The Effects of Interventions Targeting Increased Organic Seed Use—The Cases of Perennial Ryegrass in England and Durum Wheat in Italy

To meet policy goals targeting increasing the share of organic agriculture, an organic seed needs to be provided. Currently, this is far from being the case. This study investigates two cases of important crop country combinations in organic agriculture, namely perennial ryegrass in South-West England and durum wheat in Italy. A novel multi-agent value chain approach was developed to assess public and private-sector interventions aiming at increasing organic seed use. Phasing out of derogations for non-organic seed comes with 2–7% gross margin losses at the farm level. Seed producers and breeders profit by 9–24%. Mitigating measures can be subsidies of 28 €/ha or price premiums of 12 €/ton at the farm gate for durum wheat, in the case of durum wheat in Italy, and subsidies of 13 €/ha or price premiums of 70 €/ton for lamb meat, in the case of perennial ryegrass in England. Further mitigating measures are the promotion of farm-saved durum wheat seed and investments in breeding for better nitrogen efficiency in organic perennial ryegrass seed production.

Impact of ethical certifications and product involvement on consumers decision to purchase ethical products at price premiums in an emerging market context

In emerging markets, instances of increasing consumers focus on ethical aspects of the product are observed. To this end, we aim to examine the influence of two ethical certifications and two product involvement types on consumers willingness to purchase ethical products at price premiums in the Indian market. No animal cruelty certification and no child labor certification are chosen as the ethical certifications, and a shirt and a bar of soap are chosen as high and low involvement product categories. Data is collected from 206 respondents for the experiment, in which consumers willingness to purchase a product is evaluated for different product scenarios. The results of the study indicate that individuals show highest willingness to purchase products (a shirt or a soap) when both certifications (no animal cruelty, no child labor) are present. However, in comparing individual certifications, individuals prefer no animal cruelty certification for a shirt and no child labor certification for a bar of soap. The study provides insights to practitioners regarding consumers present perception of ethical aspects in the product and directions to increase sales of ethical products in the Indian market.

Price Premium Requirements for Growing Higher Quality Pine Sawtimber in Even-Aged Systems in the Southeastern United States

Intensive pine silviculture has become the dominant management paradigm in the southeastern United States. Although productivity has been substantially increased by the combination of cultural, silvicultural, and genetic advancements, wood quality is sometimes sacrificed in intensive silviculture. Extending the optimal rotation allows trees to grow more timber, which may result in the production of better quality sawtimber; however, landowners may require incentives to do so. We simulated loblolly, slash, shortleaf, and longleaf pine for growth and yield using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to determine sawtimber price premiums landowners would require to offset the costs associated with delaying the final harvest by 10 to 30 years in even-aged systems. Required incentives increased with the length of harvesting delay beyond the financially optimal rotation age. On medium productivity sites, landowners would be willing to delay the final harvest by 10 years for sawtimber price premiums of $5.06/ton (20.47%) for loblolly, $5.34/ton (21.6%) for slash, $4.56/ton (18.45%) for longleaf, and $6.71/ton (27.14%) shortleaf pine, respectively. Harvest delays of 10 to 20 years were financially justifiable, whereas extensions exceeding 30 years were prohibitively costly for all species. Delaying the optimal harvest could benefit landowners by generating a premium price for their sawtimber while providing important ecosystem services. Study Implications The study findings will provide a baseline resource for forest landowners and managers who are interested in growing higher-quality and larger-diameter pine sawtimber to longer rotation ages to obtain a premium price. The results will also be helpful to primary forest product industries (e.g., sawmills) who prefer high-quality pine sawtimber and are considering offering a price premium for higher-quality pine sawtimber. Findings can be useful for those interested in managing forests for multiple benefits (e.g., timber production, wildlife hunting leases, carbon credits, and other ecosystem service incentives), as managing stands on longer rotations can provide the dual opportunities of receiving price premiums for higher-quality sawtimber while simultaneously generating revenue from nontimber benefits, which may help justify delaying the final harvest. Our findings can also help make policymakers and forest managers more aware of the minimum price premiums required to offset the revenue loss accrued by delaying the final harvest.

