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1 – 10 of over 2000Weihua Jiao, Zetian Fu, Weisong Mu, Xiaoshuan Zhang, Jianjun Lu and Mark Xu
The purpose of this paper is to estimate the technical efficiency of Chinese table grape wholesalers and subsequently to examine the degree to which the calculated efficiency…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate the technical efficiency of Chinese table grape wholesalers and subsequently to examine the degree to which the calculated efficiency correlates with a set of explanatory variables.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-stage procedure is applied in this paper. First, a non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique is applied to investigate the degree of technical efficiency for Chinese table grape wholesalers. Second, Tobit regression is used to analyze the factors influencing technical efficiency.
Findings
Research results reveal that the mean technical efficiency of the sample is 0.544 and 0.860 under constant returns scale (CRS) and VRS assumptions, respectively, and the scale efficiency (SE) is 0.620. The variables of experiences, number of grape varieties on sale, daily selling volumes and fixed sale ratio have a significant effect on technical efficiency, while the other exogenous variables do not affect the efficiency in any significant way.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this research are specific to table grape wholesalers in China, however, the method used in this study is transferrable and applicable to the study of similar problems in others countries.
Originality/value
This research has yielded some interesting and original insights into the efficiency level of Chinese grape wholesalers and the factors that influence the level of efficiency. The findings have practical implications for Chinese agriculture policy makers, and are able to stimulate further research of a similar type in the international agricultural research community.
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Weihua Jiao, Zetian Fu, Weisong Mu, Neil McLaughlin and Mark Xu
Table grape is one of the most important horticultural crops in China. However, quality and safety have become major constraints for the further development of the Chinese table…
Abstract
Purpose
Table grape is one of the most important horticultural crops in China. However, quality and safety have become major constraints for the further development of the Chinese table grape industry, which is dominated by small‐scale vinegrowers. Strategic partnership has been regarded as an effective mechanism to manage the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a supply chain model based on different strategic partnerships on the effect of safety and quality control and small‐scale vinegrowers' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The field survey was performed in seven representative districts in China, including Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. A semi‐structured interview was adopted as the data collection method. Both quantitative and qualitative data were generated and analyzed in this research. All quantitative analyses were conducted using EXCEL 2003 version and a comparative analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that modern supply chains are more efficient than the traditional one in improving the effect of safety and quality control and small‐scale vinegrowers' performance.
Originality/value
This paper first identified different models of table grape supply chain based on different strategic partnerships, and then analyzed the impact of supply chain model on the effect of quality and safety control and small‐scale vinegrowers' performance. It concludes with some policy suggestions relative to further development of the table grape industry in China.
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Feng Jianying, Wang Xia, Fu Zetian and Mu Weisong
The paper aims to understand consumers' perception and cognition toward table grapes, which focuses on the most important attributes, consumption consequences and personal values…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to understand consumers' perception and cognition toward table grapes, which focuses on the most important attributes, consumption consequences and personal values of grape consumption and the relations among them.
Design/methodology/approach
The study related grape consumption with consumers based on Means-end chain analysis. The data were gathered with both laddering interviews (n=37) and questionnaire survey returned by 843 individuals in 31 provinces of China. The data were firstly processed by SPSS software and descriptive statistics was adopted to evaluate consumers' awareness. Furthermore, MECanalyst software was opted for, to construct the hierarchical relations of table grape consumption.
Findings
The findings are that consumers consume grapes based on their functional cognition and sensory perception. The quality-orientated characters are deemed to be the most important grape attributes, healthy and practical function are the main expected benefits and desired values in table grape consumption.
Practical implications
The findings can provide some implications to producers, administers and operators in the grape industry and inspire them to design products that will better satisfy consumers. Stakeholders in grape industries should take measures to inform consumers of grape benefits so as to increase grape consumption and expand the market.
Originality/value
The paper fulfils the combinations of laddering interview and structured questionnaire to conduct the large-scale samples survey about consumers' perception based on MEC analysis. Findings from this study reinforce the importance of research into the relationship between products and consumers.
