Gianluca Nardone

Understanding demand for innovation in the food industry

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on understanding how demand for innovation is articulated in low‐tech industries, dominated by SMEs, where innovation is often based on informal processes and uncodified knowledge, relying on intangible assets.Design/methodology/approach – The authors hypothesize that the problems found in the innovation area are exacerbated in a traditional industry. SMEs might have difficulty understanding what their requirements might be, let alone finding the optimal provider of technologies. The authors therefore expect to find three main forms of demand: real, latent, and potential. The specific case is the food industry in Apulia, Italy. First, focus groups identified general business and technology needs. Then in‐depth interviews were conducted with 87 firms, stratified in order to be representative of food firms in Apulia.Findings – The authors detected 285 different needs requiring an innovative solution. In most cases, firms understand the areas to be improved, but do not have...

Certification Labels Versus Convenience Formats: What Drives the Market in Aquaculture Products?

ABSTRACT A priority for the new Common Fishery Policy will be to enhance the competitiveness of EU aquaculture in compliance with high standards of consumer protection, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. Consumer expectations in relation to food quality present new business opportunities for EU aquaculture producers who are willing to differentiate their products. In particular, new convenience formats and certification labels are likely to influence consumer choices. This study uses the choice experiment method to investigate consumer preferences and willingness to pay for new convenient formats and certification labels for oysters. Cross-sectional data were collected through a web-based consumer survey carried out in Italy in 2015. The main result of the study is that certification labels are decisively more effective than new convenient preparation formats to differentiate high-quality products. However, some heterogeneity was detected in consumer preferences. JEL Codes: Q11, Q18, Q22, Q28.

Italian wine demand and differentiation effect of geographical indications

Purpose – Geographical indications (GIs) provide a strong differentiation tool for firms. Whether this statement is confirmed at aggregate level in terms of market independence of different GIs is not tested yet. The purpose of this paper is to provide demand estimates and elasticities (own‐price and substitution) in order to test this hypothesis and verify the differentiation effect of GIs at aggregate level.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis consists of the application of a quadratic almost ideal demand on a four equation system. Estimates are obtained through an iterated version of a generalized method of moments, which corrects for endogeneity determined by expenditure and prices in case of promotional activities.Findings – Estimates prove the existence of a differentiation effect of GIs in terms of magnitude of elasticities and substitution effects. GIs corresponding to higher quality generate lower price sensitiveness and product substitution, contrarily to wine without GI. Controlled origin...

Trade Competitiveness in Table Grapes A Global View

International trade in table grapes has expanded tremendously over the last few decades, with out-of-season fresh produce now being traded and consumed globally. Trade intensification has been driven by emerging traders who have changed the economic geography of table grape production. Improving competitiveness in global markets is a driving objective for entrepreneurs and policy makers. However, while the global trade in table grapes has become very important, empirical papers on the topic are limited. In this study, the authors investigate the global dynamics in the trade of table grapes between 1961 and 2011 and characterize the time series properties of the market shares for leading table grape-exporting countries. The analysis shows how trends in the market shares of historical exporters and emerging countries have changed over the past few decades. The paper provides new and useful insights for forecasting the prospects for the international fresh food trade.

How does the search for knowledge drive firms’ eco-innovation? Evidence from the wine industry

Abstract The importance of eco-innovations to food manufacturing has risen exponentially in recent years. In this paper we investigate the drivers of different types of eco-innovation in the Italian wine industry, a particularly relevant sector both in terms of its economic performance and its use of natural resources. We focus on the internal knowledge sourcing of firms and on the ‘breadth’ and ‘depth’ of their engagement with external agents when performing eco-innovation activity. We test our research hypotheses in the context of cleaner processes, end-of-pipe technologies and the use of organic input factors. The empirical evidence is based on a questionnaire survey administered to 334 Italian wine producers. The econometric exercise provides mixed results: both internal R&D and engagement with external agents have a significant effect on eco-innovations depending on the type of eco-innovation taken into account. Moreover, we find a non-linear relationship between external knowledge sourcing and eco-innovation activity.

