Understanding why consumers in China switch between wild,farmed, and synthetic bear bile products

An important rationale for legally farmed and synthetic wildlife products is that they reduce illegal, wild-sourced trade by supplying markets with sustainable alternatives. For this to work, more established illegal-product consumers must switch to legal alternatives than new legal-product consumers switch to illegal wild products. Despite the widespread debate on the magnitude and direction of switching, studies among actual consumers are lacking. We used an anonymous online survey of 1421 traditional Chinese medicine consumers in China to investigate switching among legal farmed, synthetic, and illegal wild bear bile. We examined the past consumption behavior, applied a discrete choice experiment framed within worsening hypothetical disease scenarios, and used latent class models to investigate groups with shared preferences. Bear bile consumers (86% respondents) were wealthier, more likely to have family who consumed bile, and less knowledgeable about bile treatments than nonconsumers. Consumer preferences were heterogenous, but most consumer preferences switched between bile types as disease worsened. We identified five distinct latent classes within our sample: law-abiding consumers (34% respondents), who prefer legal products and were unlikely to switch; two all-natural consumer groups (53%), who dislike synthetics but may switch between farmed and wild; and two nonconsumer groups (12%), who prefer not to buy bile. People with past experience of bile consumption had different preferences than those without. Willingness to switch to wild products was related to believing they were legal, although the likelihood of switching was mediated by preferences for cheaper products sold in legal, familiar places. We found that consumers of wild bile may switch to legal alternatives, given the availability of a range of products, whereas legal-product consumers may switch to illegal products if the barriers to doing so are small. Understanding preferences that promote or impede switching should be a key consideration when attempting to predict consumer behavior in complex wildlife markets.     

Accessibility and trust: the two dimensions of consumers’ perception on sustainable purchase intention

The aim of this article is to shed new light on which dimensions compose sustainable purchase intention (SPI) with the purpose of understanding what moves consumers to a potentially more sustainable behaviour. Even though several studies have researched which factors influence consumer’s intention to buy in a more sustainable way, no comparable research in consumer behaviour was found studying these dimensions in a triple bottom line perspective (profit, people, and planet) that could also provide future corporate and academic applications. Therefore, this article proposes a new construct – Consumers’ Perception on SPI, defined using the C-OAR-SE procedure and measured using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using two different samples. In-depth interviews and online survey to actual consumers of sustainable products were undertaken in partnership with a sustainable project using its database, guaranteeing that real consumers’ perceptions were gathered for this study. The construct is proposed with two dimensions (measured by nine items): Accessibility (including facets such as product lower pricing, availability in stores, and being sold within a convenient proximity to home) and Trust (including consumers needs such as: to get to know and trust products through understanding the labels; to have had good experiences in the past or simply to have new trial opportunities). Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Exploring price effects on the residential water conservation technology diffusion process: a case study of Tianjin city

Reforms of the water pricing management system and the establishment of a flexible water pricing system are significant for cities in northern China to tackle their critical water issues. The WATAP (Water conservation Technology Adoption Processes) model is developed in order to capture the water conservation technology adoption process under different price scenarios with disaggregate water demands down to the end use level. This model is explicitly characterized by the technological selection process under maximum marginal benefit assumption by different categories of households. In particular, when households need to purchase water devices in the provision market with the consideration of complex factors such as the life span, investment and operating costs of the device, as well as the regulated water price by the government. Applied to Tianjin city, four scenarios of water price evolutions for a long-term perspective (from year 2011 to 2030) are considered, including BAU (Business As Usual), SP1 (Scenario of Price increase with constant annual rate), SP2 (Scenario of Price increase every four years) and SP3 (Scenario of Price increase with affordable constraint), considering many factors such as historic trends, affordability and incentives for conservation. Results show that on aggregate 2.3%, 11.0% and 18.2% of fresh water can be saved in the residential sector in scenario SP1, SP2 and SP3, respectively, compared with the BAU scenario in the year 2030. The water price signals can change the market shares of different water appliances, as well as the water end use structure of households, and ultimately improve water use efficiency. TheWATAP model may potentially be a helpful tool to provide insights for policy makers on water conservation technology policy analysis and assessment.     

基于隐含碳排放的碳减排目标研究

中国政府以2005年为基年提出了碳减排指标,确定各省碳减排基数对于明确各省碳减排责任具有重要意义.本文结合“十一五”期间节能指标分解过程中存在的问题,分析了省际贸易中隐含的碳排放对于确定各省碳减排基数的影响,并分别基于生产者负责原则和消费者负责原则计算了“十二五”期间各省碳减排基数.计算结果表明:①将工业部门拆分为23个部门能够更加充分反映省际贸易结构差异对于隐含碳排放计算的影响;②省际贸易中隐含碳排放不仅在各省间有较大差异而且呈现出从中西部地区调往东部地区的整体转移方向;③不同原则下各省碳减排基数计算结果存在较大差异,消费者负责原则更加真实地反映了各地区实际减排责任,避免了部分省份通过省际调进代替本省生产的方式实现碳减排目标.     

