ABSTRACT
The promotion and use of green products is an important way to improve the living environment and reduce resource consumption and waste. Green products often have higher prices than general products due to its green attributes. According to the signal theory, purchasing green products can effectively convey the pro-social signals of the consumers. Therefore, based on the price premium characteristics of green products, this study constructed a theoretical and quantitative research model of the public's WTP (willingness to pay) a price premium for green products and conducted an in-depth study on the consumers' acceptability of premium for green products. A total of 991 valid questionnaires were analyzed, and the following results were obtained: (1) The public's WTP a price premium for green products was generally low, with only 30.1% of respondents. (2) The influencing factors of the WTP a price premium for green products were conditional value>green value>functional value>value expression form>price importance. Economic factors were still the main reason that hinders the public's WTP a price premium for green products. When the premium conveys public's pro-social and pro-environmental signal characteristics, it could effectively improve the public's acceptability of premium for green products. (3) The public's WTP a price premium for green products varied with marital status, education level, working years, monthly income, and occupation characteristics. The public who were married, had a master's degree or above, and had worked for 1 year or less and whose disposable monthly income was more than 50,000 yuan and whose occupation was engineers and technicians had the highest WTP a price premium for green products. (4) Policy guidance and media publicity had a positive moderating effect on the path of influencing factors on the WTP for green products. On this basis, this study proposes to deepen the exemplary leading role of the government and attach importance to the education and publicity function of green consumption consciousness. Enterprises should give full play to the influence of reference groups, highlight the value of green products, and popularize green products through appropriate price discount activities, so as to promote the public to participate more actively in the purchase of green products. At the same time, it can also provide reference and enlightenment for the formulation of relevant policies.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Income , China , Policy , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Objectives: Research that examined changes in the laws in respect to work hours was of great importance for understanding its current status and causes. However, most research on work hours in China is still conducted using self-reported questionnaires, which lack coherence and depth, and are inadequate for exploring the evolutionary trend of work hours and its mechanism. Methods: This study examined the evolutionary trend of Chinese employees' work hours by employing a cross-temporal meta-analysis, and employed the entropy weight method to analyze each influencing factor. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP information and WanFang database were searched for Chinese-language peer-reviewed literature, and Google Scholar and the Web of Science were searched for related literature in the English language. Results: A total of 36 pieces of literature were identified as having satisfied the quality standards for screening. The results indicated that work hours in China show a significant fluctuating upward trend. Most of the recent studies on work hours in China were cross-provincial investigations, and the issue of overtime among migrant workers has become the key focus of current research. Most studies on the work hours of Chinese employees were conducted in a manner whereby scholars played a leading role while the government assisted. Thus, government-led, intensive and nationwide research needs to be launched. Conclusions: The issue of work hours in China should be taken seriously. The main influencing factors included survival indicators, such as labor market conditions and levels of medical security levels, followed by power-assisted indicators, such as personal income and distribution, while labor protection had a minimal impact. This study will contribute to a better understanding of the essence of work hours among Chinese employees, and will also help to provide a theoretical basis for further intervention study related to overtime work.
ABSTRACT
Background: The effective governance of occupational safety and health problems is inseparable from public participation and response. Methods: Based on the perspective of psychological distance, this paper adopted a quadratic response surface regression analysis method to investigate cognitive, emotional, expected and behavioral distances to occupational safety and health topics and their corresponding responses. Results: As demonstrated by the data statistics and response surface regression analysis results for 2386 valid samples, the relatively close psychological distance dimensions of the public with regard to occupational safety and health problems indicated the high endogenous tendency of the public to pay attention to occupational safety and health problems. The consistency between public cognitive and emotional distance with regard to occupational safety and health presented a "progressive decrease" in response towards behavioral distance, whereas the consistency between cognitive and expected distance reflected "convex" changes towards behavioral distance. Finally, the consistency between emotional and expected distance generally presented a "progressive increase" response towards behavioral distance. Conclusions: This research provides information regarding the public awareness of and response to occupational safety and health issues and how to promote occupational safety and health issues in order to improve them.
