In a context of increased world population and imbalanced access to resources, the concept of food waste has gained increased attention in the past years. The waste of food has a negative impact on the economy, the society and the environment. In order to reduce the quantities of wasted food, it is important to understand the factors and the situations in which food waste occurs. Several studies have shown that food waste happens mostly at the consumer level and that it is determined by a wide range of factors, such as socio-demographic characteristics and consumption patterns. The objective of this paper is to determine the impact of the national culture on the quantity of wasted fruit and vegetables. Based on secondary data, the panel regression analysis was applied for 28 European countries with the purpose of determining the influence of the cultural dimensions as described by Hofstede on the quantities of wasted fruit and vegetables. The results of the research show that the uncertainty avoidance of a culture complemented by the indulgence index influences the quantity of wasted fruit and vegetables, confirming that certain characteristics of the national culture are factors that affect the quantity of wasted food.
The digital transformation era is in full motion, steadily making its way into common households, triggering changes in behavior as well as consumption patterns. While some changes can occur only within the context of the household mean income, such as the upgrade of appliances or devices, correlated with a personal preference in adopting such tools and technologies, there is one area that must keep with the pace of change, regardless of the household’s subjective criteria: energy consumption. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of digitalization on the household energy consumption, with the intent to understand trends, anticipate future changes as well as impact energy consumption efficiency. The results of the panel regressions based on the quantity of consumed energy and the popularity of several internet activities have revealed an inverse relation. The increased number of consumers doing certain internet activities such as: internet calling, reading online newspapers, activities on social media networks and uploading content online determine a lower energy consumption for that economy. There was no significant evidence for the relation between the energy consumption and internet activities such as: reading e-mails, searching for, doing internet banking and online purchases.
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