Consumer Expectations for Geographical Origin: Eliciting Willingness to Pay (WTP) Using the Disconfirmation of Expectation Theory (EDT)

ABSTRACT

This study explores the impact of geographical origin in consumer expectations. Willingness to pay (WTP) for geographical origin was measured in three different information conditions (blind, labeled, and both blind and labeled) using an open ended technique of contingent valuation (CV) in the framework of expectations-disconfirmation theory (EDT). The results from the EDT show that a product with a positive reputation and highly preferred by the consumer is losing continuously the premium price paid for it. The decrease of the WTP in full information condition for the most preferred origin is probably due to the lowered consumer expectations and to the damages of the good image as a result of unfair competition, usurpation, and the misappropriation of the name. Geographical indications (GIs) may offer a solution to these problems by preserving the predictive value of origin information, maintaining high consumer expectations, and also preserving the good reputation of the product.     

Willingness to pay: Who are the cheap talkers?

The purpose of this paper is to determine who is willing to pay (WTP) for a greener event by applying a Contingent Valuation (CV) approach together with an experimental design. To identify the cheap talkers a survey was conducted at the Wacky Wine Festival in South Africa, were 474 respondents participated. Using a Heckman two-step approach, the results confirmed that the decision to contribute depends on behavioural and motivational factors, while the amount is income-dependent. The extent of cheap talking is significant, with a 50% deviation in stated and revealed behaviour. Besides cheap talkers, another category is identified, namely “ethicals”, who contribute their voucher to the tree planting project without indicating that they are willing to pay.     

Pricing a rural development program: uncertainty,indifference, and protest behaviors

This article presents an econometric approach to modeling uncertainty, unwillingness to pay, and protest behavior in contingent valuation studies. For that purpose, a mixture model with sample selection is developed for a multiple‐bounded uncertainty elicitation format. The proposed theoretical framework is applied to evaluate the social welfare impact of implementing a sustainable rural development program. Results show that a “naive” analytical approach that excludes protesters from the analysis would result in significantly higher willingness to pay estimates for those individuals who favor the implementation of the program and agree to reveal their true reservation prices.     

居民生态补偿意愿影响因素研究

基于条件价值评估法设计调查问卷,对哈尔滨市居民随机调查,建立结构方程模型,以此分析影响居民生态补偿意愿的关键因素。研究表明:影响居民生态补偿意愿的因素有学历、家庭收入、对生态补偿以及生态重要性的认知程度,而且学历和家庭收入有双向关系,学历对居民的生态补偿及生态重要性的认知程度有正向影响。因此,提出提高人们的文化程度以提升居民的生态补偿意愿;加大生态补偿的宣传力度,从而增强居民的生态补偿意识等建议。     

The performance of insolvency prediction and credit risk models in the UK: A comparative study

Theoretically-driven, market-based contingent claims models have recently been applied to the field of corporate insolvency prediction in an attempt to provide the art with a theoretical methodology that has been lacking in the past. Limited studies have been carried out in order directly to compare the performance of these models with that of their accounting number-based counterparts. We use receiver operating characteristic curves to assess the efficacy of thirteen selected models using, for the first time, post-IFRS UK data; and investigate the distributional properties of model efficacy. We find that the efficacy of the models is generally less than that reported in the prior literature; but that the contingent claims models outperform models which use accounting numbers. We also obtain the counter-intuitive finding that predictions based on a single variable can be as efficient as those which are based on models which are far more complicated – in terms of variable variety and mathematical construction. Finally, we develop and test a naïve version of the down-and-out-call barrier option model for insolvency prediction and find that, despite its simple formulation, it performs favourably compared alongside other contingent claims models.     

An Equity-based Redefinition of Underemployment and Unemployment and Some Measurements

An attempt is made in this article to redefine underemployment and unemployment without making reference to an excess supply of labor or any causal mechanism of unemployment. Instead, underemployment and unemployment are defined in terms of equity which draws upon the individual's preferences. A specific proposal is that underemployment be defined by the presence of contribution inequity relative to at least half the persons employed in a field that the underemployed person might prefer to move into. Empirically, most recent survey data on preferences for contingent and other nontraditional employment are used to illustrate the application of the concept. The major finding is that nearly 10 million Americans in the nontraditional workforce are underemployed.     

Measuring the consumer benefits of improving farm animal welfare to inform welfare labelling

Policy makers in the European Union are envisioning the introduction of a community farm animal welfare label which would allow consumers to align their consumption habits with their farm animal welfare preferences. For welfare labelling to be viable the market for livestock products produced to higher welfare standards has to be sufficiently segmented with consumers having sufficiently distinct and behaviourally consistent preferences. The present study investigates consumers’ preferences for meat produced to different welfare standards using a hypothetical welfare score. Data is obtained from a contingent valuation study carried out in Britain. The ordered probit model was estimated using Bayesian inference to obtain mean willingness to pay. We find decreasing marginal WTP as animal welfare levels increase and that people’s preferences for different levels of farm animal welfare are sufficiently differentiated making the introduction of a labelling scheme in the form of a certified rating system appear feasible.     

Human resource management approaches in Spanish hotels: An introductory analysis

Although Spain is one of the most important tourism destinations in the world, Spanish tourism firms need to be more competitive in order to continue attracting citizens from other countries and human resource strategies can help. The present study aims to identify the specific human resource practices applied by hotels. The variables of interest are those related to human resource profile (number of employees, nationality and sex) and to human resource strategies (recruitment, hiring and training strategies). A survey of the hotel establishments in the Valencian Autonomous Region shows that a hard human resource approach prevails and that hotels apply the same human resource strategies regardless of their category or competitive strategy (universalistic approach).     

管理教练、权变奖励、组织公民行为与B2B顾客满意

本文构建了一个有关主管行为、组织公民行为和B2B顾客满意的概念模型并加以检验。研究发现（1）销售人员的组织公民行为对于B2B顾客满意具有显著正向影响；（2）销售人员组织公民行为对B2B顾客满意的影响受环境不确定性的正向调节；（3）感知的管理教练行为和权变奖励均对销售人员的情感性组织承诺和组织公民行为具有正效应；（4）情感性组织承诺是主管行为对员工组织公民行为影响的中介变量；论文最后阐述了研究的管理内涵以及未来的研究方向。     

Marketing resources and performance of exhibitor firms in trade shows: A contingent resource perspective

In spite of the fundamental nature of trade shows as venues for working on webs of vertical and horizontal relationships, the extant trade show literature neglected relationship and network context factors. Specifically, previous studies attributed superior trade show performance to internal resource conditions and hence failed to address the moderating influence of important contexts such as relationship assets and knowledge assets. This study adopts the contingent resource perspective and extends the literature by proposing that the main effect of trade show resources on trade show performance is contingent upon the firm's internal knowledge assets and its external relationship assets. Overall, the empirical evidence supports the contingency models. One major managerial implication for exhibitor managers is the need to adjust allocation of its trade show marketing resources according to market-based assets it possesses.