No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Systems Mapping of Evidence Review and Experts’ Opinion on Consumer Acceptance of Agrifood Nanotechnology
Abstract
A systems map showing key components, stages, and the links between underlying values, expressed attitudes and actual behaviors involving consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology has been developed. The purpose of the study was to use systems mapping to examine and analyze critical links between consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology and other factors such as trust, stakeholders, institutions, knowledge, and human environmental health risks. The study used evidence review of the literature and experts’ opinion in developing this systems map. This study is the 1st to quantitatively rank barriers to commercialization of agrifood nanotechnology from experts’ perspective. Public attitudes and perceptions, and consumer acceptance; regulatory uncertainty; and, health and safety respectively are the most identified barriers in the literature and the results obtained from the value elicitation from experts compares favorably with evidence from the literature. This study is based on theory that accounts for the dynamic aspects of systems modeling, risk perception, and consumer acceptance. The research was done in four stages: The review of the literature to determine the key policy and programmatic intervention points in consumer acceptance of food nanotechnology applications and products as suggested by historical experience with other emerging technologies in agriculture and food; elicitation of experts opinion regarding the attributes that affect consumer attitudes toward agrifood nanotechnology products and applications; comparative analysis of the literature and experts opinion on the interactions between stocks & flows, consumers, processes, and institutions; and a systems modeling/mapping of consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnologies. The systems dynamics approach and the resulting systems map, though much simplified, have crucial implications in respect to consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology. It is clear that factors affecting consumer acceptance of agrifood nanotechnology are dynamic, complex, interactive, and interdependent; and that consumer decision to accept agrifood nanotechnology is the results of complex feedback structure. This study therefore makes several policy recommendations with the overriding major issue being whether stakeholders in the agrifood system can cooperate and take specific steps toward reducing or eliminating consumer acceptance as a barrier to commercialization of agrifood nanotechnology innovation.Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.
Nearly half of the global populations live in rural area. For the developing country like India, this figure is nearly 70% of the mass population. Currently, major challenges faced by the rural community are lack of clean water, food, good health, energy, stable economy and environment. Nanotechnology and nanoscale materials have the potential for the solutions of many significant challenges faced by our society. This review paper summarized some of the most promising and important nanotechnology applications in agriculture and food, clean water, energy, environment, human health and other consumer products. The review has been concluded with the potential risks of nanomaterials, technical and financial challenges for the implementation of nanotechnology in the rural community developments.
As nanotechnology continues to advance in food and agriculture, there is the need for pragmatic decisions as to how to prepare the workforce, and human resource development (HRD) has a vital role to play. This mixed methods study followed a four-step process: The first phase involved a comprehensive systematic evidence review (SER) and stakeholder analysis. The second phase used multicriteria approaches for value elicitation, and the third phase included quantitative analysis, qualitative systems analysis (QSA), and strategic flexibility analysis (SFA) of evidence from the systematic review and the multicriteria value elicitation of experts and stakeholders. The final phase created a generic systems map (influence diagram) to describe the current and future skill needs of agrifood nanotechnology workers holistically as well as how HRD can meet these requirements.
A Triple Helix of overlapping, yet relatively independent institutional spheres is required to capture contemporary innovation processes. The model is a methodological tool: the focus on the recursive overlay of communications among universities, industries and governments allows for the organization of research questions in relation to the various models and metaphors. In this theme issue, by focusing both on national contexts and on a variety of relevant systems of reference for assessing R and D and innovation, we hope to inform policy-makers and policy analysts about the potential of the Triple Helix model as a means of understanding processes of innovation.
