Chinese consumer behaviour towards food packaging

Executive Summary Coles (2003) has believed that the primary role of food packaging was to protect food from external influences and damage, delay or even prevent food spoilage, and provide ingredients and nutritional information to consumers. The packaging is responsible for ensuring that the food can be safely moved from the origin to the distance after the food processing process is completed and is still good and healthy when consumed. However, the popularity of electronic products, the development of social platforms and the emergence of “food bloggers (consultants, editors)” have indirectly made that even the food packaging be more demanding. On the Internet, some foreign netizens always ridiculed Chinese food, although it is delicious, there is no aesthetic sense. Chinese netizens have explained that it was because foreigners did not eat in the so-called "Chinese high-class restaurant.

Sammie also borrowed a theoretical book on consumer behaviour, so I can contact my research better. Not only can we support each other by reviewing our questions and findings, but we can also support each other happily by talking about things other than our papers. Table of Contents Statement of Authorship 2 Executive Summary 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 6 1. 1 Overview and Background 6 1. 2 Aims and Objectives 10 Literature Review 11 2. 3 Research on Technology 32 4. 4 Analysis on Takeaways 33 4. 2 Discussion 34 Conclusion and Recommendations 40 5. 1 Conclusion 40 5. 2 Recommendations 41 References 44 Introduction 1. On the one hand, definitely, many trends of food in China are still incomparable to The Western world. For example, “freshness” for Chinese people does not only mean “not canned or unfrozen”, but precisely, those foods that come directly from “farmer market”, “seafood market” and etc.

in a well-timed style. That is, the Chinese are used to choosing the vegetables that they can buy that morning, the meats that are slaughtered on the spot, and the seafood that is still alive when they buy. Veeck & Burns (2005) also pointed out that the Chinese people's desire for freshness is significantly more extreme than the Western world. “People tend to classify food as healthy or delicious (Chandon, 2013)”, and too much research has focused on explaining trends in food classification (e. g. , nutrition, health) and hedonic values based on the expectations of utilitarian values (for example, taste, pleasure). When a consumer evaluates a packaged food, he/she uses this classification based on the type of food. On the other hand, take-away services are started emergence and prevalent, they are so prosperous.

So, in 2013, the performance of catering companies continued to decline, with a growth rate of 8. 3%, reaching a new low (Wu and Zhao, 2015). In January and February 2014, the total revenue of national catering enterprises was US$ 403 billion, an increase of 8. 3% year-on-year, but the year-on-year growth rate fell by 5%. This is the foremost single-digit growth over the same period of the previous era, down 36. 2) Explore the current situation of Chinese food takeaway packaging. 3) To investigate whether sustainability is a factor for Chinese consumers. These questions will be answered on the basis of authoritative literature such as journals, textbooks, websites and other resources. Literature Review 2. 1 Chinese Consumer Behaviour in Food Takeaways (O2O) About consumer behaviour, “consumer” includes different consumers based on age, education, income levels, gender, culture, taste, etc.

These changes have continually occurred thanks to emerging companies offering new business models and innovative formulas. More importantly, according to the survey by He et al. (2018), it showed that smartphone users that exceed 80% spend at least 4 hours a day using their phones, and 70% of them can also unlock their phone screens at an interval of 20 minutes. At the same time, smartphones bring a new way of interacting. 73% of smartphone users through scanned 2D barcodes to make friends/business partners with new people, and 50% of mobile phone operators interacted with TV shows on their phones (Wu and Zhao, 2015). Here want to focus on food takeaways online system. Specifically speaking, advances in technology and the development of market demand have accelerated the combination of O2O, creating an innovative business model - O2O (online to offline).

O2O is a business model that typically uses the Internet as a linking platform. This means that consumers can purchase goods, consume online and enjoy services with the help of the platform. However, many independent restaurants are competing for orders found in the O2O platform (He et al. , 2014) or previous online experiences (Rezaei et al. , 2016d). Generally, food is a low-participation product category, so consumers often do not remember the price, indicating that consumers are reasonably making choices of price without over-considering previous transactions (Monroe and Lee, 1999). Jeng (2016) has proven that it is important that time-saving factors upsurge the value of the provided services for the reason that it lessens the time and energy (convenience) that consumers spend on products.

