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To meat or not to meat? Comparing empowered meat consumers' and anti-consumers' preferences for sustainability labels Abstract: An increasing awareness of the impact of high levels of meat consumption on health and environmental sustainability is leading to a growing number of consumers reducing or avoiding meat. To address gaps in the literature, we compare and contrast the importance of the seven sustainability-related labels for three consumer groups (meat eaters, meat reducers and vegetarians) using a choice experiment involving 600 UK respondents (200 meat eaters, 200 meat reducers, 200 vegetarians). Type of meat, price and fat content labels have the largest overall impact on consumer choices. The impact of carbon footprint, method of production, origin and brand labels varies across consumer groups. We subsequently use latent class analysis to identify heterogeneous intra-group consumer segments, based on their preferences, and highlight the socio-demographic differences between them. For meat eaters, three consumer segments are identified (empowered, traditional and price conscious meat eaters). Meat reducers are divided into health curtailers and sustainable consumers, while only one segment of vegetarians is identified. By drawing on signalling theory and the consumer empowerment and anti-consumption literature, we identify links between sustainable consumption, consumer empowerment and anti-consumption and provide valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to utilise food labels to encourage more sustainable consumption.

Mobile apps redistributing surplus food are receiving increased attention for their sustainability benefits. Nevertheless, there is limited research on the opportunities created for businesses to penetrate the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) market. Drawing on Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, affordance and means-end theories, this study investigates how food waste mobile apps can support sustainable value co-creation at the BoP. Using a laddering approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews in Sri Lanka. Despite similarities in respondents' perceptions of app functions, there are noticeable gaps in the perceived affordances and end goals, which may challenge the value co-creation process.Additionally, opportunism, stigma and goal misalignment may result in value co-destruction, i.e. the diminishment of value through stakeholder interactions. Our findings demonstrate that to develop technologies which enable value co-creation, an in-depth understanding of factors driving perceptions of value is essential. Summary statement of contribution:Currently, there is very limited research exploring food waste mobile apps as BoP marketing tools, and their potential to support sustainable value co-creation to benefit businesses, BoP consumers and society.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to combine Service-Dominant logic, affordance theory and means-end theory to explore mechanisms underlying digital value cocreation and co-destruction.Our findings provide meaningful insights about the interpretation of technological functions into value.

is a Lecturer of Marketing in Newcastle Business School, Newcastle upon Tyne, which he joined in 2012. He specialises in social marketing, ethical marketing and sustainable consumer behaviour and has published several articles and conference papers in this area. His main research interest is in the impact of marketing on sustainable and ethical consumer behaviour. This article is part of a larger project investigating strategies to encourage sustainable meat consumption through meat substitution.

Rural e-commerce entrepreneurship is an effective and credible means to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable social development, particularly in the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). Understanding how to encourage BoPs’ entrepreneurial intention in the rural e-commerce market has become a key issue for private enterprises and local governments. Based on the entrepreneurial event model, we constructed a research framework to evaluate the factors influencing BoPs’ entrepreneurial intention in rural e-commerce. We conducted an online survey of rural e-commerce practitioners from Jieyang and Chaozhou in Guangdong Province, China, and empirically analyzed the survey results using SmartPLS software. The results show that professional knowledge, resource endowment, information and communication technology, and logistics infrastructure have a significant positive impact on BoP entrepreneurship in rural e-commerce, while previous market channels had a significant negative impact. Based on the findings, we recommend that BoPs should focus more on cultivating professional knowledge in e-commerce entrepreneurship and capitalize on local resource advantage. E-commerce enterprises and local governments should strengthen and improve information communication technology and logistics infrastructure among BoP communities. Policymakers should support BoP entrepreneurship in rural e-commerce by creating a favorable environment.