Institutional arrangements of university-industry-government relations raise political questions because the public/private divide can to a certain extent be reconstructed within these networks. The institutional questions resound with concerns about the new technologies (such as genetically modified food) and globalization. The discussions at the Fourth Triple Helix Conference in Copenhagen focused on the role of the university in shaping new innovation environments like the Oresund region created recently by the bridge between Sweden and Denmark. The conference concluded that competing policies at different levels can provide a rich selection environment for both entrepreneurial initiatives and public participation. The formulation of public demand for technological innovations may help to stimulate the transition to an increasingly knowledge-based economy. Heuristics for using the Triple Helix model in empirical research efforts are specified. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
Public perceptions of emergent technologies have become increasingly important to understand, in part due to the worldwide backlash against genetically modified foods, which effectively stalled a new industry. In this context, and given the predicted importance of nanotechnology, this article reports an investigation of US citizens' concerns about nanotechnology development. The study investigated both the perceptions of informed citizens and the reasoning basis underlying concerns, as well as explored public concerns in relation to four projected applications of nanotechnology. Two of the applications investigated were thought to be potentially controversial and, thus, perhaps particularly important to formation of public opinion. Results presented here include concerns that were consistent across the study sample, and concerns specific to different regions of the United States. The study found low trust in government to manage risks, and that medical and industrial uses were related to lowest trust in government to manage risks. Higher education levels were also related to lower trust in government to effectively manage risks. Study participants' concerns were largely based on experiential knowledge about past “breakthroughs” whose limitations and negative effects were poorly understood initially, and even when once known, were poorly managed.
The latest European sample survey of public perceptions of biotechnology
reveals widespread opposition to genetically modified (GM) food in much of
Europe, but public attitudes to medical and environmental applications remain
positive.
How is public opinion towards nanotechnology likely to evolve? The ‘familiarity hypothesis’ holds that support for nanotechnology will likely grow as awareness of it expands. The basis of this conjecture is opinion polling, which finds that few members of the public claim to know much about nanotechnology, but that those who say they do are substantially more likely to believe its benefits outweigh its risks1, 2, 3, 4. Some researchers, however, have avoided endorsing the familiarity hypothesis, stressing that cognitive heuristics and biases could create anxiety as the public learns more about this novel science5, 6. We conducted an experimental study aimed at determining how members of the public would react to balanced information about nanotechnology risks and benefits. Finding no support for the familiarity hypothesis, the study instead yielded strong evidence that public attitudes are likely to be shaped by psychological dynamics associated with cultural cognition.
Recent theoretical developments have enabled the empirical study of trust for specific referents in organizations. The authors conducted a 14-month field study of employee trust for top management. A 9-month quasi-experiment found that the implementation of a more acceptable performance appraisal system increased trust for top management. The 3 proposed factors of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) mediated the relationship between perceptions of the appraisal system and trust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A systematic analysis of stakeholders could enrich the systems thinking and modelling methodology. Among the five phases of the systems thinking and modelling framework, namely, problem structuring, causal loop modelling, dynamic modelling, scenario planning & modelling, and implementation & organisational learning, the importance of stakeholder analysis in the problem structuring and scenario planning & modelling phases is explained in this paper. A New Zealand transportation infrastructure case study is presented in this paper to illustrate the potential usefulness of stakeholder analysis in the systems thinking and modelling methodology.
Models on innovation, for the most part, do not include a comprehensive and end-to-end view. Most innovation policy attention seems to be focused on the capacity to innovate and on input factors such as R&D investment, scientific institutions, human resources and capital. Such inputs frequently serve as proxies for innovativeness and are correlated with intermediate outputs such as patent counts and outcomes such as GDP per capita. While this kind of analysis is generally indicative of innovative behaviour, it is less useful in terms of discriminating causality and what drives successful strategy or public policy interventions. This situation has led to the developing of new frameworks for the innovation system led by National Science and Technology Policy Centres across the globe. These new models of innovation are variously referred to as the National Innovation Ecosystem. There is, however, a fundamental question that needs to be answered: what elements should an innovation policy include, and how should such policies be implemented? This paper attempts to answer this question. Summary It is of no doubt that emerging techniques in the evaluation of R&D and measurement of innovation are finding a broad agreement across nations and regional groupings. However, it is very important for the science policy community across nations to be consistent with the taxonomy used. This paper focuses on the prospective tools, models and data used in this measurement and their importance to the development of a functional evidence-based platform for science and innovation policy. The various models of the National Innovation Ecosystem developed are reviewed and the gaps within these models are identified. The paper then defines a new architectural framework for a National Innovation Policy: The Ecological System of Innovation. In developing this framework the paper uses a hybrid of models, methodologies and concepts including, the Delphi Method, Balanced Scorecard, the Quadruple Helix Theory, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The Ecological System of Innovation framework is then used to address the fundamental challenges to the development of a functional evidence-based platform for science and innovation policy. Introduction Researchers have successfully explored the definitions of innovation, innovation theories, the rationale of government interventions on innovation, innovation policy instruments, and the relationships between new technologies, emerging markets, innovative services, and economic growth. However, there are different conceptions regarding what constitutes the core elements of a national innovation system and different scholars draw the borderlines of the system differently.
