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Professor Magnus Lagnevik

Telefon:
046-2224279
E-Mail:
magnus.lagnevik@fek.lu.se

Lund International Food Studies

A Research Program at Lund Institute of Economic Research

LIFS - Lund International Food Studies is a program that aims to bridge different disciplines as well as researchers from different parts of Europe in order to establish a platform for better understanding of the fundamental changes that is taken place in the European food and packaging industries.

The overall purpose of the research program is to capture and analyze the future dynamics of the Swedish food chain in international competition. A strong emphasis is on the understanding and measurement of consumer demand changes. Another focused area is the interaction between marketing intelligence and technology. The main approach is to use international comparative studies, to have a food-chain perspective and to integrate the household in the food chain.

We study the changing roles of the actors in the food chain. The role of house brands and private labels belong to the phenomena that create dynamics in the retailing as well as in the food processing companies. The producer’s strategies to build brand equity and strong brands must be related to the retail activities in the program. The new possibilities for the retailers purchasing function create other objects of study. The increasing importance of category management also gives important triggers for change in the food chain, and it also highlights the need for development of new ways to study consumer preferences and product competition.

The consumers have increasing possibilities to choose how much they want to participate in the food processing, and thus the importance of simultaneous analysis of products and services is increasing. The study of combined offers of products and services also belong to our research area.

Use of information technology and electronic media changes the work organization in the retail stores, it gives new opportunities for distribution and logistics as well as for the marketing intelligence function.

The increasing dynamic pluralism among consumers highlights the importance of the product development function, and we also study how technology and other unique resources can be combined with marketing intelligence in the building of sustainable competitive advantage.