Determinants of portuguese wine & enotourism consumer behaviour

This study tries to understand what needs to be done to improve value perceptions and wine usage (1) Change the Portuguese wine and enotourism industry profile to adjust to huge competitive marketplace because it is still production-based; more sales than marketing oriented and the market data are less important then production and sales ones; (2) Enhance strongly the relationship between the wine and enotourism company and final consumers by “management synergies”; high “innovativeness to market”;“marketing research” and by an effective brand strategy. In this line, this paper provides an overview about strategic factors that determine the Portuguese wine and enotourism decision making process. The results of this research enable the essential features of a consumer profile of purchase and consumption to be obtained with respect to: (1) the structure of attributes - intrinsic and extrinsic - that Portuguese still wine consumers best recognise and value in determining its quality, (2) the motivational structures that encourage and guide them in their decision making process when purchasing and consuming wine and enotourism services, (3) the anticipated effect of interaction between different situations of consumption with different price bands.

Modelling risk perception and trust in food safety information within the theory of planned behaviour

This study suggests a statistical strategy for explaining how food purchasing intentions are influenced by different levels of risk perception and trust in food safety information. The modelling process is based on Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour and includes trust and risk perception as additional explanatory factors. Interaction and endogeneity across these determinants is explored through a system of simultaneous equations, while the SPARTA equation is estimated through an ordered probit model. Furthermore, parameters are allowed to vary as a function of socio-demographic variables. The application explores chicken purchasing intentions both in a standard situation and conditional to an hypothetical salmonella scare. Data were collected through a nationally representative UK wide survey of 533 UK respondents in face-to-face, in-home interviews. Empirical findings show that interactions exist among the determinants of planned behaviour and socio-demographic variables improve the model's performance. Attitudes emerge as the key determinant of intention to purchase chicken, while trust in food safety information provided by media reduces the likelihood to purchase. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consumer behaviour towards organic ready-to-eat meals: a case of quality innovation

Over the past decades, a significant number of peer-reviewed journal articles on the field of interest, has gradually grown mirroring the corresponding relevance. The purpose of this research is mainly to analyse the factors that could influence the choices of consumers’ when purchasing organic RTE meals while simultaneously identifies consumers’ attitudes regarding the ethical and green sounds towards such products. Particularly, special interest is placed on the dual nature of these products which on the one hand are characterized by high quality (organic) and on the other hand by the convenience factor. As a result, research has been carried out in order to examine both the potentiality of organic RTE meals in the food market and also the presentation of consumers’ behaviour and perceptions towards these products from a review perspective. Hence, a narrative literature review was performed in order to produce an overview of the most important outcomes and trends in this area being presented, compared and summarised based on authors’ experience. To put over a holistic approach of organic RTE meals purchase behaviour and attitudes, both key findings and other areas that have not been extensively documented, are presented.

Consumer attitude towards purchasing intent for ready to drink orange juice and nectar

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of some labeling aspects on the consumer intent to purchase ready to drink orange juice and nectar. Design/methodology/approach: The influence of label information on the consumer intent to purchase was evaluated by conjoint analysis using a convenience sample (n=149). A factorial design with four characteristics, price, brand, information about the product and kind of beverage, was used. Three levels were established for brand and product information, and two for price and kind of beverage. Findings: Low price, product information and market leading brand had positive impact. No preservatives/natural was the information that most influenced consumer's purchase intent. The ideal label showed the leading brand, low price and information no preservatives/natural. These results could be useful for strategic planning of consumer instruction and have important implications for Brazilian orange juice manufactures. Originality/value: Although the most widely consumed beverages in Brazil are ready to drink orange juice and nectar, it was unexpected that consumers did not know the differences between them and that kind of beverage was not an important factor for the purchase decision. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A longitudinal study of Chinese managerial behaviour:an inside view of decision-making under the economic reform

This research compared decision making processes in six Chinese state-owned enterprises during the period 1985 to 1988. The research objectives were: a) To examine changes in the managerial behaviour over a period of 1985 to 1988 with a focus on decision-making; b) Through this examination, to throw light on the means by which government policies on economic reform were implemented at the enterprise level; c) To illustrate problems encountered in the decentralization programme which was a major part of China's economic reform. The research was conducted by means of intensive interviews with more than eighty managers and a survey of documents relating to specific decisions. A total of sixty cases of decision-making were selected from five decision topics: purchasing of inputs, pricing of outputs, recruitment of labour, organizational change and innovation, which occurred in 1985 (or before) and in 1988/89. Data from the interviews were used to investigate environmental conditions, relations between the enterprise and its higher authority, interactions between management and the party system, the role of information, and effectiveness of regulations and government policies on enterprise management. The analysis of the data indicates that the decision processes in the different enterprises have some similarities in regard to actor involvement, the flow of decision activities, interactions with the authorities, information usage and the effect of regulations. Comparison of the same or similar decision contents over time indicates that the achievement of decentralization varied according to the topic of decision. Managerial authority was delegated to enterprises when the authorities relaxed their control over resource allocation. When acquisition of necessary resources is dependent upon the planning system or the decision matter is sensitive, because it involves change to the institutional framework (e.g. the Party), then a high degree of centralization was retained, resulting in a marginal change in managerial behaviour. The economic reform failed to increase decision efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making. The prevailing institutional frameworks were regarded as negative to the change. The research argues that the decision process is likely to be more contingent on the decision content than the organization. Three types of decision process have been conceptualized, each of them related to a certain type of decision content. This argument gives attention to the perspectives of institution and power in a way which facilitates an elaboration of organizational analysis. The problems encountered in the reform of China's industrial enterprises are identified and discussed. General recommendations for policies of further reform are offered, based on the analysis of decision process and managerial behaviour.

