Agri-food Cooperatives’ Online MarketingEvaluation of the Strategies Utilized by Spanish and UK Food Retailers Pre- and Post- COVID-19 Pandemic

  1. Borrero, Juan D.
Revista:
CIRIEC - España. Revista de economía pública, social y cooperativa

ISSN: 0213-8093

Año de publicación: 2023

Número: 107

Páginas: 169-195

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.107.21460 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: CIRIEC - España. Revista de economía pública, social y cooperativa

Resumen

The use of big data by large food retailers is increasing their bargaining power against the agri-food cooperative sector. The aim of this study was to determine the social media behaviour of food retailers in Spain and the UK, and to identify significant changes pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The study analysed Twitter data collected from 16 food retailers; a total of 102,200 valid tweets were extracted from their official Twitter accounts. A term frequency analysis and a social network analysis of food retailers’ Twitter behaviour were carried out. The results obtained show differences for both UK and Spanish retailers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For agri-food cooperatives with little bargaining power in the supply chain of fresh produce, data analysis is a key factor in improving their competitive positioning. These findings should be of value to data scientists as well as managers responsible for forming strategies in agri-food firms that have large food retailers as clients. Finally, the study also confirms that, for agri-food cooperatives, analysing tweet content is a cheap and useful tool for understanding customer behaviour.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • AGGRAWAL, N. & ARORA, A. (2016, October): “Visualization, analysis and structural pattern infusion of DBLP co-authorship network using Gephi”, in IEEE 2016 2nd International Conference on Next Generation Computing Technologies (NGCT), IEEE, 494-500.
  • ANDZULIS, J.M., PANAGOPOULOS, N.G. & RAPP, A. (2012): “A review of social media and implications for the sales process”, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 32(3), 305- 316.
  • ANGELOPOULOS, S. & MERALI, Y. (2017): “Sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar: Unfolding the transcendence of boundaries across the digital and physical”, ICIS international conference in information systems.
  • APPEL, G., GREWAL, L., HADI, R. & STEPHEN, A.T. (2020): “The future of social media in marketing”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 79-95.
  • ARAUJO, T. & KOLLAT, J. (2018): “Communicating effectively about CSR on Twitter”, Internet Research, 28(2), 419-431. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-04-2017-0172
  • BARABÁSI, A.L. (2016): Network science, Cambridge University Press.
  • BASTIAN, M., HEYMANN, S. & JACOMY, M. (2009): “Gephi: an open source software for exploring and manipulating networks”, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). Extracted, 23 February 2021, from https://gephi.org/publications/gephibastian-feb09.pdf
  • BEARTH, A., COUSIN, M.-E. & SIEGRIST, M. (2014): “The consumer’s perception of artificial food additives: Influences on acceptance, risk and benefit perceptions”, Food Quality and Preference, 38, 14-23.
  • BEN HASSEN, T., EL BILALI, H. & ALLAHYARI, M.S. (2020): “Impact of COVID-19 on Food Behavior and Consumption in Qatar”, Sustainability, 12(17), 6973. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ su12176973
  • BISOGNI, C.A., WINTER FALK, L., MADORE, E., BLAKE, C.E., JASTRAN, M., SOBAL, J. & DEVINE, C.M. (2007): “Dimensions of everyday eating and drinking episodes”, Appetite, 218-231.
  • BLONDEL, V.D., GUILLAUME, J.L., LAMBIOTTE, R., & LEFEBVRE, E. (2008): “Fast unfolding of communities in large networks”, Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 10, P10008.
  • BORGATTI, S.P. (2005): “Centrality and network flow”, Social Networks, 27, 55-71.
  • BOYD, D.M. & ELLISON, N.B. (2007): “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
  • CARR, J., DECRETON, L., QIN, W., ROJAS, B., ROSSOCHACKI, T. & WEN YANG, Y. (2015): “Social media in product development”, Food Quality and Preference, 40, 354-364. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2014.04.001
  • CHEN, M.-F. (2013): “Influences of health consciousness on consumers’ modern health worries and willingness to use functional foods”, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, E1-E12.
