Reusable packaging systems are emerging as a promising solution to combat the growing issue of packaging waste. While consumers generally recognise the environmental advantages of reuse, their actual reuse behaviours may result in insufficient reuse and an unintentional undermining of sustainability efforts. We conducted two creative workshops, created a large number of potential design interventions and further developed them into 16 design strategies for consumers' continued usage of RPSs through thematic analysis. These findings can inspire future research and the development of RPSs.

The unsustainable use of wildlife increases the risk of species extinction. In biodiversity-rich Indonesia, information on the scale of wildlife use is limited and requires further study. To address this, we explored the potential of text messaging (short message service; SMS) surveys to investigate levels and spatial patterns of domestic wildlife use, using songbird keeping and shark consumption as case studies because of their widespread occurrence in all 34 Indonesian provinces. We sent 340,000 messages for each survey during October–November 2018 and incentivized responses with a mobile data package as reward. We obtained survey response rates of 1.4% (songbird ownership) and 1.5% (shark consumption). Our results revealed an estimated 175.7 million songbirds being kept by 35% (80.4–86.6 million) of the Indonesian population and 33.5 million people (14% of the Indonesian population) to have consumed shark products in their lifetime. We identified hotspots of songbird ownership in several provinces in Java, corroborating previous findings, and new ones in the North Sumatra province, for example. The provinces of Maluku, Aceh and East Nusa Tenggara had the highest numbers of reported shark consumers per 1,000 people. Responses indicated a wide variety of shark products being consumed, highlighting the need for in-depth research to understand the explanatory factors behind these practices. These findings demonstrate the potential of SMS surveys to be a cost-effective approach for conducting large-scale studies on wildlife consumption patterns over a short period of time.

Aiming to decouple value creation from resource consumption, the Circular Economy is considered an alternative to the current linear model of production and consumption. Among the innovative circular business models, Product-Service Systems (PSS) have been recognized as a possible route to achieve enhanced sustainability performance through the extension of product lifespans and the reduction of product substitution. However, PSS may lead to rebound effects due to less careful behavior during the use phase, which compromises product durability. Currently, the effect of non-ownership models on product care is not yet fully understood, nor are the strategies that could enable better product care. This research aims to deeper comprehend the consumer-product relationships in PSS solutions, as well as to shed light on the potential role of emotional durability in PSS development for product attachment. In order to do so, this paper analyses twelve Product-Service System cases derived from a systematic literature review, categorizing the emotional attachment strategies in each case, and identifying how these strategies might hinder or potentialize PSS solutions.

The pandemic-induced economic crisis has seen a massive increase in savings as households could not spend their income. The last time that consumers were seriously rationed was during the Second World War. This article models the behaviour of households during the War years and its immediate aftermath in Ireland, Sweden, the US and UK. Savings were held in liquid form and, once the War was over and rationing eased, a consumption boom transpired. However, significant excess savings were converted into physical assets in the housing market. There is evidence that this pattern is being repeated as the Covid-19 crisis eases.

Attempts to mitigate the environmental impact of oil-palm expansion by improving production standards have been of limited success. An alternative approach aims at a better understanding of the factors that drive consumers to reduce excessive vegetable oil consumption. Our studies focused on consumers’ environmental knowledge as a potential determinant of palm oil consumption. They revealed critical limitations in consumers’ palm oil-related knowledge across different domains, study settings and assessment approaches. The more our participants knew about palm oil and its environmental consequences, the stronger were their reported intentions to reduce their consumption. This relationship was significantly stronger for subjective versus objective palm oil-related knowledge. In addition, we examined whether consumers can be stimulated to consult information about palm oil by making information access the default option. While this simple situational nudge promoted information access, we did not find it to significantly increase actual engagement with the information material. This result suggests that it might be necessary to complement default nudges for information access with other measures to enhance palm oil-related knowledge and to reduce palm oil consumption to more sustainable levels.

In recent years, changing public perceptions and attitudes, as well as a hostile economic climate, have combined to potentially modify French consumer behaviour relating to poultry meat. This paper makes use of a longitudinal dataset that has been constructed through regular surveying of consumers and review information relating to purchasing patterns, perceptions and decision factors in France. These findings will be of interest to marketing practitioners as well as policy makers, academics and others with an interest in the poultry sector.

