Damien Mather

Exploring the Usefulness of an Ecotourism Interest Scale

The majority of previous studies on ecotourism have used a behavioral approach to the identification of ecotourists. While these studies provide a number of useful ecotourist profiles, they do not provide a general scale useful in identifying ecotourists across a wide array of contexts. Therefore, this exploratory study develops an Ecotourism Interest scale and tests the value of the scale in predicting travelers’ participation in selected tourist activities. Logistic regression models are used to test hypotheses regarding the influence of Ecotourism Interest on choice of vacation activity. Empirical results show that the Ecotourism Interest scale is useful in identifying if tourists will select eco-friendly activities (e.g., walking in the bush, tramping, and whale watching). Also, different additional factors such as age, travel party, and travel mode were found to influence tourists’ decisions to participate in any one particular activity.

SIGNALING CORPORATE STRATEGY IN IPO COMMUNICATION A Study of Biotechnology IPOs on the NASDAQ

A clear corporate strategy communication can be a signal to financial analysts and public investors at the time of an initial public offering (IPO). This study examines IPO prospectuses of 57 biotechnology firms listed on the NASDAQ between 1997 and 2002. Using regression analysis, this article shows that the clarity, intensity, and consistency of the corporate strategy signal are not strong enough to affect the 1st-day initial returns. However, consistent communication of a prospector strategy negatively impacts 30-day initial returns, whereas consistent communication of a defender strategy positively impacts 30-day initial returns.

Determinants of trust in imported food products: perceptions of European gatekeepers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the elements of country image that influence gatekeepers of the European food distribution sector when making industrial purchasing decisions regarding imported food products.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews were conducted with key informants of seventeen food distribution companies and industry organisations in five European countries to determine the factors that they consider important when deciding from which countries to source food products.Findings – Confidence and trust in production systems, the integrity of regulatory systems, and the reliability of suppliers appear to be the major determinants of product‐country image as viewed by gatekeepers of the food distribution channel.Practical implications – These specific factors relating to confidence, trust, integrity and reputation appear to over‐ride more general perceptions of country image based on scenic or environmental considerations.Originality/value – Provides useful infor...

Social Stigma and Consumer Benefits: Trade-Offs in Adoption of Genetically Modified Foods

Attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) foods have been extensively studied, but there are very few studies of actual consumer purchasing behavior regarding GM foods offering a consumer benefit. Using a field choice-modeling experiment, the authors investigate the trade-off between price and social desirability in consumer choices with regard to conventional, organic, and GM fruit. What consumers say they will choose in a survey and what they actually choose in a real-purchase situation may differ substantially when their decision is framed by a socially charged issue such as genetic modification. The results are analyzed in relation to established principles of diffusion of innovation.

Pricing differentials for organic, ordinary and genetically modified food

Purpose – Aims to conduct research on consumer willingness to buy genetically modified (GM) foods with a price advantage and other benefits, compared with organic and ordinary types of foods, employing a robust experimental method. The importance of this increases as the volume and range of GM foods grown and distributed globally increase, as consumer fears surrounding perceived risk decrease and consumer benefits are communicated.Design/methodology/approach – In contrast with survey‐based experiments, which lack credibility with some practitioners and academics, customers chose amongst three categories of fruit (organic, GM, and ordinary) with experimentally designed levels of price in a roadside stall in a fruit‐growing region of New Zealand. Buyers were advised, after choosing, that all the fruit was standard produce, and the experiment was revealed. Data were analysed with multi‐nomial logit models.Findings – Increasing produce type and price sensitivity coefficient estimates were found in order from ...

Consumer scapegoating during a systemic product-harm crisis

Abstract To determine how consumers respond to betrayal of their trust in brands, we surveyed 2156 consumers in nine metropolitan centres in China following the 2008 melamine contamination crisis. Drawing on psychological drivers of scapegoating and attribution theory, we investigate how early information and the perceived involvement in a multi-brand crisis and attribution factors influence scapegoat effects. The survey results reveal that the first accused brand, Sanlu, took disproportionate blame and was made a scapegoat for an industry-wide crisis. The observer/tension-discharging perspective, the ‘early information’ effect, and the contrasting roles of manufacturers and non-manufacturer parties in the supply chain in causal attributions have the most significant effect in consumer scapegoating. Study of a highly unfortunate ‘real-life experiment’ shows how a food safety scandal spills over and negatively affects attitudes and beliefs about the whole supply chain and about competing brands.

