Brand equity and corporate responsibility

During the last decades, brand equity has been a priority topic for both practitioners and academics. In accordance with the structural changes in the economic settings caused by the so-called "new economy", corporations being confronted with a shift on perceived business value structure from tangible assets to intangibles. On the other hand firms increasingly are adopting more responsible behaviour towards their societies. In this context, one critical question is to understand how corporate conduct may affect brand equity. The purpose of this study was to find how brand equity (BE) measurement methods embrace corporate responsibility (CR), based on a literature review. Brands can build trust and loyalty among consumers and help them make their purchase decisions faster. In returns, this relation provides adequate wealth that enables corporate to develop their equipments and efficiencies. Likewise, brands create substantial social values in addition to economic values due to increased competition, improved product, process performance and also pressure on business owners to behave in socially responsible manner. Brand evaluation started with traditional economic brand valuation. Financially based approaches tend to place an overall monetary value on brands (Keller, 2008). The comparative approaches on the other hand, tend to assess the impacts of consumer perceptions and preferences on their response to the marketing activities. The insufficiencies in above mentioned approaches gave way to introducing composite approaches such as economic use and real option approaches. Analysing BE evaluations respect to possibility of inclusion of environmental, economic, and social attributes revealed that, in financial based approaches the likelihood of inclusion of social and environmental attributes in their framework is not possible. For customer based approaches on the other hand, the possibility of inclusion these dimensions are limited exist while the economic aspect hardly can be measured or related. Conversely composite approaches, have the possibility of inclusion social and environmental attributes and metrics as well as measures for economic performance of the brand; nevertheless, the empirical data that support this rarely exist. As a final point, the number of articles issued from 1970’s (especially after Bruntland report) showed that in general, CR and BE phenomena gained attention gradually over past decades. The signs of scholars’ attention to the effects of CR on BE is also emerged since last decade while the number of articles are far from separate issues. This study concludes that, in general, we can say that different methods are developed to response and satisfying various business needs over decades. A number of methods are in accordance with privileging production orientation marketing sub-discipline, while other methods applied to product orientation, sales orientation as well as market orientation purposes respectively. Correspondingly, during last decade and after dominating societal marketing orientation we can expect emerging new frameworks to accomplish this relatively new trend

Decision-making and risk responsibility related to the use of food biotechnology

This thesis contributes to knowledge about consumer decision-making and risk perception related to the use of biotechnology in food production. Paper I presents a meta-analysis that examined the systematic evidence from existing research on consumers’ evaluation of biotechnology in food products. The results indicated that genetically modified (GM) food with agronomic benefits is considered an inferior alternative to unmodified food products, but its direct consumer benefits were considered more desirable. Furthermore, consumer evaluation of biotechnology was largely insensitive to the type of food product. However, the type of gene modification was important for consumers’ evaluation. Using artefactual field experiments, Papers II-IV explore the effect of context on Swedish consumer behaviour in relation to a GM food with direct tangible benefits. Papers II and III examine the interdependency in consumer decision-making, with the focus of Paper III shifting towards satisfaction as the outcome of the decision-making process. Paper II shows that the policy regulations in place had a decisive influence on consumer acceptance and that the policy context itself may induce opposition to GM food. The greatest consumer opposition was found in the most restrictive policy scenarios. The aim of Paper III was to extend the Kano model of satisfaction and use it to assess consumer satisfaction in relation to decisions taken by upstream actors in the food value chain (FVC) with respect to GM food. The findings suggest that both consumer choices and satisfaction were dependent on the degree of unanimous stances adopted by upstream food value chain actors in supporting the GM food product. Actors’ consistent rejection of GM food resulted in lower consumer acceptance of GM food and greater overall satisfaction. In contrast, consumers were more receptive to and satisfied with GM foods when the FVC actors consistently took supportive stances. This suggests that being pro-GM food is probably not a stable trait. In addition, the analysis lent support to a general preference for and higher satisfaction under a mandatory labelling regime. Paper IV explores the role of food policy regulations in cognitive information processing and deliberation of consumers’ own risk responsibility related to GM food, and whether the effect is dependent on the type of risk. The findings suggest that consumers who have health concerns show less willingness to assign responsibility to themselves in situations where GM products are introduced

How Blockchain Facilitates the Transition toward Circular Economy in the Food Chain?

Food loss and waste are two of the many problems that modern society is facing. To date, among many solutions, the circular economy is the one prevailing. A successful transition toward a circular economy (CE) requires the food sector to overcome the challenges of today's complex food supply chains such as information asymmetry, poor cooperation among stakeholders, and concerns about food safety. Blockchain, a form of distributed ledger technology, has been progressively gaining traction in supply chains in areas like data management, certifying product provenance and tracking products. Despite its importance, knowledge around the potential of the blockchain technology in facilitating the transition towards a circular economy in the agri-food sector is fragmented. This review provides evidence-based insights into the blockchain implementations in the food supply chains and the implications for CE. Our findings indicated four major areas that blockchain could accelerate CE in the agri-food sector: improving data utility; supply chain management efficacy; enhanced eco-efficiency; and superior traceability

The intersection of blockchain technology and circular economy in the agri-food sector

A transition towards a circular economy within the agri-food sector requires the improvement of efficiency in resource utilization, the prevention of food loss or waste, whilst adopting regenerative agricultural practices. In addition to the technical challenges, the agri-food industry needs to address the food safety concerns resulting from biomass recycling processes. Increasingly, blockchain technology is gaining traction, moving towards more sustainable and precision agriculture. The blockchain is a decentralized, immutable, and shared database that records the provenance of digital assets, making it a suitable platform for traceability and food supply chain management. Despite its growing importance, the existing literature regarding these themes and the empirical evidence of blockchain-based solutions for a circular economy is rather fragmented. This paper offers a scoping review regarding the role of blockchain technology in the transition towards a circular food system. A total of 44 papers published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed to identify new scientific insights into the application of blockchains within the agricultural sector. The results indicate that blockchain technology has a great potential in reducing food loss through optimized eco-efficiency (e.g., digitalization and integration with the Internet of Things) and by alleviating asymmetric information (by increasing transparency and reducing dependence on intermediaries). However, in the case of recycling efficiency, despite its potential, there remains a paucity of evidence regarding the use of blockchain technology in improving the residual valorization processes. Furthermore, there is a stream of literature focusing on the ability of blockchain-enabled traceability (e.g., for organic production or supply chain management). Yet, the role of blockchain traceability in the monitoring of risks from recycled biomass and the reporting of the sustainability performance in the supply chain has received scant attention within research literature. These results provide insights for supply chain management operations with the view of shifting towards a circular economy whilst also suggesting an agenda for future research areas

Institutional distance and location choice: an experimental approach to the perception puzzle

In this research, we designed and implemented a unique vignette experiment to study the effect of managers’ perceptions of institutional distance on foreign location choice, as well as the moderating effect of managerial international experience and preferred entry mode on this relationship. We employ an experimental vignette methodology (EVM) approach applied in the context of Chinese managers to test the causal relationships depicted in our hypotheses. In this way, we measure the decision-makers' perceptions ex ante, i.e., in conjunction with and prior to a decision about a foreign location choice. Our findings show that managers’ ex-ante perceptions of institutional distance negatively affect decisions on foreign location choice. Also, we find that managerial international experience and preference for high commitment entry modes mitigate the negative effect of managers’ perceptions of institutional distance on foreign location choice. This research study adds to our understanding of the effect of managers’ perceptions of institutional distance and managerial contingencies on foreign location decisions. Further, it advances novel experimental design in international business research in general and on foreign location choice in particular