Comparative study on consumption behaviors in private car markets between large and medium–small cities in China

With the economic development and the acceleration of motorization in China, the number of private cars increases rapidly in urban areas. However, the limit of urban resources and the contradiction between traffic supply and demand are increasingly prominent in large cities, while private car consumption has been a new “light” in medium and small cities. Consumers’ behaviors differ from region to region. Aiming at the above problems, we formulate structural equation modeling and carry out empirical research. In this paper, a comparative study about the main influential factors that affect the consumption of private cars in large and small cities in China is made, and it is hoped that some guidance for policy recommendations can be obtained.     

“多规合一”开展现状及成效分析

在研究"多规合一"发展演变历程的基础上,深入剖析"多规合一"的内涵:"多规合一"是各类规划的统筹,是系统的空间管理,是简政放权的手段。从市级、省级两个层面,论述了广州、厦门、海南等试点城市"多规合一"开展的现状,比较各试点城市牵头部门、规划体系、发展步骤等发展模式的不同,总结"多规合一"开展以来在解决规划打架、盘活土地资源、缩短审批时间、实现资源共享、加强生态管控等方面取得的成效,梳理出开展过程中遇到的难点和问题,并展望下一步工作。     

浅议环境风险评价与管理

论述了环境风险评价的有关基本概念,阐明了环境风险评价主要步骤。探讨了环境风险管理的内容与方法。并提出了一些建议。     

基于公众对区域水灾感知的灾害风险沟通探讨

了解公众对区域水灾的感知情况,为开展有效的风险沟通和风险管理提供基础依据。本文从公众层面入手,在长江流域的上中下游选择重庆、江西、安徽作为调查样区,调查公众对当地水灾的感知状况,共访谈10余个区县的207位居民,每人的访谈时间都在40 min以上。据此分析公众区域水灾感知水平与灾害风险沟通间的关系。调查中发现,在风险沟通的渠道方面：电视是村民接受风险信息的主要渠道,很少有人通过报纸或网络了解水灾水情。在风险沟通的内容方面：在灾害中不同的角色因其职责、信息渠道等的不同,风险沟通的内容有别。水灾认知中,存在着由于期望差异、乐观侥幸心理等导致的认知偏差。在风险沟通的手段方面：对于受灾居民而言,可以通过水灾知识普及、加强心理辅导或心理治疗等方式减少水灾带来的负面影响。另外,需要引导公众认识到防洪科技的有限性,减少麻痹、盲从心理及其行为。     

Development of a method to rate the primary safety of vehicles using linked New Zealand crash and vehicle licensing data

Objective: Vehicle safety rating systems aim firstly to inform consumers about safe vehicle choices and, secondly, to encourage vehicle manufacturers to aspire to safer levels of vehicle performance. Primary rating systems (that measure the ability of a vehicle to assist the driver in avoiding crashes) have not been developed for a variety of reasons, mainly associated with the difficult task of disassociating driver behavior and vehicle exposure characteristics from the estimation of crash involvement risk specific to a given vehicle. The aim of the current study was to explore different approaches to primary safety estimation, identifying which approaches (if any) may be most valid and most practical, given typical data that may be available for producing ratings.

Methods: Data analyzed consisted of crash data and motor vehicle registration data for the period 2003 to 2012: 21,643,864 observations (representing vehicle-years) and 135,578 crashed vehicles. Various logistic models were tested as a means to estimate primary safety: Conditional models (conditioning on the vehicle owner over all vehicles owned); full models not conditioned on the owner, with all available owner and vehicle data; reduced models with few variables; induced exposure models; and models that synthesised elements from the latter two models.

Results: It was found that excluding young drivers (aged 25 and under) from all primary safety estimates attenuated some high risks estimated for make/model combinations favored by young people. The conditional model had clear biases that made it unsuitable. Estimates from a reduced model based just on crash rates per year (but including an owner location variable) produced estimates that were generally similar to the full model, although there was more spread in the estimates. The best replication of the full model estimates was generated by a synthesis of the reduced model and an induced exposure model.

Conclusions: This study compared approaches to estimating primary safety that could mimic an analysis based on a very rich data set, using variables that are commonly available when registered fleet data are linked to crash data. This exploratory study has highlighted promising avenues for developing primary safety rating systems for vehicle makes and models.     

Application of TISM and MICMAC for analysis of influential factors of sustainable development of tablet devices: a case study

Abstract

With the advancements in technology and increase in demand for eco-efficient products, manufacturers are focusing on sustainable development of products. Enticing a huge demand over the recent years, sustainable development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products are a subject of interest for most practitioners and academicians. A number of factors are found to influence the sustainable development of ICT products. It is necessary to identify the most important factors and determine the dependencies of factors among themselves. In this regard, a case study has been conducted in the context of sustainable development of tablet devices. The most influential factors have been identified from literature and with experts input. The factor dependencies are established using Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) methodology. MICMAC analysis is used to classify the factors based on their ability to influence other factors. The output of TISM forms the input for MICMAC analysis. From the study, it was found that the factors, ‘Customer pressure’, ‘Government regulations’, ‘Competitiveness’, ‘Organization initiative’ and ‘Technological advancements’ are the most driving factors. Factors ‘Environmental impact’, ‘Energy efficiency’ and ‘Opportunities to upgrade’ were found to be dependent.