In 2013 a London supermarket called Tesco sold beef tainted with horsemeat, launching a scandal in the U.K. Feliciano School of Business Marketing Professor Archana Kumar uses this case in her classes to illustrate how long and inefficient food supply chains lead to its breakdown. \u201cIt was difficult to trace where the contamination occurred,\u201d says Kumar. That single mishap was the tipping point that led consumer demand to know the origin of their food.<\/p>\n
The importance of local produce to consumers\u2019 health, their communities and the environment drives Kumar\u2019s research. She addresses consumer\u2019s views on local produce and marketing strategies that attract consumers, especially health-conscious millennials.<\/p>\n
Her goal is to increase visibility of and demand for local produce, a growing concern of her students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many benefits to investing in a local food system, like fewer intermediaries, local farmers generate local jobs, and local food is healthier and more nutritious than conventional produce. Overall, it\u2019s good for the individual, community and for the environment,\u201d says Kumar.<\/p>\n
The growing desire to increase the efficiency of food supply chains by shortening them can be credited, at least in part, to the younger generation. \u201cThe millennial generation is at the forefront of demanding sustainability and open and ethical practices from retailers,\u201d says Kumar.<\/p>\n
By sharing their interests in emerging trends and the hottest retailers students also help fuel Kumar\u2019s research projects. \u201cMany times, the idea for research comes from my students,\u201d says Kumar. \u201cThey help me understand what the bigger social demographic trends are. Students are right there at the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n
The benefits of such a relationship are mutual. Kumar asks students to share their consumer experiences then shares her findings with them, giving students a glimpse into the research process. \u201cI usually talk to my students about my research. I value their feedback,\u201d Kumar says. \u201cHow do you start thinking about it? You have your goal, you draw your plan, you develop your hypothesis. I\u2019m helping them think along those lines. Then, I bring in my project, tell them this is the state of the art, and ask their opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2013 a London supermarket called Tesco sold beef tainted with horsemeat, launching a scandal in the U.K. Feliciano School of Business Marketing Professor Archana Kumar uses this case in her classes to illustrate how long and inefficient food supply chains lead to its breakdown. \u201cIt was difficult to trace where the contamination occurred,\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":3625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}