  • CLARK, M. & MELANCON, J. (2013): “The Influence of Social Media Investment on Relational Outcomes: A Relationship Marketing Perspective”, International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(4), 132-142.
  • CONSTANTINIDES, E. (2014): “Foundations of social media marketing”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148, 40-57.
  • CUCAGNA, M.E. & GOLDSMITH, P.D. (2018): “Value adding in the agri-food value chain”, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 21(3), 293-316. DOI: https://doi. org/10.22434/IFAMR2017.0051
  • DEGERATU, A.M., RANGASWAMY, A. & WU, J. (2000): “Consumer choice behavior in online and traditional supermarkets: The effects of brand name, price, and other search attributes”, International Journal of research in Marketing, 17(1), 55-78.
  • DELOITTE TTL (2018): Global Powers of Retailing 2018, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, London. Extracted, 30 July 2021, from https://www2.deloitte.com/ni/es/pages/consumer-business/ articles/global-powers-of-retailing-2018.html
  • DI RENZO, L., GUALTIERI, P., CINELLI, G., BIGIONI, G., SOLDATI, L., ATTINA, A., FABIOLA BIANCO, F., CAPARELLO, G., CAMODECA, V., CARRANO, E., FERRARO, S., GIANNATTASIO, S., LEGGERI, C., RAMPELLO, T., LO PRESTI, L., GRAZIA TARSITANO, M. & DE LORENZO, A. (2020): “Psychological aspects and eating habits during COVID-19 home confinement: results of EHLC-COVID-19 Italian Online Survey”, Nutrients, 12(7), 1-14.
  • EAE BUSINESS SCHOOL (2018): La situación de la gran distribución en el mercado de consumo, accessed 26 May 2021, https://www.eae.es/
  • ELLISON, N.B. (2007): “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
  • ERDOGMUS, D.E. & TATAR, S.B. (2015): “Drivers of Social Commerce through Brand Engagement”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, 189-195.
  • FREEMAN, L.C. (1979): “Centrality in social networks: Conceptual clarification”, Social Networks, 1, 215-239.
  • FRIE, D., SURDEANU, M., KODBOUROV, S., HINGLE, M. & BELL, D. (2014): “Analyzing the language of food on social media”, in 2014 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, October 27–30th, 2014, Washington, EEUU.
  • GALANAKIS, C.M. (2020): “The food systems in the era of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic crisis”, Foods, 9(523), 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9040523
  • GO, E. & K.H. (2016): “But not all social media are the same: Analyzing organizations’ social media usage patterns”, Telematics and Informatics, 33(1), 176-186.
  • GÜNEY, O.I. & SANGÜN, L. (2021): "How COVID-19 affects individuals' food consumption behaviour: a consumer survey on attitudes and habits in Turkey", British Food Journal, 123, 7, 2307-2320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-10-2020-0949
  • HALL, M.C., PRAYAG, G., FIEGER, P. & DYASON, D. (2020): “Beyond panic buying: consumption displacement and COVID-19”, Journal of Service Management, 32, 1, 113-128.
  • HANNIGAN, T.R., HAANS, R.F., VAKILI, K., TCHALIAN, H., GLASER, V.L., WANG, M.S., KAPLAN, S. & JENNINGS, P.D. (2019): “Topic modeling in management research: Rendering new theory from textual data”, The Academy of Management Annals, 13(2), 586-632.
  • HARRIS, L. & RAE, A. (2009): “Social networks: the future of marketing for small business”, Journal of Business Strategy, 30(5), 24-31.
  • HOLLEBEEK, L.D., GLYNN, M.S. & BRODIE, R.J. (2014): “Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 149-165.
  • HUSAIN, W. & ASHKANANI, F. (2020): “Does COVID-19 change dietary habits and lifestyle behaviours in Kuwait?”, Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 25(61), 1-13.
  • JANSSEN, M., CHANG, B.P.I., HRISTOV, H., PRAVST, I., PROFETA, A. & MILLARD, J. (2021): “Changes in Food Consumption During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Consumer Survey Data From the First Lockdown Period in Denmark, Germany, and Slovenia”, Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 635859. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.635859
  • JAYAWARDENA, R., SOORIYAARACHCHI, P., CHOURDAKIS, M., JEEWANDARA, C. & RANASINGHE, P. (2020): “Enhancing immunity in viral infections, with special emphasis on COVID-19: a review”, Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 14(4), 367-382.
  • KANTAR WORLDPANEL (2018): Tendencias en la distribución 2018. Extracted 8 June 2021, from https://www.kantarworldpanel.com/es/Noticias/el-gran-consumo-crece-un-1porciento-en-los-8-primeros-meses
