Food values and heterogeneous consumer responses to nanotechnology

Agricultural applications of nanotechnology are at a relatively early stage and little is known about consumer responses to the technology. Canadian consumer responses to food nanotechnology are examined through the lens of the Food Value Scale. Data from a survey of Canadian consumers are used to evaluate the relative importance of eleven food values to food purchase decisions. We find that taste, safety, nutrition, and price are among the most important food values to Canadians, however, consumers exhibit considerable heterogeneity with respect to the priority placed on these values. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) explores the effect of food values on choice behavior. The DCE is positioned as a sliced apple product with non-browning and antioxidant-enhanced features introduced through the use of nanocoating or a conventional coating method. Random parameters logit (RPL) and latent class models (LCM) confirm the existence of significant preference heterogeneity. The LCM identifies three classes of consumers: “supporters,” “doubters,” and “opponents” who differ in their reaction to nanotechnology and in the relative importance placed on food values such as naturalness, novelty, and convenience. The analysis shows that food values provide additional insights into consumers’ food choices and their attitudes toward novel food technologies.     

Materialism through the eyes of Polish and American consumers

The research applies the Material Values Scale (MVS; Richins and Dawson, 1992) cross-culturally by comparing materialism among Polish and American business students. Cultural differences (e.g., greater humanistic/collectivistic/Christian values in Poland) suggest lower MVS scores for Poles than for Americans. This prediction is consistent with the Local Culture hypothesis (i.e., that a strong local culture results in maintenance of traditional values in defense against global forces). Contrary to predictions, data suggest no Polish-American materialism differences, a finding consistent with the globalization hypothesis (i.e., increasing globalization leads to relatively uniform worldwide materialism). As a precursor to hypotheses testing, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tests the construct validity and cross-cultural validity of the MVS. The findings suggest substantial difficulties with the scale that limit the confidence in conclusions based on the scale. Based on these findings, future research discussion aims at developing a measure of materialism with potentially greater construct validity for cross-cultural applications.     

Choice Certainty and Consistency in Repeated Choice Experiments

The main objective of this study is to examine how repeated choice affects preference learning in stated preference experiments. We test different hypotheses related to preference learning by analyzing response patterns and asking respondents in a choice experiment to report their experienced certainty when going through the choice tasks. In a split-sample test, we show that follow-up choice certainty questions are procedural invariant. The self-reported certainty results indicate that learning occurs, but econometric testing procedures do not identify any significant impact of learning effects on parameter estimates or variance across choice tasks. Additional tests of choice consistency suggest that preferences in the choice experiment are stable and coherent.     

Anonymity in Computer-Mediated Communication: More Contrarian Ideas with Less Influence

Anonymity is thought to be an important means for ensuring a free exchange of ideas by encouraging the expression of minority viewpoints. However, we suggest that anonymity’s reduction in awareness of others potentially affects the expression and interpretation of comments that are made during a discussion. In particular, anonymity will increase the likelihood that comments will be made that are contrary to the majority opinion while at the same time decreasing the effect that those contrary arguments have on other group member’s opinions. This paper reports experimental results showing that anonymity led to more overall participation in discussions of ethical scenarios. However, equality of member participation did not differ between anonymous and member-identified groups, and anonymous groups had significantly higher awareness-related comments. This leads to the conclusion that additional participation in anonymous groups accommodates reduced awareness rather than reflecting the increased participation of normally reticent group members. In addition, anonymity led to more arguments in support of questionable behavior, suggesting that the freeing effects of anonymity apply to the social desirability of arguments. Finally, there was less change in opinion under conditions of anonymity than when comments were identified, suggesting that anonymous arguments have less influence on opinions than identified comments.     

Evolution of the Amazonian frontier: Land values in Rondônia, Brazil

Patterns in property values provide strong signals about the future and sustainability of land use. This paper analyzes the determinants of land value in an Amazonian frontier settlement. We estimate hedonic price functions to identify factors that affect the value of farm properties in the western Brazilian Amazon. Distance to market explains nearly one-third of the variation in farm value, as predicted by the von Thünen model. After controlling for location relative to the central market and for municipality, we find that investment in the farms (as reflected in the stocking rate of pastures and the establishment of home gardens) has the next largest impact on land value. The value per hectare of land is negatively related to total lot size, suggesting that any economies of scale are outweighed by the cost of accessing remote corners of large properties. We do not find that land values are related to available measures of biophysical factors or to historic or current land use. Our results do not identify any premium for forest cover or for land uses considered to be more sustainable than pasture on the property itself. However, farm values are affected by neighboring land cover, specifically, the extent of barren land. Thus, local knowledge of factors contributing to future productivity, as summarized in land values, confirms that soil exhaustion can lead to a general decline in property values, while investments in a property both as a homestead and as a farm can help sustain frontier settlements.     

Strategic responses to food safety legislation

This paper assesses the responses made by food companies to changes in food safety legislation. Such responses are assessed in three ways. Firstly, an assessment is made as to why strategic responses to such legislation might be different to general strategic behaviour. Secondly a conceptual framework is presented and an examination of supply chain organisational response is made. Finally, the paper addresses the question of external marketing responses to food safety legislation. The paper concludes that food safety legislation is different, and often requires very swift strategic actions to be effective. Like other forms of legislation, however, food safety issues can also provide incentives and opportunities to well-managed and market-orientated firms.     

Human and Social Capital in Rural Development – EU and US PerspectivesHuman- und Sozialkapital in der Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums – Perspektiven aus der EU und den USALe capital social et humain dans le développement rural: Perspectives aux États-Unis et dans l'Union européenne

Human and Social Capital in Rural Development – EU and US Perspectives
Human and social capital play critical roles in rural development, in both the US and Europe. The development of these resources at the individual and community levels is both an ultimate goal of sustainable rural development (RD), and a key means to pursue it. Rural areas face a range of specific issues and challenges for human and social capital. In this article we examine some of these, finding similarity in many issues faced by EU and US rural areas, including the trend toward counter-urbanization in some locations. We also give examples of some apparently useful policy and grass-root approaches in the EU and US used to support farmers and in some cases rural people more generally. We assert that the US lags behind the EU in recognising the value of social capital development, but that it could learn from EU experience in terms of alternative approaches and their successes or failures. Traditionally, policies which promote the enhancement of rural human capital and strengthen social capital in rural areas have failed to attract large-scale RD funding or prominence. They have, however, gained in credibility, and influence within the policy rhetoric, in recent years. We suggest that they deserve a higher profile in RD policies given likely future trends and challenges.     

Innovation and Future Direction of Supply Chain Management in the Canadian Agri-food Industry

The supply chains for agri-food products in Canada are being shaped by a number of forces including the globalization of markets, technological change and the increased focus by consumers — both domestically and internationally — on issues such as food safety, quality assurance and environmental sensitivity. This paper explores these changes, offering an explanation of why they are occurring, discussing the driving forces for change and providing examples from alternative supply chain structures in the Canadian agri-food sector.