How forestland size affects household profits from timber harvests: A case-study in China’s Southern collective forest area

To improve the economies of scale in forest management and reduce the fragmentation of forestland, the Chinese central government has implemented a collective forest tenure supplementary reform since 2008. This has included a series of policies for motivating transfer of forestlands use rights among households in the country’s Southern Collective Forest Area (SCFA). However, to date there is little evidence that large-scale forest owners can earn more profits from timber harvests than small-scale forest owners in the SCFA. Using data collected from household surveys in the three of the SCFA’s provinces in 2016, this paper examines the return to scale of forestland ownership for timber harvests in this region, and how the scale of forestland ownership affects households’ profits from timber harvests. The results show a constant return to scale in timber harvests in the case provinces in China’s SCFA, that forestland area makes the most important contribution to the output of timber harvests, and that fragmentation of forestland results in lower profits from timber harvests. It appears that a moderate scale of forestland ownership should be identified for increasing the profits from timber harvests. With the rapid urbanization throughout China, an increase in off-farm employment among rural household members has a negative impact on timber harvests in the region. We argue that policymakers should realize the importance of encouraging the forestland transfers and improve the concentration of forestlands in the next stage of forest tenure rights reform in China’s SCFA.     

山区农户对森林旅游业的参与意愿及影响因素研究

在行为经济学相关理论的基础上,基于福建山区221个农户的调研数据,运用有序Probit模型探究影响农户参与森林旅游业意愿的主要因素。研究结果表明:山区农户对森林旅游业的参与意愿不高;性别、健康状况、家庭成员是否为党员或干部、屋前是否通公路、家庭成员累计出外打工时间、对森林旅游政策了解程度、政府扶持力度及未来收益预期等因素是影响农户对森林旅游业参与意愿的主要因素。基于此,建议提高农村妇女参与森林旅游业的综合能力、加强政策的支持与引导及推进森林旅游业产业链延伸等。     

The effect of within-country inequality on international trade and investment agreements

There is anecdotal evidence suggesting that those losing from globalization influence policy makers to decrease the openness of their countries to globalization, as evidenced by signing international trade and investment agreements. Surprisingly, this influence has never been examined empirically. This study provides novel empirical evidence demonstrating that greater within-country inequality, our proxy for 'perceived losses' from globalization, decreases countries' propensity to sign regional trade and investment agreements. Our findings support the argument that the existence of 'losers' from globalization can be detrimental for continued globalization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first extensive econometric empirical evidence of the influence of within-country inequality on countries' willingness to sign international trade and investment agreements, as means to increase their global economic integration.     

South African consumers' willingness to pay a premium for Karoo Lamb: The influence of subjective and objective knowledge,label information and demographics

In South Africa, Karoo Lamb is a prestigious product associated with free range production. This study examined the influence of subjective and objective Karoo Lamb knowledge, the importance of label information, and demographics on consumers' willingness to pay a premium for Karoo Lamb products. A panel of 355 consumers who had previously purchased lamb/mutton products completed an online questionnaire. The importance of Karoo Lamb label information, subjective Karoo Lamb knowledge and population group had a significant positive impact on willingness to pay a premium for Karoo Lamb. Objective Karoo Lamb knowledge and other demographics did not have a significant impact.     

基于MOA理论消费者绿色农产品溢价支付意愿驱动路径分析——以大米为例

[目的]随着我国人民生活水平的提高,绿色农产品愈发得到消费者的青睐。文章旨在探析消费者绿色农产品意愿溢价水平及其溢价支付意愿的驱动路径,以期为绿色农产品产业的发展提供相应政策启示。[方法]基于MOA理论分析框架,利用结构方程模型和消费者调查数据,该文以主粮大米为例展开分析。[结果]以普通大米5元/kg为基准价格,消费者绿色大米平均意愿溢价水平为125.7%,意愿溢价水平从高到低排序依次是东部地区(145.2%)、中部地区(140.09%)、西部地区(91.82%)。[结论](1)利己动机、利他动机、创新性能力、信息获取能力能够直接作用于消费者绿色农产品溢价支付意愿,而消费机会通过利己动机、利他动机和信息获取能力间接作用于溢价支付意愿;(2)基于多群组结构方程,研究发现个人可支配收入和文化程度能够调节消费者创新性能力、信息获取能力对消费者绿色农产品溢价支付意愿影响;(3)消费者创新性能力和信息获取能力对溢价支付意愿的影响存在地域差异性。     

Ability and willingness to work during COVID-19 pandemic:Perspectives of front-line hotel employees

This research note reports the results of a qualitative study exploring front-line hotel employees’ views about working during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify factors that may influence their ability and willingness to report to work. Findings from online focus-groups reveal that front-line hotel employees generally felt a sense of duty to work during the pandemic. However, there were also a number of perceived barriers to working that impacted on this sense of duty. These emerged as barriers to ability and barriers to willingness, but the distinction is not clear-cut. Instead, most barriers seem to form a continuum ranging from negotiable barriers to insuperable barriers. Following this coneptualisation, the key to reducing absenteeism during the pandemic is likely to take remedial action so that barriers to willingness do not become perceived as barriers to ability to work. Practical implications towards this direction are offered.     