As part of an EU-funded research project a representative survey of consumer attitudes concerning high pressure processing (HPP) of foods was carried out. 3000 adults aged 14 years and over, in France, Germany and the UK were interviewed in face-to-face computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and asked to indicate their opinion by evaluating 35 positive and 25 negative statements about the new technique, to compare the new technique with the conventional techniques, and they were asked if they would buy products preserved using High Pressure Pasteurization. The concept used for the data analysis was that of a market segmentation model using sociodemographical, geographical and psychographical attributes. The average acceptability rate is discussed with respect to the MAYA threshold value (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable), a pragmatic market research threshold value.
System dynamics methodology is widely applied in modelling and analyzing supply chain behaviour under uncertain environment. However, there are only few applications in food supply chain in a context of sanitary crises. In this paper, we are accordingly interested in studying the behaviour of the entire chicken meat supply chain coping with sanitary crises effects. A model is proposed to study the SC behaviour dealing with the shortages in upstream supply capacity and downstream unpredictable consumer behaviour disturbed by the crisis as well. This model will be simulated and analyzed to investigate the behaviour of the chicken meat SC under bird flu crisis during the period from October 2005 to March 2006 in France. We then use a sensitivity analysis to study the supply chain stability under different environment uncertainties. Our model should be helpful to decision-makers for other fresh food supply chains when they are facing such crises.
Consumer acceptance is the key to successful food products. It is vital, therefore, that product development strategies are consumer-led for food products to be well received. Consumer-led food product development presents an up-to-date review of the latest scientific research and methods in this important area. Part one gives the reader a general introduction to factors affecting consumer food choice. Chapters explore issues such as sensory perception, culture, ethics, attitudes towards innovation and psychobiological mechanisms. Part two analyses methods to understand consumersâ?? food-related attitudes and how these methods can be effectively used, covering techniques such as means-end chains and the food-related lifestyle approach. The final part of the book addresses a wide variety of methods used for consumer-led product development. Opportunity identification, concept development, difference testing and preference trials are discussed, as well as the use of techniques such as just-about-right scales and partial least squares methods. Written by an array of international experts, Consumer-led food product development is an essential reference for product developers in the food industry.
This chapter explores the advantages of value-based supply chains for midsize agrifood enterprises. Value chains have been successful for industries that follow economies of scale practice and have differentiated products. The chapter presents the importance of identifying the agrifood system, which follows the same practices mentioned above, to take maximum advantage of value chains. The importance of value chains in reducing production and procurement transaction costs are discussed, as are their ability to produce a better-quality product. The common features of successful value chains, including high levels of trust among the strategic business partners, performance evaluation systems, and continuous improvement are also addressed. This chapter furthermore explores the three interrelated economic components of value chains, which are explained through examples of midsize food value chains.
Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach was first published in 1984 as a part of the Pitman series in Business and Public Policy. Its publication proved to be a landmark moment in the development of stakeholder theory. Widely acknowledged as a world leader in business ethics and strategic management, R. Edward Freeman’s foundational work continues to inspire scholars and students concerned with a more practical view of how business and capitalism actually work. Business can be understood as a system of how we create value for stakeholders. This worldview connects business and capitalism with ethics once and for all. On the 25th anniversary of publication, Cambridge University Press are delighted to be able to offer a new print-on-demand edition of his work to a new generation of readers.
