VALUE-ADDED SERVICES FOR FIBRE TO THE HOME - Market Potential, Time Horizons and User Groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 306-314
Author(s):  
Norzalila Kasron ◽  
Musaalbakri Abdul Manan ◽  
Mohd Nur Hafiz Mat Azmin ◽  
Nor Azlina Saari ◽  
Malisah Abd Latip

Fermented beverages have become a powerful player in the global beverage sector because of the increased demand for health products and their nutritional benefits to societies. This study aimed to identify consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for fermented drinks developed by MARDI. It also will evaluate the market potential of products among industry players. In this study, the data was collected using structured questionnaire and face-to-face interviews focused on the population in Peninsular Malaysia. The population's selection by stratified random sampling technique and the major survey locations included mall and hypermarket. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to discover the underlying structure of observed variables. A total of 400 respondents had participated in the study. A field survey conducted showed that 54% of respondents knew about functional foods and 55% of these are aware of functional foods based on fruits were in the market. The survey found that 30% of respondents had taken fermented drinks before, while the rest had never known this drink. Age and income have a significant influence on consumers' willingness to pay fermented drinks at a reasonable price if this product is available in the Malaysian market. Government support is needed to encourage the cultivation of indigenous fruit in Malaysia. It can be done through the provision of seed subsidies and financial resources to farmers in expanding and increasing the supply of these raw materials for the production of value-added products.


Author(s):  
Vasileios G. Stamatopoulos ◽  
George E. Karagiannis ◽  
Michael A. Gatzoulis ◽  
Anastasia N. Kastania

This chapter presents the feasibility study of a virtual platform for medical related technology transfer, continuing medical education and e-conference. The concept extends the idea of live events (e.g. conferences, open day events) in one physical location. It exploits the creation of a virtual platform where the research world in the area of biomedicine, can showcase their success, interact and co-operate with the business community and collaborate on potentially valuable outcomes and learn without time or place restrictions. The main objective of the project was to offer a pilot service that can showcase the e-OpenDay market potential and technical feasibility. By developing a prototype and through user feedback and evaluation processes, a set of services was identified, developed and validated. The e-OpenDay project made clear that health information services are facing rapid development and expansion to wider markets and user groups. Based on the project results, a business plan was developed that showcased potential in commercial exploitation.


HortScience ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 769-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia L. Rihn ◽  
Chengyan Yue ◽  
Charles Hall ◽  
Bridget K. Behe

Choice experiments were conducted to explore the market potential or value added when using longevity information and guarantees on cut flower arrangements in the retail setting. The objective of our study was to determine consumer preferences and willingness to pay for different vase life longevities and guarantees on cut flower arrangements. The choice experiment data were collected using online surveys with 525 U.S. consumers in July 2011. The choice experiment scenarios included single species or mixed species cut flower arrangements with varying vase life longevity (5 to 7 days, 8 to 10 days, 11 to 14 days), presence or absence of vase life longevity guarantee, personal or gift use, and price range ($7.99 to $11.99, $34.99 to $43.99). Two types of arrangements were used in the experiment, mixed arrangements consisting of different species of cut flowers and single-species arrangements consisting of six red roses plus a filler flower. We analyzed the data with a mixed logit model and Ward’s linkage cluster analysis. As expected, participants were willing to pay higher prices for cut flower arrangements with longer vase life longevity. The presence of a guarantee improved participants’ probability of selecting the corresponding cut flower arrangement. Using Ward’s linkage cluster analysis, we found there were three distinct consumer clusters: guarantee seekers (49% of the sample), value-conscious consumers (31%), and spenders (20%). Among the three clusters, guarantee seekers were more likely to select cut flower arrangements with guarantees. Value-conscious consumers were interested in both guarantees and longevity indicators. Spenders were least interested in longevity indicators and guarantees. We conclude floral retailers could successfully implement the use of longevity indicators and guarantees to increase consumer interest in cut flowers and generate profits. Target marketing strategies could then be developed by floral retailers to attract different consumer clusters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 07015
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Dado ◽  
Lenka Hvolkova ◽  
Janka Taborecka

Research background: Globalization - the process of increasing social, cultural, political, and economic interdependence - has resulted in several changes in business environment. Global market opportunities and threats are major effects of globalization; they refer to the increases in market potential, trade and investment potential and resource accessibility. Global market threats refer to the increases in the number and level of competition, and the level of uncertainty. Global competitors can have the impact on bankruptcy of local SMEs in less developed or smaller countries. Are globalization in economics and company bankruptcy related? In the past, the cause of bankruptcy was mainly in the company itself. The development of globalization has brought a number of positive as well as a number of negative consequences for several areas of society. Is one of the negative effects of globalization the bankruptcy of companies? Purpose of the article: The paper presents a classification of external and internal causes of bankruptcy and indicators of the threat of company bankruptcy. The paper also focuses on the results of the research analysis about the causes of small and medium-sized enterprises mortality in Slovakia and the impact of globalization factors as the causes of their bankruptcy. The analysis of bankruptcies is oriented on the research of the causes of small and medium-sized enterprises mortality in Slovakia and the influence of globalization factors as the causality of their bankruptcy. Methods: The research sample presents structured interview with 16 SMEs´ owners. They identified more aspects of globalization impact to Slovak SMEs bankruptcy. Findings & Value added: The results of research indicate that there is an evidence of impact of globalization on the bankruptcy of SMEs in Slovakia, but there are some differences among various industries.


