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Article
Publication date: 5 May 2015

Linhai Wu, Hongsha Wang and Dian Zhu

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the actual consumer demand for traceable pork by investigating consumer preferences for pork with combined levels of traceability…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the actual consumer demand for traceable pork by investigating consumer preferences for pork with combined levels of traceability information based on differences in individual consumer preferences, in order to support the government in decision making regarding the gradual construction of safe food markets.

Design/methodology/approach

Combinations of four types of traceability information, including farming, slaughter and processing, distribution and sales, and government certification, with price were randomly designed. To identify consumer preferences for these attribute combinations of traceable pork, 215 consumers in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province were investigated using a real choice experiment and the mixed logit model.

Findings

Significant heterogeneity was observed in consumer preferences for traceable pork. The information of farming, slaughter and processing, distribution and marketing, and government certification could significantly improve consumer utility. Moreover, consumers had the highest preference for government certification information.

Originality/value

Although numerous studies have been performed on consumer preferences for food safety attributes using a real choice experiment, almost none of them focus on Chinese consumers. Therefore, this study is an attempt to fill this gap. The conclusions of this study can serve as a reference for the Chinese government in developing safe food consumption policies. Although Chinese consumers have cried out for improvement of pork safety, they have different preferences for traceability information; thus, the government must promote traceable food step-by-step, using consumer preferences as a starting point.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 June 2019

Mo Chen, Yiqin Wang, Shijiu Yin, Wuyang Hu and Fei Han

The organic food sold in China can bear organic labels from different countries/regions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the trust and preferences of consumers for tomatoes…

Abstract

Purpose

The organic food sold in China can bear organic labels from different countries/regions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the trust and preferences of consumers for tomatoes carrying these different labels.

Design/methodology/approach

The data came from real choice experiments conducted in Shandong Province, China. A mixed logit model was used to analyze consumer willingness to pay (WTP).

Findings

Results indicated that, among the four organic labels considered in this study, the highest WTP was expressed for organic label from the European Union, followed by Hong Kong’s organic label, Japanese organic label and, lastly, by the Chinese mainland organic label. Consumer trust has a positive effect on their WTPs for the four organic labels. Providing consumers with information on organic can significantly lift their WTPs, and reduce the gaps between WTPs for different organic labels.

Originality/value

This research is of academic value and of value to food suppliers. International food marketers are recommended to equip their products with proper organic labels and initiate additional consumer education.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2018

Brano Glumac and Thomas P. Wissink

This paper aims to report on homebuyers’ preferences and willingness to pay for installed home photovoltaic systems. Their influence on the market position of a dwelling is…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to report on homebuyers’ preferences and willingness to pay for installed home photovoltaic systems. Their influence on the market position of a dwelling is relatively unknown. Considering that expected lifespan of photovoltaic systems is at least 25 years, it is likely that many dwellings with a photovoltaic system will enter the housing market.

Design/methodology/approach

Few houses with installed photovoltaic systems have been sold in the market to date. Lack of real market data imposes a method based on the stated preference data. Therefore, the general preferences toward photovoltaic systems are determined by a discrete choice model based on responses of 227 homebuyers in the Eindhoven region, The Netherlands. Further, the model estimates were used to assess the indirect willingness to pay for home photovoltaic systems. This initial willingness to pay is further reassessed with the direct willingness to pay collected in an open-ended questionnaire format.

Findings

Results of the model show that the homebuyers’ preferences for home photovoltaic systems are large and significant. In addition to general preferences, this article reports on the taste heterogeneity carried out by separating observations based on the respondents’ characteristics. For example, photovoltaic systems are more appealing to homebuyers in more urban or central neighbourhoods. Further, the results of the direct survey lead to the conclusion that people are probably willing to pay close to the replacement value of the system and only 22 per cent of all respondents did not want to pay anything for the installed photovoltaic system.

Research limitations/implications

These findings are exploratory and they raise a number of questions for further investigations, such as those regarding the real estate value of the installed photovoltaic systems. The reported findings must be regarded as local, thus further research is necessary to understand the impact on European housing markets.

Practical implications

Preferences and willingness to pay for home photovoltaic systems can provide a variety of economic, social and political recommendations to different interested parties such as homeowners, buyers, realtors, retailers, energy companies and governments. For instance, a homeowner would like to know what would be the effect of a photovoltaic system on the housing market.

