A Comparison of Organic and Conventional Fresh Produce Buyers in the Boston Area

Food safety concerns and the demand for organically grown produce have increased significantly in the United States over the last decade. Key differences in lifestyle characteristics, food safety attitudes and beliefs, perceived food safety risks, and valuation of health risk reductions between organic and conventional food buyers remain largely unknown, however. To better characterize how buyers of organic fresh produce differ from their conventional counterparts, over 700 food shoppers were sampled from ten major retail stores in the Boston area. Survey results show that self-reported organic buyers are more likely than conventional buyers to engage in a variety of health-promoting and environmentally friendly behaviors. Organic buyers are less trusting of federal food safety agencies than are conventional buyers, and perceive greater benefits associated with organically grown produce than do their conventional counterparts. Further, organic buyers have significantly higher risk perceptions than do conventional buyers for food safety hazards associated with conventionally grown produce. Compared to conventional buyers, organic produce buyers also perceive significant risk reductions associated with switching to organically grown produce and are willing to pay a higher price to reduce perceived food safety risks. Few sociodemographic differences between buyer types were observed, possibly due to how organic and conventional food stores were matched. Survey findings highlight the need for greater public education about a range of food safety issues and farming practices to ensure that consumers are making informed decisions in the marketplace.     

Greening the electricity industry: The dynamic logic of the Green-e certification program

With the advent of retail completion in the supply of electricity to end-use customers, individuals and businesses will be given the opportunity to purchase electricity from “green power” sources. Some customers are clearly willing to pay a premium for environmentally preferable sources of electricity supply. Yet, there have been concerns that customer confusion, vague marketing claims, and “apples and oranges” comparisons will limit the potential market penetration of green power products.Environmental certification programs are increasingly seen as important tools for achieving environmental objectives and are intended to alleviate some of the concerns listed above, as well as to increased product and marketer credibility. The Green-e Renewable Electricity Branding Program is the first U.S.-based effort to certify green power products that meet certain environmental standards. The voluntary Green-e program also helps create consumer confidence in these certified products through a marketer code of conduct, disclosure provisions, and a public education campaign. This article details the development, design and results of the Green-e program to date.     

基于可持续性消费的企业质量价格决策研究

随着可持续性消费理念的普及,消费者愿意为可持续性生产的产品支付更高的价格,这种绿色商品溢价能快速传导到价值链上游,进而推动绿色产业升级。本文在信息非对称环境下建立了一个可持续性制造型企业及其消费者组成的供应链模型,研究可持续性消费者比例与可持续性偏好对企业质量价格决策的影响。研究结论如下：在完全信息下,当企业只服务可持续消费者时,企业的收益随可持续性消费者比例递增;在信息非对称时,可持续性消费者比例越大,企业分离时所付出的成本越高,因此可持续性投入高的企业越倾向于混同而不是分离。另外,消费者的可持续性偏好对企业来说总是有利的。但是信息非对称时,可持续性消费者比例越高,并不总是对企业有利。     

基于消费者主权的生鲜电商消费体验设置

针对消费者对国内生鲜农产品质量安全的"信任危机",本文构建了植入消费体验的生鲜电商C2B2B2C模型,让碎片化的消费者通过互联网就近聚合为社群化的食物社区,生产者通过合作社聚合为规模化生产基地,食物社区与生产基地借助电商平台进行产销对接、以销定产和消费体验。研究表明,在传统B2C模式下消费者只能依据供应商提供的信息进行Stackelberg博弈和有限消费体验,购买需求较少。当植入充分的消费体验后,生产者与消费者融合为prosumer,购买需求随消费者对生产者的信任度增加而增加。实证揭示,农耕生产、质量追溯、物流配送、网购操作、产品呈现和售后服务都会显著影响消费体验,电商平台要实现商业可持续性发展必须为消费者设置这些全面而丰富的体验场景。     

顾客有限“碳行为”偏好对选址-路径-库存联合优化的影响

针对考虑顾客有限“碳行为”偏好的选址-路径-库存联合优化问题,引入环保度系数作为碳排放量的特征向量,在低碳产品加价率存在的情况下,刻画了顾客有限“碳行为”偏好和市场逆需求系数对低碳产品需求量的影响,构建了选址-路径-库存系统中考虑有“碳行为”偏好的联合优化模型,并分析了顾客行为偏好对企业收益的影响。使用基于NNC的多目标求解方法,对考虑成本和碳排放的双目标问题进行处理并得到一组Pareto解集,数值实验证明了产品环保度、顾客有限“碳行为”偏好对企业运作方案和收益水平的影响。     

