with the supplier. Blockchain technology also had a significant effect on purchaser trust and could become an important factor for generating trust in timber products during international trade.

Up to date no empirical work has tested the overlap between situation characteristics and appraisal dimensions. The current study aims to contribute a piece to the puzzle of the jangle in situation taxonomies, by empirically linking appraisal dimensions with situation characteristics. A link between situation characteristics and appraisal dimensions would provide a broader understanding of these constructs and allows researchers from both fields to draw from a wider literature.

The Nutri-Score front-of-pack label, which classifies the nutritional quality of products in one of 5 classes (A to E), is one of the main candidates for standardized front-of-pack labeling in the EU. The algorithm underpinning the Nutri-Score label is derived from the Food Standard Agency (FSA) nutrient profile model, originally a binary model developed to regulate the marketing of foods to children in the UK. This review describes the development and validation process of the Nutri-Score algorithm. While the Nutri-Score label is one of the most studied front-of-pack labels in the EU, its validity and applicability in the European context is still undetermined. For several European countries, content validity (i.e., ability to rank foods according to healthfulness) has been evaluated. Studies showed Nutri-Score's ability to classify foods across the board of the total food supply, but did not show the actual healthfulness of products within different classes. Convergent validity (i.e., ability to categorize products in a similar way as other systems such as dietary guidelines) was assessed with the French dietary guidelines; further adaptations of the Nutri-Score algorithm seem needed to ensure alignment with food-based dietary guidelines across the EU. Predictive validity (i.e., ability to predict disease risk when applied to population dietary data) could be re-assessed after adaptations are made to the algorithm. Currently, seven countries have implemented or aim to implement Nutri-Score. These countries appointed an international scientific committee to evaluate Nutri-Score, its underlying algorithm and its applicability in a European context. With this review, we hope to contribute to the scientific and political discussions with respect to nutrition labeling in the EU.

As a concept that is somewhat under emergence, the notion of the Metaverse varies across different academic articles. Yet there is a shared view on the benefits to its ongoing implementation, particularly for digital art, where the technology can provide a new metric for artists to showcase and sell their artwork to a global audience with minimal barriers, and for consumers to have an unbounded experience not limited by physical space or museum entry fees. In this article, a contribution is provided to a broader conversation about the future of the digital art and the Metaverse and its role in shaping our online culture. We discuss the concept of the Metaverse, its structure, the role of artificial intelligence and the benefits (and limitations) the technology holds for digital art. For a case study, we develop a 3D art gallery housing an art collection generated using artificial-intelligence-based techniques such as diffusion models. A total of 67 individuals are surveyed from three pools (two in-person and one online-based), with questions relating to the future of digital art, the Metaverse and artificial intelligence. Findings include that the majority of participants were familiar with the concept of the Metaverse and overall, they had a predominately optimistic view of both the use artificial intelligence for art, and the use of the Metaverse to support digital art, with 85.3% of the participants having already seen artificial-intelligence-based artwork. The identification of consumer segments further highlights the importance of finding customised solutions, considering consumers’ heterogenous preferences for AI-generated art. Research presented in this article will be beneficial for those looking to explore the Metaverse for artwork and develop virtual galleries, and the findings further highlight the Metaverse as a potential democratising force in the art world.

Over the last few decades, animal welfare (AW) labels have become permanent factors in consumer markets for animal-based food products across Europe. During this time, scholarly thinking about consumer perspectives on AW labelling has identified problems that hinder the effectiveness of labels, pertaining to (i) consumers’ trust in labels, (ii) the number of labels present in the market, (iii) confusion about the meaning of labels, (iv) trade-offs between AW labels and price, (v) consistency between the AW standards and consumers’ individual opinions about AW and (vi) the ability of animal-based sectors to innovate in AW labelling. Based on these insights, this study explores the current state of these problems by questioning 2.433 consumers from four countries in the European Union (Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy) about these issues. The results show that, while opinions differ between countries and cross-border consumer segments, these issues persist for many consumers. These results cast doubt on the idea that AW labels in their traditional form can substantially increase their effect on the market. The study therefore explores potential data-based solutions to persistent consumer problems by drawing on precision livestock and e-commerce technologies. It extends current data use, which is often limited to farms and value chain actors but rarely reaches consumers. We argue that innovative technologies create opportunities to influence consumers in the often neglected pre- and post-purchase stages, through a selection system where consumers can indicate their AW preferences, receive feedback, and transparently provide insight into their preferences to other value chain actors.

