Exploring Consumer Preferences for Shared Mobility Services in the Big Cities of Europe Socio- Economic and Sustainability Concerns in the Era of Covid-19

The perception of sharing good and services is constantly changing around the world, especially in urban agglomerations. With any smartphone connected to the internet, at just few finger taps away, ridesharing has never been more facile for consumers. While it ensures the rapid development of the sharing economy, the collaborative consumption of transportation services raises new socio-economic and environmental challenges, making big cities the subject of the new sustainable mobility paradigm. In this context, the objective of this research was to analyze consumer preferences for shared mobility services in the case of a selection of big European cities and connect these findings with the potential of shared mobility services to shift consumption models towards a more sustainable future. Furthermore, consumer preferences were also analyzed in relation with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the development potential of the sharing economy, with a focus on the transport sector. This paper was aimed at filling a literature gap by providing a comprehensive description of consumer preferences for shared mobility services with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic context. Moreover, population density and the degree of sustainable development were variables taken into consideration in this study, as well as factors specific to the consumers of shared mobility services: age, gender, nationality and other relevant characteristics of the consumer digital profile. Findings suggest divergent consumer behaviors according to the characteristics of each of the analyzed European big city: the transportation infrastructure, degree of urbanization and level of wellbeing.

Rising tensions along the agri-food value chains during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence based on Google Trends Data

The global socio-economic and sanitary crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has generated many different effects on the links of the global agri-food value chains regarding the production and consumption behaviors of agri-food products. Depending on the link, these effects can be positive, negative, or even a mix of both. However, all these sudden changes, beneficial or not, they result in deepening the economic tensions existing along the agri-food value chains. In this context, the aim of this research was to explore the rising tensions along the Romanian agri-food value chains during the different stages of the COVID-19 crisis in Romania, while bringing the HoReCa industry in the spotlight of this study, and, more specifically, the food service component. This paper brings contribution to the literature concerning the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of the agri-food value chains based on a statistical analysis carried out with the data available from two open access sources: Google Trends and the Romanian National Institute of Statistics. A short bibliometric analysis was also elaborated on the papers tackling the topic of the rising tensions along the agri-food value chains during the pandemic. Research results show that the Romanian HoReCa industry has been subject to various challenges emerged from the need to limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease. This has generated a lot of concern - not only from the food security perspective, but also from the perspective of the entrepreneurs active in the agri-food value chains. Food-ordering companies with homedelivery have been of high interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they connect two major links in the food chain: restaurants and consumers. While consumers have become more dependent than ever on digital solutions to purchase food, a lot of pressure is put on indoor restaurants.