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The purpose of this paper is to investigate determinants for the viability of school lunch programs with a zero‐price start‐up period.

Data sources include application material, questionnaire surveys among the pupils, parents, and staff at the participating schools, follow‐up telephone interviews with the staff, as well as interviews with suppliers. Data are analysed using principal components analysis and logistic regression.

An econometric analysis suggests that price, school size, demand‐stimulating activities related to the schools' support and the users' feeling of ownership, as well as internal professionalism and leadership in the implementation of the school lunch program are important for the viability of the program. These components may, to some extent, compensate for the gap between cost and users' willingness to pay for school lunches.

The study contributes to increase awareness of the many determinants and barriers for the viability of school lunches. Experience from the study demonstrates a significant challenge in making user requirements for quality, product diversity and willingness to pay meet with the costs of supplying school lunches.

The focus on the economic viability on school lunches is a new approach to the topic compared to the literature, which mainly concentrates on the physical and environmental effects of providing food in schools

Currently, there is a conflict in developing countries between the requirements for the self-development of forestry and the insufficient investment in the forestry sector, and the forest ticket system is an innovative forestry management method to solve this contradiction. In the research on the forest ticket system, the study of its price formation mechanism is relatively important. The key issues of the forest ticket system are how to form the forest ticket price and whether the forest ticket pricing methods are reasonable. Solving these problems is the purpose of this study.

This study will use three methods, namely the forest ecosystem service value evaluation index method, the ecosystem service value based on per unit area evaluation method and the contingent valuation method, to study the forest ticket price formation mechanism, filling the gap in the current research on forest ticket pricing methods. It will analyze how these three pricing methods specifically price the forest ticket and evaluate whether these pricing methods are reasonable. This study will then summarize and comprehensively study the forest ticket price formation mechanism and provide policy recommendations for decision-making departments.

The contingent valuation method and the forest ecosystem service value evaluation index method should be mainly used and given priority in the forest ticket pricing process. When the forest ticket is mainly issued for local residents' willingness to compensate for the forestry ecological value, the contingent valuation method should be mainly considered; when the forest ticket is mainly issued for compensating for the ecological value of local used forest land, the forest ecosystem service value evaluation index method should be mainly considered. The ecosystem service value based on per unit area evaluation method does not need to be the focus.

Compared with existing research studies, which focus more on the forest ticket system itself and the definition of forest ticket, this study mainly focuses on the forest ticket price formation mechanism, emphasizing how to form the forest ticket price and whether the forest ticket pricing methods are reasonable, which has a certain degree of innovation and research value and can partially fill the gap in related fields. At the same time, this study has certain help for the enrichment of the forest ticket system and the extension of related research studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer preference of and willingness to pay for eco-labelled eggs using cross-sectional data collected from Chongqing Municipality in China.

This study employs both conditional logistic model and mixed logistic model to conduct the empirical analysis.

The empirical results show that individual heterogeneous preference and attributes of eco-labelled eggs significantly influence consumer choices. More specifically, higher per capita income, families with pregnant women or children, higher level of trust in and knowledge of eco-labels contribute positively to choosing eco-labelled eggs, and attributes of eco-labelled eggs such as certification labels, free-range husbandry, and nutrition enrichment significantly increase consumer utility. Generally, the price premium that consumers are willing to pay for eggs containing “organic”, “free-range husbandry”, and “nutrition enrichment” labels is 375.0% more, equivalent to 42.8 Yuan/kg.

This study used first-hand survey data to reveal consumers’ heterogeneous preference of and willingness to pay for eco-labelled eggs based on the random utility theory.

The purpose of this paper is to consider recent field evidence to analyse what online public services citizens need, explores potential citizen subsidy of these specific services and investigates where resources should be invested in terms of media accessibility. The authors explore these from a citizen-centric affordability perspective within three exemplar developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank and United Nations in particular promote initiatives under the “Information and Communication Technologies for Development” (ICT4D) to stress the relevance of e-Government as a way to ensure development and reduce poverty. The authors adopt a contingency value approach to determine directly reported citizens willingness to pay for digital public services. Hence, our focus is mainly upon an empirical investigation through extensive fieldwork in the context of sub-Sahara Africa. A substantive survey was conducted in the respective cities of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lagos (Nigeria) and Johannesburg (South Africa). The sample of citizens was drawn from each respective Chamber of Commerce database for Ethiopia and South Africa, and for Nigeria a purchased database of businesses, based on stratified random sampling. These were randomly identified from both sectors ensuring all locations were covered with a total sample size of 1,297 respondents. It was found, in particular, that citizens were willing to pay to be able to access digital public services and that amounts of fees they were willing to pay varied depending on what services they wish to access and what devices they use (PCs or mobile phones).

