Consumer Demand for Environmental, Social, and Ethical Information in Fishery and Aquaculture Product Labels

Customers’ attention to sustainability labels in fishery and aquaculture products (FAPs) has been increasing in the last decades, and the industry has adapted to this growing interest by adopting fish ecolabels. However, there is a growing interest to widen the sustainability concept to include the social and ethical information of the fishery and aquaculture industry and to go further from the voluntary approach on the labeling of these aspects in FAPs. For this reason, using data from 2021 Eurobarometer and using machine learning techniques, we disentangle the characteristics of the FAP buyers that consider the importance of environmental impact, ethical, and social information appearing on FAP labeling. The results confirmed that most of the consumers who consider environmental, social, and ethical aspects when buying FAPs also think that this information should be labeled. In line with other works, young, educated, and environmentally aware consumers in high-income countries are more likely to request this information in the FAP label. One interesting finding of the study relates with the asymmetric impact of the variables and the important group of respondents who do not consider these aspects but also advocate to include them in the FAP label. The study outcomes can be beneficial for policymakers to design future public policies regarding FAP labeling, as well as to be taken into consideration in the marketing policies of fishery and aquaculture producers and retailers

Determinants affecting consumers' attention to fish eco-labels in purchase decisions: a cross-country study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of consumer altruism and other socio-cultural factors in predicting how much attention consumers pay to seafood eco-labels. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical investigation was carried out by administering an online questionnaire to a sample of Italian and Spanish people from December 2019 to April 2020. After carrying out the principal component analysis procedure, the work made use of an ordinal logistic regression. Findings: Both Italian and Spanish consumers with an altruistic attitude, who feel that food produced in a sustainable way can protect the environment and workers, appear more likely to take an eco-label into account. In addition, in both countries, consumers with a higher level of education and in the older age range are more likely to read eco-labels before buying fish products. Research limitations/implications: The first limitation is mainly related to the sampling procedure, which is not probabilistic and does not allow for generalisation of the results. Furthermore, some indicators related to COVID-19 were not included as the planning stage of the research methodology occurred before the pandemic. Practical implications: A better understanding of the main determinants predicting consumers' attention to seafood eco-labels could be crucial to promote effective marketing strategies aimed at increasing consumer interest and awareness in sustainable seafood and eco-labels. Originality/value: Exploring the role of consumers' altruism in how much attention is paid to seafood eco-labels appears to be a new approach that emphasises the role of altruism as a variable capable of bridging the “value-action gap”

Sustainable European fishery and the Friend of the Sea scheme: tools to achieve sustainable development in the fishery sector

This paper investigates the role of the Friend of the Sea (FOS) scheme as a market tool for sustainable competitive advantage. To capture this effect, we apply a theoretical framework based on the stakeholder theory (SHT) and the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) to two case studies each in Italy and Spain. Our model allows us to explain the main factors determining an effective and competitive sustainable business model in the fishery sector. The results confirm the relevant influence of market forces in acquiring FOS certification and the role of the same as a counterpart to state authority

Exposure to residential traffic and trajectories of unhealthy ageing in older adults

XLI Reunión anual de la Sociedad Española de Epidemiología (SEE) y XVIII Congresso da Associação Portuguesa de Epidemiología (APE). Porto (Portugal), del 5 al 8 de septiembre de 2023.Background/Objectives: Exposure to traffic has been associated with biomarkers of increased biological aging, incidence of chronic morbidities and increased cause-specific and all-cause mortality. However, no previous study has evaluated whether traffic pollution is associated with trajectories of unhealthy ageing. The present study aims to fill some of the gaps in existing research by evaluating the association between residential traffic and unhealthy ageing, as assessed through the accumulation of overall and domain-specific health deficits over a 10-year follow-up of a nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling older adults in Spain. Methods: Population-based prospective study with individuals aged ≥ 60 years who contributed 8,291 biannual visits. Unhealthy ageing was estimated with a deficit accumulation index (DAI, range 0 to 100%), calculated with the number and severity of health deficits including 22 objectively-measured impairments in physical and cognitive functioning. Differences in DAI at each follow-up across categories of residential traffic density (RTD) at 500 and 1,000 meters, as well as of quintiles of nearest distance to a petrol station, were estimated using marginal structural models with inverse probability of censoring weights. Models were adjusted for sociodemographic and time-varying lifestyle factors, social deprivation index at the census tract and residential exposure to natural spaces. Results: The average increase in DAI (95% confidence interval) for participants in quintiles 2 to 5 vs. 1 (Q2-Q5 vs. Q1) of RTD at 500 meters was of 0.08 (-0.43, 0.59), 0.25 (-0.28, 0.78), 0.43 (-0.09, 0.95) and 0.80 (0.30, 1.30), respectively. Similar findings were observed across quintiles of RTD at 1000 meters. Distance to the nearest petrol station showed a linear inverse dose-response with prospective changes in DAI: results in quintiles Q2-Q5 vs. Q1 were -0.57 (-1.14, -0.01), -0.66 (-1.21, -0.11), -0.43 (-0.99, 0.13), and -0.91 (-1.44, -0.39), respectively. Conclusions/Recommendations: Exposure to traffic is associated with accelerated trajectories of unhealthy ageing. Diminishing traffic pollution should become a priority intervention for adding healthy years to life in the old age.Funding: CIBERESP: Proyecto ESP21PI04.N

The effect of tourism clusters on U.S. hotel performance

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