Originality/value

As per the knowledge of authors, this is the first paper to estimate the impact of an installed photovoltaic system on housing choice, measured by stated choice data in the local housing market. It expands the existing body of knowledge for increasingly important issues of valuing and measuring preferences for photovoltaic systems installed on dwellings.

Details

Journal of European Real Estate Research, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-9269

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 January 2010

David A. Hensher

It has long been recognised that humans draw from a large pool of processing aids to help manage the everyday challenges of life. It is not uncommon to observe individuals…

Abstract

It has long been recognised that humans draw from a large pool of processing aids to help manage the everyday challenges of life. It is not uncommon to observe individuals adopting simplifying strategies when faced with ever increasing amounts of information to process, and especially for decisions where the chosen outcome will have a very marginal impact on their well-being. The transactions costs associated with processing all new information often exceed the benefits from such a comprehensive review. The accumulating life experiences of individuals are also often brought to bear as reference points to assist in selectively evaluating information placed in front of them. These features of human processing and cognition are not new to the broad literature on judgment and decision-making, where heuristics are offered up as deliberative analytic procedures intentionally designed to simplify choice. What is surprising is the limited recognition of heuristics that individuals use to process the attributes in stated choice experiments. In this paper we present a case for a utility-based framework within which some appealing processing strategies are embedded (without the aid of supplementary self-stated intentions), as well as models conditioned on self-stated intentions represented as single items of process advice, and illustrate the implications on willingness to pay for travel time savings of embedding each heuristic in the choice process. Given the controversy surrounding the reliability of self-stated intentions, we introduce a framework in which mixtures of process advice embedded within a belief function might be used in future empirical studies to condition choice, as a way of increasingly judging the strength of the evidence.

Details

Choice Modelling: The State-of-the-art and The State-of-practice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-773-8

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 December 2023

N. Nurmala, Jelle de Vries and Sander de Leeuw

This study aims to help understand individual donors’ preferences over different designs of humanitarian–business partnerships in managing humanitarian operations and to help…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to help understand individual donors’ preferences over different designs of humanitarian–business partnerships in managing humanitarian operations and to help understand if donors’ preferences align with their actual donation behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Choice-based conjoint analysis was used to understand donation preferences for partnership designs, and a donation experiment was performed using real money to understand the alignment of donors’ preferences with actual donation behavior.

Findings

The results show that partnering with the business sector can be a valuable asset for humanitarian organizations in attracting individual donors if these partnerships are managed well in terms of partnership strategy, partnership history and partnership report and disclosure. In particular, the study finds that the donation of services and products from businesses corporations to humanitarian organizations are preferable to individual donors, rather than cash. Furthermore, donors’ preferences are not necessarily aligned with actual donation behavior.

Practical implications

The results highlight the importance of presenting objective data on projects to individual donors. The results also show that donors value the provision of services and products by business corporations to humanitarian operations.

Originality/value

Partnerships between humanitarian organizations and business corporations are important for the success of humanitarian operations. However, little is known about which partnership designs are most preferable to individual donors and have the biggest chance of being supported financially.

Details

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6747

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2016

Henri Kuokkanen and William Sun

Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor…

Abstract

Purpose

Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to the discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual purchase behavior, and analyzes why consumer choices indicated in surveys do not consistently convert into actions.

Methodology/approach

We develop a conceptual framework based on hybrid choice modeling to estimate the impact of two new variables, Corporate Social Desirability and Corporate Social Cynicism, on CSR research. The model presented synthesizes research findings from the fields of CSR and psychology with a discrete choice methodology that allows inclusion of psychological aspects as latent variables.

Findings

The goal of the framework is to bridge the gap between choices stated by consumers in CSR surveys and their actual choices by quantifying and extracting the effects of biases that otherwise threaten the validity of such survey results. As the next step, the practical value of the model must be evaluated through empirical research combining a CSR choice study with social desirability and cynicism measurement.

Originality

The framework proposes a novel way of controlling CSR surveys for potential biases created by social desirability and cynicism and enables quantification of this impact, with potential application to other fields where psychological aspects may distort research results. Future empirical evidence based on the framework may also offer new insights into the mechanisms by which the two biases distort findings.