Insights for the Development of a Functional Fish Product : Drivers and Barriers, Acceptance, and Communication of Health Benefits

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore consumer acceptance of a new functional fish burger using a qualitative approach based on four focus group discussions conducted in selected major Italian cities. Results show that the development of functional fish products may bypass fish consumption barriers, combining convenience and health benefits delivered by functional ingredients. The acceptance of new functional fish products seems to be influenced positively by the enrichment of functional ingredients naturally present in fish, particularly omega-3 fatty acids. Consumer acceptance of this new product is also influenced by the use of different nutritional and health claims. Implications for marketers and policy makers and insights for further research are discussed in the conclusions.

Supplements consumption, health oriented behaviour and beyond

The dietary supplements use is constantly growing as proof that people pay always more attention to their diet and their physical status. Italy recorded the highest growth in the European market within 2008 and 2012. The reasons and the factors behind the consumption of dietary supplements are complex, combining social, psychological, knowledge and economic factors. In order to provide consumers’ profiles and to estimate the following relationship between them and the socio-demo, lifestyle, health-related behaviour, a survey study was conducted on a sample of 400 Italian consumers. The main results highlight the presence of four different profiles, distinguished mainly by different lifestyle, health needs and self-perceived health status. Through a logit regression it was also estimated the probability to consume the different categories of supplements for each profile. In this way, this study could provide useful hints to implement public health guidelines and to avoid a no-proper use of supplements.

Crescita nei consumi di IV gamma. Un’applicazione del modello AIDS alla domanda italiana di ortofrutta

Fresh-cut and ready to eat products are gaining market shares over fruits and vegetables. Dining habits and cooking time are changing over time and life styles are modifying the food preparation and the time used for eating. In the meanwhile, prices could be playing an important role in the substitution between fresh products and ready-to-eat alternatives. Therefore, the present paper tests the following hypotheses: - measuring the direct price effect on ready-to-eat and fresh cut product in order to verify market stability and price war probability; - measuring the substitution effect between fresh and ready-to-eat categories; The hypotheses have been verified throughout the estimation of a la/aids model that considers a system of 10 equations. The data used for the analysis have been collected by iri-Infoscan and represent the total Italian grocery sales for the years 2008-2010. Results provide evidence that the market is price sensitive and that substitution effect is negligible. Therefore, past, present and future evolutions of fresh-cut and ready-to-eat products should be attributed to price wars. Promotional activities, private label strategies and other price reduction strategies could be winning strategies in order to gain market shares within fruits and vegetable market.

Water as a factor of differentiation in the food industry

To foster their competitive advantage, food firms pay an increasing attention to strategies that tend to distinguish their products from the one supplied by their competitors, dedicating to this task most of their resources, knowledge and creativity. In such a framework, also the resource “water”, often seen as an homogenous product, is more and more utilized in the advertisement as an element that increase the quality of the final good. This paper aims to build a model that can explain the observed behavior in the different food industries and that can give some insights about the future perspectives of the utilization of the water as a differentiation factor. To reach this goal, first we present a survey of the commercials of specific food industries (beverages, pasta, bread, fresh produce) in which it is shown the contribute of water on the product. On the base of the empirical evidence, we argue that the propensity to use the water as an element of differentiation is greater when greater are the degree of technological knowledge, the consumers’ perceptions, and the importance of the differentiation strategy in that specific industry. Since we expect that these three factors will increase over time, we also conclude that it is rational to experiment a generalized increase of the utilization of the water in the commercials of the food products. We also recommend to extend the analysis testing the results using a quantitative approach.

Tra condizionalità e competitività: la rilevazione delle esigenze di consulenza delle aziende agricole pugliesi

Consequently to the CAP mid term review and rural development (EC Reg. 1782/2003 and EC Reg. 1698/2005), a new emphasis is put on the role of extension services. This paper focuses on the methodology of analysis for monitoring farmers’ needs and priorities of actions, in order to define a rational and efficient intervention program, at a regional scale. The approach adopted in this research is based on the Public Choice theoretical approach, and we adopted the focus group methodology to collect descriptive information, that we processed through the content analysis methodology.