Frugality Research Articles

“I find it hard to change poor food habits”: Measuring food choice motives in an emerging economy

Food choices are driven by an array of motives that have been approached, determined and quantified in a number of ways, mainly in developed countries. The objective of this study was to better understand the motives behind food choices in an emerging economy by collecting information from urban people in South Africa in a series of four studies. (1) Items generated through focus group discussions with low, middle and high income participants by Magano et al. (2023) were checked for content and face validity and (2) 123 statements derived from them were evaluated by 621 respondents. After exploratory factor analysis (EFA), 46 statements best representing the motivational space were (3) presented to another group of respondents (n = 259). Here, the EFA resulted in a 31-item, 7-factor food choice questionnaire for emerging economies (FCQ-EE) which was (4) confirmed by a nationwide sample (n = 814) and further refined to an alternative 19-item, 7-factor solution. The emerging factors were: Healthy eating constraints (HEC), Frugality (FR), Emotional eating (EE), Meat appeal (MA), Weather (WE), Quality seeking (QS) and Cooking constraints (CC). Whether used in the 31-item or 19-item format, this set of statements highlights factors underlying food choice in an emerging economy and offers a way to study their importance in similar contexts. Further research is needed to show the extent to which these factors can predict actual food choices.

Understanding Indian ride-sharing consumers: the role of psychographics and perceived value

PurposeThis study aims to explain the influence of four socio-psychological variables: social comparison orientation, face saving (FS), status consumption (STC) and frugality (FGL) on consumers’ value perception toward ride-sharing services – one of the most widely used collaborative consumption models. Furthermore, it assesses how perceived value affects consumers’ intention to use (IU) the ride-sharing services and intentions to substitute ride-sharing services for using a personally owned car. It also assesses the moderating effect of psychographics on the relationship between consumers’ perception and behavioral intention.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was developed using existing scales adapted from the literature to test the hypothesized relationships. The data for the study were collected from 489 users of ride-sharing services in India. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the proposed model using AMOS 18 and moderation analysis was performed using PROCESS MACRO.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that social comparison, FS, STC and FGL have a significant influence on consumers’ value (utilitarian and hedonic) perception. Furthermore, the results supported the effect of consumers’ value perception on their IU the ride-sharing services as well as their intention to substitute ride-sharing services for using a personally owned car. Lastly, the results also evidenced the moderating role of psychographic variables.Originality/valueVery few studies have examined the role of psychographics in the adoption of collaborative consumption services. The paper attempts to fill this gap. It assesses the effect of four relevant consumer traits on perceived value in the ride-sharing services context. Furthermore, it expands the understanding of the role of psychographics by measuring their moderating effects apart from direct effects. The results of the study bear important implications for academicians, policymakers and marketers.

In search of frugality in the Malaysian hotel industry: the role of green marketing strategies and government initiatives

PurposeThis study aims to shed light on the factors that affect frugality (FR) in the hotel industry. Specifically, it aims to test the role of environmental advertisement (EA) and eco-labelling (EL) on FR through green attitude (GA) in the Malaysian hotel industry. It also tested the role of government initiatives (GIS) as the moderator.Design/methodology/approachUsing the judgemental sampling technique, a total of 259 usable responses were gathered from hotel guests. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThis study found that EA and EL affect hotel guests’ GA positively. Additionally, the finding revealed that GA exerts a positive influence on FR. Furthermore, this study disclosed that GA mediates the relationship between green marketing strategies (EA and EL) and FR. Contrary to expectation, the moderating role of GIs was not supported in this study.Originality/valueThis is a pioneering study that investigates FR in the hotel industry. Further, this study developed new relationships such as the mediating role of GA between marketing strategies in terms of EA and EL and FR. In addition, the moderating effect of GIs on the relationship between GA and FR, which is comparatively new in the literature was developed. The findings from this study are expected to benefit the hoteliers, governments and the researchers that specialized in consumer behaviour study.

Ecolinguistics and ecosophy

This article presents a philosophical framework for studies of ecolinguistics, combining the Eastern wisdom of ecological harmony and the Western human geographical concept of sense of place. To establish the basic criteria for ecolinguistic analysis, the article traces the three most influential Chinese schools of philosophy and extracts three of their shared disciplines: benevolence, frugality and intimacy with nature. To reveal the dynamic relationship between human beings and the places where they reside, the article revisits the concept of sense of place and extends it to cover an ecological dimension of people and place. Connecting ecological ethics derived from classical Chinese philosophy with systemic human-place dynamics, this proposed framework provides an ideological basis for ecolinguistic research, especially for discourse analysis. Following this ecosophy, the involved human beings and other elements of places included in a discourse can be revealed through the system of sense of place; and the ecological implications of linguistic features can be evaluated according to the three major principles. To complete the analysis, positive and negative orientations will be distinguished as well as a middle ground of ambivalent orientation. To conclude, this article aims to provide a well-grounded ideological reference for the deconstruction and subsequent assessment of linguistic resources, and thereby to establish a crucial strand of ecolinguistic scholarship.