An innovation's success is dependent upon successfully responding to consumer needs and communicating benefits in a believable persuasive manner. Consumers respond to good taste, convenience, and health enhancing properties. The magnitude of any risk the innovation or technology imposes including impact on the environment is also of concern. While people rely on mass media and advertisement their communication network is complex and the opinion of family and friends is a powerful influence. Public acceptance is influenced by perceived credibility of data, rigour of regulatory policy, impartial action of regulators, and demonstrated responsibility of industry.
There is a need to develop effective communication strategies with the public about the risks and benefits of applied genetic engineering. The Elaboration Likelihood Model was used to systematically investigate the impact of source factors (trust) and the perceived personal relevance of information, including the persuasiveness of the information, on attitudes towards genetic engineering, and whether these factors resulted in more thoughts about genetic engineering. The results from 160 respondents indicated an interaction between source effects and persuasiveness. People tended to respond more to information low in persuasiveness if it was attributed to a highly trusted source, and more to information high in persuasiveness if it were from a source low in public trust. In this context, respondents tended to express concern about the technology. It was concluded that source characteristics are important determinants of public responses to information about genetic engineering.
Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology promise to have major impacts on human health, wealth, and peace in the coming decades. Among the expected breakthroughs are `designer' materials created from directed assembly of atoms and molecules, and the emergence of entirely new phenomena in chemistry and physics. This book includes a collection of essays by leading scientists, engineers, and social scientists reviewing the possible uses of these impending developments in various applications, and the corresponding issues that they raise.
In this study, I examine whether Americans’ emotions and opinions about nanotechnology are influenced by how the issue is framed. Using data collected from an experiment embedded within a national survey, I find consistent framing effects even though the magnitudes of respondents’ opinion changes are not especially large. Frames about specific risks and benefits of nanotechnology are more influential than frames based on general beliefs about the merits of science, and framing nanotechnology as beneficial is only somewhat less powerful than framing it as risky. I conclude by discussing the implications of these framing effects for future mass opinions about nanotechnology.
Science communicators and the broader scientific community often expect media information campaigns to mold attitudes about science and technology in predictable ways. But resistance to technology is not always based on ignorance, and the ability of media-based education to directly shape opinions is actually quite limited. This article uses data from a recent U.S. national survey on opinions about biotechnology to argue that trust in institutional actors is a bigger factor than genetic knowledge in predicting encouragement for specific applications of biotechnology. The results have implications for the practice of science, as well as for the practice of science communication.
Governmental bodies and companies are confronted with the problem of achieving rational consensus in the face of substantial uncertainties. The subject area of this special issue (risk and vulnerability assessments and management of critical infrastructures) might be a good example as are risk management of chemical installations and accident consequence management for nuclear power plants. Decisions with regard to infrastructures functioning and possible malfunctioning must be taken on the basis of predictions of technical and organizational system behaviour. These predictions use mathematical models containing scores of uncertain parameters. Decision makers want to take, and want to be perceived to take, these decisions in a rational manner. The question is, how can this be accomplished in the face of large uncertainties? One available source is experts in the many fields of interest within infrastructures. This paper describes the use of structured expert judgement in a formal manner. The paper refers to the Procedures Guide published by the European Union as EUR 18820. This Procedures Guide addresses two methods for using expert judgements developed at Delft University of Technology. The paired comparisons method is particularly suitable to identify the relative importance of attributes in the risk management arena, while the Classical Model, apt to arrive at subjective probability assessments, is particularly suitable to derive uncertainty distributions over model parameters. Examples will be referred to for further illustration of applications relevant in the field of risk assessment and risk management.
This paper outlines a framework for studying the multiple interactions of broadly defined food systems with global environmental change and evaluating the major societal outcomes affected by these interactions: food security, ecosystem services and social welfare. In building the framework the paper explores and synthesizes disparate literature on food systems food security and global environmental change, bridging social science and natural science perspectives. This collected evidence justifies a representation of food systems, which can be used to identify key processes and determinants of food security in a given place or time, particularly the impacts of environmental change. It also enables analysis of the feedbacks from food system outcomes to drivers of environmental and social change, as well as tradeoffs among the food system outcomes themselves. In food systems these tradeoffs are often between different scales or levels of decision-making or management, so solutions to manage them must be context-specific. With sufficient empirical evidence, the framework could be used to build a database of typologies of food system interactions useful for different management or analytical purposes.
