Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ intention to purchase genetically modified (GM) food from the perspective of risk information. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual model was proposed in which intention to purchase GM food is stimulated by the combination and complex effects of knowledge, risk perception, information need, information seeking and attitude. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted in Jinan, Shandong Province. A total of 757 valid samples (55.6 percent of women vs men) were involved to conduct structural equation model analysis. Findings: Results demonstrated that attitude is the most important predictor of intention to purchase GM food. Attitude, in turn, is predicted by risk perception and information seeking. Risk perception is a significant determinant of information need and information seeking. Moreover, information need influences information seeking. Finally, knowledge plays a critical role in risk perception and intention. Overall, the explained variance of the model is 66 percent. Originality/value: The study provides new insights explaining intention to purchase GM food by constructing a conceptual model from the perspective of risk information. In this model, knowledge, risk perception, information need and information seeking are all based on information related to GM food, resulting in attitude and intention to purchase.

Food recalls have severe impacts on the operation, reputation, and even the survival of a recalling company involved in a crisis, with consumer trust violation being the immediate threat to the recalling firm. The involved firms adopt trust repair strategies and release messages relevant to these actions to the public. In this research, we developed a conceptual model to analyze consumers’ general responses to the food recall, and we then compared the effect of two types of consumer trust repair strategies, i.e., self-sanction and information-sharing. The results show that consumer food safety trust has negative impacts on consumers’ protective behavioral intention during a food recall crisis. In the scientific-evidence sharing group, consumers have a higher risk perception, coping appraisal efficacy, information-seeking tendency, and protection behavioral intention. However, consumers’ food safety trust fails to predict protection behavioral intention because scientific-evidence actions can either be regarded as an explanation and self-serving, or as useful facts and solutions. Self-sanction actions overcome the disadvantages of information-sharing actions, but consumers still require information on facts of and solutions to the crisis. Therefore, it is recommended that recalling firms combine these two strategies in the case of consumer trust repair in food recall crises. Furthermore, the involved firms are encouraged to employ a third party to release the scientific evidence.

Events boost the economy and generate tourist interest in host cities. Organizations involved in tourism will benefit from understanding how best to implement events which impact host cities’ development. This paper explores the impact on host cities of sponsoring an event portfolio, comprising many different types of events. An empirical study analysed 230 tourism events hosted in mainland China. A multiple regression analysis was performed to test various hypotheses. The findings show that event ‘strength’ (i.e. the level of internationalization, number of participants, and continuity of events) can increase event attractiveness. Consequently, such events promote economic development in host cities. However, levels of government support were found to have negative impacts on host cities’ economies. It is worth mentioning that the duration of tourism events has an inverted U-shaped relationship to economic development. As for spatial distribution of events, we found that locating them in provincial capitals had stronger positive impacts on host cities’ economic development and attractiveness. Marketing strategies are proposed to meet target goals.

This study investigates individuals' behavioral intention on city smog. A conceptual model based on the theoretical framework of protective action decision model is proposed in this study to investigate the determinants of individuals' behavioral intention. A face-to-face survey is conducted among residents in two cities with different smog levels to collect empirical data. Results show that the residents of the city with high smog level present low risk perception of smog. Risk perception positively affects behavioral intention. Resource-related attributes play a moderating role in the relationship between risk perception and behavioral intention. Moreover, individuals with low levels of education and income intend to take actions. Implications of the findings are also discussed.

With a serious food safety situation in China, lots of major food recalls have been initiated. This study examined the key determinants underlying consumers’ protection and behavioral intention in response to major food recalls. An augmented protection motivation theory model (PMT) was developed by incorporating trust in food safety management and food recall concern into the original PMT. Structural equation model analysis was conducted using survey data in China (N = 631). The results showed that perceived knowledge significantly and positively influence protection motivation via its positive influence on the threat appraisal and coping appraisal. Moreover, protection motivation, trust in food safety management (TFSM), and food recall concern (FRC) significantly affect protection behavior intention. It was indicated that the inclusion of TFSM and FRC into the PMT significantly increase the explanatory power of the PMT model. Further analysis of quadratic regression demonstrated that the relationship between perceived knowledge and protection motivation presented an inverted U shape, which indicates the importance of continuous education in developing consumers’ food safety knowledge. Implications for future research are discussed.