Exploring sustainability communication dynamics in the Food & Beverage sector. The role of consumer perceptions, values and practices in shaping sustainable consumption choices.

The thesis examines sustainability communication dynamics in the Food & Beverage sector, emphasizing the role of consumer perceptions, values, knowledge, and practices in shaping sustainable consumption choices. In the current global context, sustainability is crucial for corporate competitiveness and stakeholder value creation. Simultaneously, consumers show higher levels of sustainable consumption. The coffee and wine sectors face significant environmental challenges due to climate change and socio-economic issues across the supply chain. Despite increasing sustainability integration in business strategies, companies often fail to communicate their commitment to sustainability, resulting in varied and wrong consumer interpretations. In this complex scenario, the thesis aims to explore the role of communication for sustainable value co-creation between companies and consumers. The thesis includes two sections devoted to the coffee and wine sectors. The first paper analyzes the knowledge and practices consumers share online about the pre-purchase phase of sustainable coffee. The second study explores sustainability integration in high-luxury coffee brand communication. The third research focuses on consumer confusion in the sustainable wine purchasing process. The methodological design combines qualitative methods such as netnography and quantitative approaches through survey and statistical data analysis, using specific software. The call for companies' transparency in sustainability communication is compelling. Consumers' skepticism toward certifications and corporate claims is prevalent in the coffee sector, while peer-driven communities emerge as key reliable sources of information. Luxury coffee brands struggle to integrate sustainability without compromising exclusivity. In the wine sector, consumers exhibit confusion, often leading to delayed or abandoned purchases and resulting in decreased brand trust and negative word of mouth. The thesis mainly integrates the literature on sustainable consumption, providing empirical evidence in the Food & Beverage sector. Results align with the emergent approaches in sustainable decision-making, traditionally focused on rational perspective, by highlighting the interaction between cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors. Sustainable consumption underlies a hierarchy of psychological and social factors. The complexity of information processing emerges among consumers when exploring sustainable products. Skepticism and confusion about companies' greenwashing are barriers to purchasing. Businesses should prioritize ease and clarity in sustainability communication by adopting valuable certifications and measurable data. Companies should leverage consumer voice through participatory marketing. Consumer care in the pre-purchase phase becomes crucial to help consumers bridge knowledge gaps and reduce uncertainty. Firms should re-design the shopping environment, both online and offline, to provide an engaging and supportive experience, enhancing responsible choices and fostering brand loyalty. The specific cultural contexts and the small sample size limited the results' generalizability. Future research could employ larger probabilistic samples for longitudinal and intercultural studies. Quantitative methods like structural equation modeling may be integrated to test theoretical models robustly. Multi-attribute choice models can be applied to analyze actual behavior instead of static data.