Lolita Liberatore

Food habits and attitudes towards food quality among young students

Purpose The food consumption has always received a lot of attention in the marketing literature, as it tends to reflect and determine the overall consumer behaviour, expression of the individual lifestyle. Nevertheless, less attention has been devoted to the young. This paper aims at analysing how university students, a segment of young people, perceive and evaluate the quality of food and which attributes most influence their food choice and consumption. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was carried out from March to December 2015 among Italian university students. A sample of 1,138 people took part in the survey. Data were elaborated through SPSS 21.0 statistical software package. Findings Findings suggest a number of interesting points. First, a high attention of university students towards price and sales promotion was observed. Nevertheless, they are well informed in food products they buy and pay high attention to ingredients, origin and healthiness of food products. Finally, performing a principal component analysis three different components on food store selection were found, namely, “Price saving”, “Convenience” and “Food assortment and quality”. Practical implications A more comprehensive understanding of the food behaviour of the young could be useful for marketing researchers and practitioners to define marketing programs aimed at satisfying the food demand of a growing segment of the market. Originality/value The food behaviour of young people as a whole has been little addressed in the marketing literature. Existing studies have explored specific topics such as the consumption of organic food, fast-food buying habits or alcohol abuse.

An empirical analysis of ISO 9001:2008 application in Italian services and manufacturing companies

The certification of Quality System is a contractual requirement that is sometimes essential in business relationships. ISO 9001 consolidates governance and represents the basis for the implementation of other management systems, as well as for the adoption of schemes or standards in specialist sectors. Moreover, the scientific literature focused on the benefits and barriers of ISO 9001 application is often in disagreement and strongly differs in dependence of countries and sectors. Based on these considerations, the aim of this paper is to realise a comparative analysis between Services Companies (SeCo) and Manufacturing Companies (MaCo), in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages perceived from ISO 9001:2008 applications. The research was carried out through a questionnaire proposed to 1692 Italian Companies (response rate = 15%). The results clearly showed that SeCo and MaCo present few statistical differences in the benefits and limitations derived from ISO 9001:2008 applications; the main perceived benefits were a greater awareness of business opportunities in terms of continuous improvement, and the increase in business results in terms of organisation; increasing complexity of procedures in a company and bureaucratisation is the greatest disadvantage. Finally, the companies’ expectations for the new version ISO 9001:2015 were analysed.

Consumer attitude and behaviour towards food quality among the young ones: empirical evidences from a survey

This study investigates how university students perceive food quality and attempts to demonstrate how the individual lifestyle is a useful variable for segmentation purposes. Using data from an online questionnaire on a sample of 1138 Italian university students, the study reveals that there are two dominant factors influencing the food choice behaviour of young students, that is, food convenience and food certifications, and two main factors affecting the food store selection, that is, food disposability and store convenience. These variables make considerable contributions in characterising four clusters of young consumers, namely healthy and certified food consumers, comfortable consumers, saver consumers and innovative consumers. The findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of why young consumers buy foods, what they believe food quality is and how their perception of food quality affects their buying behaviour. This is critical for marketing researchers and practitioners to define marketing programmes fitting the food demand of a growing fast segment of the market.

Bathing water profile in the coastal belt of the province of Pescara (Italy, Central Adriatic Sea)

The quality of bathing water is fundamental, not only from an environmental point of view but also due to the economic importance of tourism. This paper examines the water profile in the coastal belt of the province of Pescara (Italy, Central Adriatic Sea) with reference to the microbiological parameters Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci required by Directive 2006/07 of European Commission. The water quality of 15 coastal beaches was surveyed; data were produced from monitoring and controls made available by the Abruzzo Regional Environmental Prevention and Protection Agency (ARTA) and extracted and elaborated for the period of interest (2010-2013). Statistical analysis was used to confirm the aspects deduced from mean values of monitoring and control data for each stretch. The data highlight critical situations in various parts of the coast; these problems can be attributed to river pollution, mainly due to the malfunctioning of the treatment plants for urban wastewater.

What’s behind organic certification of extra-virgin olive oil? A response from Italian consumers

ABSTRACT Organic certification represents a growing business in international food market. In this article, an analysis of the factors influencing the purchase of organic extra-virgin olive oil is done for Italian consumers. A k-means cluster analysis was used to identify market segments. Results showed that it is possible to classify the Italian market into three clusters, respectively, indicating high, intermediate, and low willingness to pay a premium price (WTP) for organic certification of extra-virgin olive oil. Safety, nutritional, and health aspects appear to influence WTP. Factors concerning environmental sustainability and the supports to Italian food system are considered important, but do not play a fundamental role in increasing the consumer’s WTP.