  • KAR, A.K. & DWIVEDI, Y.K. (2020): “Theory building with big data-driven research – Moving away from the “What” towards the “Why””, International Journal of Information Management, 54, 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102205
  • KAYA, T. (2020): “The changes in the effects of social media use of Cypriots due to COVID-19 pandemic”, Technology In Society, 63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101380
  • KEARNEY, M. (2018): rtweet: Collecting Twitter Data. R package version 0.6.7. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/package=rtweet
  • KIM, A.J. & KO, E. (2012): “Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion Brand”, Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1480-1486.
  • KONTOPOULOS, E., BERBERIDIS, C., DERGIADES, T. & BASSILIADES, N. (2013): “Ontologybased sentiment analysis of twitter posts”, Expert Systems and Applications, 40, 4065-4074.
  • KRISTENSSON, P. (2019): “Future service technologies and value creation”, Journal of Services Marketing, 33(4), 502-506.
  • KWAK, H., LEE, C., PARK, H. & MOON, S. (2010): “What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?”, in Proceedings of the 9th International World Wide Web (WWW) Conference, April 26–30, 2010, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
  • LADHARI, R., RIOUX, M.-C., SOUIDEN, N. & CHIADMI, N.-E. (2019): “Consumers’ motives for visiting a food retailer's Facebook page”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, 379-385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.07.013
  • LAGUNA, L., FISZMAN, S., PUERTA, P., CHAYA, C. & TÁRREGA, A. (2020): “The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on food priorities. Results from a preliminary study using social media and an online survey with Spanish consumers”, Food Quality and Preference, 86, 104028.
  • MANGOLD, W.G. & FAULDS, D.J. (2009): “Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix”, Business Horizons, 52, 357-365.
  • MARINKOVIC, V. & LAZAREVIC, J. (2021): "Eating habits and consumer food shopping behaviour during COVID-19 virus pandemic: insights from Serbia", British Food Journal, 123(12), 3970-3987. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2020-1072
  • MATTILA, M. & SALMAN, H. (2018): “Analysing Social Media Marketing on Twitter using Sentiment Analysis” (Dissertation). Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-229787
  • MEISELMAN, H.L. (2008): “Experiencing food products within a physical and social context”, in H.N.J. Schifferstein and P. Hekkert (Eds.), Product experience, Oxford, UK: Elsevier, 559-580.
  • MESSE BERLIN GMBH (2018): European Statistics Handbook 2018. Retrieved 3 may 2021, from https://www.fruitlogistica.de/media/fl/fl_dl_all/auf_einen_blick/European_Statistics_ Handbook_FRUIT_LOGISTICA_2018.pdf
  • MISHRA, N. & SINGH, A. (2018): “Use of twitter data for waste minimisation in beef supply chain”, Ann. Oper. Res., 270, 337-359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-016-2303-4
  • MORENO-SANDOVAL L.G., SÁNCHEZ-BARRIGA C., BUITRAGO K.E., POMARES-QUIMBAYA A. & GARCIA J.C. (2018): “Spanish Twitter Data Used as a Source of Information About Consumer Food Choice”, in Holzinger A., Kieseberg P., Tjoa A., Weippl E. (Eds.), Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction. CD-MAKE 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Cham, 11015.
  • MOSTAFA, M.M. (2019): “Clustering halal food consumers: A Twitter sentiment analysis”, International Journal of Market Research, 61(3), 320-337. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1177/1470785318771451
  • NOBRE, H. & SILVA, D. (2014): “Social network marketing strategy and SME strategy benefits”, Journal of Transnational Management, 19(2), 138-151.
  • ORDEN D. (2020): “Resilience test of the North American food system”, Can. J. Agric. Econ, 215- 217. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cjag.12238
  • PRECIOSO, J. & SAMORINHA, C. (2021): “Prevention of COVID-19 in retail food stores in Portugal: The importance of regulations in behavioural change”, Atención Primaria, 53(2), 2021, 101953. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aprim.2020.07.011
  • R CORE TEAM (2016): “R: A language and environment for statistical computing”, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 860-864.
  • REYES-OLAVARRÍA, D., LATORRE-ROMÁN, P.A., GUZMÁN-GUZMÁN, I.P., JEREZ-MAYORGA, D., CAMAÑO-NAVARRETE, F. & DELGADO-FLOODY, P. (2020): “Positive and negative changes in food habits, physical activity patterns, and weight status during COVID-19 confinement: associated factors in the chilean population”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 1-14.