Perceived Risks of Conventional and Organic Produce: Pesticides, Pathogens, and Natural Toxins

Public risk perceptions and demand for safer food are important factors shaping agricultural production practices in the United States. Despite documented food safety concerns, little attempt has been made to elicit consumers' subjective risk judgments for a range of food safety hazards or to identify factors most predictive of perceived food safety risks. In this study, over 700 conventional and organic fresh produce buyers in the Boston area were surveyed for their perceived food safety risks. Survey results showed that consumers perceived relatively high risks associated with the consumption and production of conventionally grown produce compared with other public health hazards. For example, conventional and organic food buyers estimated the median annual fatality rate due to pesticide residues on conventionally grown food to be about 50 per million and 200 per million, respectively, which is similar in magnitude to the annual mortality risk from motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Over 90% of survey respondents also perceived a reduction in pesticide residue risk associated with substituting organically grown produce for conventionally grown produce, and nearly 50% perceived a risk reduction due to natural toxins and microbial pathogens. Multiple regression analyses indicate that only a few factors are consistently predictive of higher risk perceptions, including feelings of distrust toward regulatory agencies and the safety of the food supply. A variety of factors were found to be significant predictors of specific categories of food hazards, suggesting that consumers may view food safety risks as dissimilar from one another. Based on study findings, it is recommended that future agricultural policies and risk communication efforts utilize a comparative risk approach that targets a range of food safety hazards.     

炫耀性产品品牌策略：品牌延伸或新品牌？

企业在推出炫耀性产品时，可以采用两种品牌策略：品牌延伸或新品牌。为分析企业的炫耀性产品品牌策略，通过博弈论本文建立了无新产品、品牌延伸和新品牌三种模型，并得到了垄断情形与竞争情形下企业在不同品牌策略下的最优定价和利润。研究发现：在垄断情形下，企业总是采用品牌延伸策略。而在面临企业竞争时，如果消费者对地位身份不敏感，则企业选择不推出新产品；如果消费者对身份地位敏感，则当创建新品牌成本较小时，企业采用新品牌策略，否则企业选择放弃推出新产品。此外，一定条件下，企业推出新品牌会增加竞争对手的利润。     

Optimal Pricing of Two Successive‐Generation Products with Trade‐in Options under Uncertainty

To entice consumers to purchase both current and next generation products, many manufacturers and retailers offer trade‐in programs that allow buyers of the first generation product to trade‐in the product and purchase the new generation product at a lower price. By considering the interactions between “forward‐looking” consumers and a firm when a trade‐in program is offered, we analyze a two‐period dynamic game to determine the optimal prices of two successive‐generation products in equilibrium, and examine the conditions under which trade‐in programs are beneficial to the firm. Our model incorporates market heterogeneity (valuation of the first generation product varies among the consumer population), product uncertainty (the incremental value of the new product is uncertain before its introduction), and consumers' forward‐looking behavior (consumers take future product valuation and prices into consideration when making purchasing decisions). With the trade‐in option, we show that consumers are willing to pay a price that is higher than their valuations of the current product. Furthermore, trade‐in programs are more beneficial to the firm when: (i) the durability of the current product is high; (ii) the market heterogeneity is low; or (iii) the uncertainty level (or the expected incremental value) of the new product is high. Finally, when the incremental value of the new product is more uncertain, consumers are more willing to purchase the current product because of the “option” value of the trade‐in programs and thus trade‐in programs can be more beneficial to the firm in this case.     

Risk Perceptions and Food Choice: An Exploratory Analysis of Organic- Versus Conventional-Produce Buyers

Consumer choice between organically (without pesticides) and conventionally grown produce is examined. Exploratory focus-group discussions and questionnaires (N = 43) suggest that individuals who purchase organically grown produce believe it is substantially less hazardous than the conventional alternative and are willing to pay significant premiums to obtain it (a median 50% above the cost of conventional produce). The value of risk reduction implied by this incremental willingness to pay is not high relative to estimates for other risks, since the perceived risk reduction is relatively large. Organic-produce consumers also appear more likely than conventional-produce consumers to mitigate other ingestion-related risks (e.g., contaminated drinking water) but less likely to use automobile seatbelts.     