Within the globalized tourism market, tourism destinations have the option to turn to sustainability as a conceptual and management framework for their unique branding and identity proposition. This research highlights the importance and utility of sustainability branding that stems from clustering tourism destinations based on the similarities of their tourism performance attributes. The study builds on secondary data from 11 coastal destinations in 8 Mediterranean countries. The analysis leads to the formulation of three main sets of evaluation indicators: (a) environmental footprint; (b) destination dependency on tourism; and (c) locals’ prosperity, incorporating elements of social and psychological carrying capacity. Findings identify three to four distinct destination clusters based mainly on the attributes of destinations’ cultural and natural attributes, seasonality of supply, typology of prevailing accommodation and tourist profile. From a theoretical perspective, the research identifies key clustering attributes of sustainable destinations that could inform management interventions around destination branding and competitive sustainability performance positioning.

Land conflicts are impediments to socio-economic development. Understanding drivers and types of land conflicts is vital for peaceful conflict resolution and enhancing the effectiveness of institutions and agencies dealing with such issues. This article tries to develop and apply a methodology for tracking and characterising drivers and the types of land conflicts in India. We have applied the methods to peer-reviewed articles and thesis in the English language on land conflicts in India. Our results shed light on the most evident drivers and types of land conflict in India while challenging and supporting common assumptions. The key finding of our study indicates land administration as being the primary driver of land conflicts in India, followed by political, socio-economic and sociocultural factors. The most important type of land conflict occurring in India involves boundary or territorial conflicts. Of late, several conflicts are reported over special economic zones, which are also related to poor land administration and erroneous planning processes by the government actors. However, the published study reporting land conflicts in India fails to identify the root cause of such conflicts. In order to ensure better land administration, there need to have reasonably accurate and up-to-date records, which studies have not been able to identify. Another primary reason of land conflicts, which the studies have failed to acknowledge, is the problems germane to the prevailing land tenure system in India.

Home-grown protein crops as an alternative to soya in dairy cattle meals, as well as other sustainable ethical-based practices, have been proposed to increase the sustainability of dairy production. Data on consumer acceptance of the three novel sustainable production strategies of ‘agroforestry’, ‘prolonged maternal feeding’ of young cattle and ‘alternative protein source’ were collected through an online survey on consumer in six European Union countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy and the UK. Using Chen’s extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour model, the underlying model hypotheses on the attitudes and intentions of these consumers towards these production practices were tested, to establish the explanatory power of the model in the specific context of novel sustainable production strategies. Furthermore, the influence of gender and consumer ethical choices on their attitudes towards these innovative practices was also tested. These data show that ‘prolonged maternal feeding’ is the novel production practice that has the highest level of acceptance by consumers in all of these countries, with the least accepted practice as ‘alternative protein source’. Unexpectedly, increased availability of home-grown feed, which is grounded on both farmer and societal interests for higher input self-sufficiency and more sustainable production practices, was little appreciated by consumers, although their intentions appear to be dependent on their moral norms.

Contains fulltext : 219926.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Social robots become increasingly human-like in appearance and behaviour. However, a large body of research shows that these robots tend to elicit negative feelings of eeriness, danger, and threat. In the present study, we explored whether and how human-like appearance and mind-attribution contribute to these negative feelings and clarified possible underlying mechanisms. Participants were presented with pictures of mechanical, humanoid, and android robots, and physical anthropomorphism (Studies 1-3), attribution of mind perception of agency and experience (Studies 2 and 3), threat to human–machine distinctiveness, and damage to humans and their identity were assessed for all three robot types. Replicating earlier research, human-machine distinctiveness mediated the influence of anthropomorphic appearance on the perceived damage for humans and their identity, and this mediation was due to anthropomorphic appearance of the robot. Perceived agency and experience did not show similar mediating effects on human–machine distinctiveness, but a positive relation with perceived damage for humans and their identity. Possible explanations are discussed. 11 p.