The authors adopt a contingency value approach to determine directly reported citizens willingness to pay for digital public services. A survey was conducted in the respective cities of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lagos (Nigeria) and Johannesburg (South Africa). The sample of citizens was drawn from each respective Chamber of Commerce database for Ethiopia and South Africa, and for Nigeria a purchased database of businesses, based on stratified random sampling. These were randomly identified from both sectors ensuring all locations were covered with a total sample size of 1,297 respondents.

The findings suggest that by understanding citizen needs, demands and how they can benefit from online public services could drive decisions related to what public services need to be prioritised for economically active citizens, potentially explore citizen subsidy of these specific public services which will have a trickle-down benefit to poorer citizens by reducing the pressures on traditional channels of public service delivery and investigate where resources should be invested in terms of media to access online services. Willingness to pay between the top online public services showed no statistically significant difference among all respondents.

The research focused on economically active digitally savvy citizens in the major capital cities in each of our selected countries. While these are not representative of the population at large, our intention was to understand what citizen-led government services would look like from the perspective of this group, with an insight into the value they place on these online services and their ability to access them. Technology diffusion starts with the early adopters (Rogers, 2010), and here the authors have focused on those that are likely to be early adopters.

Poor fiscal capacity, namely, the amount and type of resources a state has at its disposal, not only has an impact on economic wellbeing, but particularly relevant in this case, also has an impact on the quality of government (Baskaran and Bigsten, 2013). Thus, e-government is one way in which developing countries can focus on developing good governance and strengthening civil society to improve the quality of government and motivate citizens to participate in the political process.

The economic performance of African countries has been viewed with pessimism, consistently considered to be the poorest continent (Harrison et al., 2014). Recent studies have empirically shown that new information technologies have contributed to longer term economic growth in African countries and stress the need for government to further invest in developing telecommunications infrastructures and internet access (Donou-Adonsou et al., 2016). However one of the major constraints and challenges for developing countries is the limited fiscal capacity and ability to mobilise fiscal resources to finance the provision of public services, which is essential for economic development (Ali et al., 2015).

The authors contribute to the World Bank and United Nations initiatives to promote ICT for Development’ (ICT4D) the relevance of e-government as a way to ensure development and reduce poverty. If online services are of no benefit, even if they are more convenient and lower cost, they are unlikely to be used. Accessing digital public services directly addresses the needs of economically active citizens and can also facilitate the steps towards an improved quality of government and interaction with civil society. The study has contributed to an insightful understanding of the value, cost and benefits of citizen-led e-Government in this respect.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

This study aimed to investigate consumers’ perception on sustainable business-and-industry (B&I) foodservice and their willingness to pay a premium for it.

An online survey was conducted. Among the 978 respondents, a total of 548 respondents who used B&I foodservice equal to or more than five times a month on an average were included for analyses.

The result revealed that consumers tended to perceive the concept of sustainability as “equivalent to (32 per cent) or beyond (28 per cent) being green or eco-friendly”. Consumers appeared to perceive the need for and the quality of sustainable B&I foodservice highly, but their awareness was comparatively low. Consumers’ awareness was significantly different across all demographic and food-related lifestyle variables. However, significant differences in the need and perceived quality were found only among food-related lifestyle variables. The result also indicated that 66 per cent of consumers were willing to pay a premium average of USD 0.72, 21 per cent of the reference meal price (USD 3.53) proposed in the survey. Consumers’ gender and eco-friendly dietary lifestyles were the significant determinants in predicting consumers’ willingness to pay a premium.

With concerns over environmental crisis, sustainable development has been a mainstream agenda across the world. However, the issue of sustainable development appears to be relatively overlooked in the field of foodservice research. This study is meaningful, in that it calls attention to the importance and potential of realizing sustainable foodservice and provides a starting point in relevant researches.

Purchases of luxury fashion brands continues to grow rapidly in metropolitan China, creating a significant global marketplace. Associated behaviour is maturing, exhibiting levels of sophistication and is risk averse, consequently, purchasing intention and willingness to pay more represent areas for marketer consideration, as do the potential impact of consumer‐perceived brand value and affect on these outcomes.

A survey of 431 Chinese consumers located in Beijing was undertaken within shopping malls specialising in luxury brands, fashion items included. The analysis undertaken considers the influence of value and affect on purchase intention and consumers’ willingness to pay extra, achieved by deploying confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equations modelling (SEM).