  • RODRÍGUEZ-PÉREZ, C., MOLINA-MONTES, E., VERARDO, V., ARTACHO, R., GARCÍA-VILLANOVA, B., GUERRA-HERNÁNDEZ, E.J. & RUÍZ-LÓPEZ, M.D. (2020): "Changes in Dietary Behaviours during the COVID-19 Outbreak Confinement in the Spanish COVIDiet Study", Nutrients, 12(6), 1730. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061730
  • RUGGERI, A. & SAMOGGIA, A. (2018): “Twitter communication of agri-food chain actors on palm oil environmental, socio-economic, and health sustainability”, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1), 75-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1699
  • SAMOGGIA, A., BERTAZZOLI, A. & RUGGERI, A. (2019): “Food retailing marketing management: social media communication for healthy food”, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 47(9), 928-956. DOI: httpsd://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-08-2018-0178
  • SASHITTAL, H. & JASSAWALLA, A. (2019): “Brand entification as a post-anthropomorphic attribution among twitter-using millennials”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 37(7), 741-753.
  • SHETH, J. (2020): “Impact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior: Will the old habits return or die?”, Journal of Business Research, 117, 280-283.
  • SIDOR, A. & RZYMSKI, P. (2020): “Dietary choices and habits during COVID-19 lockdown: experience from Poland”, Nutrients, 12(1657), 1-13.
  • SINGHA, A., SHUKLAB, N. & MISHRAC N. (2018): “Social media data analytics to improve supply chain management in food industries. Transportation Research Part E”, Logistics and Transportation Review, 114, 398-415. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2017.05.008
  • SMITH, A.N., FISCHER, E. & YONGJIAN, C. (2012): “How does brand-related user-generated content differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 102-113.
  • STELZNER, M. (2016): “2016 Social media marketing industry report: How marketers are using social media to grow their business”. Extracted 30 July 2021, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com
  • TAUEJA, S. & TOOMBS, L. (2014): “Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and ustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing”, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 18(1), 249-260.
  • THE ECONOMIST (2021, March 13): “The importance of omnichannel strategies. The Economist: Special Report”. Extracted, 30 July 2021, from https://www.economist.com/special-report/2021/03/13/the-importance-of-omnichannel-strategies
  • VIDAL, L., ARES, G. & GIMÉNEZ, A. (2013): “Projective techniques to uncover consumer perception: Application of three methodologies to ready-to-eat salads”, Food Quality and Preference, 28, 1-7.
  • VIDAL, L., ARES, G., MACHÍN, L. & JAEGE, S.R. (2015): “Using Twitter data for food-related consumer research: A case study on ‘‘what people say when tweeting about different eating situations”, Food Quality and Preference, 45, 58-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.05.006
  • WANG, E., AN, N., GAO, Z., KIPROP, E. & GENG, X. (2020): “Consumer food stockpiling behavior and willingness to pay for food reserves in COVID-19”, Food Security, 12(4), 739-747.
  • WEERSINK, A., MASSOW, M., VON BANNON, N., IFFT, J., MAPLES, J., MCEWAN, K., ET AL. (2021): “COVID-19 and the agri-food system in the United States and Canada”, Agricultural Systems, 188, 103039. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.103039
  • YANAI, K. & KAWANO, Y. (2014): “Twitter Food Photo Mining and Analysis for One Hundred Kinds of Foods”, in Advances in Multimedia Information Processing – PCM 2014: 15th Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia, Kuching, Malaysia, December 1-4, 22-32.
  • YANG, Y., LIU, H. & CHEN, X. (2020): “COVID-19 and restaurant demand: early effects of the pandemic and stay-at-home orders”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(12), 3809-3834.
  • ZANINI, M., LIMA, V., MIGUELES, C., REIS, I., CARBONE, D. & LOURENCO, C. (2019): “Soccer and twitter: virtual brand community engagement practices”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 37(7), 791-805.
  • ZUO, M.Z., ANGELOPOULOS, S.A., OU, C.X., CAROL, X.C., LIU, H.L. & LIANG, Z.L. (2020): “Identifying dynamic competition in online marketplaces through consumers”, clickstream data (accessed 22 April 2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3598889
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet