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- Zhang, Chi, et al.
(author)
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Crowdfunding preferences for a sustainable milk product with integrated photovoltaic water pumping system in China
- 2019
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In: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0306-2619 .- 1872-9118. ; 255
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper studies the role of potential investors in financing renewable energy systems—specifically, relating to crowdfunding as a financing mechanism, with the enhancement of internet and social-media tools. The research question in this study is whether crowdfunding with a novel socio-technical product reward program attracts potential customers to a more sustainable milk product with a specific integrated photovoltaic water pumping (PVWP) system. The particular case study we empirically investigated is product reward crowdfunding in dairy milk production in China. The milk production chain was supplied by PVWP system integration, which generated solar energy both for feed production for dairy cows and for the operation of dairy farms. 48 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted between the research team and customers in order to perform qualitative analyses of the determinants of customers’ milk purchase behaviors. In addition, 357 online surveys were collected for quantitative analysis. Binary and ordered probit regressions were employed to use survey date to systematically estimate purchase intention and willingness-to-pay for sustainable milk. Customer behaviors, environmental consciousness, and individual socio-demographic factors were investigated as potential explanatory variables. Over 82% of the survey participants showed intentions to purchase the sustainable milk with the PVWP system. In the survey and interview samples, results showed that milk quality, nutrition improvement, emissions reduction, and environmental benefits attributed to the integrated PVWP system were the major factors considered by interviewees who showed intentions to purchase the crowdfunded dairy milk. Regression model results suggested that potential customers with higher income levels, and those of parenting age, and those with young children or planning to have children, had a higher willingness-to-pay than other customers for the crowdfunded sustainable dairy milk. The familiarity with and popularity of online shopping and pre-sale purchases in China made customers more open to and proactive towards pre-pay and crowdfunding mechanisms. This article evaluated key factors which may influence potential customers for crowdfunding, and used a discrete choice model to estimate customers’ willingness-to-pay for reward-based projects. These results could help producers of sustainable milk products to identify potential target groups in China and estimate market demand. This exploratory study could provide a framework with both quantitative and qualitative assessment of crowdfunding for renewable energy systems in a national or international context.
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- Zhang, Chi, et al.
(author)
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Five tips for China to realize its co-targets of climate mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- 2020
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In: Geography and Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 2096-7438 .- 2666-6839. ; 1:3, s. 245-249
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2018, a total of US$166 billion global economic losses and a new high of 55.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent emission were generated by 831 climate-related extreme events. As the world's largest CO2 emitter, we reported China's recent progresses and pitfalls in climate actions to achieve climate mitigation targets (i.e., limit warming to 1.52 degrees C above the pre-industrial level). We first summarized China's integrated actions (2015 onwards) that benefit both climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These projects include re-structuring organizations, establishing working goals and actions, amending laws and regulations at national level, as well as increasing social awareness at community level. We then pointed out the shortcomings in different regions and sectors. Based on these analyses, we proposed five recommendations to help China improving its climate policy strategies, which include: 1) restructuring the economy to balance short-term and long-term conflicts; 2) developing circular economy with recycling mechanism and infrastructure; 3) building up unified national standards and more accurate indicators; 4) completing market mechanism for green economy and encouraging green consumption; and 5) enhancing technology innovations and local incentives via bottom-up actions.
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- Zhang, Chi, et al.
(author)
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Purchase Intention for Crowd-funded Milk Products with Integrated Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems in China
- 2019
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In: Renewable Energy Integration with Mini/Microgrid. - : Elsevier. ; , s. 503-508, s. 503-508
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In comparison with current financing mechanisms for renewable energy systems, crowd-funding financing mechanism offers a new potential source of financing with recent use of social media. Crowd-funding financing mechanism can also increases the social supports for renewable energy systems as users and investors turn to be more actively engaged in energy systems. As a new potential source of financing, crowd-funding mechanism has different forms, including donation, lending, equity and product reward approaches. In this paper, discrete choice model was used to explore whether crowd-funding financing with a novel sociotechnical product reward practice, has the attractions for potential customers to pay for a more sustainable milk product with distributed photovoltaic (PV) system. We empirically investigated the reward-base crowd funding with the specific integrated photovoltaic water pumping (PVWP) system in dairy milk production in China. 48 in-depth interviews were adopted for qualitative analysis of determinants of customer milk purchase decision. The ordered probit regression was employed with 357 online surveys to systematically estimate the purchase intention for the online-crowd-funding sustainable milk. Customer behaviours, environmental consciousness, and the individual socio-demographic factors were tested as potential explanatory variables. In the survey and depth interview samples, we found interviewees as potential customers showed strong purchase intentions to the crowd funding dairy milk for noticing milk quality and nutritious improvement, emission reduction and environmental benefits by the integrated PVWP system. In our findings of the regression results, the females, customers with young children or planning to have children were found with higher willing to purchase than other customers for crowd funding the sustainable dairy milk. The familiarity and popularity with online shopping and pre-sale purchase in China made customers more open and active towards pre-pay and crowd-funding mechanism.
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