Discovering Niche Market： Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Organic Pork

With the concern for environmental quality and food safety, organic food products are becoming more important in the global market. In recent years the organic food industry has been expanding and sales of organic products have been increasing. Abundant studies have been done focusing on organic fruits and vegetables which focused on the shortage of organic live stocks. In this paper we focus our attention on organic pork products. Using a sample of 400 Thais consumers, this study proposes the contingent valuation （CV） technique to measure the willingness of individuals to pay a price premium for organic pork in Thailand. In order to obtain the mean ＂willingness to pay＂ （WTP）, a bivariate probit model was applied to provide information about the crucial variables that affect the WTP. The study revealed that variables that better approximate WTP are based on the lifestyle and knowledge about organic foods rather than the usual socioeconomic factors. The mean WTP on the premium price for organic pork is approximately 34.30 Bath per kg. In order to access the market potential this study shows that the suitable attributes of organic pork which is consistent with consumer preferences are composed of modernized and environmental packaging with special product details. Marketing this product to the buyer it should be set at a reasonable price. Stimulating the market should be done by doing sales promotion and public relations on a regularly basis. In addition, organic pork should be available in any places and convenient for customers to buy.

Exploring the factors affecting electric bicycle riders'working conditions and crash involvement in Ningbo,China

The rapid development of the delivery industry brings convenience to modern society.However,the high rates of crashes and the survival of electric bicycle(e-bike)riders in the delivery industry raise concerns.The primary objective of this study is to explore the factors affecting delivery e-bike riders’stressful work pressure and crash involvement in China.Data were collected by a questionnaire survey administered in the city of Ningbo,China.A bivariate ordered probit(BOP)model was developed to simultaneously examine the factors associated with both the working conditions of delivery e-bike riders and their involvement in crashes.The marginal effects for the contributory factors were calculated to quantify their impacts on the outcomes.The results showed that the BOP model can account for commonly unobserved characteristics of the working conditions and crash involvement of delivery e-bike riders.The BOP model results showed that the stressful working conditions of delivery e-bike riders were affected by the number of orders and delivery time and rider age and risky riding behaviors.Delivery rider involvement in crashes was affected by the number of orders,strength of the punishment for traffic violations,and familiarity with traffic regulations.It was also found that stressful working conditions and crash involvement were strongly and positively correlated.The findings of this study can enhance our understanding of the factors that affect the working conditions and delivery rider crash involvement.Based on the results,some suggestions regarding public policy,risky riding behaviors,safety promotion,and stronger corporate governance rules were discussed to increase the targeted safety-related interventions for delivery ebike riders in Ningbo,China.

Covering or monitoring?Independent director connectedness and corporate fraud in China

This paper examines how independent directors’social capital,as measured by their social network,affects corporate fraud.We find that firms with wellconnected independent directors are less likely to commit fraud,supporting our monitoring effect hypothesis.This result is robust to a battery of tests.Further analyses show that the effect is stronger for firms with a relatively poor legal environment,for firms whose independent directors face strong reputation incentives and when independent directors are audit committee members.Moreover,we explore a potential economic mechanism of the effect and observe that well-connected independent directors are associated with less absenteeism and more dissension.Overall,our findings suggest that independent directors’social capital plays an important role in corporate governance.

How has COVID-19 changed trip patterns by purpose in China?

COVID-19 has upended the whole world. Due to travel restrictions by governments and increased perceived risks of the disease, therehave been significant changes in social activities and travel patterns. This paper investigates the effects of COVID-19 on changes toindividuals’ travel patterns, particularly for travel purposes. An online questionnaire survey was conducted in China, which incorporatesquestions about individuals’ sociodemographic and travel characteristics in three different periods of COVID-19 (i.e. before theoutbreak, at the peak and after the peak;the peak here refers to the peak of the pandemic in China, between the end of January and1 May, 2020). The results show that trip frequency decreased sharply from the outbreak until the peak, and drastically increased afterthe peak. Nevertheless, the data fromthis study suggests that it has not fully recovered to the level before the outbreak. Subsequently,a series of random parameters bivariate Probit models for changes in travel patterns were estimated with personal characteristics.The findings demonstrate that during the peak of the pandemic, residents who did not live in more developed cities reached lowfrequencytravel patterns more quickly. For travel purposes, residents of Wuhan, China resumed travelling for work, entertainmentand buy necessities at a much higher rate than other cities. After the peak, students’ travel for work, entertainment and to buy necessitiesrecovered significantly faster than for other occupations. The findings would be helpful for establishing effective policies tocontrol individual travel and minimize disease spread in a possible future pandemic.

Patent Application, Grant and Patent Law Amendment in China

This study employs 920,108 invention patents from the State Intellectual Property of China(SIPO)to examine the impact of two patent law amendments,which occurred in 1993 and 2001 respectively,on the patent grant.The first patent law amendment in 1993 led to less strict criteria for patent approval.And the second patent law amendment,which occurred in 2001,showed a similar positive impact on patenting as well.It is more likely that the first patent law amendment encouraged foreign applicants to make patent application,because their applications and grant share started to rise after 1993.By contrast,the second patent law amendment played an opposite role by motivating Chinese applicants to make patent application,which is reflected by a rise of application and grant share by Chinese applicants in post-2001 period.Patent grant is viewed as one of the key indicators for judging the patent value.We find that foreign applicants from the U.S.,Japan and European Union have higher patent grant rate than that of Chinese applicants,suggesting that patents held by foreign applicants may have higher potential value than those held by Chinese applicants.Different types of applicants may differ from each other in terms of the patent grant rate,where research institutes have higher patent grant rate than that of corporations and individuals.Since the filed patents in China can enjoy a provisional protection for 3 years at most,some applicants do not request their examination.After an examination of the novelty,inventiveness and practicality of patent,the patent office determines whether to grant it.By using a bivariate probit model,we make an econometric analysis of this case.The result confirms the positive impact of both patent law amendments in 1993 and 2001 on the patent grant.We also find other determinants of the patent grant,for example,R&D human capital investment,applicant’s competitive technology advantage in the patent’s field,and applicant’s research ability,play positive roles in driving applicant to ask for examination.Patent’s complexity plays a positive role in driving the patent office to grant it.We discuss the significance of our study at the end of this paper.