No description available.

This dissertation examines organic food marketing from three aspects: household demand for organic food, household choice of retail formats accounting for preference organic food preference, and farmers’ joint adoption of organic farming and direct marketing methods. In Chapter Two, given the fast growth of private label milk and organic milk in the U.S., we estimate a censored demand system to study the demand relations among types of milk differentiated by brand types and organic status, using recent Nielsen Homescan data. We find that sociodemographic factors still play important roles in a household choice of milk types, and fluid milk is an inferior good. Moreover, as income increases, households are more likely to shift from buying conventional milk to organic milk and from private label conventional milk to branded conventional milk, as indicated by the asymmetric cross price elasticities. In Chapter Three, we examine whether households’ preference for organic food can affect their retail format choices for their grocery shopping trips. We model households’ choices of five major retail format with a conditional logit model, also using the Nielsen Homescan data. Our main findings are that regular organic user households are more likely to patronage organic specialty stores and discount stores, but less likely to shop in warehouse clubs. Price, consumer loyalty, and household shopping behavior also affects household retail format choice. In Chapter Four, we examine the relation between farmers’ adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, given their similar objectives in satisfying consumer demand and increasing farm income. We model farmers’ adoption of the two practices with a bivariate simultaneous linear probability model using data from USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Our main finding is that the farmers’ adoption of organic farming decreases their probability of adopting direct marketing, whereas the reverse effect is insignificant. Also, organic farming is found to improve gross farm income.

While retail business development in Taiwan has reached mature stage for many retail formats, it is still in the rapid growth stage in China. Consumer shopping behavior in Taiwan and China might be different given different economic and retail development progress. The findings of this research support two hypotheses. First the retail format development is different in Taiwan and China. Second the consumer shopping behavior is different in Taiwan and China. All retail formats were developed ahead in Taiwan by around 15-20 years. It took around 35 years in Taiwan to develop up to current status. However, it took a much shorter time for China to catch up. The development was much more concentrated and intensive. The development order is also different. In Taiwan, the order is department store, supermarket, convenience store then hypermarket. In China, however, hypermarket development advances convenience store. Convenience store is still in an early development stage. Shopping behavior in different channel is also different. Taiwan shoppers visit convenience store most often while China shoppers patronize supermarket and hypermarket most frequent. In Taiwan, except household products, most packaged food or beverage are purchased most often from convenience store. In China, most are from supermarket and hypermarket. Moreover, Taiwan consumers are more particular, demanding and sophisticated. If any manufactures would like to enter China market, modern trade is suggested to the most important channel. It is easier for quick distribution, lower risk and more similar practice to Taiwan retail environment. If any retailers would like to enter China market, it is wiser to have international alliances. The retail business now in China plays with big economic scale. Without advanced knowledge, technology as well as rich working capital, it is very challenging to compete in China market. For research in the future, it is recommended to include village information. Under China government policy, village should be upgraded with strong government support. It will provide a more comprehensive pictures if village is included.