Open Access
What dimensions of risk perception are associated with avoidance of buying processed foods with warning labels?
(MDPI, 2020) Adasme Berríos, Cristian; Aliaga Ortega, Luis; Schnettler, Berta; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Pinochet, Consuelo; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Gestión de Empresas
Nutritional Warning Labels (NWLs) inform consumers about processed foods that exceed critical nutrient levels activating the risk perception in consumers. However, this information is limited. The objective was to identify the dimensions of risk perception and to study their associations with avoidance of buying processed foods with warning labels. A survey was applied to 807 decision-makers who choose what to eat at home. The four dimensions of risk perception (performance, financial, physical, and psychological) were identified through exploratory factor analysis. Through a multiple regression model, we determined the dimensions of risk perception and sociodemographic variables that affect the intention to avoid buying processed foods with NWLs. The results show that the performance risk, physical risk, and psychological risk positively affect the intention of avoiding processed foods with NWLs. In addition, the female gender considers NWLs to purchase foods. Nevertheless, the high frequency of consumption and belonging to a lower-income socioeconomic group are barriers to the use of NWLs. In conclusion, NWLs help people to choose processed food that does not impact negatively their food expectations, as well as their mental and physical health. However, health authorities must invest in nutrition education. Specifically, in groups who pay less attention to NWLs. Such groups include people with high daily consumption of processed foods, males, and low-income socioeconomic groups.
Open Access
Frequency of consumption and changing determinants of purchase decision: from attributes to values in the organic food market
(Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 2010) Barrena Figueroa, Ramo; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
El creciente fenómeno de saturación, maduración y globalización de los mercados agroalimentarios, obliga a la oferta al diseño de innovadoras estrategias de actuación, con el fin de conseguir aceptables niveles de rentabilidad de sus negocios. Una de sus opciones potenciales es conocer en profundidad el comportamiento del actual y potencial comprador para adaptar las actuaciones comerciales a sus prioridades. Este trabajo, en este contexto, contribuye identificando el proceso de compra para compradores habituales y ocasionales de alimentos ecológicos. El análisis de dicho comportamiento del consumidor se realiza utilizando la metodología de Means-End Chain, que considera, además del interés por los atributos del producto, el conocimiento de sí mismos que tienen los compradores, y su implicación personal en el proceso de elección en alimentos ecológicos. Los resultados indican que las elecciones de compra difieren entre ambos grupos. Para los consumidores habituales los dos factores claves en la elección de compra son la salud y la buena valoración personal. Pueden, por lo tanto, estos aspectos de la persona ser utilizados tanto en el posicionamiento de mercado como en las actuaciones de diferenciación del producto, reduciendo las barreras del conocimiento que siguen limitando el desarrollo de este mercado.
Open Access
Effects of food-related health concerns and risk perception on the consumption frequency of fresh vegetables
(Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina), 2019) Adasme Berríos, Cristian; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Mora, Marcos; Díaz Osorio, José; Schnettler, Berta; Lobos, Germán; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Consumir vegetales frescos sin duda trae beneficios a la salud, sin embargo, este tipo de productos también pueden contener elementos biológicos, químicos y tecnológicos que afecten la salud de las personas por falta de inocuidad de los alimentos. Con base en estudios previos, desarrollamos un modelo conceptual para explicar las principales relaciones entre la preocupación en salud ligada a los alimentos (FHC) y la percepción de riesgo (RP) sobre la frecuencia de consumo de hortalizas frescas (CFFV) desde el punto de vista de la inocuidad alimentaria. Se aplicó un cuestionario estructurado a 1028 consumidores en las zonas Centro y Centro Sur de Chile, donde se concentran los principales sistemas de producción agrícola del país. A través de un modelo de ecua-ciones estructurales se determinó el efecto moderador de RP sobre la relación entre FHC y CFFV, lo que significa que CFFV es menor si RP está presente en las mentes de las personas. Impactando el efecto directo de FHC en CFFV. Por último, los resultados sugieren que la reducción de los riesgos asociados con la producción y comerciali-zación de hortalizas frescas, mejorará la preocupacióndebe mejorar los sistemas de vigilancia de las hortalizas frescas comercializadas en el mercado local.