Punj (2012) also found that high-income consumers value time because of occasion costs. However, the additional packaging on the pallet is a three-stage packaging (Hellström and Saghir, 2007). For example, some of the products, for instance, fruits, cannot be placed in the category of primary food packaging, but the package materials provided by retailers have the same functions. The secondary and three-stage packaging will be used to transport the fruits to the retailers through the supply chain. With respect to food products, packaging characteristics have been shown to be of great importance to the consumer's ultimate choice of fresh products (Silayoi and Speece, 2007). In addition, packaging confers unique value to the product (Underwood, Klein & Burke, 2001; Silayoi & Speece, 2004), it helps consumers select products from a wide range of similar products, stimulating customer purchasing behaviour (Wells, Farley & Armstrong, 2007).

(2013) also agreed the food waste and packaging design are active, subject to a multifaceted set of supply chain organizations and tendencies, increased supply chain efficiency and better focus to diminish food waste based on the policies. On the other hand, Marsh and Bugusu (2007) believed that the entry to effective packaging is to select the packaging designs and materials that best meet the competitive needs. Considering the nature of the packaging material, the type of food to be packaged, the possible interactions between food and packaging, the expected market (distances). This indicates that a good food packaging requires different analysis of each product: the product, the shelf life of the product required, the environmental conditions during storage and distribution, the end use of the product, the final packaging process, and the cost associated with the packaging throughout the production and distribution process.

But, according to a standardized survey (in October and November 2015) of adult consumers who live in Lubusz Voivodeship showed that respondents believed that the primary functions of food packaging were mainly protection (23. Consumers in all countries pay special attention to food safety and label accuracy (Drescher, de Jonge, Goddard, & Herzfeld, 2012; Zhou & Hui, 2003). Consumers need to ensure that the information on the food label truly identifies the product they wish to purchase at the grocery store. Comprehensible worries about dishonesty, scam, and misperception lead to suspicion of traceability (Gutman, 1999). Consumer faith may wear away over time due to the buildup of volatile food deception cases (Charlebois et al. As reports of food deception have multiplied, whether it is carbon-based products, Kosher products, halal foods or mislabels of other products packaging, many consumers have expressed doubts about the reliability of food labels (Conrad, 2009).

However, this contradicts the use of "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)" to reduce environmental impacts, as foods generally have a higher environmental impact than packaging (Hanssen, 1998). Sometimes the significances of consumer behaviour in food "Life Cycle Assessment" are explained (e. g. , Verghese et al. , 2012a), but are rarely encompassed. Theoretically, different foods vary in the shapes and sizes, and the structure of the takeaway packaging required should be different. But at present, the same merchant, in order to cost-saving, often uses the same package for different types of foods sold, which results in low utilization of the takeaway packaging space but increases the distribution cost. In addition, too grotesque packaging cannot be placed and stacked well when they delivered with other different brands of takeout, the space utilization of the delivery box causes a lot of waste and is not suitable for the current distribution trend of the O2O platform (Yao and Zhang, 2015).

However, when food delivering, Hong, Li and Wang (2016) mentioned that bad packaging will result in the following problems: first, most online food delivery platforms combine self-service delivery with restaurant delivery. Many delivery personnel from partner restaurants lack professional training or delivery skills. And the deliveryman typically delivers many orders at a time, which results in longer delivery distances and (for the consumers) longer waiting times. Yao and Zhang (2015) also mentioned that most of the takeaway packages currently on the market are plastic boxes made of PP polypropylene, PS polystyrene, and carton or paper bags that have been coated. Although the new takeaway packaging has better environmental performance and is accepted by the public than the traditional foam box, it lacks the design and is difficult to adapt to the new takeaway environment.

Many online food distribution platforms actively provide disposable tableware for partner restaurants, and in some areas unified tableware form, but not all. Therefore, some restaurants may choose low-quality tableware, which will not only affect the subjective feelings of consumers but also threaten their health and safety. Which means: although consumers' awareness of environmental protection is increasing, most of the current takeaway packaging materials are still one-off products, so the concept of "sustainability" in takeaways packaging cannot be universal in China at the present. Further, the study by Wang et al. (2018) also inferred that if there is no government intervention, it is clear that when their own earnings are not reduced, the takeaway initiatives will ‘at least partake in’ the building of the reprocessing industry chain, and consumers will ‘at least try to’ deal with the packaging waste professionally.

When both parties have a clear sense of profit growth, the tactical selections of both parties will easily grow into an ideal state. In contrast, when the profits of both parties are damaged, the possibility of developing informal means rather than building a recycling industry chain will be great. The chapter will mainly focus on describing the method of empirical research, the survey design used in the research, data collection and analysis, and the rationality and consistency of the study. 1 Research Design Research design explains the structure and framework in the way the study will address the research objectives and the research questions (Du Plessis, Joose and Strydom, 2009). Torriola (2006), states that data collection sources include interviews, observations, literature, and questionnaires. This research study only used literature and questionnaires that are the primary sources of data for efficient analysis of Chinese consumer behaviour towards food packaging.

The secondary data used in the research included internet searches, research reports, journal articles, and textbooks. The primary determination of the research was to get data so as to address the specific problem and come up with the results. Data collection will be done through technical reports, literature review, search strategy and scholarly journals. Technical reports involve surveys and reports which have been conducted by researchers in relevance to the current study. Reports and surveys are carried out by different researchers hence being able to come up with research findings that can be shared with the general public. This study will use technical reports as a way of collecting secondary research data henceforth been able to come up with results of the behaviour of consumers towards food packaging.

Analyzing data is referred to as a systematic procedure through which researchers collect unstructured data forming a matrix of data hence creating comprehensible information and answering research questions and objectives. To effectively come up with structured data, the study will use academic sources as well as previous research on the same topic. 4 Validity According to Bearden, Netemeyer, and Haws (2011), validity sees and regulates whether the instrument measures what it is supposed to measure. There are three methods which establish validity and they include face validity, construct and criterion validity. The validity of the study as shown below: Firstly, those datasets were already tested to ensure they can be used for further analysis. Here hope that more people will pay attention in the future.

Findings and Critical Analysis & Discussion 4. 1 Findings and Critical Analysis Secondary research has been encompassed in this topic to bring a clear overview of diverse ideologies based on the Chinese consumer behaviours toward food packaging and takeaways. A variety of sources have also been used to compare data, group relevant information, and find the precise themes that are more related to the Chinese consumer behaviours and food packaging. It will, therefore, analyze what has been found after the discussion from various authors and research topics. It has been used as a model that attract consumers because of its strategies and how it works as compared to other models in food industries. Therefore, the secondary research has been made that clarifies food packaging model and the way it is intertwined in business to manipulate the consumer behaviours.

However, due to the large number of food packaging supporters, most of the people prefer takeaway foods as compared to other forms and ways of eating (Jaworowska, et al. Precisely, food packaging has brought a clear overview of the business models and the way different food industries pack their products especially by using the technological subjects as analyzed by Ranjan, et al. As an example, food can be packaged depending on its type and the due date before the nutritional value expires. However, most of them prefer packed and takeaway foods as compared to other types of food preservation. For their activities to be made easier, they need takeaway and packed foods. Therefore, the food companies and hotels should start packaging fast foods in cans and boxes as their first priority 4.

2 Technical Reports and Analysis Technical reports can also be used as a methodology of acquiring exact data about Chinese consumer behaviours and food packaging. The reports include the comments and the opinions from the consumers and the way they support the food packaging as analyzed by Bumbudsanpharoke and Ko, (2015). Since the early years as of 2003, expansion of diverse developments impacted the whole country. This means that more innovations were discovered and people kept on finding their comforts. As a result, the time spent in restaurants eating became limited and people started preferring packaged foods. 3 Research on Technology Based on the research on technology, several ideologies and opinions can be used to conduct the research by using the relevant secondary research techniques.

The research entails the collection of first-hand information from various groups, and also it encompasses the evidential information provided to support the research. Several food companies and industries depend on the social media and technology to get consumers and win the target market. The food purchase online has immensely increased in China due to the rise of technology and the availability of internet in most of the backgrounds. For instance, people working on diverse places may not necessarily leave the work and go out to find foods. What they just do is that they can order their desired meals online and be delivered within a short period of time. By so doing, they increase their interest on takeaway foods because of their availability and less or no time consuming.

Therefore, in current China, takeaway foods can be easily delivered to the consumers because of their sizes and materials. Moreover, takeaway foods can be delivered to the consumers in different places that include offices, schools, homes, hospitals, among others. That is why they have captured the interests of nearly all the Chinese consumers. As long as the daily activities in China are carried out, takeaway foods would not miss to increase in demand and supply. 2 Discussion Food packaging has been implicated in diverse ways due to the consumer behaviours and their attitude towards it (Liu, Pieniak & Verbeke, 2013). As a result, the performance of the restaurants has been seen to be increasing over the years due to the consumer behaviours and the way they encourage packaging of food.

