Carina Castagna (p), Diego Coasta Pinto, Marcia Dutra Barcellos

Catalina Llaneza Hesse

Approximately one-third of food produced is lost or wasted every year mainly due to food production systems and consumption patterns focused on aesthetics. At the same time, millions of people around the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. An important contributor to food waste is consumers’ preferences for highly aesthetic products (beauty-is-good bias). As the saying goes “the first taste is always with the eyes”, consumers are known to use aesthetic cues to make inferences about freshness, flavor, and food quality.

We explore consumers’ food waste decisions by examining two lay theories: beauty-is-good and ugly-is-risky. The “beauty-is-good” bias can be explained by survival instincts, where the search for the perfect aesthetic is conceptualized by the evolutionary literature. Concerning food products, which have a direct relationship with people’s health, the instinct to search for the perfect food appearance is dominant. We propose that consumers associate aesthetically imperfect foods with food hazards (i.e., the ugly-is-risky bias). The rigorous quality standards established by large-scale distributors involving the size, shape, and appearance of food products contribute to such risk perceptions. Considering the high impact of aesthetics on consumer s’ food decisions, the desire for perfect appearance leads to food waste. However, little is known how to mitigate the ugly is risky bias in order to induce sustainable consumption.

To bridge that gap, we rely on the construal level theory to investigate its effect on aesthetic biases and risk perceptions. In this paper, we extend this line of research to investigate whether an abstract (vs. concrete) construal helps in diminishing the “beauty is good” and “ugly is risky” biases.

We conducted six experimental studies to explore consumers’ risk perceptions and purchase intention of imperfect food products. This research makes at least three contributions to the literature and practice. We extend the literature by examining a novel intersection between three substantive areas — food aesthetics, risk perceptions, and construal level. First, it shows that aesthetics of imperfect foods lead to enhanced risk perceptions thus influencing consumers’ purchase intention.

Second, it demonstrates that construal level moderates the “beauty is good” and “ugly is risky” biases. Specifically, our findings demonstrate that an abstract construal mitigates the biasing effect of food aesthetics, thus leading to reduced food waste of imperfect foods.

Third, we present implications for managerial practice and public policy in the area of food waste.

Simone Maria Grabner (p), Xiaodan Yu, Haolin Li, Xiuping Hua

Carina Castagna

The era of the global economy, marked by challenges such as economic recession, income inequality, and environmental issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, also presents an opportunity for transformative change. This change, known as the 'twin transition,' combines digital and green technologies to shape a more sustainable and inclusive future. The digital transition leverages cutting-edge technologies like AI and big data, while the green transition focuses on reducing fossil fuel reliance and adopting circular practices. In China, this transition resonates with the government's vision of "common prosperity." However, empirical evidence integrating digital and green transitions remains scant, particularly in emerging economies. This study aims to bridge this gap by scrutinizing the trajectory of innovation for the twin transition across various Chinese regions. Leveraging patent data, it discerns green and digital innovations at the city level, meticulously examining their spatial distribution and temporal trends. Moreover, the research delves into the determinants steering regional diversification in these technologies, encompassing variables such as population density, research and development (R&D) expenditure, and environmental metrics. Regression analysis serves to corroborate the significance of existing capabilities in innovation while elucidating the hurdles entailed in diversifying into sophisticated technological realms. Through a nuanced examination of these dynamics, this study seeks to contribute to scholarly discourse on technological transitions, offering insights that may inform policy frameworks and strategic initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable development and mitigating regional disparities.

Joana Wensing, Roger Cremades, Eveline van Leeuwen, Carina Castagna (p)

Simone Maria Grabner

Cities form central nodes in global networks of food and related resource flows which is why the much needed transition towards a more circular food system could be enabled through the engagement of cities. Cities are characterized by the spatial clustering of firms, institutions and citizens, leading to disproportionally high agency levels. Still, the central role of cities in enabling food system transitions is largely neglected. We argue that greater consideration should be given to the spatial dimension of circular food systems, to the agency of cities on it, and to their potential roles in complex local, national and global food system networks. In this perspective, we propose how policy-makers could take advantage of these factors to steer the transition towards a more circular food system and trigger un-precedented momentum to materialize circularity at multiple scales.

Catalina Llaneza Hesse (p), Josep Maria Raya Vilchez

Carina Castagna

In the city of Barcelona, rentals between 1 and 11 months have been steadily growing since 2017. These so-called medium-term rentals (MTRs) combine higher prices as long-term rentals (LTRs), with lower management costs as short-term rentals (STRs) and have the flexibility to absorb renters coming from the STR market, as well as from the LTR market. Using fixed effects and web-scraped Airbnb data, this study delves for the first time into the resilience and characteristics of MTRs. Our findings suggest that during the pandemic, MTRs increased their daily fee by 9.1%, or approximately €8, reaching a peak of a 37.2% rise during the second state of emergency in Spain. In addition, we find that the negative impact on occupancy was much stronger for STRs than for MTRs, experiencing a drop on average of 37.1 p.p. and 25.7 p.p., respectively. In terms of supply, our findings indicate an average increase per neighbourhood of 27.4% in MTRs. Finally, we find that relative to STRs, MTRs and accommodations that switched at least one time between markets during the pandemic offer dwellings with fewer bedrooms at a lower fee and are more likely to be offered by a super host.