The hospitality industry has taken advantage of consumers’ increasing concerns regarding environmental issues. Worldwide, green restaurants have increased their profitability by using environmental attributes as a competitive advantage. In Romania, restaurants could profit from this new trend. This study aims to determine the perception of Generation Z consumers regarding green restaurants, since these younger consumers seem to have adopted more eco-friendly behavior compared to previous generations. Another objective of the study refers to assessing the importance of attributes relating to environmental protection and organic food when choosing a restaurant, consequently revealing a suitable market segment for this type of restaurant. In order to determine their degree of knowledge related to the concept of green restaurant, potential consuming behavior if implemented, and identifying the factors considered important when choosing a restaurant, this research compiles information from individuals belonging to Generation Z. Using principal component analysis, five factors were obtained, among which the “health and fresh food” was the most important. Based on the five dimensions, K-means cluster analysis led to three profiles of consumers. “Pro-environmental and convenience seekers” represent the largest cluster and should be considered the main target for future green restaurant practitioners. Additionally, our study finds an overall positive attitude toward green restaurants among the respondents and, more specifically, opinions on how these restaurants could address environmental issues and offer organic food, both important factors for Generation Z. This translates into a strong incentive for future entrepreneurs considering this business model in Romania.

Labeling strategies are often discussed in the context of local food purchase. Substantial research has been undertaken to discern buyers’ preferences for different labeling strategies associated with a production practice or a geographic location. Some studies have also emphasized the substitution or complementarity effects that may occur across these different labels. Using a large choice experiment with 1820 respondents across six US southern states, this research evaluates buyers’ preferences for co-labeling strategies, focusing on the association of a production practice and certifications (USDA Organic and Certified Naturally Grown) alongside six different production locations, ranging from local to imported sources. We focus on pint baskets of cherry tomatoes, chosen due to their popularity among purchasers of fresh produce. Based on the results provided by a Bayesian Mixed Logit model, we derived the respondent-specific posterior distribution of the partworths associated with each production location and regressed each of those against demographic indicators. Our findings highlight that most buyers substitute between USDA Organic and Certified Naturally Grown (CNG), and a minority consistently opt for the same production practice option. In addition, we underscore that price, or an indication of origin predominantly guides nearly half of buyers’ choices. We find that the premium for CNG is slightly superior to the organic one. Last, older respondents and respondents with a higher degree of education value produce grown within their state over neighboring states and more distant origins.

Agricultural production is important for ensuring food security, supporting many activities of society and building strong trade economy of a country, but can be slightly influenced by numerous factors. Even if exists a lot of studies that analyze the influencing factors of agricultural production in terms of value, investments, climate change, credits, costs of energy and more, in the literature can be observed a research gap regarding the relation between emissions or mean weekly hours actually worked per employed person and value of agricultural production. The identified gap in the specialty literature was covered in this paper. The present paper aims to analyze a series of factors that influence the value of agricultural production, like: climate change, employment, government expenditure and imports, after discussing the theoretical framework about the subject. The methodological approach is based on using several linear regressions, tested with the EViews software. One of the main findings indicates the existence of relationships between both the change of imports and the change of emissions with the value of agricultural production in Romania during 1995-2021. Also, another result indicates a negative influence of temperature change on the value of agricultural production, showing once again that climate change does negatively impact agricultural output and, thus, the sustainable development of Romania. This study could be used further by policy makers to understand on which drivers should act on in developing sustainable policies for Romanian agriculture.