This paper re-examines the commonly observed inverse relationship between per- ceived risk and perceived benefit. We propose that this relationship occurs because people rely on aÄect when judging the risk and benefit of specific hazards. Evidence supporting this proposal is obtained in two experimental studies. Study 1 investigated the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgments under a time-pressure condition designed to limit the use of analytic thought and enhance the reliance on aÄect. As expected, the inverse relationship was strengthened when time pressure was introduced. Study 2 tested and confirmed the hypothesis that providing information designed to alter the favorability of one's overall aÄective evaluation of an item (say nuclear power) would systematically change the risk and benefit judgments for that item. Both studies suggest that people seem prone to using an 'aÄect heuristic' which improves judgmental eÅciency by deriving both risk and benefit evaluations from a common source — aÄective reactions to the stimulus item. Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In the past, it has been assumed that consumers would accept novel foods if there is a concrete and tangible consumer benefit associated with them, which implies that functional foods would quickly be accepted. However, there is evidence that individuals are likely to differ in the extent to which they are likely to buy products with particular functional properties. Various cross-cultural and demographic differences in acceptance found in the literature are reviewed, as well as barriers to dietary change. In conclusion, it is argued that understanding consumers’ risk perceptions and concerns associated with processing technologies, emerging scientific innovations and their own health status may enable the development of information strategies that are relevant to wider groups of individuals in the population, and deliver real health benefits to people at risk of, or suffering from, major degenerative illnesses.
It has been assumed that the general public is unable to conceptualize information about risk uncertainties, and so communication about food risk has tended to avoid this type of information. However, recent societal and political pressure to increase transparency in risk management practices will result in the uncertainties inherent in risk analysis becoming subject to public scrutiny. Best practice regarding risk communication must address how to communicate risk uncertainty. A questionnaire was developed that aimed to assess how the general public characterized uncertainty associated with food risks. The results indicated that people wanted to be provided with information about food risk uncertainty as soon as the uncertainty was identified. People were more accepting of uncertainty associated with the scientific process of risk management than they were of uncertainty due to lack of action or lack of interest on the part of the government. The findings indicate that the focus of risk communication should be on “what is being done to reduce the uncertainty.” Recommendations are made regarding best practice for communicating risk uncertainty.
The use of enzymes in food production has potential benefits for both food manufacturers and consumers. A central question is how consumers react to new ways of producing foods with enzymes. This study investigates the formation of consumer attitudes to different enzyme production methods in three European countries. Results show that consumers are most positive towards non-GM enzyme production methods. The enzyme production method is by far the most important factor for the formation of buying intentions compared to price and benefits. Results also show that environmental concern and attitudes to technological progress are the socio-political attitudes that have the highest predictive value regarding attitudes to enzyme production methods.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the social and behavioral actions, activities and practices in order to group them together to create behavior‐based profiles that characterize the various stages of the innovation generation processes within organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
– Qualitative data were collected from nine Australian companies from the biotechnology sector. Using the grounded theory approach to data analysis, labels from Rogers' adopter categorization model were used to broadly identify and classify typical actions, activities, practices and behaviors exhibited within organizations that can be described as being “innovator”, “early adopter”, “early majority”, “late majority” or “laggard” types. Further, Moore's metaphor of “chasm” was applied to explore the nature of difficulties that organizations face in converting innovative ideas into commercially successful products and services.
Findings
– The use of the labels from the categories of the adopter categorization model enabled suitable behavior‐based profiles to be developed.
Originality/value
– The use of the adopter categorization model provides a fuller and richer insight into the innovation generation process. The model can also be used to assess more holistically the viability of innovations as they progress from inception to commercialization.
The authors explain the ways in which uncertainty is an important factor in the problems of risk and policy analysis. This book outlines the source and nature of uncertainty, discusses techniques for obtaining and using expert judgment, and reviews a variety of simple and advanced methods for analyzing uncertainty.
