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The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) and organic foods with a broader list of control variables that includes green attitudes, impulsive purchasing, concerns about privacy, religiosity, birth order, and political preferences.

US internet panelists were asked about their preferences for purchasing non-GM produce, non-GM cereal, and organic products even if they cost a little more. They were also asked if genetically engineered foods are safe to consume. Responses to these four questions were dependent variables in binary logistic regressions. The sample size was 725 adults.

Attitudes toward non-GM produce and non-GM cereal were linked with different variables. Green attitudes were positively linked with non-GM and organic food attitudes. Impulsive purchases, a religiosity factor, and a privacy concern factor were linked with non-GM but not organic food attitudes. Social desirability bias was also significant. The genetically engineered food model identified some unique linkages with the control variables, suggesting that these terms may not improve consumer confidence with food.

New measures and several variables that researchers independently found to be significant were tested together in models and found to be linked with organic and non-GM food attitudes. Some expected relationships were not found. The results provide better profiles of consumers who have strong attitudes toward GM and organic foods.

Food safety is an issue of key concern for Chinese consumers. This study identifies intrinsic and extrinsic cues on product labels or websites that Chinese consumers use to assess a product's perceived safety.

Five structured focus groups (total participants n = 41) were run in Suzhou China, in Chinese, to gather consumers' perceptions towards food safety cues.

A total of 18 safety cues were identified during the focus group discussions. Certifications, country of origin, production date and shelf life, ingredients and materials and nutritional information were the five safety cues consumers perceived to be the most important. The risks perceived by consumers differed based on: product category (e.g. meat, dairy, cereal); product form (e.g. fresh, chilled, frozen) and degree of processing. Interestingly, consumers used different food safety cues to assess a packaged product compared to the product shown on a website.

While providing deep qualitative insights into perceptions of food safety cues, further studies which seek to conduct quantitative work within a wider demographic context are encouraged.

This information will help to provide best practice advice for international marketers and government risk communicators on how and where to communicate the safety of food products so that they can maximise the effectiveness of their messaging within the appropriate information channels and thereby ensure that it resonates well with Chinese consumers.

This study contributes to the academic knowledge of consumer perceptions of cues related to food safety.

Purpose – The role of genetically modified (GM) crops for food security is the subject of controversial debates. Consequently, policy-makers are unsure whether this technology is suitable for developing countries. This chapter reviews the scientific evidence.

Methodology/approach – Starting from a food security definition, potential pathways of how GM crops could contribute to hunger reduction are analyzed conceptually. Furthermore, studies about the socioeconomic impacts of GM crop applications are reviewed. This includes ex post studies for present applications such as insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops, as well as ex ante studies for future GM technologies such as Golden Rice and drought-tolerant varieties.

Findings – GM crops can raise agricultural productivity and thus contribute to better food availability. Especially when tailored to small farm conditions, GM crops can also cause income increases for the rural poor, entailing better access to food. Nutritionally enhanced, biofortified GM crops could reduce problems of micronutrient malnutrition in a cost-effective way.

Research limitations – The examples observable so far are still limited. Impacts also depend on the wider institutional setting. Like any technology, GM crops are not a substitute but a complement to much needed institutional and infrastructure improvement in developing countries.

Social implications – The fact that available GM crops already contribute to poverty reduction and improved food security has not been widely recognized up until now.

Value of paper – Results presented in this chapter can contribute to a more constructive public debate, in which GM crop risks are not discussed out of the context of actual and potential benefits.

Given the rapid rates of technological improvements possible, using modern biotechnology, the product life cycle of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is likely to be short and, hence, those investing in their development will desire access to the widest international market possible. There is, however, considerable consumer scepticism regarding GMOs, which is being translated into both government policy responses and actions by firms who are near the consumer end of the supply chain. As the licensing of GMOs is likely to vary from country to country and regulatory regimes will differ, firms involved in international supply chains for food products will be affected by the interplay of trade policy and consumer scepticism. All firms, even those not handling GMO products, will be affected because costly new monitoring procedures will be required. These additional monitoring costs suggest that competitive advantage is likely to be conferred on those supply chains which exhibit superior vertical co‐ordination.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors affecting the consumers' willingness to pay higher prices for genetically unmodified products.

Tomato was selected as a model crop. Data used in this study were gathered from questionnaires conducted in Tokat province of Turkey in April 2006. Questionnaires were accomplished via face‐to‐face interviews over 262 households. “Ordered logit model” was used in determining the factors that affect the willingness of consumers for higher prices for genetically unmodified products. Ordered models are those that limit dependent variables to certain intervals. According to the results, variables of household size, monthly household income, household's monthly food consumption expenditure and level of consumers' sensitivity over the issue affected the willingness to pay higher prices for genetically unmodified products.

Results of the study indicated that household size and monthly household income had negative effects on the willingness to pay extra, while monthly food expenditure and concern had positive effects.

The results of the study will be beneficial for the policy makers, producers, consumers and those conducting research in this area alike. Carrying out studies aimed at determining consumer preference, such as this, will help form consumer consciousness, especially in Turkey, to protect consumer health.

While genetically modified (GM) crops have provided tremendous agricultural productivity gains, many consumers oppose GM products and maintain they are unsafe. We use the case of GM sugar beets and their adoption by the US producers to examine the implications of GM technology on food security. A partial equilibrium framework is used to examine the implications of GM technology on food security. This analysis provides a unique opportunity to examine the impact of GM adoption in one product (sugar beets) relative to non-GM adoption in a substitute product (sugarcane). This analysis examines the potential gains to food security through the adoption of biotechnology versus consumer fear of GM technology. Research and development (R&D) has potential implications not only through its impact on supply, but also on demand as well. This study shows that demand impacts can negate the supply-induced food security gains of R&D. Regulations such as mandatory labeling requirements can impact this outcome.

