Steps towards a consumer-driven ‘concept innovation machine’ for food and drink

Innovation is often left to insight and serendipity. A lot of what researchers call innovation is actually a process by which one can make the individual consumer or practitioner more ‘creative’. Although it is important to work with the creative individual in hopes of coming up with the better ‘idea’ and new product/service opportunity, an equally valid albeit novel and counterintuitive approach systematizes creativity in a ‘research-driven machine’. This paper presents an approach to the systematization, based upon the point of view that creativity and innovation comprise the recombination of components into new blends. Given this point of view, to then spur innovation requires a systematic database that the user can access, with tools to help manipulate that database. The paper shows how such a database can be constructed and then used to create a novel product. The approach provides a general framework for the sensory professional to become more involved in the early stages of product development, where the focus is on the conceptual aspects of food features rather than on their physical manifestations in actual products.     

Student acceptance of unique meals

Students (N = 167) from the 4th, 8th, and 11th grades sorted meals, listed on individual cards, according to whether they would or would not eat them. Students were told to either consider eating the meals at home or at school. Forty-two different meals were selected from a pool of unique meals created by students in a previous study. The meals differed in head component, the presence or absence of vegetables, and the number of different foodstuffs. On average, approximately half of the meals were deemed acceptable, but older students accepted more meals than younger ones, boys accepted more meals than girls, and meals to be consumed at home were accepted more than those to be consumed at school. In addition, students tended to accept meals comprised of a small number of foodstuffs that did not contain vegetables. The also chose more meat-based meals over those containing fish or soup. These results suggest that students have rather unique food preferences that do not correspond well with nutritional standards. In order to address this problem we recommended that students be given more good choices in the school cafeteria through the introduction of a two-meal system and salad bars.     

Laboratory and Field Consumer Evaluation Relationships for Menu Items Processed in Retortable Trays for Quantity Foodservice

Problems associated with provision of food in quantity foodservices prompted the development and use of prepared food items processed in retortable trays. Consumer acceptance of such foods was required so that the items could be screened for foodservice application. Consumer tests, using small portion samples and sensory testing under laboratory conditions, gave a relatively reliable prediction of acceptability of most of the items under extended-use consumer testing during a field trial. Final field acceptance of some items was influenced by external factors not accounted for in laboratory testing.     

Transparency in complex dynamic food supply chains

Food supply chains are increasingly complex and dynamic due to (i) increasing product proliferation to serve ever diversifying and globalising markets as a form of mass customisation with resulting global flows of raw materials, ingredients and products, and (ii) the need to satisfy changing and variable consumer and governmental demands with respect to food safety, animal welfare, and environmental impact. Transparency in the food supply chain is essential to guarantee food quality and provenance to all users of food and food products. Intensified information exchange and integrated information systems involving all chain actors are needed to achieve transparency with respect to a multitude of food properties.In this paper, specific challenges of food supply chains are highlighted. Major elements are addressed that support transparency to consumers, the government and food companies, which are considered the claimants of transparency. Elements considered to be enablers of transparency are governance mechanisms, quality and safety standards and information exchange. The paper specifies these transparency claimants and enablers for food supply chains and identifies major information system functions and information technology applications needed to comply with transparency demands. It thereby provides a framework for transparency analysis in food supply chains.     

浅谈化工建设项目竣工预验收程序和内容

结合作者的实际工作 ,总结了对工程建设实施“三道质量控制工序”的经验 ,强调了过程质量控制的重要性 ,较为系统地介绍了化工建设项目预验收工作的程序和内容     

Gerontechnology acceptance by elderly Hong Kong Chinese: a senior technology acceptance model (STAM)

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a senior technology acceptance model (STAM) aimed at understanding the acceptance of gerontechnology by older Hong Kong Chinese people. The proposed STAM extended previous technology acceptance models and theories by adding age-related health and ability characteristics of older people. The proposed STAM was empirically tested using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey with a sample of 1012 seniors aged 55 and over in Hong Kong. The result showed that STAM was strongly supported and could explain 68% of the variance in the use of gerontechnology. For older Hong Kong Chinese, individual attributes, which include age, gender, education, gerontechnology self-efficacy and anxiety, and health and ability characteristics, as well as facilitating conditions explicitly and directly affected technology acceptance. These were better predictors of gerontechnology usage behaviour (UB) than the conventionally used attitudinal factors (usefulness and ease of use).

Practitioner Summary: Previous studies have not given much consideration to age-related health and associated abilities when examining acceptance of technology by the ageing population. By encompassing conventional technology acceptance constructs together with age-related health and ability characteristics, the present study was able to identify more factors affecting gerontechnology acceptance by older Hong Kong Chinese.     

Effects of individuals' locus of control and computer self-efficacy on their e-learning acceptance in high-tech companies

High-tech companies encounter intense competition in today's global economy. With rapid changes in working environments, high-tech employees must learn quickly and effectively to solve difficult problems and increase their productivity. Many large high-tech companies have recently implemented electronic learning (e-learning) for employee training. However, e-learning systems are expensive and often underutilised. Therefore, understanding the factors associated with acceptance to e-learning are of priority concern. By integrating locus of control, computer self-efficacy and technology acceptance model (TAM) into one model, this study examines the feasibility of the extended TAM to explain employee acceptance of e-learning systems. Data were collected from 223 employees at five high-tech companies located in the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. Analytical results indicate that locus of control had significant direct effects on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Computer self-efficacy had significant direct effects on perceived ease of use and behavioural intention to use. Overall, analytical results provide strong support for using the extended TAM to explain user acceptance of e-learning systems. The research and practical implications of findings are discussed.     

Older adults’ use of smart phones: an investigation of the factors influencing the acceptance of new functions

After adopting mobile phones, most older adults use them only for calling and SMS. The purpose of this study is to extend their usage of mobile phones to new functions. To understand older adults’ requirements of mobile phones, a questionnaire was constructed and 351 Chinese older adults were recruited to complete the questionnaires. Data collected through the questionnaires were analysed using explorative factor analysis. The results revealed that older adults’ requirements were composed of 10 factors: Find a Specific Function, Awareness and Attractiveness, Readability, Personal Concern, Soft Keys and Multi-tap, Hardware Capacity, Touch Screen, Concern of Learning, Connectivity, and Social Influence. Then, from the above 10 factors, the 6 most important factors were revealed using multiple linear regression analysis. The results imply that accepting new functions is different from accepting a product. Readability and Find a Specific Function, which are critical for older adults’ acceptance of feature phones, are not determinants of their acceptance of new functions in smart phones.     

Call for papers The 34th Chinese Control Conference & SICE Annual Conference 2015

正The 34th Chinese Control Conference and SICE Annual Conference 2015(CCCSICE2015)is organized by the Technical Committee on Control Theory(TCCT)of Chinese Association of Automation(CAA)and the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers(SICE)of Japan,and locally organized by Hangzhou Dianzi University(HDU).