Supply Chain Management of Fresh Produce: Melons in Western China

The western part of China has a long history and reputation of growing a variety of quality melons largely due to its semi arid agronomic environment. In the past decade, the industry suffered from the interrelated issues of unreliable quality and intense price competition. Even though both the government and supply chain stakeholders are aware of the problems, there is a need to look at the issues from a supply chain perspective and new ways of managing the melon supply chains are to be explored. This paper analysed the melon supply chain in western China in the areas of logistical efficiency and supply chain relationship management. The results of the analysis offer insights for improving the efficiency of the melon supply chain and the competitiveness the industry. The results also shed lights for other supply chains of fresh produce in developing countries in general.melon, China, supply chain, value chain, Crop Production/Industries, Industrial Organization, O13, O5, Q13,

The Impact Of Participation In Activities While On Vacation On Seniors\u27 Psychological Well-Being: A Path Model Application

This article extends earlier research regarding the relationships between senior travelers\u27 participation in activities while on vacation, their overall satisfaction with their travel experiences, and their psychological well-being. A path model was developed to depict the direct and indirect relationships between these variables by using a sample of senior tourists traveling on North American escorted tour itineraries. Whereas the direct effect accounted for 98% of the relationships between the senior tourists\u27levels of participation in activities and their psychological well-being, the indirect effect was negligible. The study concluded that senior tourists\u27activity levels were significantly related to their psychological well-being, but their satisfaction with the tours was not

Consumer preferences for rockmelons in Australia

On the demand side, consumer's decision choice for rockmelon is often compounded by a number of factors including quality, which is often not related to the visual characteristics observed in fruits such as bananas or mangoes. On the supply side, there is a general lack of understanding of consumer response towards rockmelon attributes in Australia and consequently, great fluctuations of demand and hence supply of the fruit. Thus, objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare analytical measures by instruments and sensory assessments by consumers based on sweetness levels (8–13 oBrix) of rockmelons. Results indicated that there was a large variation in texture, juiciness and flavour for each oBrix level. A significant correlation coefficient (r = 0.829) was obtained between analytical and sensory measures for sweetness. High organoleptic scores for flavour were noted among the higher sweetness levels. It is recommended that due to the change in consumer acceptability, marketing of rockmelons should not be solely based on oBrix levels; other attributes such as flavour, texture and juiciness should be utilized

Managers' perceptions of environmental issues in Australian hotels

ThiS article describes a study carried out among management staff of Australian hotels relating to their perceptions of environmental issues and the environmental practices of their hotels. The issues surveyed included environmental accreditation, costs and financial benefits of environmental programs, customer attitudes, 'green' corporate images and staff orientation towards environmental practices. Out of the 165 questionnaires sent to hotel management staff, sixty-five returns were received with sixty usable for this study. The findings showed that hotel managers generally agreed that environmental accreditation could be a potential tool for improving practices in hotels since they did not see any automatic financial benefits being serving environmental practices. Hotel managers perceived customers as being ambivalent towards the environment. But, importantly, they saw being environmentally friendly as providing a good corporate image in the wider community. This may have served as a major motivation for many hotels to adopt environmentally sensitive prac~ices. In the selected areas of water and energy conservation and recycling, hotel managers indicated a high level ofinvolvement oftheir hotels. This finding, that practices generally exceeded perceptions, was supportive of the suspicion that a 'green' corporate reputation was more important than actual practices

Supply Chain Management of Fresh Produce: Melons in Western China

The western part of China has a long history and reputation of growing a variety of quality melons largely due to its semi arid agronomic environment. In the past decade, the industry suffered from the interrelated issues of unreliable quality and intense price competition. Even though both the government and supply chain stakeholders are aware of the problems, there is a need to look at the issues from a supply chain perspective and new ways of managing the melon supply chains are to be explored. This paper analysed the melon supply chain in western China in the areas of logistical efficiency and supply chain relationship management. The results of the analysis offer insights for improving the efficiency of the melon supply chain and the competitiveness the industry. The results also shed lights for other supply chains of fresh produce in developing countries in general

Segmenting the market of West Australian senior tourists using an artificial neural network

