A cross-cultural consumers’ perspective on social media-based short food supply chains
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 24 August 2018
Issue publication date: 20 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to get a consumer’s cross-cultural insight on the potential of using social networking sites as short food supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach, using free listing tasks and sentence completion techniques, was adopted in this research. The research group decided to apply the study in three countries with different cultural backgrounds, namely, Mexico, Spain and Egypt. The final sample consisted of 424 respondents in total, including 209 Spanish, 111 Mexicans and 104 Egyptians, all of them actual users of social networks.
Findings
The most significant result that emerges from this study is that a high percentage of consumers within the three countries might be interested in these new short food chains. Also, the study offers food companies the most relevant motivations and barriers of consumers for their engagement to this initiative. Also, the study provides categories of foods that consumers would purchase via these chains in each country.
Originality/value
The multicultural perspective of this study might open new opportunities for food businesses around the world, especially for SMEs, to develop new short food supply chains enabling them to increase sale levels and, therefore, increase profitability and reduce costs.
Keywords
Citation
Elghannam, A., Arroyo, J., Eldesouky, A. and Mesias, F.J. (2018), "A cross-cultural consumers’ perspective on social media-based short food supply chains", British Food Journal, Vol. 120 No. 10, pp. 2210-2221. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2017-0633
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited