Jan 9, 2021
Want to follow my MBA research?
Research into customer perceptions of food brands sustainability communications and reporting
If you didn’t know I’m on the last leg of my MBA and between now and May I’m finalising my dissertation which is on a topic I’ve found fascinating and very relevant to the current times we’re living through — please see a high level summary of the topic, research questions and a registration form to keep up to date with the latest research updates. A summary of the background and context informing the research is at the bottom of this article.
What is the researching looking at
The proposed research will seek to address and answer the following
Research Aims:
- To assess the impact of business structures and CSR reporting on brand perception and engagement in food retail.
- To explore UK consumers perceptions of retailers CSR communications and activities.
- To explore the factors which have the greatest effect on consumers decisions with regards to food brands sustainability commitments
- To contribute consumer insight into how UK food businesses can communicate sustainable points of differentiation
Found this interesting? Want to follow the journey?
The user research survey will be going out mid-end Feb to gather a broad spectrum of general publics understanding and perception of a number of UK food brands and retailers with regards to the communication and reporting.
If you’d like to keep up to date with my work or promote the user research survey then please register your details and I can then send you updates as my work progresses over the coming months.
Keep up to date — https://zdpp01ufq19.typeform.com/to/MpqU5yXI
Research backdrop
Shift from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism
The Business Roundtable which is made up of the CEO’s of the Largest fortune 500 organisations recently announced that they have all agreed to make a formal commitment to exist beyond just profit (Business round table 2020), this is a seismic shift from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, where it’s no longer just about businesses making profit for shareholders.
This also means a reduction in the focus of shareholder primacy as even the chair of the World Economic Forum has been quoted as saying ‘the role of business is being seen as more than just producing profits for shareholders’ (Gelles and Yaffey-Bellany 2019). With the UK committing to be Net Zero by 2050 and the impact of the food and agricultural sectors contribution to emissions (IPCC 2017) this research is interested in the role of businesses operating in the food sector — given the carbon footprint in the food production and distribution.
New business models and approaches — the research gap
The world Economic Forum identified that forms of sustainable business models are emerging to respond to this call to action (WEF 2019). For example, there is a new and growing form of business certification emerging called B-Corporations (Kim et al 2016) which look to take on the challenge of showing businesses can be purposeful and how they communicate that to a wide range of stakeholders (Gehman et al 2019). While there’s a growth in institutional investors’ interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting (Whyte 2020 and Bernow et al 2017) my research so far has identified a research gap in customers understanding of business ESG disclosure and their wider CSR commitments , while emerging research has pointed out that verification could provide credibility and better communicate CSR commitments to customers, and organisations commitments to such approaches could be validated based on consumer preferences (Bianchi et al 2020).
Looking at the intersection between business, capitalism and societal understanding
Considering the broader shift towards more purposeful forms of businesses De Bakker et al (2020) propose that the constraints of different forms of capitalism have an impact on how business responses to its societal expectations. The academic literature needs to reconsider links between business, capitalism and society and consider the interplay between macro level changes and societal perspectives.
Found this interesting? Want to follow the journey?
The user research survey will be going out mid-end Feb to gather a broad spectrum of general publics understanding and perception of a number of UK food brands and retailers with regards to the communication and reporting.
If you’d like to keep up to date with my work or promote the user research survey then please register your details and I can then send you updates as my work progresses over the coming months.
Keep up to date — https://zdpp01ufq19.typeform.com/to/MpqU5yXI