Measuring perceptions of customers can be a major problem for marketers of tourism and travel services. Much of the problem is to determine which attributes carry most weight in the purchasing decision. Older travellers weigh many travel features before making their travel decisions. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of neural network methodology and provides a research technique that assesses the weighting of different attributes and uses an unsupervised neural network model to describe a consumer-product relationship. The development of this rich class of models was inspired by the neural architecture of the human brain. These models mathematically emulate the neurophysical structure and decision making of the human brain, and, from a statistical perspective, are closely related to generalised linear models. Artificial neural networks or neural networks are, however, nonlinear and do not require the same restrictive assumptions about the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variables. Using neural networks is one way to determine what trade-offs older travellers make as they decide their travel plans. The sample of this study is from a syndicated data source of 200 valid cases from Western Australia. From senior groups, active learner, relaxed family body, careful participants and elementary vacation were identified and discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd

Tour coach operations in the Australian seniors market

Growing interest in travel by seniors has generated numerous opportunities for the tourism industry to develop new products and services to meet the specific demands of this group of travelers. In the future seniors will become even more able to afford travel as the Baby Boomer generation commences to retire. One group of tourism operators that have benefited from the growth of the seniors market has been tour coach operators. This paper examines the perceptions of seniors towards tour coach attributes and then compares these perceptions against the perceptions that tour coach operators have of the needs of seniors using an identical group of attributes. The paper finds that tour coach users are generally satisfied with current levels of services. However, the research identified that tour coach operators appear to have overestimated their market share of seniors travel and are unaware of the needs of seniors who presently do not use tour coaches. The need to identify the needs of sen-iors not currently participating in tour coach travel will grow in importance as in-creasing numbers of Baby Boomers commence retiring in the next two decades

Improved Marketing of Mandarins for East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia

In the highland areas of West Timor, where the climate is relatively cool, the mandarin variety Keprok Soe is widely grown in the districts of Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) and Timor Tengah Utara (TTU) in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Province. Largely due to its economic value and popularity among local consumers, the Indonesian Government adopted some measures to promote Keprok Soe. Good grades of Keprok Soe fetch a premium price in direct competition to imported mandarins from various countries including China, Pakistan, Israel and Australia. Basically, there are two supply chains for mandarins grown in West Timor. About 90% of the mandarins are sold locally, with only 10% sold to other provinces. In general, there are three methods by which farmers can sell their mandarins: forward-sale by tree, per tree sale at harvest and per kilo sale after harvest. Farmers’ use of different selling methods is often related to the size of their mandarin farm, income, price of mandarins in that year, availability of family labour, farmers’ educational experiences, length of farming experience, and distance from the farm to the local market. Established traders play a key role as channel managers in the supply chain, especially for the inter-island supply chain. Quite exceptionally, traders have motivated farmers to strive for good products, be competitive and become ‘champions’. Hence, the traders have been observed to play a mixed role of channel manager, information supplier, co-investor and extension officer. These activities and alliances suggest that a reciprocal rather than a win–lose relationship exists. Supply-chain constraints include production (cultural production, plant protection), poor infrastructure, and postharvest losses (20%). Potential strategies for chain improvements include horizontal integration at the farmer level, enhancement of the capacity of traders as supply-chain coordinators, and branding of Keprok Soe. In relation to improving the likelihood of implementing these strategies, this Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project conducted production and marketing workshops, and broadcast information and knowledge by radio

How important is appearance? Consumer preferences for mandarins in Indonesia

Abstract The purpose of this research was to determine consumer preferences for attributes of mandarins in Indonesia, in particular the preferences between domestic and imported mandarins. A focus group was conducted to identify some salient attributes of mandarins to Indonesian consumers. Intrinsic fruit attributes that are important to consumers include the appearance, taste, texture and overall quality of fruit segments and skin colour. Based on the results of the focus group, a survey questionnaire was developed and used in the interview process with the consumers. Evaluations were made on a seven-point intensity scale for two domestic lines of mandarins and one imported line. Respondents did not know the origins of the fruit when evaluating the intrinsic qualities of mandarins. The results from 113 respondents in the city of Surabaya showed that domestic mandarins were rated higher on all intrinsic attributes. Imported mandarins were rated the best only on skin colour as domestic fruit are normally green or only partially orange when ripe. The fact that imported mandarins continue to command premium prices in the Indonesian market is an interesting phenomenon. Two possible explanations are suggested. The prestige of supermarket retailers (where imported produce is mostly sold) may advantage imported fruits. Alternatively, consumers may hold persistently favourable perceptions of imported fruits. Whether this represents the influence of subjective psychological and status factors requires further investigation