推荐系统对消费者网购支出的影响研究

推荐系统能在电子商务中利用信息过滤技术为消费者推荐感兴趣的商品和服务。本文通过收集大量消费者网购调查问卷，问卷的信度和效度均符合数据分析的要求。首先分析了消费者的产品偏好、忠诚度等网购行为与其年龄、性别、地域等个人属性的相互关系，之后运用倾向得分匹配法（Propensity Score Matching，PSM）研究推荐系统对消费者网购支出的影响，同时使用工具变量法（（Instrumental Variable，IV）对PSM研究结果进行稳健性检验。结果显示使用推荐系统的消费者网购支出比未使用的消费者高出14.7%，网购支出与受教育程度和收入水平呈正相关、与年龄呈负相关，城市消费者和女性更愿意使用推荐系统；同时统计分析表明推荐效果受电子商务平台中社交关系、互补产品、店铺声誉等因素影响。研究结果对评估推荐系统的经济效益、增强消费者忠诚度和提高商家营销的精准性等方面起到了重要作用。     

What Are the Sources of Exposure to Eight Frequently Used Phthalic Acid Esters in Europeans?

Phthalic acid esters (phthalates) are used as plasticizers in numerous consumer products, commodities, and building materials. Consequently, phthalates are found in human residential and occupational environments in high concentrations, both in air and in dust. Phthalates are also ubiquitous food and environmental contaminants. An increasing number of studies sampling human urine reveal the ubiquitous phthalate exposure of consumers in industrialized countries. At the same time, recent toxicological studies have demonstrated the potential of the most important phthalates to disturb the human hormonal system and human sexual development and reproduction. Additionally, phthalates are suspected to trigger asthma and dermal diseases in children. To find the important sources of phthalates in Europeans, a scenario-based approach is applied here. Scenarios representing realistic exposure situations are generated to calculate the age-specific range in daily consumer exposure to eight phthalates. The scenarios demonstrate that exposure of infant and adult consumers is caused by different sources in many cases. Infant consumers experience significantly higher daily exposure to phthalates in relation to their body weight than older consumers. The use of consumer products and different indoor sources dominate the exposure to dimethyl, diethyl, benzylbutyl, diisononyl, and diisodecyl phthalates, whereas food has a major influence on the exposure to diisobutyl, dibutyl, and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalates. The scenario-based approach chosen in the present study provides a link between the knowledge on emission sources of phthalates and the concentrations of phthalate metabolites found in human urine.     

考虑消费者环保意识与政府补贴的企业绿色技术创新决策研究

在绿色经济时代,绿色技术创新已经成为越来越多企业获取竞争优势的途径。本文基于消费者需求偏好,在不同的政府补贴情形下,构建了包含绿色产品与普通产品生产企业的双寡头竞争模型和斯塔克博格模型,分析了企业绿色技术创新驱动因素和行动时机。研究表明：消费者环保意识有助于提升绿色产品市场份额和企业利润,而绿色产品的单位成本增加会降低其市场份额和企业利润,且绿色产品的单位成本与普通产品企业的利润呈倒U型关系;政府对绿色产品的补贴,可以促进企业绿色技术创新。补贴消费者与补贴企业两种方式下产品的市场份额和社会总福利相同,考虑到补贴的执行成本,补贴消费者更优;绿色产品生产企业作为追随者时,绿色产品的市场占有率最高,社会总福利也最高,因此,后发行动策略是企业绿色技术创新的占优行动策略。     

The market for genetically modified foods: consumer characteristics and policy implications

Conjoint analysis was used to explore consumer preferences for food products that are the product of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The results of a cluster analysis indicated that consumers fell into three homogeneous groups based on their preference for a branded, low-priced, or GMO-free product. There were some differences between the segments based on the sociodemographic characteristics of age, education, and income. However, consumers in the segment that wished to avoid GMOs were most easily distinguished from consumers in the other two segments based on their high level of risk averseness and belief that GMOs do not positively affect the quality or safety of food products. Implications for food marketers and policymakers are discussed.     