Article
Publication date: 30 October 2019

Andrea Dominici, Fabio Boncinelli, Francesca Gerini and Enrico Marone

The purpose of this paper is to investigate preferences for wine made from hand-harvested grapes, and the interactive effect between this attribute and organic certification.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate preferences for wine made from hand-harvested grapes, and the interactive effect between this attribute and organic certification.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected via an online choice experiment involving a sample of 408 Italian wine consumers. A random parameter logit was performed to estimate consumer preferences for wine attributes: harvest type, organic and the interaction between these. The experiment also includes geographical indications and price. Furthermore, a latent class model (LCM) is performed to investigate taste heterogeneity for the included wine attributes.

Findings

On average, consumers prefer the wine produced with hand-harvested grapes. The hypothesis of an interaction between organic and hand-harvested attributes is rejected. Using the LCM, the authors identify three segments with significant taste heterogeneity in terms of the magnitude and the sign of the parameters. Moreover, consumer attitudes towards food naturalness differ according to their belonging to the segments.

Originality/value

The novelty of this article is twofold. First, this study investigates, for the first time, the impact of the hand-harvested method on consumer wine preferences. Second, hand-harvesting and organic have independent values.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 November 2019

Julia Höhler and Julia A. Schreiner

In times of “milk price crises”, “fair” milk prices are repeatedly demanded. Various studies indicate an increased willingness to pay (WTP) for the additional attribute of price…

Abstract

Purpose

In times of “milk price crises”, “fair” milk prices are repeatedly demanded. Various studies indicate an increased willingness to pay (WTP) for the additional attribute of price fairness. Nevertheless, market shares have been low so far. The purpose of this paper is to discuss three possible reasons for this: low reference prices, socially desirable responses in choice experiments and the lack of justification of the claim “fair” by further attributes.

Design/methodology/approach

In a split sample, one group facing alternatives with a higher price range and the other with a lower price range, the consumer’s choices are examined. This study uses a social desirability scale for controlling biases in the stated WTP. In addition, the claim “fair” is complemented with a guaranteed price, grazing, regional production and CO2-reduction. A random parameter logit model specified in WTP space is employed to estimate milk consumers’ (n=480) preferences for “fair” milk. Furthermore, a latent class approach reveals information about the source of preference heterogeneity for fair milk attributes among the two groups of the split sample.

Findings

This study finds statistically significant differences between the two price ranges. In the low price range, additional attributes can trigger an additional WTP. In the high price range, there is no statistically significant additional WTP. WTP’s dependence on price levels could explain why the market share for “fair” milk has so far been low.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the study of the effect of split samples in choice experiments. In addition, it promotes the understanding of price fairness in milk and its determinants.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2023

Tatiana Kossova and Maria Sheluntcova

This article aims to investigate the role of socioeconomic factors and individual time preferences in the demand for fast-food in Russia. An individual discount rate shows the…

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to investigate the role of socioeconomic factors and individual time preferences in the demand for fast-food in Russia. An individual discount rate shows the ability of a person to postpone utility from consumption to future periods.

Design/methodology/approach

An individual discount rate is measured through a hypothetical money experiment. The database is the special survey of the Levada analytical center conducted in 2017. Multivariate probit model enables the authors to consider the possible endogeneity of individual discount rate and reveal the relationship between socioeconomic factors and frequent fast-food consumption.

Findings

Results show that a higher individual discount rate is related to frequent consumption of fast-food. At the same time, there are factors that provoke both a higher individual discount rate and the refusal of frequent consumption of fast-food. Findings advise the prioritization of measures highlighting the short-term benefits of healthy eating and the short-term costs of avoiding it.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge, this article is the first one which presents comprehensive investigation of microeconomic factors of fast-food consumption in Russia including individual time preferences of consumers.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2011

Christopher A. Wolf, Frank Lupi and Stephen Harsh

The purpose of this paper is to determine which financial record‐keeping system farmers use, as well as what system attributes farmers value and to what degree.

3221

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine which financial record‐keeping system farmers use, as well as what system attributes farmers value and to what degree.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a choice experiment to examine farmer's demand for attributes of financial record‐keeping systems. A sample from the general Michigan farm population is compared to samples from university and agribusiness record system clients.

Findings

Results reveal that university and agribusiness clients are willing to pay considerably more for a farm‐specific record system to backstop their farm management decisions.

Practical implications

The results provide an understanding of farmer demands for farm financial record systems and can be used to position record‐keeping systems to meet those demands.

Originality/value

This paper describes and analyzes farm financial accounting system use and preferences by type.

Details

Agricultural Finance Review, vol. 71 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-1466

Keywords

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