Emerging nanotechnology has shown great potential for application in nutraceuticals and functional foods to improve human health. New initiatives have been launched by governments, academia, and private sector in various countries to ensure development of nanotechnology to improve the quality of life. This technology can enhance solubility, facilitate controlled release, improve bioavailability, and protect the stability of micronutrients. It can also lead to the development of new flavor delivery systems to improve food quality and functionality.
A series of 3 studies explored the efficacy of a dual-mode model of cooperation based on trust and confidence, the TCC model. The TCC model is founded on the distinction between morality-relevant information and performance-relevant information, with the former dominating—controlling the interpretation of—the latter in a variety of judgment contexts. According to the TCC model, trust is based on judgments of value similarity derived from morality-relevant information, and confidence is based on judgments of past performance derived from performance-relevant information. Results from all 3 studies supported the relations depicted in the TCC model, showing that judgments of trust dominated judgments of past performance and of confidence.
This study examined factors affecting perceived risks and acceptance of gene technology. Based on the reviewed literature, a causal model was proposed. The plausibility of the postulated model was tested using structural equation modeling procedures. Participants were randomly selected students from a Swiss university (N= 837). Results indicated that trust in companies and scientists performing gene manipulations have a strong effect on the benefits and risks perceived. When trust was controlled for the inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit vanished. Furthermore, world views, perceived benefit, and perceived risk each are found to contribute independently to the prediction of acceptance of gene technology. World views and trust appear to play an important role in perceptions of gene technology.
This article locates the frequent call for public participation in the governance of technology within a theory of democratic representation. The article examines several modes of representation—symbolic, formal, delegate, trustee, and descriptive—in light of their potential contribution to a democratic theory of publicly representative technology. Publicly representative technology depends on each of the modes, giving some preference to the representative as trustee. Not every technical artifact or system should be expected to represent its constituents in the same way, but each mode of representation has an important role to play in facilitating democratic representation through technology.
The triple helix of state, university and industry is missing an essential fourth helix, the public. Advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology are jeopardised by the virtual absence of this helix. Using Canada as a case study, this paper argues that regulating biotechnology and nanotechnology is made unnecessarily complex and inherently unstable due to a failure to consult the public early and often enough. Furthermore, it is argued that future regulators (and promoters) of nanotechnology may learn valuable lessons from the mistakes made in regulating biotechnology, and may appreciate the value of adopting a post-normal approach to science.
We present the results from the second in a series of ongoing experimental studies of public perceptions of nanotechnology risks. Like the first study, the current one found that members of the public, most of whom know little or nothing about nanotechnology, polarize along cultural lines when exposed to information about it. Extending previous results, the current study also found that cultural polarization of this sort interacts with the perceived cultural identities of policy advocates. Polarization along expected lines grew even more extreme when subjects of diverse cultural outlooks observed an advocate whose values they share advancing an argument they were predisposed to accept, and an advocate whose values they reject advancing an argument they were predisposed to resist. But when those same advocates were assigned the opposite positions, subjects formed perceptions of nanotechnology risks diametrically opposed to the ones normally associated with their own cultural predispositions. Finally, when there was no consistent relationship between the perceived values of advocates and positions taken on nanotechnology risk and benefits, cultural polarization was neutralized. The significance of these findings for promotion of informed public understanding of nanotechnology is discussed.
Despite knowing little about nanotechnology (so to speak), members of the public readily form opinions on whether its potential risks outweigh its potential benefits. On what basis are they forming their judgments? How are their views likely to evolve as they become exposed to more information about this novel science? We conducted a survey experiment (N = 1,850) to answer these questions. We found that public perceptions of nanotechnology risks, like public perceptions of societal risks generally, are largely affect driven: individuals' visceral reactions to nanotechnology (ones likely based on attitudes toward environmental risks generally) explain more of the variance in individuals' perceptions of nanotechnology's risks and benefits than does any other influence. These views are not static: even a small amount of information can generate changes in perceptions. But how those perceptions change depends heavily on individuals' values. Using a between-subjects design, we found that individuals exposed to balanced information polarize along cultural and political lines relative to individuals not exposed to information. We discuss what these findings imply for understanding of risk perceptions generally and for the future of nanotechnology as a subject of political conflict and regulation.