考虑追溯水平的食品厂商竞争决策研究

本文综合考虑食品市场竞争环境,消费者食品安全风险规避程度及食品追溯水平等因素建立了食品厂商的双寡头竞争博弈模型,探讨了食品的追溯水平与消费者风险规避程度对食品厂商价格、安全努力水平以及利润的影响。研究发现：食品厂商的最优价格和食品的安全努力水平随其食品追溯水平的提高而增加,随竞争厂商的食品追溯水平的提高而降低;厂商食品追溯水平较高时,其安全努力水平随消费者风险规避程度的增大而提高,其最优价格随高风险规避型消费者比例的增大而增加;而厂商食品追溯水平较低时,其安全努力水平随消费者风险规避程度的增大先增加而后下降,其最优价格随高风险规避型消费者比例的增大总是下降;随高风险规避型消费者比例的增大,各厂商的食品追溯水平对其决策的影响产生不同的变化。     

Product Positioning in a Two‐Dimensional Market Space

This paper examines the optimal product portfolio positioning for a monopolist firm in a market where consumers exhibit vertical differentiation for product performance and horizontal differentiation for product feature. Our key results are as follows: (i) Variable costs drive vertical differentiation. In the presence of significant volume‐dependent manufacturing costs, the optimal portfolio contains a mix of vertically and horizontally differentiated products and an increase in the variable cost makes adding vertically differentiated products relatively more profitable; if fixed volume‐independent design costs dominate, the portfolio exhibits solely horizontal differentiation. (ii) Horizontal differentiation is the main profit lever, and vertical differentiation brings only a marginal benefit; this is true even when most of the consumers exhibit low willingness to pay for performance, which is often used as an excuse to offer low‐end products. (iii) There are more low‐quality products than high‐quality ones, and market coverage increases when the willingness to pay for performance increases. In summary, the model shows how portfolio composition decisions depend on the product cost structure and the consumer preferences.     

考虑策略型消费者和退货的零售商定价和订货决策研究

考虑策略型消费者对产品估值的异质性和无缺陷退货行为，应用理性预期（RE）均衡构建了两期决策模型，引入产品的耐用性参数，得到了允许（不允许）无缺陷退货两种模式下零售商的定价区间和订货策略。研究发现，产品的耐用性越弱，零售商可制定的价格越高；高类型的消费者越多，零售商定价越高；产品折扣率越低，第二阶段购买的消费者越多；零售商允许消费者无缺陷退货时，消费者退货成本越低，零售商定价越高。在两种模式下，产品定价与其耐用性程度呈负相关，当产品具备高度潮流性特征时，不允许退货更占优势；随商品耐用性程度的提升，允许退货带来的优势逐渐明显，而且退货成本越低，允许退货优势越强；随产品耐用性参数增加，允许退货缓解策略型消费者消极影响的作用愈加明显，退货成本越高，缓解越有效。本文合理刻画了策略型消费者的行为，考虑了消费者跨期决策中产品耐用性的影响，同时考虑了现实中广泛存在的消费者无缺陷退货行为与零售商的退货补贴政策，从而为零售商的定价和订货退货决策提供了理论参考。     

消费者异质需求下企业环境创新行为演化模拟与分析

企业环境创新对于从根本上解决环境问题,实现可持续发展具有重要意义。随着环境问题的日益严峻,消费者对产品环境属性的异质偏好有可能成为企业环境创新的重要驱动力。本文基于消费者异质需求视角,运用计算实验方法,构建具有不同创新态度、创新偏好和可支配资金的异质企业主体,以及对产品价格、质量、环境属性具有不同偏好的异质消费者主体,模拟消费者产品选择及企业环境创新过程,并通过个体消费者异质需求的变化反映市场需求的动态演化及其对企业环境创新行为的影响,探索绿色需求对企业环境创新行为影响的内在机理及演化规律。实验结果表明,消费者对产品属性的异质偏好影响企业环境创新绩效;虽然短期内环境创新行为不利于企业提高经济绩效,但当绿色需求水平较高时,环境创新引起市场结构变化,环境创新企业通过先动优势实现环境绩效与经济绩效的"双赢";由于企业环境创新风险与绿色需求水平显著相关,为推动企业环境创新,政府在采取必要的激励或补贴政策的同时,更应引导消费者重视产品环境属性,以推动企业持续的环境创新行为。以上研究对于揭示异质需求下企业环境创新行为的自组织演化规律具有重要的理论意义,可为政府系列政策措施的出台提供科学依据。     