Author(s):  
I. A. Sekushina

Forest resources and their processing are one of the main components of the economic base of the regions of the European North of Russia. At the same time, the mere fact of the presence of rich wood reserves does not at all indicate their effective use. In this regard, the assessment of the existing production potential of the timber industry complex of these constituent entities of the Russian Federation is of particular relevance and importance. The article discusses the approaches of modern researchers to the assessment of both the forest raw materials and the economic and production potential. The author’s technique is proposed, based on the use of reference values and calculations of the integral indicator of the production potential of the timber industry complex. As a result of the study, the author came to the conclusion that the production potential of the timber industry of the regions of the European North of Russia is not fully used – only 62%. In terms of regions, the leader is the Komi Republic, and the outsider is the Murmansk region. The largest reserves are available in the use of forest and market potential. The low level of use of the first is explained by low rates of development of the estimated cutting area, as well as insufficient volumes of reforestation. Low indicators of assessing market potential are due to the fact that low value-added products still dominate in the structure of production of the timber industry complex.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-259
Author(s):  
Alicja Fraś

Research background: The investor`s expectation of better performance in the case of more expensive mutual funds seems natural and fully justified. However, the rise of passive funds and their surprisingly good results, especially when taking into account their low fees, triggered the discussion. Recent years have brought more and more studies, conducted mostly for the American market, discrediting high-charging, aggressive funds. First analyses in Poland also indicate that the level of fees is not always linked with the fund’s performance. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the study is to investigate the relation be-tween the fees imposed by the mutual funds and the funds` performance. The idea is to verify, whether higher management fees are associated with top performance and whether it is rational to pay more for capital management. Methods: In the first step of the study, linearity and direction of the dependency was explored, using scatterplots and correlation analysis. In the second part, the linear regression was created to verify the strength of the relation. One-factor models have been built with the rate of return and standard deviation as independent variables for 1-, 3- and 5-year time horizons. Moreover, two-factor models, including both rate of return and risk has been created, to compare the significance of return and risk factor. Findings & Value added: The results indicated that more expensive Polish mutual funds in 2015 tended to perform worse in all tested time horizons — both in terms of lower rates of return and higher risk. Especially unexpected are the results of rates of return regression analysis — it turns out that within a sample 1% higher fee implied over 0.6% lower rate of return before fees (in yearly period). Nonetheless, the risk turned out to be more important, explaining the charges variability much better than the rate of return. Another interesting finding of the study is that merely two simple factors (return and risk) explain even as much as 60% of the management fee variability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  

The composition of maize endows it with many health benefits. However, maize is naturally deficient in lysine and tryptophan, which are two of eight amino acids regarded as essential for humans and are necessarily to be part of a balanced diet. In light of the above deficiency found in traditional maize the use of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) has brought its usage more productive. QPM differs from common maize in the weight distribution of the five protein fractions. The extent of the change is variable and affected by genotype and cultural conditions. It has been found, however, that the opaque-2 gene reduces the concentration of zein by some 30 percent. As a result, lysine and tryptophan content is higher in QPM varieties than in common maize. QPM based value added products are not available in the market for the consumer, even though products developed from maize have high market potential and are most important food alternative to protein malnourished and gluten sensitive patients. Centre of Excellence on Processing & Value Addition of Maize” initiated in 2014 under nutri farm pilot scheme, Government of India, has developed more than 20 innovative products of maize (Bakery products: Nankhatai, Bread, Toast, Cakes, Salted Cookies, Soya Protein Biscuit, Coconut Cookies, Muffins; Extruded Products: Whey and Butter milk based Pastine, Puffcorn; Traditional Prodcuts: Fortified popcorn, Khaman, Dhokla, Ladoo, Namkeen, Shakkarpara, Mathri). Most of the products have been analyzed for their nutrient content at Food Laboratory of Junagadh Agriculture University, Junagadh, Gujrat. Further they were subjected to panel of judges & consumers for their organoleptic acceptability and they all were found in the category of “liked moderately” to “liked extremely” category of 9 point hedonic scale. Out of several developed few products like Nankhatai, Pastine Khaman, coconut cookies & cake were introduced to market, small shops, & bakery outlets. It was observed that these products have great market potential and may be introduced as the alternatives/ replacement to the refined wheat flour. Results showed that the protein concentrations improved in the developed QPM based products. Salted biscuits were consumable by all age group as snack with tea or coffee. Pasta is partially cooked extruded product which was strongly liked by children and has high market potential. It can be concluded that incorporation of quality protein maize in place of refined wheat flour improved the quality of the maize products in terms of organoleptic acceptability and nutritional parameters. Hence blend of QPM flour and refined wheat flour has potential as an alternative to replace refined wheat flour intake for better health and innovative commercializable product.


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