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A Study On Chinese Consumers' Willingness To Accept To Consume Genetically Modified Rice

Posted on:2009-08-13Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:C H QiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2189360248951273Subject:Industrial Economics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The genetically modified technology has developed rapidly during the late 19th century and has gotten great achievement,influencing such industries as agriculture, medicine,chemistry and so on.GM crop has walked out from experiment field,entered commercialized field production on large-scale,and has permeated in processing, circulation and consumer field with large quantities.Along with this the international controversy on the safety of GM foods is becoming intenser.On one hand,supporters think that GM food production profit is larger than risk,extolling the advantages of GM technology,such as enhancing the yield,reducing the cost,improving the quality etc.On the other hand,opponents advocate the risk of GM food consumption and production, worrying about problems caused by GM technology as food safety,ethics and environment.However,in this argument,it's known to all of us that consumers are the decisive factors,for their decisions and options are the key to the commercialization of GM foods and the benefit of GM food researcher,producer and seller.Analyzing customers' acceptance and willingness to pay for GM rice not only directly affects enterprise behavior,and also affects the government safety management decision.The main purposes of this paper are to investigate consumer's willingness to buy GM rice.Many studies about consumer willingness and demand are taken in China,but many of them are based on investigation of GM food purchase demand.The consumers are residents who make judgements from social angle.They are not the consumers who making actual purchase decision and the investigation on consumer purchase or consumption intention can not respond specific price behavior.So,it can not be true to reveal the customer's consumption demand and behavior of genetically modified food. Experimental auctions are conducted in Hua Zhong Agricultural University,where are elicited the minimum compensation demanded(willingness-to-accept) to consume a GM versus a non-GM food in a non-hypothetical incentive compatible auction involving real food and real money.The investigators are the students of Hua Zhong Agricultural University.Our research focuses on the effect of how media reports influence consumers' willingness to buy.In order to identify the different influence of positive and negative information,the whole sample is divided into two groups.One group is provided with positive information first,and then negative information.The other group is offered negative information first,and then positive information.Data are collected using a within subject design where willingness-to-accept is elicited before and after an information shock is introduced.We drew some conclusions from our research as following:(1)Chinese consumers have developed certain awareness and relatively shallow understanding of GM;(2) Consumer's initial understanding and acceptance affects compensation to accept apparently;(3)The different information that offers influences consumer's acceptance apparently;(4)Consumer conveys different preference for different type of genetically modified rice;(5)The trademark of genetically modified rice may affect the customer's last option.
Keywords/Search Tags:Consumer, GM Rice, Willingness-to-accept, Information
PDF Full Text Request
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