Regional differences in portion size consumption behaviour: Insights for the global food industry

Abstract: Given the influence of globalization on consumer food behaviour across the world, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical discourse around food portion size as a global consumption-related symbol and its underlying socio-economic drivers for food industry strategy. Overall, 25,000 global food consumers were surveyed across 24 countries to elicit insight on portion size consumption behaviour as well as consumer perception on eating and drinking small portion size within selected socio-economic classes. The data was quantitatively analysed to answer the pertinent research objectives. In 20 out of the 24 global markets surveyed, large food portion size was statistically established as a prevalent consumption-related symbol. The paper found that there are regional differences in portion size food consumption behaviour, and further disparities exist across age, gender and income status in 24 countries covering all regions, including Australia, China, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America. The outlined food industry implications reveal that adaptation and standardisation strategies are still relevant in global food and nutrition strategy as revealed by the variations in the preference for food portion sizes across various countries of the world

Performance consequences of marketing standardization/adaptation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Despite extensive research into the standardization versus adaptation of marketing programs, processes, and strategies, findings regarding its impact on performance remain mixed and inconclusive. The fragmented picture of the performance consequences of marketing standardization/adaptation may be a result of the preponderance and variety of conceptual and methodological considerations included in prior studies. To facilitate further advancement of the field, this study adopts a theory–context–characteristics–methodology (TCCM) framework to (1) systematically review literature related to the performance consequences of marketing standardization/adaptation and (2) outline a comprehensive agenda for future research. The systematic review reveals the need for new, dynamic theoretical perspectives (theory); it also identifies research gaps related to emerging markets, (digital) services (context), individual marketing mix elements, and customer-related performance outcomes (characteristics). Finally, we suggest several methodological remedies and best practices (methodology) that can help enhance the validity of continued findings in this domain

We survived this! What managers could learn from SMEs who successfully navigated the Greek economic crisis

Small and medium size enterprises in both business to business and consumer markets are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Concentrating on the Greek economic crisis, one of the toughest and most prolonged on a global scale, the present research sheds light on both anthropocentric and business-centric factors that helped SMEs survive, therefore, providing a valuable survival manual. Per findings of two studies performed under the given economically intense conditions, it is evidenced that the right answer to survival rests upon: (a) the entrepreneurs' personality traits and skills that affect the market and entrepreneurial orientations of SMEs, (b) the adoption of such orientations that keep impacting the firms' performance, and finally (c) the implementation of strategy relevant to reaching higher quality standards for products and services, combined with tactics relevant to downsizing, marketing actions, extroversion, and financial management. © 2020 Elsevier Inc