PEOPLE IN PROJECT 2.3 SEA-INFOCOM

Project leader is Professor Wim Verbeke from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Ghent University (UGent) will be responsible for leading the various activities dealing with seafood information and communication to consumers. Professor Wim Verbeke has in particular carried out research activities in the field of consumer decision-making towards food and influencing factors. Among influencing factors, specific attention is paid to the role and impact of information and communication (advertising, public health information, negative press). A lot of work has been performed with respect to meat consumption during 1998-2002. The experience gained from this case will now be extended to other food categories including seafood. The research team at the Department includes three university professors and 12 researchers (of whom 3 post-doctoral). Research in this specific field has yielded 50 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals during the last 5 years. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

wim.verbeke(at)rug.ac.be

Key persons in SEA-INFOCOM:

Dr <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Karen Brunsø, also coordinator of RTD Pillar 2 and project leader of project 2.1. She is Associate Professor from the Aarhus School of Business and the MAPP Centre in Denmark. MAPP stands for Market-Based Process and Product Innovation in the Food Sector. Karen Brunsø has carried out research at the MAPP Centre on consumer behaviour almost since its start in 1990, and is author of numerous scientific publications on consumer research and behaviour in relation to food. Especially she has researched food-related lifestyles across Europe, and has worked with the implementation of results in food companies. Another focus area has been the understanding of how consumers perceive food quality, how this relates to subjective food quality experience, and how product labels and branding may affect consumers’ food product perceptions.

Professor <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Svein Ottar Olsen, phD, is also the project leader of project 2.4. He is from the Norwegian Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture and Norwegian College of Fishery Science, University of Tromsø, Professor Olsen has carried out research in consumer studies and marketing research in several countries in Europe, USA, Asia and New Zealand. His research interests are on the general level attitude-behavioural models and measurements, food consumption behaviour, survey research and structural equation modelling (LISREL). He has published articles in leading marketing and international business journals in the area of perceived quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty, food ambivalence, survey methodology, and use of marketing information. He has also published in leading food science journals in the area of food preference measurement, (sea)food attitudes models and (sea)food marketing and segmentation.