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Mu Weisong, Li Chengcheng, Tian Dong and Feng Jianying
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify Chinese consumers’ behavior and preference characters toward table grapes, especially to explore the variance of consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify Chinese consumers’ behavior and preference characters toward table grapes, especially to explore the variance of consumption preference in recent five years.
Design/methodology/approach
Two representative China-wide questionnaire surveys were conducted by face-to-face and online questionnaire survey, respectively, in 2009 and 2014. Comparative study was adopted to dig the changes of consumers’ preferences and habits. ANOVA was adopted to explore the statistically difference among consumers’ behavior and preferences.
Findings
The results indicate that Chinese consumers are rational-motivation-driven grape consumers, they prefer to sweet taste, seedless and medium priced grapes. Safety and quality characters (clean appearance, freshness and taste) were ranked as the most important grape attributes. As a whole, it was found that consumers are more quality-focussed and safety-conscious five years later, so some variances was showed in their purchase habits and preferences, such as the choice of purchase place, attitude to special grapes and willingness to pay to safe and genetically modified grapes.
Originality/value
This research not only indicates some stable preferences of Chinese consumers toward table grape, but also finds out some significant changes in consumers’ behavior before and after five years based on a comparative study in 2009 and 2014.
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Yue Li, Xiaoquan Chu, Zetian Fu, Jianying Feng and Weisong Mu
The purpose of this paper is to develop a common remaining shelf life prediction model that is generally applicable for postharvest table grape using an optimized radial basis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a common remaining shelf life prediction model that is generally applicable for postharvest table grape using an optimized radial basis function (RBF) neural network to achieve more accurate prediction than the current shelf life (SL) prediction methods.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the final indicators (storage temperature, relative humidity, sensory average score, peel hardness, soluble solids content, weight loss rate, rotting rate, fragmentation rate and color difference) affecting SL were determined by the correlation and significance analysis. Then using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to calculate the weight of each indicator and determine the end of SL under different storage conditions. Subsequently, the structure of the RBF network redesigned was 9-11-1. Ultimately, the membership degree of Fuzzy clustering (fuzzy c-means) was adopted to optimize the center and width of the RBF network by using the training data.
Findings
The results show that this method has the highest prediction accuracy compared to the current the kinetic–Arrhenius model, back propagation (BP) network and RBF network. The maximum absolute error is 1.877, the maximum relative error (RE) is 0.184, and the adjusted R2 is 0.911. The prediction accuracy of the kinetic–Arrhenius model is the worst. The RBF network has a better prediction accuracy than the BP network. For robustness, the adjusted R2 are 0.853 and 0.886 of Italian grape and Red Globe grape, respectively, and the fitting degree are the highest among all methods, which proves that the optimized method is applicable for accurate SL prediction of different table grape varieties.
Originality/value
This study not only provides a new way for the prediction of SL of different grape varieties, but also provides a reference for the quality and safety management of table grape during storage. Maybe it has a further research significance for the application of RBF neural network in the SL prediction of other fresh foods.
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Joshua Graff Zivin, Lisa B. Kahn and Matthew Neidell
In this chapter, we examine the impact of pay-for-performance incentives on learning-by-doing. We exploit personnel data on fruit pickers paid under two distinct compensation…
Abstract
In this chapter, we examine the impact of pay-for-performance incentives on learning-by-doing. We exploit personnel data on fruit pickers paid under two distinct compensation contracts: a standard piece rate plan and one with an extra one-time bonus tied to output. Under the latter, we observe bunching of performance just above the bonus threshold, suggesting workers distort their behavior in response to the discrete bonus. Such bunching behavior increases as workers gain experience. At the same time, the bonus contract induces considerable learning-by-doing for workers throughout the productivity distribution who presumably hope to one day hit the target, and these improvements significantly outweigh the losses to the firm from the bunching. In contrast, under the standard piece rate contract, we find minimal evidence of bunching and only small performance improvements at the bottom of the productivity distribution. Our results suggest that contract design can help foster learning on the job, underscoring the importance of dynamic considerations in principle-agent models.
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Grape types grown in Australia have changed as a reflection of changes in consumers' tastes. Theres have been major changes in the Australian wine market in recent decades. The…
Abstract
Grape types grown in Australia have changed as a reflection of changes in consumers' tastes. Theres have been major changes in the Australian wine market in recent decades. The proportion of fortified wines has fallen from 81 per cent to ten percent of production and the popularity of different types of wine has varied. This has led to rapid changes in the types of grapes planted. The pattern of grape type use from 1972–91 at a small, long‐established winery gives a perspective on the general market trends. This winery adapted its use of particular grape types more quickly than the national average and has now established a pattern reflecting its expertise with fortified and red wines and regional characteristics.
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Per V. Jenster and Lars Jenster
The article on European Wine Industy provides an analysis of the wine industry with particular focus on Europe, although more global trends are indicated. The focus is on the…
Abstract
The article on European Wine Industy provides an analysis of the wine industry with particular focus on Europe, although more global trends are indicated. The focus is on the business aspect of the wine industry and how various segments of the market are addressed by different sectors of activities. Readers of this article may want to think about how the industry is going to evolve over the next decade and how the major players are going to defend their position. It also highlights how the power in the industry has moved from the producers to the retailers and when the brandholders are key players.
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Jianfang Qi, Xin Mou, Yue Li, Xiaoquan Chu and Weisong Mu
Conventional frequent itemsets mining ignores the fact that the relative benefits or significance of “transactions” belonging to different customers are different in most of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Conventional frequent itemsets mining ignores the fact that the relative benefits or significance of “transactions” belonging to different customers are different in most of the relevant applied studies, which leads to failure to obtain some association rules with lower support but from higher-value consumers. Because not all customers are financially attractive to firms, it is necessary that their values be determined and that transactions be weighted. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel consumer preference mining method based on conventional frequent itemsets mining, which can discover more rules from the high-value consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors extend the conventional association rule problem by associating the “annual purchase amount” – “price preference” (AP) weight with a consumer to reflect the consumer’s contribution to a market. Furthermore, a novel consumer preference mining method, the AP-weclat algorithm, is proposed by introducing the AP weight into the weclat algorithm for discovering frequent itemsets with higher values.
Findings
The experimental results from the survey data revealed that compared with the weclat algorithm, the AP-weclat algorithm can make some association rules with low support but a large contribution to a market pass the screening by assigning different weights to consumers in the process of frequent itemsets generation. In addition, some valuable preference combinations can be provided for related practitioners to refer to.
Originality/value
This study is the first to introduce the AP-weclat algorithm for discovering frequent itemsets from transactions through considering AP weight. Moreover, the AP-weclat algorithm can be considered for application in other markets.
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Huiru Feng, Jianying Feng, Dong Tian and Weisong Mu
Chinese consumers have increased their consumption of grape products in recent years due to recognition of the nutritional value of grapes. At the same time, consumers are paying…
Abstract
Purpose
Chinese consumers have increased their consumption of grape products in recent years due to recognition of the nutritional value of grapes. At the same time, consumers are paying more attention to food safety because of the occasional occurrence of food safety scares. Based on a survey of consumers in Zhejiang, China, this paper aims to understand and provide information on consumers' perceptions of quality and safety for grape products, purchasing behavior, and willingness to pay (WTP) for grape products.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the results of empirical research. The survey method was a direct (face‐to‐face) interview based on a standardized questionnaire. Consumers' perceptions of the quality and safety of grape products were examined, together with consumers' demographic characteristics.
Findings
The results indicate that quality and safety, rather than price, are considered the most important factors that affect consumers' purchasing decisions for grape products. Consumer's educational level, the average price of grapes and the perception of safety are the main factors that determine consumers' WTP for grape products. As price increases, the consumer's WTP for safe and high quality grapes decreases.
Originality/value
This research provides a chance to understand consumers' demand and WTP for the quality and safety of grape products in Zhejiang, China. Further understanding was gained regarding factors affecting consumers judging grape products, which in turn may influence their purchase decisions. The results also could guide grape growers to supply products that better meet consumers' needs. It is proposed that the Chinese government pay more attention to taking measures to improve the quality and safety of grape products.
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