In recent years changing public perceptions and attitudes, as well as a dynamic economic climate, have combined to potentially modify UK consumer behaviour relating to poultry meat. This paper reviews information relating to purchasing patterns, perceptions and decision making factors for in-home poultry meat consumption in the UK. The findings will be of interest to marketing practitioners as well as policy makers, academics and others with an interest in the poultry sector.

The meat industry is one of the most competitive international branches and is currently in its mature stage of development. This paper concentrates on the prospects for European meat market trends and on results from primary quantitative research which was carried out using a method of individual personal interviews in a sample of 800 poultry meat consumers, aged between 18 and 65 years and in Slovenia. The aim of this paper is to present trends and projections on production and consumption of poultry meat, regardless of the fluctuations in the previous years, and to enable a better understanding of consumers' attitude and perception towards poultry meat. Taking into account that research has been conducted in the poultry sector in Slovenia generally and on consumer perceptions specifically, the results of this research may be used for planning further marketing activities.

The organic meat market in West Balkan Countries (WBC) is quite young, but steadily growing. The aim of this paper is to better enable understanding of WBC consumers' awareness, attitude and perception towards organically produced meat, i.e. to gain insight into consumers’ preferences, motives, attitudes and interest to buy such products in selected WBC (Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia). This paper provides a comparison to the results obtained by researchers in other countries. A questionnaire was completed by 900 respondents, which were representative of the WBC population. The data were subject to univariate analysis, chi-square tests, ANOVA and correlation analysis. Result indicated that the definition of ‘organic’ is not yet clearly installed in consumers’ perceptions. Consumers perceive organic meat as healthy, safe, natural, tasty, expensive, environmental friendly and of good quality. WBC consumers express a positive attitude towards organic meat. These results are particularly useful for product marketing and future product development in the organic food sector, as they provide an indication as how it can better reach and satisfy existing organic food consumers, and possibly, adapt organic food consumers in order to attract new segments and a new generation of consumers.

Health claims on food products are often used as a means to highlight scientifically proven health benefits associated with consuming those foods. But do consumers understand and trust health claims? This paper provides an overview of recent research on consumers and health claims including attitudes, understanding and purchasing behaviour. A majority of studies investigated selective product–claim combinations, with ambiguous findings apart from consumers’ self-reported generic interest in health claims. There are clear indications that consumer responses differ substantially according to the nature of carrier product, the type of health claim, functional ingredient used or a combination of these components. Health claims tend to be perceived more positively when linked to a product with an overall positive health image, whereas some studies demonstrate higher perceived credibility of products with general health claims (e.g. omega-3 and brain development) compared to disease risk reduction claims (e.g. bioactive peptides to reduce risk of heart disease), others report the opposite. Inconsistent evidence also exists on the correlation between having a positive attitude towards products with health claims and purchase intentions. Familiarity with the functional ingredient and/or its claimed health effect seems to result in a more favourable evaluation. Better nutritional knowledge, however, does not automatically lead to a positive attitude towards products carrying health messages. Legislation in the European Union requires that the claim is understood by the average consumer. As most studies on consumers’ understanding of health claims are based on subjective understanding, this remains an area for more investigation.

The article details the results of a quantitative survey which was carried out by personal interview of 3200 fresh chicken meat consumers ranging between 15 and 65 years of age and residing in the selected countries of Central and South-eastern Europe. A positive perception of fresh chicken meat was determined in all the countries sampled, with consumers reporting it as a tasty and healthy meat source. Special attention was devoted to the importance of meat origin in the purchase-decision-making process. The importance of fresh chicken meat origin in the purchase-decision-making process were evident in all analysed countries of Central and South-eastern Europe.

The economic and social changes occurring in the former socialist and communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe point to the need for more intensive consumer-based market research. In the international research and business use the country-of-origin (COO) labelling has become one of the factors that distinguish products. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of COO information on brand perception and the consumer evaluation of other chicken meat properties. The present article concentrates on the results of the primary quantitative research, which was carried out using a method of individual personal interviews. A sample was consisted of was 500 Slovenian poultry meat consumers aged between 18 and 65 years. Special attention was paid to the COO of chicken meat. In the research the Slovenian consumers evaluated internal and external properties of chicken meat originating from various countries. The survey showed that COO affected the brand perception and evaluation of other properties of chicken meat. A positive assessment of Slovenian chicken meat and the impact of chicken meat origin in the process of its evaluation were evident from the survey. The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of COO information on brand perception and the consumer evaluation of other meat properties. This research aims to develop a better understanding of the effect of COO on brand evaluation and other product properties evaluation.