Charlotta Harju

Animal welfare is closely linked to human health and the environment. Over the last decade, One Welfare (OW) has emerged to address these connections. However, the academic research on OW, which integrates human well-being, animal welfare, and the environment, is still in its early stages, with limited insights into how it is perceived by supply chain actors. This study aims to explore how European citizens and other actors perceive the OW construct, particularly in relation to improved farm animal welfare. The data were collected in 2021 in two surveys conducted in nine European countries (Finland, the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Denmark) targeted at citizens (n = 3,601) and other supply chain actors (n = 222). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test were employed to analyse the perceptions among the countries. The results show that supply chain actors have a more multidimensional understanding of OW and farm animal welfare than citizens. Citizens viewed OW as a two-dimensional construct related to human well-being, farming success and food security, while supply chain actors perceived it as three-dimensional, also including issues related to environmental sustainability. Statistically significant differences were found across certain countries. For example, Italian citizens associated OW primarily with human well-being, while Romanian citizens linked it to farming success. However, both Italian and Romanian supply chain actors perceived food safety and environmental sustainability as most associated with OW. Understanding these perceptions is essential for developing policies that support public health, sustainability, and ethical practices across Europe.

Incorporating citizen views through stakeholder engagement enhances the democratic and equitable governance of sustainability transitions. Using stakeholder theory as a conceptual frame, this study evaluates the use of different stakeholder participation processes to co-produce solutions for more sustainable housing in Finland. This study examines how citizens are positioned, levels of participation, and factors affecting success. Data were collected in three participatory processes: a service design process, a hackathon, and transition arenas, which sought to improve citizens’ opportunities for more sustainable housing. Our results show that citizens were positioned differently across the stakeholder processes. Although all processes aimed for high levels of participation—such as collaboration and empowerment—the achieved levels varied and, in some cases, remained limited. Moreover, several contextual, organizational, and process-related factors influenced the outcomes and shaped how participating stakeholders perceived citizens’ views. Addressing these challenges is crucial when selecting participatory methods for research, planning, and policy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide information on how citizens in nine countries across Europe perceive egg product quality and the importance of a product's sustainability attributes (animal welfare, country of origin and production method) in egg purchases.Design/methodology/approach: The data were gathered in 2021 via an online survey in nine European countries (Finland, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Denmark). A total of 3,601 responses were collected. As methods of analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted when investigating the quality dimensions of egg products and the differences amongst the sociodemographic groups.Findings: Citizens in European countries considered animal welfare aspects, production method and country of origin important when purchasing egg products. Citizens' perceived quality of egg products was related to two dimensions (i.e. product properties and responsible production), and there were differences in perceptions by sociodemographic groups (i.e. age, gender, education and country of residence). Responsible production was most valued by younger women with higher education. Also in the Netherlands and Romania, citizens had stronger preferences for product properties compared to responsible production, whilst in Germany, responsible production was appreciated more than product properties.Originality/value: The study provides new information on citizens' perceived egg product quality and the role of a product's sustainability attributes in egg purchases. Furthermore, the results bring novel insights on the differences in perceptions amongst citizens living in nine European countries.

In order to develop strategies for sustainable practices and to enhance the replacement of non‐renewable materials with sustainable alternatives such as wood, it is essential to recognize the variables affecting consumers’ quality perceptions. Despite this, there is still limited knowledge about the perceived quality of wooden building materials. Wood industry studies have to date approached quality mainly by investigating quality indicators related to the product or supplier, while overlooking the effects of the consumer characteristics on the quality perception process. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by implementing a systematic literature review of peer‐reviewed articles published in international scientific journals during the 2000s using the “Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews” (SPAR‐4‐SLR) protocol. Literature searches are implemented in two scientific databases (ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus) to gather the material to be analyzed according to two organizing frameworks (i.e., the TCCM framework and the Model of the Quality Perception Process). The results suggest that the perceived quality of wooden building materials is affected by different quality cues and attributes of wood (i.e., sensory, social, economic, technical, and sustainability properties). Furthermore, different personal variables (consumers’ socio‐demographic and psychographic characteristics) and situational variables influence consumer behavior regarding wooden building materials. The study contributes to wood products literature by providing new theoretical insights about the perceived quality of wooden building materials and developing a future research agenda that brings forward a number of propositions for future studies based on identified research gaps.

Evaluation of product attributes and the overall quality significantly affect consumer purchasing decisions. Previous studies on wooden products have mostly addressed wood product quality from technical viewpoints, while largely disregarding environmental, social, and economic aspects in the assessments. Therefore, knowledge on how sustainability aspects are evaluated as a feature of wood product quality is narrow. This study investigated consumer perceptions of different quality indicators (i.e., quality cues and attributes) of wooden interior products with a special focus on sustainability and value chain phases. In addition, the connections between consumers’ sociodemographic background and their perceptions of the quality features of wooden interior products were evaluated. The material of the study was based on data gathered in 2018 with a postal survey sent to 1000 people living in Finland with a response rate of 25.6%. As methods of analysis, exploratory factor analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskall-Wallis test were utilized. The results show that the quality indicators of wooden interior products can be grouped into four factors relating to products’ environmental friendliness, fit with lifestyle and home design, visual and tactile attractiveness, and technical solidity, which are in multiple ways connected with sustainability. The sociodemographic background of the respondents was found to be linked with consumer scores for those factors. Engaging consumers in sustainable consumption choices requires providing them with information on wooden product value chains that meets their individual needs in relation to their existing knowledge of those issues and individual values.