Opinion Leadership and Chinese Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Pork with a Quality and Safety Label

Abstract

Pork is the most preferred meat for the Chinese, representing 64 percent of the national animal protein consumption in 2011. Severe pork contaminations have caused the loss of 1,700 lives, weakened consumer confidence, and plagued China’s already inefficient pork supply system. This study examines Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward the government-issued Quality and Safety Certificate (the QS label). We applied a three-stage adoption framework and focused on the impact of self-perceived opinion leadership, pork-related health risk knowledge, consumption frequency, retailers visited, price concerns, and demographic factors related to the awareness, use, and valuation of the QS label. Results from a univariate profit model show that 1) opinion leadership status is the only factor that positively affects all three stages of adoption; 2) pork health risk knowledge only contributes to the second stage of how the label is used; 3) education and spouse participation in decision making positively affects the awareness of the label; and 4) frequent pork consumers tend to perceive the label as useful. The results suggest that, due to the increased awareness and improved acceptance of labeled pork by more knowledgeable consumers, private firms and the government stand to benefit from improvements in comprehensive pork safety control in China.