Consumer ethoses in Finnish consumer life stories – agrarianism,economism and green consumerism

This article examines Finnish consumer ethoses and the moral rules that include them. We argue that Finnish consumers legitimize their consumer and spending practices, and constitute themselves as moral agents through three culturally dominant and historically constructed consumer ethoses: agrarianism, economism and green consumerism. The material of the study consists of 53 consumer life stories collected between September 2006 and May 2007 using a writing competition. Through our material, we are able to illustrate how consumers negotiate, produce, transform and contest these three ethoses. We interpret life stories as socially constructed stories. Thus, our aim is to analyse the culturally shared and historically transformed meanings, rather than to reveal the motives or intentions of the individual consumer.     

Consumer involvement in research using oral history: ‘What are people's experiences of health and well‐being in Halton?’

The purpose of this paper is to describe a qualitative oral history case study that involved consumers in research and followed a collaborative approach in the north‐west of England. This study had two aims: (1) to increase local voluntary groups research capacity through active involvement in research; and (2) to explore the community's historical perceptions of health and well‐being. The research team included four lay researchers from local voluntary groups supported by an academic researcher. Data collection used semi‐structured interviews based on oral history life stories that focused on health and well‐being. Thematic data analysis and mind maps were used to create a collective narrative. This paper will provide a brief synopsis of the findings from the main themes of health and well‐being, and reflect on the process of consumer involvement in research using oral history. Outputs have included dissemination at a local and national level, increased knowledge and confidence in the research process, and involvement in other related initiatives, such as Local Involvement Networks, partnership working with local libraries and collaboration with the regional archivist.     

Do Nutrition Claims Matter to Consumers? An Empirical Analysis Considering European Requirements

EU Regulation 1924/2006 introduced a European legal framework for nutrition messages for food product labels. The study analyses consumer interest towards nutrition labelling and claims, and examines the information consumers consider important during their purchasing decisions, and the main characteristics of those consumers interested in nutrition claims and nutrition labelling use. A total of 1,025 northern Italian consumers were surveyed. We estimate one binary logit model to investigate the use of nutrition labelling, and seven other ordinal regression models to analyse consumer interest towards nutrition claims and labelling. Consumers who use nutrition labelling have characteristics different from those who use nutrition claims. Consumers using nutrition labelling show a marked interest in food safety concerns, use experts as their source of information and have specific dietary habits. For consumers concerned about nutrition claims, the survey shows significant links with attributes influencing purchasing behaviour, such as price, brand, certification, etc. Socio‐demographic characteristics are statistically significant and show a positive link with age, gender and a negative linkage with income.     

Consumer Acceptance of Genetically Modified (GM)—Cowpeas in Sub-Sahara Africa

ABSTRACT

Cowpea (known as black-eyed peas in America) is the most important indigenous African grain legume for both home use and as a cash crop. Because of its tolerance to drought, it is especially important for the Sahel. Genetic transformation of cowpea with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes to control pod-boring insects has many advantages, but little is known of the potential consumer response. This article analyzes and reports the results of a survey of 200 consumers in northern Nigeria concerning consumer awareness of and acceptance of biotechnology. Ninety percent of the respondents were aware of genetically modified (GM) products. Those respondents who were most concerned about the ethics of genetic transformation were likely to disapprove of such products, while those individuals who identified international radio as an information source were more likely to approve of GM technology.     

Supermarkets and Consumers in Africa

Abstract

Supermarkets in urban Kenya have risen from a tiny niche a half decade ago to a fifth of food retail, spreading well beyond the richer consumers to derive more than a third of their sales and half of their customers from low income and poor consumers. This paper explores the patterns and determinants of purchases of the overall food category versus fresh fruits and vegetables, over Nairobi consumer income strata, for purchases from supermarkets versus traditional retailers. Implications are drawn for development programs to help farmers be strategically positioned for change in the food markets facing them.     

Consumer Attitudes Towards Convenience Food Usage: Exploring the Case of São Paulo,Brazil

Abstract

The goal of the present study is to assess the impact of attitudinal and sociodemographic variables and resources restriction (time, effort and income) on convenience food usage, mediated by customer convenience orientation. The study was conducted in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. 1391 participants completed an online questionnaire designed to evaluate convenience food usage, attitudinal and sociodemographic variables. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling by blockwise comparison technique. The results showed that convenience food usage was directly affected by convenience orientation towards the meal planning, kitchen setup and cleaning up stages, and was driven by time and budget perception, both directly and indirectly (as mediated by convenience orientation). Health consciousness and cooking enjoyment showed a negative impact on the usage of these products. The convenience food market in Brazil has a large growth potential, especially if new products take into consideration palatability and nutritional quality.     

对当前广西消费价格走势的比较分析

2010年四季度以来,广西居民消费价格总水平出现持续快速上涨态势。混合型成因的集中爆发引起本轮价格上涨,而且表现出不同以往的特点,并进一步拉高对于未来价格高涨的预期。价格高低涉及居民的生活、企业的生产,而且与宏观调控政策的走向密切相关,成为关注焦点。当前价格运行拐点特征明显,在政策干预及各方面因素影响下,预计四季度CPI将继续保持高位运行,与前期相比略有回落。     

基于多级模糊综合评判法的个人信用评分模型研究

为加强对个人信用风险的防范、提高信贷审批质量而提出多级模糊综合评判方法,并设计相应的个人信用评分系统模块和信用评分的交互界面应于个人房贷的审批.通过实例演示发现.该方法克服了以往模型中假设条件的限制,在我国目前信用信息数据收集不完整、信息数据质量不高的情况下有着独到的优势.     

数字经济发展与消费者福利水平变化——基于时间分配理论研究

伴随着数字经济的发展,社会中产生了大量免费或低价的数字产品。然而,在现有GDP核算体系之下,这些数字产品的价值难以被准确衡量。基于此,文章立足于数字产品的消费者剩余度量问题,提出了“GDP+数字产品消费者剩余”的数字经济核算新思路。考虑到数字产品的时间密集型特征,文章结合Becker的时间分配理论,初步尝试从时间价值角度构建数字产品消费者剩余测度模型。进一步,文章在概念上将互联网服务与数字产品等同,以互联网服务为对象,利用我国2012—2020年间居民业余上网时间数据,对数字产品的消费者剩余展开量化分析。结果发现,数字产品对消费者福利的影响呈总体扩大趋势,其在GDP中占比始终保持在5%以上,且增速远高于同期GDP增速。我国数字经济实际规模被严重低估。对数字产品价值的忽视必然会影响政府数字经济政策的有效性。另外,文章在实证过程中发现,消费者在互联网服务消费方面存在明显的鸿沟。具体来讲,高收入群体出于信息搜寻、社会资本积累和娱乐休闲目的,对互联网服务的使用时间远大于低收入群体。我国数字产品消费存在不平等问题,这在一定程度上会对消费者福利产生不利影响。因此,在精准测度数字经济规模的基础上,政...     

饼干包装设计与营销策略

商品畅销的诀窍在于商品的印象.包装既是对产品的外在保护,更是一种营销策略,包装设计的好坏往往会影响到该产品的广告宣传效应,成为产品开拓市场的重要影响因素之一.饼干产品的包装设计策略是一个非常逻辑化的促销创意过程.因此,研究包装的设计及营销,对于提升饼干产品的市场竞争力具有重要的意义.