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During the last decades, sociological changes have modified the role of children within families: participatory models have become more widespread, to the detriment of more author- itative ones: this change has had consequences also in refer- ence to families’ purchases. In scientific literature some scholars have shown that this influence is real, and marketers try to take advantage of this through a communication style that attempts to “teach” children how to pester their parents: this is the so-called nag factor. To understand which are the parental attitudes toward kids’ food products, a questionnaire has been administered in schools (nursery and primary) to a random sample of parents, representative of a larger sample of kids (200 in all). Findings showed that pestering is a real attitude, in particular among the littlest children. Moreover, these findings reflect in part the reality described by marketing literature: children influence the purchasing decisions of their parents, but this influence decreases when mothers and fathers are more aware of the importance of a quality-based diet

The objective of this research is to explore the role of cartoon characters in making fruit and vegetables more appealing to preschoolers: to this end, a sample of kindergarteners (5-6 years old) was involved, after having investigated their familiar food habits and their preferences about characters. Through a play-based methodology they were asked to select the tastiest food, choosing from fruit and vegetables, presented both with and without a sticker showing an image of their favourite characters, and branded salty and sweet snacks, presented in their traditional packaging without cartoon pictures. The findings show that characters deeply influenced children's choices in favour of healthy food, including in those children who were averse: cartoon characters can represent an incisive marketing tool to increase children's appreciation of fruit and vegetables

PurposePalm 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.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was administered to 243 subjects in Italy, in order to apply a cluster analysis.FindingsThe 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.Originality/valueResearch 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.

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Practical implications By implementing innovative organizational processes to identify and reduce bottleneck a healthcare system could achieve a competitive advantage. Originality/value 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.

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