At the beginning of the new millennium, looking through national / international perspectives and analysing different projections and conclusions, investigation of future, interrogation of systems and ourselves will be useful. It is necessary to talk about the past and the future in a global perspective when the world population is more than 6 billion and expected to increase around another 2 billion in the next 25 years. Natural resources are limited instead of increased population in the world around. However the growth of technology and communication level, there are so many hazard factors in the life for many developing countries. Simply maintaining current levels of food availability will require rapid production increases without destroying natural resources. Having a good nutritional status for all human societies, everybody must have to think “us” as instead of “myself”. The world has expanded beyond the global village to include the global market where there is ever‐increasing mobility of capital, labour and goods, in the recent years. Globalisation is not only a question of size, but also of kind: it is inextricably linked to privatisation. It stimulated major economic restructuring in both developed and developing countries, and has greatly changed the balance of public and private sectors. Mostly agricultural production for export is seen as one of the driving forces of development. Harmonisation through the setting of international regulations and standards still needs considerable efforts. So that potential benefits and defects, the outcomes of globalisations are mixed and also demographic and production relationship correlations are changed dramatically. In the world natural food and water sources have been reduced, when population increased speedily and environments pollution has become dramatic. In spite of urbanisation the majorities are in rural areas. The information revolutions and scientific / technological challenges also created a major difference between developed and developing countries. Genetically modified organisms and foods are the most important question at this time in the world. Again the differences about sharing chance of the sources between rich and poor countries are another important inequity. “Food insecurity” means that “lacking access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food and are therefore not consuming enough for an active and healthy life”. There are so many reasons for the unavailability of food, inadequate purchasing power or inappropriate utilisation at household level. The linkages between demographic motivations, poverty and environmental degradation, their relationships and implications according to the development programs and planning will try to be discussed in this article. Nutritional and energy requirements, some nutritional deficiencies, reflections on the commercial life, food security programs, and better information systems on “Food Insecurity and Vulnerability (FIVIMS)”, “National Nutrition Country Profiles (NFC)”, farseeing of UN's, Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be summarised. Also it is planned to make small statistical tour on the national and international past, status, and near future on problems and expected reflections, some of the solution offers are improving strategies and increasing consciousness to consumers, developments of health ‐ agriculture — education politics will be summarised. Governmental responsibilities and financial supports will try to be discussed. Finding food, improving life, preparing a better world must be a primer responsibility for all countries, governments, sectors and for everybody in this millennium.

Purpose – The chapter examines the international welfare effects of biotech crop adoption, based on a transversal literature review and a case study of the introduction of genetically modified (GM) food crops in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Methodology/approach – The analysis is based on (a) a review of lessons from the applied economic literature and (b) simulations using an improved multimarket, multicountry, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, calibrated with productivity hypotheses formulated with local scientists in the four Asian countries.

Findings – Results from the analysis show that, in the absence of trade-related regulations, GM crop adoption generates economic gains for adopting countries and importing non-adopters, that domestic regulations at adopters and especially non-adopters can reduce these gains, and that import regulations in other countries can also affect gains for exporting adopters. The case study illustrates these conclusions, but it also shows that net importers will mostly benefit from adoption in their terms of trade, and that segregation of non-GM crops for export markets can be beneficial if it is not too costly.

Research limitations/implications – The use of a CGE model allows for accounting for cross-sectoral effects, and for regulations affecting bilateral trade flows, but it also has a number of limitations. The model used here, like the ones used in the other papers in the literature, is static, based on an aggregated representation of the global economy (GTAP database), and assumes perfect competition. This means that the absolute results of each scenario may not perfectly represent the actual welfare effects engendered by the adoption of biotech crops. Still, what matters here is the comparison of the relative welfare effects across countries and scenarios. The simulations are also done ex-ante, so, even if the model here was calibrated with country-based data, the results do depend on hypothetical assumptions about the performance of the selected technologies.

Originality/value of the paper – The chapter aims to illustrate the welfare effects generated by GM crops for adopters, non-adopters, in a segmented and regulated international market. Unlike other papers, the review section provides key transversal lessons from the literature, accounting for results from both partial equilibrium and CGE model studies. The empirical application focuses on four populous Asian countries that have been largely left out of the literature. The model used in the simulation presents a number of improvement from the CGE literature on GM crops, including partial adoption, factor-biased productivity shock in each adopting country, GM labeling regulations modeled as trade filters, and the inclusion of costly non-GM segregation as observed in the international market.

After having discussed the case, the reader will be able to analyse the dangers associated with product changes; contrast various strategic marketing issues that can be considered when implementing changes, including marketing communication and the use of social media; motivate an approach to customer complaints and comments on the launch of a new product; and comment on the ethical issues associated with new product launches.

Marketers are focused on satisfying customers’ needs, and no organisation would deliberately offend or alienate customers. Occasionally, organisations make decisions that anger customers as they do not understand the reasoning behind them. Sometimes, the decision is the correct one and once the company has clarified the reason behind it, the customer adjusts to the new situation. At other times, the consumer refuses to accept the decision and abandons the organisation or the specific product. This situation indicates some important negative outcomes for companies when making changes to product formulas. Social media allows customers to complain and comment, adding visibility to the situation. All these factors contribute to presenting management with a challenge in dealing with this situation, considering the needs of the company and balancing them with the customer reactions.

Third-year strategic marketing students MBA students (marketing courses)

Teaching notes (and necessary annexures) permissions.

CSS 8: Marketing.