Achieving Business Excellence for Luxury Brands

Luxury brands possess specific characteristics which are different from that of other brands and require special considerations for marketing and promotion. The target market of luxury brands constitutes of high-end customers who have high aspirations and dreams which they wish to fulfill by possessing luxury products. Marketers of luxury brands require developing and implementing specific strategies for achieving business excellence. Luxury brands should have a strong customer focus and in-depth understanding of customers. Luxury brands require specific pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies. Pricing strategies include charging price premiums and having price-quality inferences. Luxury brands should communicate a unique value proposition and should justify high prices. Proper distribution strategies reflect exclusivity and uniqueness of luxury brands. Adopting and implementing such strategies will help luxury brands to convince their high-end customers, establish the brands, and achieve business excellence.

Paying for Sustainable Coffee in a Developing Country: Consumers’ Profile in Costa Rica

This article analyzes the willingness to pay of Costa Rican consumers for three environmental certifications in the coffee market, namely, Carbon Neutral, Fairtrade, and ISO 14001. A face-to-face survey was applied to 1191 Costa Rican inhabitants. The results show that Costa Rican consumers are willing to pay price premiums around 30% for all the considered environmental certifications. In addition, a Cragg’s hurdle model shows that household income, the level of education, and environmental or community activism increase the likelihood of consumers paying price premiums for environmental certifications, while men are less likely to pay than women. It was also found that the size of the price premiums that respondents are willing to pay are positively related to income, gender (female), and education, and negatively related to age. Once the effect of socioeconomic variables has been controlled for, we conclude that consumers are more willing to pay for the CN certification than for the other two. The results can be useful for participants in the coffee value chain; coffee producers can use environmental certifications both to enhance their participation in green markets, particularly in developing countries, and to improve their environmental performance.

EXPRESS: Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces

The proliferating gig economy relies on online freelance marketplaces, which support relatively anonymous interactions by text-based messages. Informational asymmetries thus arise that can lead to exchange uncertainties between buyers and freelancers. Conventional marketing thought recommends reducing such uncertainty. However, uncertainty reduction and uncertainty management theories indicate that buyers and freelancers might benefit more from balancing, rather than reducing, uncertainty, such as by strategically adhering to or deviating from common communication principles. With dyadic analyses of calls for bids and bids from a leading online freelance marketplace, this study reveals that buyers attract more bids from freelancers when they provide moderate degrees of task information and concreteness, avoid sharing personal information, and limit the affective intensity of their communication. Freelancers’ bid success and price premiums increase when they mimic the degree of task information and affective intensity exhibited by buyers. However, mimicking a lack of personal information and concreteness reduces freelancers’ success, so freelancers should always be more concrete and offer more personal information than buyers do. These contingent perspectives offer insights into buyer–seller communication in two-sided online marketplaces; they clarify that despite, or sometimes due to, communication uncertainty, both sides can achieve success in the online gig economy.

Incorporating the Time–Order Effect of Feedback in Online Auction Markets through a Bayesian Updating Model

Online auction markets host a large number of transactions every day. The transaction data in auction markets are useful for understanding the buyers and sellers in the market. Previous research has shown that sellers with different levels of reputation, as shown by the ratings and comments left in feedback systems, enjoy different levels of price premiums for their transactions. Feedback scores and feedback texts have been shown to correlate with buyers’ level of trust in a seller and the price premium that buyers are willing to pay (Ba and Pavlou 2002; Pavlou and Dimoka 2006). However, existing models do not consider the time-order effect, which means that feedback posted more recently may be considered more important than feedback posted less recently. This paper addresses this shortcoming by (1) testing the existence of the time-order effect, and (2) proposing a Bayesian updating model to represent buyers’ perceived reputation considering the time-order effect and assessing how well it can explain the variation in buyers’ trust and price premiums. In order to validate the time-order effect and evaluate the proposed model, we conducted a user experiment and collected real-life transaction data from the eBay online auction market. Our results confirm the existence of the time-order effect and the proposed model explains the variation in price premiums better than the benchmark models. The contribution of this research is threefold. First, we verify the time-order effect in the feedback mechanism on price premiums in online markets. Second, we propose a model that provides better explanatory power for price premiums in online auction markets than existing models by incorporating the time-order effect. Third, we provide further evidence for trust building via textual feedback in online auction markets. The study advances the understanding of the feedback mechanism in online auction markets.