Papers by Alessia Lombardi
Applied Sciences
The adoption of circular bioeconomy (CBE) strategies in forest-wood supply chains is a possible a... more The adoption of circular bioeconomy (CBE) strategies in forest-wood supply chains is a possible avenue for the future of this sector. However, the uptake of CBE models may face several barriers in the coming years, particularly in disadvantaged forest areas lacking appropriate resources and a suitable business environment to start radical innovation pathways. Based on interviews with 29 representatives (business actors and other key informants) of the forest-food sector of the Salerno province (Italy), the current study investigated the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) involved in the transition of disadvantaged forest areas into a circular bioeconomy. Respondents also contributed to identifying the most suitable strategies in order to foster the CBE transition in the territory at hand. The paper offers an outlook for the potentialities of CBE in disadvantaged forest areas for policy actors, willing to bridge the gap between CBE agendas and territorial d...
Italian Journal of Food Science, 2012
This paper discusses the concept of the food community network (FCN) and how consumers and farmer... more This paper discusses the concept of the food community network (FCN) and how consumers and farmers organize credence food transactions. The FCN is based on pooling specific resources and using membership-based contracts to assign decision and property rights. It implies an organization based on a combination of several democratic and communitarian elements, with few market-like and bureaucratic elements. By applying arguments from new institutional economics and organizational science, case studies on community-supported agriculture reported elsewhere were used to describe how FCN governance works. The results indicate a great variety of FCN organizational forms.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
British Food Journal, 2016
Purpose Consumer interest and willingness to pay (WTP) for omega-3 enriched water buffalo mozzare... more Purpose Consumer interest and willingness to pay (WTP) for omega-3 enriched water buffalo mozzarella cheese are evaluated through an in-store experimental auction. The purpose of this paper is to estimate individual WTP for enriched mozzarella cheese and related it to self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations of omega-3 consumption, following regulatory focus theory. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in May-June 2015 from a sample of 150 consumers in Southern Italy. A structural equation modelling procedure was implemented. Findings The results show a significant role is played by prevention outcome expectations on consumer behaviour. While promotion outcome expectation constructs proved non-significant, self-identity correlates with prevention outcome expectations. Research limitations/implications There are several limitations that the authors are aware of regarding this study. First of all, since the authors rely on self-reported measures, optimistic bias might...
NJAS: Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 2016
Highlights • Participation in alternative food networks is influenced by both values of individua... more Highlights • Participation in alternative food networks is influenced by both values of individual participants and transactional conditions.• When compared to non-participants, participants are characterised by higher level of (perceived) information uncertainty, negotiation uncertainty and monitoring hazards.• Similarities in terms of structure and perception of transaction conditions can help to explain differences participation patterns in alternative food network. Abstract In this paper we investigate values and transaction conditions in consumer participation in alternative food networks (AFNs). We use and combine a collective action perspective with elements of ethical consumption (individual values) and transaction cost economics as a theoretical background to conceptualise this participation. Our research is motivated by the evidence that the role and interplay between values and transaction conditions is still under-investigated in the socio-economic literature when it comes to understanding participation in AFNs. We use a case study in which we focus on an AFN located in Palermo, a metropolitan area in southern Italy. We collected data related to 303 individuals: 103 participants in the AFN and 200 non-participants. From a methodological perspective we used a propensity score matching approach. We were thus able to build a subsample consisting of only those individuals who were sharing a similar likelihood of participating in an AFN. Individuals with the same propensity score show a substantial equivalence in terms of covariates as if they were randomly selected to join an AFN. Our results indicate a statistically significant difference in some transactional conditions for AFN participants. Namely, when it comes to transactional conditions associated to food purchasing strategies, participants in AFNs are characterised by a higher level of (perceived) information uncertainty (e.g. price uncertainty and product information), negotiation uncertainty (e.g. relevance of the speed of sourcing, transportation hazards, and bargaining), and monitoring hazards (e.g. quality uncertainty), when compared to non-participants. These results are used to account for the heterogeneity of participants in SPGs in particular, and AFNs in general.
Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture, 2016
Agricultural and Food Economics, 2014
Depletion of natural resources has become a key issue on the European policy agenda. Bottom-up me... more Depletion of natural resources has become a key issue on the European policy agenda. Bottom-up measures have emerged in several countries with a view to promoting awareness campaigns and environmental sustainability, with the agenda set by individuals who start up collective initiatives at the local level. Such collective action provides an incentive to free-ride on the contribution of others. Social norms and the consequent behavior of individuals involved in collective action assume a key role in ensuring sustainable use of a public good, achieving significant, long-lasting success. The present study aims to ascertain which determinants most affect farmers' willingness to contribute to common resources. The empirical study was conducted in an area in the province of Avellino (southern Italy) most affected by soil erosion problems. The study focused on the willingness of farmers to contribute to the public good through biomass production (Giant Cane). In all, 175 face-to-face questionnaires were administered to farmers in September-November 2013. Schwartz's norm-activation model variables were collected. A Tobit model was implemented in which the dependent variable was the land farmers stated they were willing to cultivate with Giant Cane. Four on five psychological constructs, based on the NAM, proved statistically significant with the expected sign, showing that an altruistic behavioral approach is useful to predict the individual's decision to adopt cooperation norms.
This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN ... more This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN could be defined as a governance structure where consumers and producers strongly integrate their functions (goals) by organizing a "club". It is based on pooling specific resources and using membership to assign decision and property rights: consumers provide time, information, knowledge and financial resources by participating directly in the organization of production process. They receive leisure, credence foods and decrease the costs of monitoring; producers reduce their decision rights but also part of production and transaction costs, uncertainty of specific investments and income instability. Based on this concept, the study proposes an inductive "grounded theory" method to explore how FCNs evolve from traditional relationships between producers and consumers and, in turn, under which conditions FCNs can be a competitive governance structure to carry out credence food transactions. Comparing and contrasting examples of embryonic forms of FCNs from North America and Europe provide the instrumental cases for this investigation.
The Journal of Development Studies, 2013
ABSTRACT In the wake of highly volatile world prices of staple commodities, we examine the impact... more ABSTRACT In the wake of highly volatile world prices of staple commodities, we examine the impacts of increases in maize prices on various categories of households in Malawi. Using household-level data, changes in household income are calculated taking into account the net maize production status of the household and food price elasticities estimated from a censored demand system. While maize price increases have unequivocal deleterious effects on the incomes of urban households, rural households experience differential impacts. Net producing households in rural areas benefit from price increases with households above the poverty line obtaining proportionally higher incomes.
Agribusiness, 2015
In social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), the use of a participatory approach to define and select... more In social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), the use of a participatory approach to define and select assessment criteria and indicators (C&Is) is recommended given the specificity of social issues, but it has been, for now, rarely implemented and presents methodological challenges. Within a participatory action research project gathering academic researchers and field actors, we tested the applicability of configuring a C&Is list for S-LCA, together with chain actors of three alternative food distribution systems active in Belgium. The purpose of this article is to present the results of this work and to examine the methodological limits, requirements, and contributions of such an approach. The participatory approach is an appropriate method to build a list of C&Is standing out from other studies, with the identification of ambitious and innovative C&Is relating to value-chain actors (VCAs) stakeholder category, on chain governance and transaction modalities. In our case, it required an adaptation work of C&Is to the S-LCA requirements and the use of a specific theoretical approach to articulate C&Is within a coherent framework. Finally, this kind of work seems useful to give ground to the S-LCA Guidelines' list of subcategories, which was built through a rather topdown expert-based approach.
SSRN Electronic Journal
The transition towards a Circular Economy (CE) system requires a change in consumers' behavioural... more The transition towards a Circular Economy (CE) system requires a change in consumers' behavioural pattern that implies a certain level of effort which, in turn, could affect initiatives' success. Although consumers' role in CE is increasingly drawing the attention of scholars, limited knowledge is available on the evaluation of consumer's effort in CE initiatives. The current research provides an identification and measurement of the core parameters affecting consumer effort, offering a comprehensive Effort Index applied to 20 CE companies operating in food domain. Companies were classified in 5 categories (Quantity of food, Appearance of food, Edibility of food, Living with food and Local and sustainable food); the analysis of the companies revealed 14 parameters building the Effort Index. Results showed that initiatives ascribable to the category "Local and sustainable food" require higher levels of consumer effort; in contrast, case studies belonging to "Edibility of food" group are less effort-requiring.
This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN ... more This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN could be defined as a governance structure where consumers and producers strongly integrate their functions (goals) by organizing a “club”. It is based on pooling specific resources and using membership to assign decision and property rights: consumers provide time, information, knowledge and financial resources by participating directly in the organization of production process. They receive leisure, credence foods and decrease the costs of monitoring; producers reduce their decision rights but also part of production and transaction costs, uncertainty of specific investments and income instability. Based on this concept, the study proposes an inductive “grounded theory” method to explore how FCNs evolve from traditional relationships between producers and consumers and, in turn, under which conditions FCNs can be a competitive governance structure to carry out credence food transaction...
Reciprocal interactions among farmers and consumers can be seen as the central point of market ex... more Reciprocal interactions among farmers and consumers can be seen as the central point of market exchanges in Civic Agriculture (CAs). This work exploits the concept of social embeddedness as a conceptual tool for describing some phenomena related to CA. Social embeddedness concept might help to understand how consumers and producers behave in the market beyond the paradigm of neoclassical economics theory. The objective of this study is to empirically evaluate which attitudes may influence farmers decision to participate to several types of CAs. Our results confirm the strong role of social embeddedness phenomenon in those forms of CAs characterized by personal relations between farmers and consumers: A greater presence of community relations implies a greater role of social embeddedness on farmers decision
This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN ... more This paper discusses the concept of Food Community Network (FCN) in credence transactions. A FCN could be defined as a governance structure where consumers and producers strongly integrate their functions (goals) by organizing a "club". It is based on pooling specific resources and using membership to assign decision and property rights: consumers provide time, information, knowledge and financial resources by participating directly in the organization of production process. They receive leisure, credence foods and decrease the costs of monitoring; producers reduce their decision rights but also part of production and transaction costs, uncertainty of specific investments and income instability. Based on this concept, the study proposes an inductive "grounded theory" method to explore how FCNs evolve from traditional relationships between producers and consumers and, in turn, under which conditions FCNs can be a competitive governance structure to carry out credence food transactions. Comparing and contrasting examples of embryonic forms of FCNs from North America and Europe provide the instrumental cases for this investigation.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Uploads
Papers by Alessia Lombardi