Our interest lies in investigating Topic 1: Domestic food practices for enhancing sustainable and healthy diets — systemic work at the household level covering food safety, cultures, nutritional needs and consumer behaviour. We are mainly interested in collecting data on, and gathering deeper understanding of, consumer behaviour with respect to the Baltic pelagic fishing industry. We will develop conceptual tools to understand the studied phenomena via combining frameworks like innovation ecosystems with maritime spatial planning and ecosystem based management. Moreover we aim to carry out work to map and analyze consumer preferences, impressions and potential nudge or boost actions that could increase domestic demand for pelagic fish species that are mainly used as fish meal and production outsourced.

There remain difficulties connected to the ideal amount of fish landed based on population growth, replenishment, and other indicators; the distribution of value added activities in the Swedish fishing industry and value chain; the Swedish self-sufficiency in food value chains relating to fish, disaster preparedness and defense readiness; and internationalization and export as strategic areas for development. For better crisis management, Sweden must become more self-sustaining with pelagic fish production (now it’s almost completely offshored).

Our team can conduct qualitative interviews, and send a quantitative survey with end customers (i.e. the fish-buying general public), in order to understand the drivers of adoption of new consumer tastes with respect to pelagic fish species in the Baltic. The planned survey areas (broadly speaking) are: Socio-demographic profiles (income, localization); Current eating habits and environmental values; Disposition to change eating habits under various conditions (information on ecological issues, local label or local quality signal, and prices.

We can target respondents on different coasts (West, East, South, North-east Sweden). Or, we can use a cross-country comparison between Sweden and another country bordering the Baltic Sea (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, et. Cetera) which display differing consumer trends with pelagic fish consumption than Sweden, and study these differences.

Additionally, we plan to engage with boost/nudge field experiments (or surveys). This work package will construct groups to investigate the effect of boost, goal setting, and nudges of different kinds on changing Swedish consumers fish consumption. This could involve boosting via setting goals, sending recipes, reducing reliance on major food chain (frozen) fish, increasing understanding of the threats to fish spawning populations by more responsible decision making, etc.

The University of Gothenburg tackles society’s challenges with diverse knowledge. 56 000 students and 6 600 employees make the university a large and inspiring place to work and study. Strong research and attractive study programs attract scientists and students from around the world. With new knowledge and new perspectives, the University contributes to a better future.

The Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship conducts research and education in the field of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management of Intellectual Assets. The subject area deals with innovation processes with a focus on entrepreneurship and intellectual assets. More specifically, it focuses on the different determinants of innovation processes, the actors involved, and the related social and economic consequences. The research on innovation and entrepreneurship aims to explain the correlation between, and to identify methods and strategies to promote, innovation and entrepreneurship in a societal and organizational perspective. Also the effects on individuals, organizations, businesses, institutions and knowledge due to innovation-related societal changes are analyzed. The unit offers single-subject courses at both the Bachelor´s and Master´s level, two Master´s programmes, and doctoral education.