Search results

The purpose of this conceptual paper was to introduce the risk–benefit approach to bakery products in relation to their acrylamide content. Acrylamide is a compound which gives rise to risks of cancer, and several mitigating procedures have been in place for various products and processes. This paper concentrated on bakery products and took a risk–benefit approach in relation to acrylamide.

Papers published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed. A combination of keywords such as acrylamide, bakery products and risk/benefit were used to find sources. Additional sources, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations documents, were also used when relevant. After looking at the main characteristics of acrylamide, the potential benefit of bread was also looked at. The paper summarises known information on acrylamide and looks at the risk and benefit of bakery products in relation to this compound.

The risk analysis approach can be extended to include benefits so that a balanced conclusion can be reached whether a product is an acceptable part of the diet or not. Exposure to acrylamide was a function of the product type and preparation/process. Bakery products were a source of many nutrients, and the risk regarding acrylamide may be controlled by careful product and process design.

There was contradictory information regarding how unsafe acrylamide is. In this paper, the risk–benefit approach has been qualitatively used to weigh both the risks and benefits of the bakery product category.

The aim of this study is to identify and explore consumer preferences and information needs regarding the simultaneous communication of risks and benefits associated with food consumption. The focus is on the net health impact of risks and benefits on life expectancy, quality of life, and disability adjusted life years (DALYs).

Focus groups were conducted in four countries (Iceland, The Netherlands, Portugal, UK). All sessions were audio‐taped, transcribed and content analyzed.

Current risk‐benefit communication is perceived as “asymmetrical”, confusing, and often distrusted. Participants expressed a preference for more balanced and scientifically derived information. Information about the net health impact on both life expectancy and quality of life was found to be meaningful for food decision making. DALYs were thought too complicated.

Findings confirm the importance of incorporating consumers' viewpoints when developing communications about risk and benefits. The results provide insights into potential issues related to the communication of risk and benefit information. The limitations of the qualitative approach adopted in this study suggest that further research utilizing nationally representative samples is needed, which may explore additional metrics to communicate net health effects to consumers.

Common measures for assessing both risks and benefits are expected to facilitate the communication of the results of risk‐benefit assessment as part of risk analysis. However, research incorporating consumers' perspectives on this issue is scarce. A better understanding of how consumers perceive these measures may promote the development of more effective integrated risk benefit communication.

Discusses the importance of effective risk‐benefit communication about genetic engineering in food production. The consumer, industry and science are all likely to benefit from the creation of an “informed consumer”. There is a need to develop strategies to maximize the effectiveness of such communication, in order to reach target audiences. Risk‐benefit communication is likely to require a different approach to that which has evolved from the communication of risk information alone. Investigates future research needs and concludes that risk‐benefit communication will usefully invoke public debate about future directions for technological evolution and development.

This study aims to purpose a strategy for Financial Technology (Fintech) service development to increase user adoption of Fintech services.

A conceptual model based on a risk-benefit approach was adopted based on the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance models. The partial least squares structural equation modelling method was used to test the proposed model and estimate the relationship between constructs. The results are used to develop strategies, which are then categorised based on the integration of an importance-performance analysis and the Kano model.

The results show that trust, economic benefit and convenience significantly influence users to adopt Fintech services, whereas privacy awareness, financial risk and legal risk factors affect user trust. A strategy for consumer protection against security threats and financial losses warrants the highest priority for improvement.

The findings of this study can help Fintech product managers classify their service improvements and help regulators make the appropriate policy decisions related to customer security and the adoption of Fintech.

There are some limitations of this research that should be noted. First, the research target respondents were millennials who have been statistically proven to have the highest affinity in using Fintech services. Second, the Fintech services used in this research were only mobile payments, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding. Future research could expand the number of research respondents to improve research validity, including other Fintech services or focus on one Fintech service at a time for targeted results and consider moderation variables, such as customer experience with Fintech services based on age and gender.

This study contributes to the development of new frameworks for evaluating Fintech adoption intention based on a risk-benefit approach. It also presents strategy recommendations to be implemented by Indonesian Fintech companies.

This paper presents the findings of an empirical work on attitudes towards the application of the gene technology to food production in Italy. It focuses on the importance of perception of risks, benefits and uncertainty in determining general attitude to foods produced by genetic engineering. Also, the role of general attitudes and perceived moral obligation in influencing the expectation of consuming foods produced by gene technology was analysed. A mail survey was organised and 434 subjects completed the questionnaires. The results revealed that more people had unfavourable attitudes towards the application of genetic engineering to food production than favourable. More people indicated low benefits than high, more people reported high risks than low risks. Also, more people agreed that there is high uncertainty about potential consequences by genetic engineering than certainty. The findings of regression analyses showed that the perception of benefits outweighed perception of risks in the impact on general attitudes towards the applications of genetic engineering to food production, whereas the perception of uncertainty contributed marginally to the prediction of attitudes. General attitudes appeared to be an important determinant of the expectation of consuming food produced by genetic engineering.

The aim of this article is to propose a model to study the expenses of an RFID‐based library system. For this purpose risk‐benefit factors using causal loop concepts are studied and identified. Then, a flow diagram is developed and the mathematical formulation of the proposed model is presented and used for simulation purposes.

