Promoting Physical Exercise Participation: The Role of Interpersonal Behaviors for Practical Implications

he number of people engaging in physical exercise has been decreasing every year. These behaviors are known to be related with non-communicable chronic diseases and to drastically increase premature morbidity and mortality. Since “the lack of motivation” has been pointed out as one of the main reasons for not engaging in physical exercise, several theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted aimed at understanding what influences behavior regulation. According to literature, gym exercisers who perceive exercise instructors as supportive are more likely to maintain physical exercise participation over the long-run. Supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be carefully considered when interacting with health club clients as a way to promote more autonomous motivation. Overall, it seems that exercise instructors should foster a supportive environment for gym exercisers, in order to encourage exercise as a habitual behavior.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Behavioral Regulation Sport Questionnaire: Gender and Sport Invariance in Portuguese Athletes

Versão depositada: post-printThis study aimed to analyze measurement invariance of the Behavioral Regulation Sports Questionnaire (BRSQ) across the gender and four different sports. In addition, we examined nomological validity via basic psychological needs satisfaction. Participants totaled 1,812 Portuguese athletes (1,220 males and 592 females; aged 15–59 years, Mage ¼ 17.72, SD ¼ 5.51) from football (n ¼ 596), basketball (n ¼ 273), swimming (n ¼ 800), and parasport (n ¼ 143). The BRSQ measurement model was invariant across the gender and these four sports. The scale confirmed nomological validity in that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs positively predicted autonomous forms of motivation and negatively predicted more controlled motivation and amotivation as suggested by self-determination theory. In light of this evidence for BRSQ construct validity, composite reliability, nomological validity, and invariance across the gender and four different sports, this scale is a useful tool for the coaches of the aforementioned sports in their efforts to evaluate their athletes’ motivation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Economics of Traceability for Multi-Ingredient Products: A Network Approach

The consumption of multi-ingredient foods is increasing across the globe as consumers spend less time preparing meals. Traceability is now extensively used to reduce information imperfections in food markets and recent EU law suggests it will be implemented for manufactured meals as well. We present a model developed to understand how information on different ingredients flows through supply chains for multi-ingredient food products. The network model has three tiers linked by contracts for levels of quality and information. The model is useful for analyzing tradeoffs and network effects emerging in the choice of traceability levels.Traceability, multi-ingredient foods, network models, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Traceability Adoption at the Farm Level: An Empirical Analysis of the Portuguese Pear Industry

Traceability is becoming a condition for doing business in European food markets. Retailers are adopting standards that are more stringent than what is mandatory. An example is EurepGAP, a quality standard for good agricultural practices that includes traceability as a main requirement. We analyze EurepGAP implementation in the Portuguese pear industry and find that implementation cannot be distinguished from sales to British supermarkets. Discrete choice models show the odds of traceability adoption increase with farm size and previous compliance with quality assurance schemes, while farm productivity has a negative impact on the probability of adoption.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Can an Industry Voluntary Agreement on Food Traceability Minimize the Cost of Food Safety Incidents?

In the recent past the United States has had a number of severe food-safety outbreaks in the produce, vegetable and beef industry that greatly disrupted the food system. In all these outbreaks here were severe disruptions on sales that affected the whole industry, and it took an extended period of time to correctly locate the source of the outbreak. Traceability can be an effective tool to reduce the impact of food safety incidents my expediting the search for the origin of outbreaks. This paper investigates to what extent an industry-led voluntary agreement for providing traceability can reduce the cost of a food-safety outbreak. We find that a voluntary agreement on traceability can successfully reduce the cost of a food-safety outbreak but will unlikely achieve the optimal social level of traceability because of significant free riding.Traceability, voluntary agreements, food safety, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Optimal choice of Voluntary traceability as a food risk management tool

Traceability systems are information tools implemented within and between firms in food chains to improve logistics and transparency or to reduce total food safety damage costs. Information about location and condition of products is critical when food safety incidents arise. This paper uses a principal-agent model to investigate the optimal choice of voluntary traceability in terms of precision of information on a given attribute at each link of a food chain. The results suggest that four scenarios may emerge for the supply chain depending on the costs of a system and whether or not the industry can internalize total food safety damages: no traceability, traceability for one link, equal traceability for all links, or different positive traceability levels across all links.Traceability, food safety, principal-agent model, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

R&D tax incentives: effects on investment and firms' survival

Innovation is often seen as a critical driver of economic growth. This paper evaluates the impact of the Portuguese tax incentive to R&D (SIFIDE) on R&D investment (creation of innovation) and on firms’ survival (maintenance of innovation), using PSM and Difference-in-Differences methods. Results show positive effects of the program on both R&D investment and firms’ survival, especially for the services sector (R&D) and for small firms (survival). In addition, the hypotheses of full crowding-out and no additionality on private R&D were rejected, implying that the incentive does not merely replace private with public funding

Objectiveness in the Market for Third-Party Certification: Does market structure matter?

The globalization of trade in high quality foods is stimulating the development of international food standards and certification systems. Third-party certification as evolved as a means of ensuring that product information and signals on quality and safety attributes are sound and reliable. Certification can only provide credible market signals if it operates objectively and independently. This paper investigates the potential trade-off between certifiers objectivity and the level of competition in the rapidly expanding market for third-party certification of quality foods. Based on a theoretical supply chain framework a nested panel analysis is applied to a set of accredited certifiers for the EurepGAP fruits and vegetables standard. Our results indicate that increasing economies of scale and market share in certification do matter.Third-party certification, objectiveness, market structure, nested panel analysis, EurepGAP, Marketing,

Portuguese Retailers’ Motivations to Adopt Front of Pack Nutrition Labels: A Qualitative Analysis

Nutrition is an important food marketing differentiation criterion. There is growing evidence of the relation between diets and health conditions. Thus there is a potential conflict between industry and public health authorities over the use of nutrition labels. Understanding industry motivations for simplified nutrition labels use is paramount to scrutinize market dynamics, improve label policy design and its evaluation. The aim of this research is to ascertain how retailers perceive consumer’s attitudes to nutrition labels and what motivates their use. We conducted in-depth semi-structure interviews with senior managers in leading Portuguese retail chains. Our results suggest that retailers’ adopt FOP to aid their customers’ food choices, as a response to competitors’ moves and preempt labeling regulations. However, respondents were concerned on whether nutrition labels added value to their business, has a negative impact on sales in certain food categories and may hinder relations with suppliers.Nutrition labels, retailers, semi-structured interviews, content analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q18, M31, M38, M14,

Perceived Environmental Supportiveness Scale: Portuguese Translation, Validation and Adaptation to the Physical Education Domain

Aim: Grounded on Self-Determination Theory, this study aimed to translate, adapt and validate the Perceived Environmental Supportiveness Scale (PESS) in a sample of Portuguese physical education students. Methods: The global sample was comprised of 964 students (518 females), divided in two groups: the calibration (n = 469) and the validation one (n = 483), all of them enrolled in two Physical Education (PE) classes/week. Results: The analysis provided support for a one factor and 12 items model, which are in line with the values adopted in the methodology (χ² = 196.123, df = 54, p = <.001, SRMR = .035, NNFI = .943, CFI = .954, RMSEA = .074, 90% CI .063-.085). Results express that the models are invariant in all analysis (i.e., calibration vs. validation, male vs. female,and 3rd vs. secondary cycle; three and single factor models). Conclusion: The present study suggests that the PESS with one factor and 12 items has good psychometric properties and can be used to assess perceived need supportive motivational environments provided by PE teachers. Additionally, invariance analysis showed support for the use of the scale in both genders and in the 3rd and secondary cycles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio