An empirical survey on packaging perception for italian companies and a comparison with swedish situation

Purpose of this paper The main purpose of this paper is to analyze how Italian companies manage the packaging of their products, considering different areas: starting from the development process and evaluating marketing, logistics and environmental implications. Design/methodology/approach An explorative research approach based on a questionnaire submitted to Italian companies coming from different sectors has been realized. Subsequent statistical analyzes were first focused on providing descriptive statistics. Findings The paper first presents and discusses the Italian companies packaging perspective in terms of functions, characteristics, materials and number of adopted packages. The development process and the relevance of marketing, logistics and environmental implications also emerge. The results are compared with the Swedish situation, since research in the field is well developed in Sweden for Swedish companies. Then the paper discusses the packaging challenges, requirements and needs coming out from the analysis. Research limitations/implications (if applicable) The analysis considers a representative sample of Italian companies and presents empirical results. A comparison with the situation of Swedish is made, thanks to the collaboration between Bologna and Lund Universities. This comparison could guide future research and practice on the Italian market. Practical implications (if applicable) The paper analyzes the Italian situations and its purpose is to guide researchers and engineers towards needs and future trends on packaging. Originality/value While several studies about packaging in other European countries already exist, this topic is rather neglected in Italy. The paper wants to be a first step for a deeper understanding of packaging implications and to drive researchers and companies towards its importance. The authors consider this survey as the starting point for further researches focused on the innovation in packaging, especially considering the logistics implications.