Functional and social value positively influence consumers’ willingness to pay premium prices, impending purchase intentions and affective attitude towards luxury brands, functional value consistently acting as the more dominant predictor, with attitude further directly influencing purchase intention. Symbolic values afforded by consumers influence to some extent affective attitude, but not willingness to pay, whilst the direct effect on purchase intention is counter intuitive.

The research was restricted to Beijing, where consumer behaviour understanding is transferable to other key Chinese conurbations, but not necessarily to the majority of the country, where disposable income levels and consumer relationships with fashion and luxury are recognisably different.

This centres on setting and recognition of the key antecedents of purchase intention and a propensity to pay more for items of fashion and luxury.

Forests support human livelihoods and mitigate against climate change, yet they are at a risk of irreversible loss due to high degradation rates. The success of forest conservation mechanisms depends on involvement and support by forest dependent communities. In this paper, the authors assess forest dependent household's willingness to pay (WTP) labour or cash for a conservation programme seeking to restore degraded forestland in Mount Elgon Forest, Kenya.

Data were collected from 919 households in Mt Elgon forest reserve, Kenya. A double bounded contingent valuation approach was used to examine households' WTP and an ordered probit model to estimate the determinants of WTP.

The findings of the study show a higher WTP for conservation through labour days (12 days/month, equivalent to 1800 KES/month) compared to cash (KES 450/month). Forest dependence has a significant influence on households' willingness to support conservation activities. A higher WTP was observed amongst households with higher vulnerability (high shocks value, low asset value and those in the poorest wealth categories) implying that they are more willing to contribute for forest conservation.

While emerging literature on WTP for forest conservation is growing, few studies have paid attention on the influence of forest dependence on WTP for forest conservation. There are limited studies on use of in-kind contribution as a payment vehicle for WTP. The study's findings show a high WTP in form of labour suggesting the importance of embracing in-kind contribution as a mechanism of supporting forest conservation in contexts of developing countries.

This research aims to study whether consumers differ in their attitudes toward equivalent prices that include vs exclude taxes and fees. In addition, this research will study whether computation ease-based processing fluency and perceived price fairness mediate this relationship in parallel, and whether need for cognition and political beliefs and affiliation moderate the effect.

Two experiments were conducted in which participants evaluated two price formats and then responded to relevant measures.

This research shows that consumers perceive prices that include (vs exclude) taxes and fees to be easier to process, and a fairer price, and subsequently exhibit a higher willingness to buy. Additionally, this effect is moderated by need for cognition, and political beliefs and affiliation.

Future research could investigate potential additional situational moderators (such as price type – total vs unit, consumption category, relative sizes of base price vs taxes and fees) and dispositional moderators (such as price sensitivity and tightwadism/spendthriftism).

This research provides insights to marketers regarding the downstream impact of pricing decisions – such as including vs excluding taxes and fees from total price. Further, depending on the product category and target customer characteristics (political affiliation), marketers can determine whether to include or exclude taxes and fees.

This research highlights the tendency of conservatives to avoid taxes and fees. As such, it adds to the understanding of conservative consumer groups.

This research contributes to existing research on price-framing research by finding an interesting effect related to multi-dimensional pricing and partitioned pricing. Additionally, this research contributes to existing research on computation ease-based processing fluency and price fairness perception. Finally, this contributes to an increasingly important body of research: the effect of political affiliation on consumption. This also provides clear guidance to marketers with regard to deciding service pricing.

China frequently suffers from weather‐related natural disasters and weather risk is recognized as a source of wide‐spread systemic risk throughout large swaths of China. During these periods farmers' crops are at risk and for a largely poor population few can afford the turmoil to livelihoods that goes along with drought. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the willingness of Shaanxi and Gansu farmers to purchase weather insurance.

This paper is based on surveyed results of 890 farm households in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. The survey was designed specifically to extract willingness to pay for weather insurance. Factor affecting willingness to pay are explained using linear regression.

The authors find strong evidence that the demand for drought insurance is downward sloping and also believe from the analysis that the demand is fairly elastic. This suggests that price matters and the results suggest that in order for wide spread adoption of weather insurance farmers will require a substantial premium, perhaps in the order of 80 per cent, as is being applied to current crop insurance initiatives. The authors find, as expected, that crop producers would be willing to pay more for insurance than livestock producers, but also find, as one would expect, that the key indicator is risk. Using a Pert distribution, the authors constructed from information gathered from farmers the expected values and standard deviations of gross revenues and yields of the most prominent crop and constructed the coefficient of variation. It was found in both cases that the higher the CV the greater the willingness to pay.

The authors believe that this is the first willingness‐to‐pay study of weather insurance uptake in China. The authors used a unique “experimental” design and investigation technique to determine weather insurance demand.