This paper is written based on research and observations from scientific journals and reports. For this purpose key elements of risks and benefits of radio frequency identification in library services are identified. For model development purposes the concepts of systems thinking and system dynamics are employed. The systems thinking perspective is used as a tool to relate key factors of risks and benefits, and system dynamics are used to simulate the model of the problem.

Systems thinking can provide an efficient way to analyze the risks, benefits, and the risk‐benefit phenomena of systems. The use of system dynamics allows us to look into the behavior of the level variable that is of main concern to management. In the case of this article, it is library expenses that are studied and kept under control.

Library managers can benefit from this article through the development of similar models using systems thinking and simulating similar models using system dynamics to find the behaviour of one or more variables of the system to analyze system expenses and manage costs.

A system with a given level of expense was employed, and then by taking key factors into consideration a system is proposed that can provide lower expenses with the presence of RFID technology. Due to the fact that the proposed methodology allows management to look into the expenses of the library over coming periods and to design the system the way management feels is possible (a new expense level in a period of n years), this study makes a significant contribution to the literature.

The advancement of enterprise social networks (ESNs) facilitates information sharing but also presents the challenge of managing information boundaries. This study aims to explore the factors that influence the information-control behavior of ESN users when continuously sharing information.

This study specifies the information-control behaviors in the “wall posts” channel and applies communication privacy management (CPM) theory to analyze the effects of the individual-specific factor (disposition to value information), context-specific factors (work-relatedness and information richness) and risk-benefit ratio (public benefit and public risk). Data on actual information-control behaviors extracted from ESN logs are examined using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis.

The study's findings show the direct effects of the individual-specific factor, context-specific factors and risk-benefit ratio, highlighting interactions between the individual motivation factor and ESN context factors.

This study reshapes the relationship of CPM theory boundary rules in the ESN context, extending information-control research and providing insights into ESNs' information-control practices.

Electricity networks in Europe have been experiencing drastic changes driven by deregulation. The old monopoly businesses do not always find it easy to make the required improvements, and some are outsourcing the functions to private service providers. Outsourcing is a fairly new phenomenon in electricity distribution, however, and there are few studies on the subject. The purpose of this paper is to narrow the gap in assessing the affecting factors and the impact in a case involving outsourcing the underground cabling functions of a publicly‐owned network company to a private service provider.

The study is based mainly on qualitative interviews and an expert group session set up to analyse the acquired data. The affecting factors and the outsourcing impact levels were determined in the group discussion, and analysed in accordance with the risk/benefit framework developed, taking account of both the short‐ and long‐term aspects.

Outsourcing in the electricity network industry should be assessed holistically from the perspectives of the outsourcing company and the service provider. The results of outsourcing depend on the function in question, and there are wide differences in how it affects different elements of the organisations involved. A risk/benefit framework provides significant insights into the impacts and increase understanding about the causalities of the phenomenon and the goals of the partners.

The paper provides new knowledge with regard to electricity distribution by illustrating the affecting factors and the impacts of outsourcing. The presented framework gives a holistic picture of the impacts in an analysis of both parties' viewpoints and the short and long time scales in the relationship.

This paper aims to address the relationship between fear of identity theft/fraud and online shopping, while identifying the most important factors affecting online shopping.

This study uses a mixed method approach in which the quantitative analysis identifies patterns in the data, whereas the qualitative analysis offers in-depth interpretation.

More fear actually predicts more online shopping but shoppers’ trust in the website’s willingness to redress financial harm and risk-benefit analysis are the real factors in online shopping.

The sample consists of Amazon users mostly so the findings may not apply to those who never shop on Amazon or never shop online at all.

To encourage online shopping, online shopping websites should focus on maximizing the benefit and minimizing the risk, but without addressing the risk by reassuring shoppers of their financial security, emphasizing the benefit alone is ineffective.

This is the first study addressing online shopping in terms of fear of victimization. It is also the first study that addresses risk and benefit in relative terms as in risk-benefit analysis measured by both quantitative and qualitative methods.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the numerous risk and benefit perceptions involved in the patrons’ purchase and consumption decisions related to wine in India. It will also recognise and find out the motives behind the consumers’ drinking patterns and attitude towards wine, which affect their overall behavioural intentions (word of mouth and repurchase intentions).

Data were collected using a structured survey questionnaire from the 375 wine patrons in Delhi. Exploratory factor analysis was used in which the risk (five) and benefit (two) factors related to wine consumption were verified on a factor model using 25 constructs. It was a two-phase process in which the measurement model, with six constructs and 18 measurement items, were measured, trailed by the structural model. A conceptual framework was used to illustrate the relationships amongst the variables and was empirically verified.

The findings revealed that the risk and benefit perceptions of the wine patrons are not only interlinked but are also accountable for their fluctuations in attitudes. In the factorial analysis, it was discovered that perceived benefit factors, i.e. value for money and convenience, are accountable for positively affecting the attitudes of patrons towards the wines. The results also specify that an increase in benefit perception or decrease in risk perception will positively transform the patrons’ attitude towards wine.

Although a few studies have been done to find out the risk/benefit perceptions of wine consumers in the developed countries (i.e. USA, France, UK, etc.) but this will be the first attempt to find out how the consumption patterns and purchase decisions of wine consumers are affected in developing countries like India. Moreover, it will help the stakeholders to align their wine products as per the needs and demands of the patrons.