Genetically modified crops and country image of food exporting countries

Purpose – Many countries have held back from planting genetically modified (GM) food crops due to perceived negative reaction in export and domestic markets. Three lines of research have tested the reality of this fear.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews were conducted in European countries with key companies and organisations in the European food sector. Supermarket intercepts were used to ascertain purchasing intent for products from countries that do or do not produce GM crops. A purchasing experiment was conducted, where cherries labelled as GM, organic or conventional were on sale in a roadside stall.Findings – Food distribution channel members expressed concern about possibility of contamination or mix‐up between GM and non‐GM food. However, presence of GM crops in a country does not cause negative perception of food in general from that country. Approximately 30 per cent of consumers in the purchasing experiment proved willing to purchase GM cherries when there was a defined consumer ...

Tourists’ Participation on Web 2.0: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Experiences

With the advent of Web 2.0, tourists are increasingly documenting their stories/reviews online. This online process of story-telling helps them enhance their experiences. The study demonstrates how tourists’ informal participation on Web 2.0 can contribute to tourism research. We discuss the nature of tourists’ participation on Web 2.0 according to the principles of participatory research. This further helps demonstrate how online data are produced and what characterizes it. Corpus Linguistics (CL) is then applied to extract hidden meanings in data sets in both exploratory studies as well as to test theory. Using this novel approach, we study tourists’ experiences in New Zealand to firstly, identify experience themes, and secondly, predict tourists’ evaluations using a Semantic Differential (SD) model. The methodology provides researchers with the ability not only to compare different destinations according to the experiences they trigger but also to exploit advantages of both qualitative rich data and quantitative analysis.

Buy-national campaigns: congruence determines premiums for domestic products

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer willingness to pay a premium for domestically manufactured products in the context of a buy-national campaign and the role of congruity in determining that willingness. Design/methodology/approach A market-stall-like context was used to conduct a stated-preference choice modelling experiment in six major cities in Australia and New Zealand. Participants were asked to choose one of three country-source alternatives for each of three product categories on display (muesli bars, toilet paper and a merino wool garment) with and without “Buy Australian Made” or “Buy New Zealand Made” stickers. A total sample of 2,160 consumers participated. Findings Strong evidence for the existence of buy-made-in effects for the muesli bar and toilet paper categories was found at the 95 per cent confidence level. Domestically made toilet paper attracted a premium in Australia (10 per cent) but a discount in New Zealand (5 per cent). Consumers in both countries indicated their willingness to pay a 14 per cent premium for domestically made muesli bars. Research limitations/implications This research design, which aimed to achieve a high level of ecological validity, precluded direct quantitative measurement of product category-COO schema congruency in the same experiment, either before or after the choice experiments. Future studies in other countries and product categories would benefit from surveying a separate sample of the same populations to directly estimate cross-population differences in COO “extreme affect” and product-COO congruence to strengthen the untangling of possibly confounding effects. Practical implications Brand managers, retail sector organisations and governments may need to reconsider the rationale for participating in buy-national campaigns, given the lack of generalisability of buy-made-in price premiums. Originality/value This paper is a rare example of an experiment to test whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for domestically made products in the context of a buy-national campaign.

Marketplace response to GM animal products.

VOLUME 34 NUMBER 3 MARCH 2016 NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY would be farmed in tanks on land, giving it an environmental advantage. We set out to determine how important a defined consumer benefit might be in leading consumers to adopt such a controversial food product16. Our choice modeling sales experiment (Supplementary Material) involved an element of deception (mislabeling), which gained institutional ethical approval on the proviso that consumers were informed of the deception after they had made their choice of fish, but before money changed hands: an apology was made and product was offered at a discount by way of compensation. Consumers were asked to give reasons for their choice. In contrast to stated preference methods (e.g., surveys), which may not reflect reality, we have measured actual behavior (‘revealed preferences’) in a genuine shopping situation. Consumers (124 female, 100 male) could choose between conventional and GM salmon, with and without the hypothetical benefit of ‘double omega-3 fatty acid’, at differential prices that varied throughout the experiment (Supplementary Table 1). An additional 1,176 best-worst scaling decisions were collected from 98 consumers (49 female, 49 male; Supplementary Table 2). A multinomial logit choice model was derived from the experimental market data. Alternative-specific coefficients for each type of salmon and a generic price sensitivity parameter were estimated. Market shares for six informative price scenarios were simulated using the model parameters and the associated multinomial logit choice probability formulae (Table 1). From using the bootstrap method, we infer that all market shares estimated are different at the 95% confidence level (Supplementary Material). When all products are simulated at the Marketplace response to GM animal products