Különböző beszerzői magatartásminták a magyarországi kórházak körében (Behaviour of the Hungarian hospital in their relationship with drug suppliers.)

A szerzők kutatásának célja a magyar kórházak gyógyszerbeszállítókkal kapcsolatos magatartásának jobb megértése. A szervezeti viselkedés természetéből adódóan a szerzők kutatásukat a komplexitás paradigmájára támaszkodva (Mucchielli, 2004) végezték el. Ahhoz, hogy kórházak beszerzési döntéseinek komplex eljárásait megvizsgálják, egy vegyes kutatási módszer alkalmazására volt szükség. Elméleti háttérként az üzleti kapcsolatok értékének integrált modelljét alkalmazták. A tanulmányban bemutatják egy kvantitatív és egy kvalitatív kutatás eredményeit a magyarországi kórházak és a gyógyszerbeszállítók közötti üzleti kapcsolatokban. ________________ The main goal of this research is to better understand the behaviour of the Hungarian hospital in their relationship with drug suppliers. The nature of the organisational behaviour guides the authors to conduct their research on the complexity paradigm (Mucchielli, 2004). To be able to explore the complex procedure of purchasing decisions in the hospitals, they applied a research design based on mixed method research. As a theoretical background the authors used the integrated model of business relationship value. In their paper they introduce the results of a quantitative and a qualitative research about the business relationships between hospitals and drug suppliers in Hungary.

The use of modelling in purchasing/supply management research

The purpose of this research to explore the use of modelling in the field of Purchasing and Supply Management (P/SM). We are particularly interested in identifying the specific areas of P/SM where there are opportunities for the use of modelling based methods. The paper starts with an overview of main types of modelling and also provides a categorisation of the main P/SM research themes. Our research shows that there are many opportunities for using descriptive, predictive and prescriptive modelling approaches in all areas of P/SM research from the ones with a focus on the actual function from a purely operational and execution perspective (e.g. purchasing processes and behaviour) to the ones with a focus on the organisational level from a more strategic perspective (e.g. strategy and policy). We conclude that future P/SM research needs to explore the value of modelling not just at the functional or operational level, but also at the organisation and strategic level respectively. We also acknowledge that while using empirical results to inform and improve models has advantages, there are also drawbacks, which relate to the value, the practical relevance and the generalisability of the modelling based approaches.

Producers' Perceptions and Consumers' Behaviour Toward Certified Beans from Integrated Production (IP) in the Brazilian Central Region

Integrated production (IP) is part of the Brazilian government program to promote sustainable agricultural production. IP ensure minimum food quality standards for domestic market, and export. Furthermore, IP is considered a good option to reduce negative environmental impacts of intensive crops in tropical Savannas, including common beans, as a Brazilian staple food. Although its advantages, and the government’s effort to promote IP, few growers are adopting IP. Maybe, the perception about IP usefulness and/or its ease of use is not too clear. Moreover, the production sector is driven by market signs, and there is few information on the consumer's preferences toward IP certified products in Brazil. In this study, we sought to identify some critical factors that can influence the IP adoption in beans' production. Moreover, we sought to verify the consumers’ perceptions and intention of purchasing IP certified beans (hypothetical product). This report comprises four chapters: (1) an introduction illustrating the context in which the research was based; (2) the results on the study of IP adoption based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); (3) the choice experiment results applied to identify consumers preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for IP label; (4) the results on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) applied to identify consumers’ perception toward IP certified beans. This research contributes with rich information for the beans’ supply chain, providing several insights to growers, retail and other agents, including policy makers. Beans’ production sector seems to be positively intentioned to adopt IP, but further studies should be conducted to test other adoption indicators using TAM model. Surveyed consumers are willing to pay a premium price for IP labelled beans. They showed a positive attitude toward purchasing IP labelled beans. It is an important information to motivate production sector to offer certified beans to the market.