Open Access
The impact of the territorial gradient and the irrigation water price on agricultural production along the first phase of the Navarra Canal in Spain
(Elsevier, 2023) Martínez Aldaya, Maite; Gutiérrez-Martín, Carlos; Espinosa-Tasón, Jaime; Ederra, Idoia; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
Water is an issue in Spain, where it is generally scarce, and its availability is highly variable in different areas and times, particularly in agriculture, the main water consumer. Water pricing is one of the policy instruments used to control irrigation water use. However, specific contextual studies to provide greater details, understand farmers’ behaviour, and clarify the consequences and effectiveness of water pricing are generally unavailable. Here, we developed and applied a simulation model based on two Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) methods, which makes the model more robust, to better understand and quantify the impact of the north–south territorial gradient on farmers’ decisions concerning agricultural water pricing in the first phase of the Navarra Canal irrigation area in northern Spain. This model couples water use with rainfed and irrigated areas, farmer revenue, and labour. The results show spatial north–south variability in the 50 km of the first phase of the Navarra Canal. In northern and middle regions, when water prices are increased, rainfed crops are chosen to substitute irrigated crops due to abundant rainfall and a lack of the appropriate climate and soil to grow other crops. Meanwhile, southern regions depend mainly on irrigation and are more sensitive to water price increases. These very productive southern regions also show larger gross margins and paid labour values. In every canal region, with an increase of 0.1 EUR/m3 in the water price, economic losses can reach up to 400 EUR/ha. Meanwhile, an increase in water prices over 0 EUR/m3 leads to decreased water use per hectare.
Open Access
Geographical and cognitive proximity effects on innovation performance: which types of proximity for which types of innovation?
(Wiley, 2024) García Martínez, Marian; Zouaghi, Ferdaous; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
The purpose of the paper is to explore the multi-dimensional and intersecting nature of proximity to drive innovation performance. Applying a multidimensional proximity framework, the study provides a deeper understanding of the importance of substitution and overlap mechanisms in the relation between geographical and cognitive proximity dimensions in innovation performance. The paper further analyses the moderation effect of organisational innovation in this relationship. Multivariate analysis proves the interaction effects between geographical and cognitive proximity, where cognitive proximity both substitutes and complements geographical proximity. However, external knowledge search for innovation along proximity dimensions differs depending on the type of innovation. Our findings corroborate the proximity paradox caused by lock-in effects with the optimal level of proximity influenced by the interdependencies between proximity dimensions. This inverse U-shaped relationship is flatter for firms that have adopted organisational innovation. External knowledge linkages should be tailored to the favourable characteristic of proximity to enhance firm innovation performance.
Open Access
Agri-food 4.0: drivers and links to innovation and eco-innovation
(Elsevier, 2023) Calafat-Marzal, Consuelo; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Marti, L.; Puertas, R.; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Digital transformation affects all stages of the agri-food value chain. Digitalisation is being combined with innovations and eco-innovations to gain a competitive advantage and ensure greater sustained competitiveness. However, not all technologies have been implemented in the same way and at the same pace by the different companies in the agri-food sector. The aim of this research is to identify the internal and external drivers of digitalisation in agri-food companies and to develop a synthetic index to rank companies based on those drivers, before examining the relationship between the position in the ranking and innovation. The results reveal that the decisive drivers are management support and competitive pressure rather than external support from government policies or suppliers. Higher ranking companies in terms of the digitalisation process are more proactive in introducing product and radical innovations and are the most eco-innovative and thus sustainability-oriented. Finally, results show that the digitalisation of the sector is marked by the depth of technology implementation, specifically IoT, big data and artificial intelligence. Blockchain technology does not currently make a difference as it is not widely used.
