Editorial – The misassumptions about contributions - Author: Cheng Lu Wang

Dietary choices, as the types and amounts of foods that individuals consume, are a major determinant of human health and environmental sustainability. From a marketing perspective, it becomes imperative to identify and understand the factors that motivate consumers to adopt a sustainable diet and purchase healthy food. This research is an attempt to contribute to the literature by revealing the major driving forces leading to healthy food consumption and identifying its underlying mechanism. Based on a survey of the diets and lifestyles of 307 Chinese consumers in several cities of the Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces, our empirical results indicate that consumer health consciousness is a major predictor of the intention to purchase healthy products. Such a relationship is explained by the psychological benefits associated with the consumption experience and the perceived naturalness of the product. Moreover, a high perceived nutritional value will enhance the mediation influences of the psychological benefit and the perceived naturalness on purchase intention while a low perceived nutritional value tends to negate such an impact.

This essay summarizes fundamental yet often overlooked issues in manuscripts submitted (and rejected) and offers insights from an experienced editor’s perspective. These issues include basic requirements (alignment with a journal’s themes, aims, scope, writing format, and required files) and more complex considerations. It highlights the importance of following key areas: demonstrating novelty and contribution, integrating overarching theories, designing multiple studies with multi-source validation, ensuring methodological rigor, and crafting compelling narratives from findings.