Group Selling,Product Durability,and Consumer Behavior

Firms producing complementary goods often strategically form groups and jointly sell their products to better coordinate their decisions. For consumer durables, decisions about such collaboration might be complicated due to two factors. Because of their durability and presence of used goods markets, such products engender “future” price competition between new and used goods. On the other hand, consumers of such products might be forward‐looking and patient, both of which affect their purchasing behavior. In this study, we study how the above product and consumer characteristics interact to affect the group selling decisions of complementary firms. We do so through a two‐period model consisting of a value chain with two upstream manufacturers and a downstream retailer. When consumers are relatively impatient and reluctant to wait to buy later, group selling by manufacturers will take place only when the end product is relatively perishable, that is, product durability is low. However, if consumers are patient, that is, willing to wait, collaboration happens only when the end product is quite durable; for relatively perishable products the manufacturers sell their products separately. We also comment on how our results are affected by factors like manufacturers directly selling to end consumers or there being multiple opportunities to decide whether or not to use group selling strategy.     

Toward Improving Food Safety in the Domestic Environment: A Multi-Item Rasch Scale for the Measurement of the Safety Efficacy of Domestic Food-Handling Practices

To reduce consumer health risks from foodborne diseases that result from improper domestic food handling, consumers need to know how to safely handle food. To realize improvements in public health, it is necessary to develop interventions that match the needs of individual consumers. Successful intervention strategies are therefore contingent on identifying not only the practices that are important for consumer protection, but also barriers that prevent consumers from responding to these interventions. A measure of food safety behavior is needed to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies across different groups of consumers. A nationally representative survey was conducted in the Netherlands to determine which practices are likely conducted by which consumers. Participants reported their behaviors with respect to 55 different food-handling practices. The Rasch modeling technique was used to determine a general measure for the likelihood of an average consumer performing each food-handling behavior. Simultaneously, an average performance measure was estimated for each consumer. These two measures can be combined to predict the likelihood that an individual consumer engages in a specific food-handling behavior. A single "food safety" dimension was shown to underlie all items. Some potentially safe practices (e.g., use of meat thermometers) were reported as very difficult, while other safe practices were conducted by respondents more frequently (e.g., washing of fresh fruit and vegetables). A cluster analysis was applied to the resulting data set, and five segments of consumers were identified. Different behaviors may have different effects on microbial growth in food, and thus have different consequences for human health. Once the microbial relevance of the different consumer behaviors has been confirmed by experiments and modeling, the scale developed in the research reported here can be used to develop risk communication targeted to the needs of different consumer groups, as well as to measure the efficacy of different interventions.     

Estimating Consumer Exposure to PFOS and PFOA

Perfluorinated compounds have been used for more than 50 years as process aids, surfactants, and for surface protection. This study is a comprehensive assessment of consumer exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from a variety of environmental and product-related sources. To identify relevant pathways leading to consumer exposure to PFOS and PFOA a scenario-based approach has been applied. Scenarios represent realistic situations where age- and gender-specific exposure occurs in the everyday life of consumers. We find that North American and European consumers are likely to experience ubiquitous and long-term uptake doses of PFOS and PFOA in the range of 3 to 220 ng per kg body weight per day (ng/kg_bw/day) and 1 to 130 ng/kg_bw/day, respectively. The greatest portion of the chronic exposure to PFOS and PFOA is likely to result from the intake of contaminated foods, including drinking water. Consumer products cause a minor portion of the consumer exposure to PFOS and PFOA. Of these, it is mainly impregnation sprays, treated carpets in homes, and coated food contact materials that may lead to consumer exposure to PFOS and PFOA. Children tend to experience higher total uptake doses (on a body weight basis) than teenagers and adults because of higher relative uptake via food consumption and hand-to-mouth transfer of chemical from treated carpets and ingestion of dust. The uptake estimates based on scenarios are within the range of values derived from blood serum data by applying a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model.