Australian Meat Industry

Abstract

Australian exports of meat account for about 46 per cent of the total Australian production of meat, and 19 per cent of total world exports of meat. About 52 and 33 per cent of Australian meat exports are sold on Asian and the American markets, respectively. However, Australia is highly restricted in its access to world meat markets by the impact of export subsidies and other trade barriers. The economic and political problems including rigid import controls are barriers to maintaining export sales on some of Australia's traditional Asian markets. The improvement in tariff barriers in Asia, the Americas and other emerging markets is expected to provide improved market access and opportunities for Australian meat. Higher processing and transportation costs beyond the farm gate also contribute to Australia's less competitiveness on world export markets. Australia should, therefore, implement appropriate measures to increase productivity, improve cost efficiency beyond the farm gate and undertake market research and promotion in order to be more competitive in the long run and to capture a sizeable market share from its major global competitors.     

Audience Engagement and its Effects on Product Placement Recognition

This article explores the feasibility of examining, via self-reported measures, the relationship between audiences’ perceptions of the quality of their cognitive and emotional engagement with an entertainment piece and the memory trace created by a product placement. This field-based quasi-experiment uses a within-subject design and targets teenagers. Although limited by the viability of available, wholly suitable measurement scales, this exploratory study finds that audience engagement (which consists of pleasure, arousal, and cognitive effort) and star liking can be measured by self-reports after consumers watch a movie and that star liking, cognitive effort, and pleasure affect recognition for product placements.     

数字产品质量的不确定性与市场效率

本文分析了数字产品质量信息不确定性产生的原因以及对电子交易市场的影响，提出了解决质量不确定性问题和提高电子交易市场效率的方法和措施，这将对于规范电子商务运作具有重要的现实意义。     

Willingness to Pay for Quality Labeled Meat in a Rural Area

The aim of this study is to identify consumer perceptions and attitudes toward quality labeled pork and beef using cross-sectional consumer data. Given the dramatic changes over the last years in the meat sector as a result of the recent food scares, the study can facilitate better communicating with consumers and gaining insight into their perceptions and behavior toward meat products. A consumer survey was conducted in the rural region of Thessaly in Greece in order to investigate (a) food quality perceptions, (b) attitudes toward pork and beef quality labels, and (c) intentions to purchase higher priced certified pork and beef. The findings suggest that sociodemographic and personal characteristics have an impact on consumer willingness to pay for such products and different market segments can be targeted by marketers and food policymakers.     

Segmentation of Malaysian shoppers by store choice behaviour in their purchase of fresh meat and fresh produce

Differences in retail store choice behaviour are examined for the purchase of fresh meat and fresh fruit and vegetables in Malaysia. In purchasing fresh meat, cluster analysis identified two groups of respondents who purchased the majority of the fresh meat they consumed from either modern retail stores or the traditional market. However, with regard to the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables, cluster analysis identified three groups of respondents (modern retail shoppers, transient shoppers and traditional market shoppers). Although the clusters were labelled using similar terms, several similarities and differences were identified in the respective clusters for each food item. The findings indicate that store choice preference was based on the food product that the consumer intended to purchase.     

Child-resistant cigarette lighters in the United States

Abstract

On July 12,1993, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a mandatory safety standard requiring disposable and novelty cigarette lighters to be child-resistant. Annually in the United States, children under 5 years of age playing with lighters cause more than 5,000 residential fires, resulting in approximately 150 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries. The standard is expected to prevent about 100 of those fire-related deaths each year. The standard includes labeling, testing, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for manufacturers and importers. The standard applies to lighters manufactured in the United States or imported after July 11, 1994.

A study of actual child-play fire incidents was conducted as part of the initial work on the project to develop a safety standard. The major objectives of the study were:

1) to determine the age and sex of the children starting the fires, 2) to establish the methods the children used to operate the lighters, and 3) to identify the types of lighters involved. The study was conducted by CPSC field staff with the help of fire departments around the United States. Two hundred seventy-seven fires were investigated. Major findings of the study included

? Disposable butane lighters were involved in the majority of the fires.