However, as a matter of fact, food packaging has a number of roles. They are not only used for enhancing the consumer behaviour, but also in improving the diet of the food products. In other words, food packaging helps in preserving foods and preventing them from the external influences like dirt and other factors that can contaminate the food (Lau & Wong, 2000). In most of the cases, foods are packaged and sealed. Consumer behaviours also depend on their experience and the interaction between them and the products (Russell, Stern & Stern, 2006). If the consumer likes a particular product, he or she will be likely to purchase it more often as compared to other products. This has been one of the consumer’s behaviours and their approaches to different products with different pricing.

Besides experience and the interaction between the consumers and the products, the packaging design has also been deliberated as the model that attract the consumers to a given product. If the packaging design is attractive to the eyes of the consumers, then definitely a number of consumers would not miss to purchase them. They do this using their packaging strategies and design of the products to be delivered to the consumers. There are several significances of food packaging according to the studies and even from the comments from the Chinese consumers (Vermeiren, et al. As discussed in the literature review and the analysis of the topic, food packaging helps in preventing the outside influences that include contamination and food poisoning. However, food packaging favors the health of the consumers with the fact that it prevents illnesses that are resulted from the food contamination.

Therefore, Chinese consumers have witnessed the importance of food packaging and this has consequently led to the increase in the restaurants that offer takeaway foods. Some other materials can be utilized for liquid takeaway foods. With all these concepts in mind, the food industries in China have won the market by using all the marketing models and all means to attract the consumers. But without forgetting, food packaging has also been developed and increased by using diverse strategies. The number of Chinese consumers who love food packaging has been increased due to the application of marketing replicas. Most of the industries use promotions to win the economy (Siegrist, et al. 4 billion people. The country is struggling to feed these massive people with the help of food processing industries and restaurants that offer takeaway foods (Sarah, 2016).

In 2014, China increased its revenues to $2 trillion with more than 35,000 food processing plants and industries according to Sarah. This increased the economy and enabled a breakthrough of other small food companies that offered all kinds of food packaging and processing. This is an indication that food packaging started long ago in China and increased its economy immensely. However, Chinese consumer behaviour has been studied and it has been seen that China's food packaging has increased significantly. This is because consumers who like takeaway foods have many tasks in packaging food. On the other hand, food is packaged in different designs, materials and marketing models. This is designed to attract consumers and achieve their competitive advantage. Therefore, most Chinese restaurants adopt strategies to ensure that Chinese consumers get the best results from food packaging.

Food packaging should be a top priority for modern and modern restaurants. In the modern world, people travel from one place to another because of economic and social activities. However, most of them prefer to pack and take away food instead of just sitting in a restaurant. In order to make their activities easier, they need to take out and package food. Therefore, food companies should use good packaging to protect consumers' safety and maintain a good image for themselves. Therefore, Chinese consumers should conduct interviews based on their comments on food packaging and what they need to do. Use promotional activities. In each package, there should be promotions to encourage consumers to buy more products. This is also to ensure that food packaging expands in the country and increases the economy by a higher percentage.

Therefore, companies should accurately consider the marketing model of the market model to enhance food packaging. China Business Review, 19(6), 20–21. Barska A, Brzeska J, Kozak W, Lech T, Melski K, Wasilewski T, Wyrwa J, Zalewski RI. Science of Food Commodities 2. 0 in action for innovation quality. Bearden, W. , Bugusu, B. , Han, J. H. , Sand, C. K. & Bush, R. F. Marketing research. 7th Edition. Pearson. , Sterling, B. , Haratifar, S. , Naing, S. K. , Jianrong, Z. Understanding customers' repeat purchase intentions in B2C e-commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and perceived risk. Information Systems Journal, 24(1), pp. Coles R. Introduction. In: Coles R, McDowell D, Kirwan MJ, editors. Cooper, D. and Schindler, P. Business research methods. 12th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill Irwin. Du, Y.