Open Access
Entrepreneurial innovativeness: when too little or too much agglomeration hurts
(Elsevier, 2023) Pindado Tapia, Emilio; Sánchez García, Mercedes; García Martínez, Marian; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Gestión de Empresas
This study sheds light on the relationship between agglomeration, entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities, and new ventures' innovativeness using a multilevel framework. We argue that the urban agglomeration of economic agents within a country has an inverted U-shaped relationship with new ventures' innovativeness, suggesting that both insufficient and excessive agglomeration might be detrimental to entrepreneurial innovativeness. Additionally, we perform interactions between individual level factors and urban agglomeration to examine the differential effects of entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities. Results confirm our hypothesising that the geographical concentration of economic agents within a country exerts an inverted Ushaped influence on new ventures' innovativeness. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurs with higher levels of education or prior entrepreneurial experience are better equipped to benefit from agglomeration and to mitigate its negative effects; in contrast, at low levels of agglomeration, entrepreneurs with lower resources exhibit increasing marginal returns. Entrepreneurs in contact with other entrepreneurs are better positioned to deal with agglomeration externalities although their benefits and drawbacks are intensified. Our research contributes to the understanding of agglomeration externalities and entrepreneurial innovativeness, its non-linear dynamics and differential effects.
Open Access
Gestión de la innovación en la cadena alimentaria: relevancia de la colaboración
(Fondo para la Investigación Económica y Social de la Confederación Española de Cajas de Ahorros, 2024) Alarcón Lorenzo, Silverio; Barrena Figueroa, Ramo; García López de Meneses, Teresa; Pindado Tapia, Emilio; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Simón Elorz, Katrin; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
La innovación se ha convertido en decisiva para las empresas agroalimentarias en sus desafíos de sostenibilidad, demanda cambiante e incremento de la competencia. Los procesos productivos con superior riesgo, su carácter estratégico, la estructura empresarial y los condicionantes rurales inciden en dichos procesos de innovación. Así, las opciones de colaboración en la innovación, el esfuerzo público-privado, y la creación de instrumentos de financiación y apoyo, favorecen el éxito innovador. Los retos en digitalización, ecoinnovación y el emprendimiento innovador también necesitan del ecosistema colaborativo. a aceptación final del consumidor de dichas innovaciones será más compleja, especialmente en contextos de incertidumbre económica
Open Access
What drives firm profitability? A multilevel approach to the Spanish agri-food sector
(Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 2017) Zouaghi, Ferdaous; Sánchez García, Mercedes; Hirsch, Stefan; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas
Strategic management research has demonstrated the importance of firm- and industry structure as drivers of firm profitability. However, less is known about how firms´ geographical locations affect profitability. Applying a multi-level approach of hierarchical linear modeling we estimated firm-, industry-, and region-specific effects on profitability of 3,273 agri-food firms operating in different Spanish districts over the time span 2006-2013. The results reveal the dominance of firm-specific effects which contribute up to 48.8% to variance in firm profitability while the contribution of industry effects (0.8-4.2%), geographical location (0.1-1.8%), and year effects (0.1-2.5%) is rather small. Moreover, firm size, risk, and innovative activity turn out as significant profit drivers at the firm level. Although firm-effects outweigh industry- and region-specific factors, the results indicate that industry concentration as well as regional education and unemployment influence profitability. In addition, proximity to technological institutes as well as the degree of urbanization of the region in which a firm operates can be drivers of profitability. Hence, despite the superiority of firm effects the results indicate that agri-food managers should also consider possible advantages from location-based resources in order to ensure competitiveness.
Open Access
Predicting grower choices in a regulated environment
(Wageningen Academic, 2017) Castillo Valero, J. S.; Sánchez García, Mercedes; García Cortijo, M. C.; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
The analysis of farmers’ decision making process in the framework of agricultural policy is particularly complex as they take action within a structure of interacting opportunities, preferences, benefits and social factors which ultimately account for their behavior. This paper will study viticulturists’ behaviour vis-à-vis this scenario. Their decisions in the face of different possible alternatives are analysed using a multinomial logit model and a sample of 74,502 plots in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). The conclusion is that viticulturists from this region are more prone to maintaining the status quo in their plots due to the current public support security issues, uncertain scenarios and their natural risk aversion.