高职学生乡村振兴意愿与影响因素研究——基于广东交通职业技术学院的调研分析

乡村振兴战略是党的十九大提出的一项重大战略,其中人才振兴是乡村振兴的基础,但农村客观上存在很多难以短时间解决的困难,青壮年、大学生都倾向于留在大城市工作,人才紧缺已经成为限制农村发展的重要瓶颈,如何让更多的大学生参与助力乡村振兴中的研究具有重要的社会意义和现实意义。本文针对高职大学生群体进行研究,在“互联网+”时代背景下,分析了高职大学生的就业创业特点、参与乡村振兴的意愿动机,和内外部的影响因素等,试图寻找适合当代大学生投身乡村振兴的方法和模式,同时,也从大学生的角度提出了如何建立健全相关的国家、社会和学校的支持体系。     

社会互动对规模养殖户环保饲料支付意愿的影响研究*——基于改进的目标导向理论模型分析框架

［目的］通过引入社会互动变量改进目标导向行为理论框架，探讨生猪规模养殖户对环保饲料的支付意愿及其影响因素，为完善畜禽养殖污染防治政策提供参考借鉴。［方法］以湖北省生猪规模养殖户为研究对象，应用Heckman两阶段模型，研究规模养殖户对环保饲料的支付意愿。［结果］大多数规模养殖户（8134%）愿意采用环保饲料，且平均意愿支付水平为每头生猪饲料成本的669%（4680元/头）。社会互动中的干群互动、同行互动均能显著提升规模养殖户对环保饲料的支付意愿，但同时同行互动不利于其意愿支付水平的提升。进一步的异质性分析表明，在环保饲料支付意愿决策上，社会互动较少的规模养殖户更容易受到制度规范的约束，而社会互动较多的规模养殖户则更易受到感知养殖热情的影响。［结论］政府部门应加大生态环保宣传力度，并借助多种方式推动规模养殖户进行社会互动； 同时可依据社会互动程度的不同，分别制定相应措施以促进规模养殖户对环保饲料支付意愿的提升。     

Case based models of the relationship between consumer resistance to innovation and customer churn

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between customer resistance to innovation and customer churn based on young Chinese consumers' characteristics. This study uses smart phone apps as the product category. Based on the methodology of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study uses 101 cases. Three major configurational results and core factors are found in this study. Configuration 1 points out the importance of affect response and functioning dimensions; configuration 2 points out the effect of emotional consumers’ attitude toward innovation; configuration 3 suggests that cognitive rigidity plays a critical role against innovation. This study bridges the academic gap between customer resistance to innovation and customer churn and adopts different methodologies to test and prove previous research. Based on the results, this study contributes to the customer churn studies from CRI with a different methodological angle compared with current studies in the consumer behavior domain. Meanwhile, this study provides managerial suggestions for marketing practitioners to reduce CRI and on how to make consumers accept the new products.     

Consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food in Galicia (Northern Spain)

Although the organic sector is still relatively small, the demand for organic food is increasing throughout the world. The characterization of consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food is important to enable the development of marketing policies aimed at attracting conventional consumers to the sector. Consumers' behaviour studies must be conducted specifically for different regions and countries as perceptions and attitudes vary across the world. In the present study, a questionnaire was designed for administration to consumers in Galicia (Northern Spain). The questionnaire was administered to 830 consumers in 200 establishments to obtain data about the consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food. The survey results showed that one‐third of responders consume organic food and that the typical profile of a consumer of organic food is a middle‐aged, medium‐high class, university‐educated female living in a large village, who shops in supermarkets and preferably consume vegetables, fruits and eggs. Most people who declared that they consume organic products confuse these with home and locally produced food, indicating the potential for growth of the organic sector by providing such consumers with appropriate information. Most consumers (including conventional consumers) have a good opinion of organic food and consider that it is better for health, is of better quality than conventional food and avoid pesticide residues. However, price continues to be a barrier to the consumption of organic produce. Most respondents stated that they would consume more organic food if the price was only between 10% and 30% higher than the conventional equivalent. Finally, organic consumers in Galicia showed positive attitudes towards using local breeds in organic agriculture, both for producing food and for ecotourism and educational activities. Such activities could contribute to conserving breed biodiversity and adding value to organic farming.