(2012), ‘A bite of China’ brings along the heat of food tourism. Hangzhou Daily. from: http://fashion. ifeng. , & WANG, Z. T. Comparison and Analyze on International Food Packaging Regulation [J]. Chinese Journal of Food Hygiene, 4, 020. Gentry, L. Grunert, K. , Perrea, T. , Zhou, Y. , Huang, G. , Sørensen, B. Gutman, B. N. Ethical eating: applying the kosher food regulatory regime to organic food. The Yale Law Journal, 108(8), 2351e2384. Gutman, J. J. Clean. Prod. 6, 299e311. He, Z. H. J. , & Foth, M. Using communicative ecology theory to scope the emerging role of social media in the evolution of urban food systems. Futures, 62, 202-212. Technol. Sci. 20 (3), 197e216. Hong, L. , Li, Y. G. , & Stevenson, L. Nutritional challenges and health implications of takeaway and fast food. Nutrition reviews, 71(5), 310-318.

Jeng, S. Kim, A. and Ahn, J. (2006), “Comparison of trust sources of an online market-maker in the e-marketplace: buyer’s and seller’s perspectives”, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. , Cohen, J. and Couper, M. Psychological Research Online: Report of Board of Scientific Affairs' Advisory Group on the Conduct of Research on the Internet. American Psychologist, 59(2), pp. Kumra, Rajeev. Lam, H. M. , Remais, J. , Fung, M. C. Contamination in food from packaging material. Journal of Chromatography A, 882(1-2), 255-270. Littler, D. and Melanthiou, D. Consumer perceptions of risk and uncertainty and the implications for behaviour towards innovative retail services: The case of Internet Banking. , & Vermunt, J. K. Latent class as a probabilistic extension of Kmeans clustering. Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, 20(3), 77–80 Löfgren, M.

The Leader of the Pack. 48 No. 2, pp. Marsh, K. and Bugusu, B. Food Packaging—Roles, Materials, and Environmental Issues. Asia: John Wiley and Sons (Pty) Ltd. McGivern, Y. The Practice of Market and Social Research. 2nd ed. England: Pearson Education Ltd. Packaging research in food product design and development. John Wiley & Sons. Muller, H. G. , & Tobin, G. , Tiu Wright, L. , & Brace, I. Gaining competitive advantage from packaging and labeling in marketing communications. British Food Journal, 100(2), 110-118. National Bureau of Statistics, 2015. pdf, accessed during December 2012. Ollila, S. Consumers' Attitudes Towards Food Prices. Department of Economics and Management. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Peng BH, Gu XF, Wu BY. Co-evolutionary simulation analysis of multiple stakeholders in the E-waste recycling industry chain. Journal of Beijing Institute of Technology (Social Sciences Edition) 2016; 18(2): 53-63.

Punj, G. Income effects on relative importance of two online purchase goals: Saving time versus saving money? Journal of Business Research, 65(5), pp. , Shanker, R. , & Kumar, A. Nanoscience and nanotechnologies in food industries: opportunities and research trends. Journal of nanoparticle research, 16(6), 2464. Rezaei, S. Reaktion Books. Robertson, G. L. Food packaging: principles and practice (Vol. CRC press. Consumers, characters, and products: A balance model of sitcom product placement effects. Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 7-21. Saarijärvi, H. , Mitronen, L. and Yrjölä, M. How China's food factories feed 1. 4 billion people. Business Insider. Schimidt, J. and Hollensen, S. , & Speece, M. Packaging and purchase decisions: An exploratory study on the impact of involvement level and time pressure. British Food Journal, 106 (8), 607-628. Silayoi, P. , Speece, M. Introduction to food engineering.

Gulf Professional Publishing. Solomon, M. R. , Dahl, D. Springer Science & Business Media. Torriola, P. Research methods notes. Pretoria: Tshwane University of Technology Tutorialspoint. com. R. Packaging communication: attentional effects of product imagery. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 10 (7), 403-422. Veeck, A. , & Veeck, G. , Clune, S. , Sivaraman, D. , 2012a. In: Yam, K. L. RMIT University, Melbourne, March. Vermeiren, L. , Devlieghere, F. , Van Beest, M. , De Kruijf, N. Available at: https://www. neuroquantology. com/index. php/journal/article/viewFile/1393/991 [Accessed 21 Jul. Wells, L. and Mitchell, B. Research Methodology. 3 rd ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Williams, H. and Zhao, R. An empirical research of consumer adoption behavior on catering transformation to mobile O2O. Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics, [online] Vol. 18, No. 6, pp. Consumer's Attitudes and Willingness-to-Pay for Green Food in Beijing.