? The children starting the fires were primarily 3 and 4 years old.

? Male children starting the fires outnumbered female children by a ratio of 4 to 1.

? Most children used two hands to operate the lighters.

Based on the analysis of the study results, the CPSC staff concluded that child-resistant lighters could be an effective means of addressing the risk of injury and death associated with child-play fires.     

Current activites in the field of child safety within CEN aand ISO

Abstract

Many countries have implemented safety and performance requirements for children's products. There is, however, a need to harmonize existing legislation and standards to facilitate a uniform flow of trade. At the same time, it is essential to extend existing requirements to restrict certain hazards which have not been covered in the past.

In CEN, the European Committee for standardization, several technical committees are developing European Standards for products to be used by or for children. On a global level as well, within ISO, there are standardization projects covering such products.

Child safety is the main objective for the standardization work on:

?Safety of toys (CENATC 52, ISO/TC 181)

? Child use and care articles (CEN/TC 252)

?Playground equipment for children LCEN/TC 136/SC 1)

? Children's furniture (CEN/TC 207, ISO/TC 136(

?Child-resistant packaging (CEN/TC 261/SC 2, ISO/TC 122) Children's products constitute a group of consumer products with large variations between the different products. Nevertheless, since they all come in contact with children (and their parents), several hazards associated with these products are similar for the various products. This is reflected in the work of CEN/TC 252, Child use and care articles, established in 1990.

To establish a horizontal framework for the hazard-based approach, CEN/ TC 252 created a working group with the task to specify general and common safety requirements (WG 6). Five working groups started the elaboration of product standards in parallel.

The traditional concept of a standardization project was found inadequate and other solutions were sought. Finally, it was decided to combine the results from working group 6 into one guidance document, to be published as a CEN Report.     

The Impact of “Consumer Cringe” on Developing Regional Trade Blocks

Abstract

The continuing development of regional trade blocs, such as COMESA (The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), ECOWAS (The Economic Community of Western African States) and the resurgence of a new EAC (East African Co-operation), will depend significantly on consumer confidence in products from within the region. Ninety-six Commerce undergraduates from Tanzania estimated the preference patterns, among relevant home market segments, for a range of consumer goods produced in Tanzania, East Africa, and the West. For each comparison, the three goods were described as identical in terms of the “4 Ps” (Product, Promotion, Price, and Place). Tanzanian consumers were consistently reported to prefer Western foreign goods over equivalent regional imports, with home-produced goods faring least well of all. Such “consumer cringe” (which has also been identified in West Africa and South America) suggests that at least in terms of the East African Co-operation (EAC), regionally-produced goods can indeed be relatively attractive, provided a bias in favor of Western goods can be addressed by appropriate marketing initiatives.     

FAST MONTE CARLO GREEKS FOR FINANCIAL PRODUCTS WITH DISCONTINUOUS PAY‐OFFS

We introduce a new class of numerical schemes for discretizing processes driven by Brownian motions. These allow the rapid computation of sensitivities of discontinuous integrals using pathwise methods even when the underlying densities postdiscretization are singular. The two new methods presented in this paper allow Greeks for financial products with trigger features to be computed in the LIBOR market model with similar speed to that obtained by using the adjoint method for continuous pay‐offs. The methods are generic with the main constraint being that the discontinuities at each step must be determined by a one‐dimensional function: the proxy constraint. They are also generic with the sole interaction between the integrand and the scheme being the specification of this constraint.     

Understanding Customers' Intention to Seek for a Better Deal in Electronic Marketplace: The Role of Tolerance for Sacrifice Gap

ABSTRACT

Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers' intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct “perceived reduction in sacrifice gap” and “intention to seek for a better deal” was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.