L’Afrique dans l’agenda international de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre : quelle transition énergétique pour quel développement ? L’exemple de Madagascar

L’inventaire des programmes énergétiques multilatéraux impliquant l’Afrique montre qu’ils s’inscrivent dans la logique des transferts Nord-Sud, esquissant une transition énergétique non ancrée dans les réalités africaines. Au lieu de faciliter un autre développement, sobre en carbone, cette transition énergétique est une opportunité pour une croissance dite verte, qui ne remet pas en cause la conception mainstream du développement. Le cas de Madagascar illustre le foisonnement de projets énergétiques éloignés de la frugalité des modes de vie de la majeure partie de la population. Classification JEL : Q42, Q43, Q48, N77

Niilismo e tecnologia

O presente artigo analisa a relacao entre niilismo e tecnologia a partir das intuicoes do filosofo judeu-alemao Hans Jonas. Para tanto, partimos de uma consideracao do niilismo na sua forma incompleta como tentativa de negacao da realidade mundana e humana, atitude que doa a tecnologia um papel de retirar o humano do mundo, seja por meio de uma fuga da Terra, seja por meio das hipoteses pos e transumanistas, baseadas na obsolescencia do corpo. Examinam-se as teses que fazem da tecnologia tanto um problema filosofico quanto etico, na perspectiva de que a etica deve ser uma especie de complemento (um “poder sobre o poder”) da tecnologia. Para tanto, ela assumiria um novo papel: por meio da responsabilidade, contribuir para projetar adequadamente o prognostico do futuro e, ao mesmo tempo, promover modos de vida ecologicamente adequados, baseados na frugalidade e na continencia. Palavras-chave: niilismo, tecnologia, responsabilidade, Hans Jonas.

Frugality, desire and sustainability

El concepto de frugalidad empieza a aparecer en algunos ámbitos críticos con nuestra forma de vida actual. Este concepto contiene una significación que comporta un choque con la inercia económica, social y cultural en la que hemos vivido desde los albores del capitalismo. En el presente artículo analizaremos con detalle tal concepto. Partiendo de la filología y pasando por la filosofía llegaremos a la conclusión que, frente al denostado concepto de austeridad, la frugalidad representa algo más que una actitud personal, representa el germen de una transformación cultural, necesaria para encaminar los retos de sostenibilidad que la humanidad tiene ante sí hoy en día.

Religiosity and spirituality: Conceptualization, measurement and its effect on frugality

Religiosity and spirituality: Conceptualization, measurement and its effect on frugality

Emrys Westacott’s The Wisdom of Frugality

Emrys Westacott’s The Wisdom of Frugality

Genre et innovateur frugal : 4 cas de femmes innovatrices

Combinant ingéniosité, simplicité et jugée responsable d’un point de vue social et environnemental, l’innovation frugale est perçue comme un retour aux sources favorisant la croissance économique. Si les innovateurs frugaux présentent certaines caractéristiques communes aux innovateurs classiques, d’autres leur sont spécifiques comme l’intelligence intuitive ou le fait d’ancrer l’activité localement. Cet article pose la question de la similitude entre le profil de l’innovateur frugal et celui des femmes innovatrices. Ces dernières ne sont à l’origine que de 8 % des entreprises innovantes en France. Si ce fait est en partie attribuable aux stéréotypes de genre, il est probable que les femmes s’autocensurent également. Cet article a pour objectif d’étudier l’esprit frugal sous un prisme genré dans la littérature, ainsi qu’à travers le récit de vie de quatre femmes innovatrices. Cette recherche consiste à proposer que le profil de l’innovateur frugal permettrait à davantage de femmes de se sentir concernées par l’innovation. Codes JEL : O31, O32

The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less is More—More or Less

The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less is More—More or Less

Frugality and Luxury: Morality, Market, and Consumption in Late Imperial China

This article contributes to a wider critique of the use of European capitalist, patterns of industrialization in studies of the economic history of modern China—patterns commonly assumed to be universally valid. This sort of analytical framework denies not only the value of alternative economic models, but also that of Chinese independent economic thought. In this context, the present article argues that most of the intellectual changes of seventeenth-century Europe that led to the formulation of liberal capitalism—resistance to government intervention, support for luxury consumption as well as a new understanding of the market and of the relationship between private interests and morality—had taken place in China more than a century earlier. The background against which the two processes emerged, however, varied significantly, leading to distinctive ramifications. Unprecedented population growth and a widening gap between hinterland and coastal economies led Chinese officials and intellectuals to discard ideas of free market and focus instead on solutions for increasing production, maximizing the circulation of resources, and fighting poverty. It was not, therefore, a lack of a “scientific” understanding of the economy that led China to turn away from European-style laissez fare , but rather an evaluation of the Empire’s circumstances, raising questions on whether the European model is indeed universally applicable regardless of local conditions.

In Defense of Frugality: Insights from “Green Contemplatives” across Traditions

In Defense of Frugality: Insights from “Green Contemplatives” across Traditions

Mottainai: The Fabric of Life, Lessons in Frugality from Traditional Japan

(2012). Mottainai: The Fabric of Life, Lessons in Frugality from Traditional Japan. TEXTILE: Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 336-344.

Zootechnical performances of Calabrese pigs reared in free range management

Calabrese breed takes its origin from ancient iberian and italic swine populations (Giannone, 2002). In the last century, this genotype was reared in many areas of Calabria region and it was distinguished in numerous ‘local types’ (Mascheroni, 1927). It has been always reared according to the free range management. This breed is characterised by an high adaptability and frugality with a good damming ability in sows and marked sexual instinct in boars (Pianelli, 2001 and 2002)...

Frugality

Frugality

Mothers, Sons and Lovers: Fidelity and Frugality in the Overseas Chinese Divided Family Before 1949

Mothers, Sons and Lovers: Fidelity and Frugality in the Overseas Chinese Divided Family Before 1949

Toward the Revival and Reform of the Subversive Virtue: Frugality

Toward the Revival and Reform of the Subversive Virtue: Frugality

Prepaid Admissions: Discrimination Against College-Bound Blacks Come Draped in an Ethic of Frugality

Prepaid Admissions: Discrimination Against College-Bound Blacks Come Draped in an Ethic of Frugality

The frugality phenomenon

A ‘counter-economy’ more interested in psychic than material income seems to be taking root within the mainstream of the industrialized nations