Search results

A considerable body of literature has shown how the perception of flavor is the result of a multi-sensory combination. Starting with this premise, this paper aims to verify how music impacts on wine flavor.

An experiment was organized as follows: it focuses on the influence of music on the taste of red and white wine, in particular, two kinds of music were transmitted, namely, classical and pop. Participants had to listen to music through headphones tasting, in the meanwhile, 40 mL of wine (an merlot and a chardonnay). After this experience, they had to give an evaluation about some attributes of the wine. The attributes to be evaluated were: sparkling, refreshing, delicate, refined, sweet, sour, alcoholic and pleasant. Data were finally analyzed by using the ANOVA model.

They highlight that a chardonnay is perceived to be more delicate and sweeter if accompanied by a classical music background; in the case of Merlot, on the other hand, it is perceived as less alcohol when high-volume pop music is transmitted. Implications are finally discussed.

The influence of hearing on taste is underestimated in the literature. The originality of this manuscript consists of comparing two different music genders and their impact on wine consumers in an Italian context. Moreover, the analysis of marketing implications represents a novelty for these kind of studies.

The purpose of this paper is to promote a business process approach for developing and improving the efficiency of hospital service quality in order to reduce clinical risks and increase patients satisfaction. The problems healthcare facilities face are how to reduce waste and risk and improve quality. The adoption of a process-focused organization could reduce organizational errors which have a negative influence on performance.

The research is based on a case study methodology, analyzing a specific real-life case. It is shown a practical example in the surgery department of an Italian hospital, identifying, analyzing and managing critical situations, in terms of improvement. To this end, national and international contributions, public documents, institutional websites, conference papers, books, workshops and hospital websites have been analyzed. Moreover, other data were collected through questionnaires.

Results show how a comprehensive view of the processes may lead to improvement in operations by identifying different risks and bottlenecks, suggesting the rapid implementation of corrective policies and improvements, in terms of overall efficiency.

By implementing innovative organizational processes to identify and reduce bottleneck a healthcare system could achieve a competitive advantage.

Within the Italian healthcare system, limited attention has been paid to the design of healthcare facilities. Flexible solutions are necessary for lean management. The originality of this work lies in the analysis applied to a complex organization, through which hidden critical situations have been identified, and solutions to improve and provide better healthcare management have been suggested.

The aim of this manuscript is to study the current scientific literature on food marketing and religion, by giving an overview of current knowledge and the possible future research opportunities once found the gaps.

This a classic literature review carried on by considering marketing, consumer behaviour and management journals as well as religion-focused ones.

Current literature highlights how faith impacts on food marketing and religious consumers choices (and not only). Most of the papers focus on Islam. Considering the globalised economy, the authors’ findings highlight also the relevance of religious certifications for less/not religious people, because of certified food is considered safe and healthy.

The paper joins and reviews two research fields whose connection is growing, so it is relevant to know the current status of scientific literature, which is updated compared to recent literature.

Palm oil is widely used in the food industry; however, there are two main controversies connected to its use, namely, its nutritional value and the environmental consequences deriving from its crop. In Italy, the use of palm oil has recently been criticized, insomuch that some important bakery companies decided to substitute it, creating a real food marketing case. Through a focus on biscuits, this study is aimed at profiling consumers with regard to palm oil issue to better comprehend if the presence of this ingredient truly influences their food purchases and if they care about the nutritional and environmental aspects, highlighting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumers' consumption.

A questionnaire was administered to 243 subjects in Italy, in order to apply a cluster analysis.

The findings show the presence of three main kinds of consumers: (1) compromise finders (sensitive to cost savings but trying to privilege palm-oil free food), (2) brand-loyal consumers (palm oil does not influence their preferences) and (3) healthsensitives (the presence of palm oil profoundly affects their choices), who represent the majority of our sample. The results and implications are discussed.

Research on palm oil is essentially focused on chemistry, natural sciences or on its industrial uses: this study analyzes the consumer point of view by applying a different methodology compared to existing studies.

This paper is aimed at examining and critically analyzing systematical literature on wine and cross-modality between the five senses. In particular, the researchers want to highlight the role of multisensory analysis on wine marketing and consumer behavior studies.

This paper is based on a systematic review of literature conducted on peer-reviewed journals.

Results highlight how multisensory analysis of wine is a growing topic insomuch that research on this kind of topic is exploded in the last years. Nevertheless, wine and cross-modality is more analyzed on food science journals than in marketing ones.

The paper examines a field of research moderately explored in order to shed light to the current status of scientific studies and to propose new research questions to develop.

An unexpected Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and the hospitality industry, including luxury accommodation service providers. While this was not the first virus outbreak to impact the tourism sectors, in this case, its consequences were devastating. In this light, this contribution analyzes the case of an Italian luxury hotel, a winner of numerous awards during the last few years, including the prestigious World Luxury Hotel Award. The researchers compare its pre- and the post-COVID situation. They clarify that the outbreak has resulted in reduced reservations and explain how the upscale hotel responded to the unprecedented crisis by implementing different approaches. The luxury hospitality business decided to defend its brand differentiation and positioning strategy by continue offering improved service quality and by introducing enhanced hygiene and sanitation facilities, in order to deliver customer-centric experiences to their valued guests.

As is well known, there are several aspects that characterise honey consumption and the reasons for purchasing it. Despite this, little attention has been paid to the drivers that move consumers towards the use of honey for its health benefits and therapeutic properties. The aim of this study is to define which drivers move the consumption of honey for its health benefits.

The study, conducted on 640 Italian honey consumers, applied inferential tests (Chi-square) and an econometric model (logit regression), and showed that about 66% of the respondents stated that they consume honey for its health properties.

The main drivers of honey consumption are both among the intrinsic (Colour) and extrinsic (Origin and Organic certification) attributes of the product. What also emerges is that the propensity to consume honey for health purposes is influenced by the consumer characteristics and habits, such as Age cohort, Gender, BMI and Large retail buyer. Moreover, we observed that consumption is influenced by BMI but not by lifestyle characteristics such as sport and diet.

This study could be a support tool for policymakers who are interested in promoting good nutrition and improving public health, since there is great interest in the functional properties of foods and the need to enhance the value of products, while at the same time ensuring consumer protection.

Persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease experience increasing activity engagement failures, with consequent cognitive, social, and physical drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to assess a technology-aided program to help these persons to independently start and carry out daily activities at the appropriate times.

The program was implemented with eight participants according to an adapted non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The program provided each participant with: timely reminders about the activities to carry out, verbal instructions about the activity steps, and brief encouragements and praise.

All participants showed improvement during the program, that is, they managed to independently start the activities at the scheduled times and perform those activities with satisfactory levels of accuracy (i.e. with mean percentages of correct steps nearing or exceeding 90).

A technology-aided program, such as that used in this study, may help persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer disease engage in daily activities, with possible benefits for their cognitive functioning, social image, and physical condition.

Although parent socialization practices are critical to children’s cognitive development, educational researchers know too little of how parental practices function to meet the specific challenges of supporting African American boys’ development. This chapter offers critical insights on how 15 parents of African American boys (ages 3–8) conceive and implement strategies for the development of their sons. Using structured interview data, this chapter highlights the ways in which they promoted an emerging academic identity. Findings reveal three forms of support – schools, emotional, and resource – that undergirded the academic socialization of the African American boys. Implications were offered to young African American boys in developing their academic identity.