Light Center second research grant awarded to marketing professor

Dr. Ann Veeck, professor of marketing in WMU’s Haworth College of Business, was recently awarded the second Timothy Light Center of Chinese Studies Research Grant for her project, “Food Consumption Patterns in Urban China, 1996-2013.”

Veeck will receive $3,000 for her project, in which she plans to examine how food-related behaviors and perceptions of urban Chinese families have changed in the last two decades. Veeck is planning a 15-day trip to China to conduct household surveys that replicates surveys on food consumption behavior that she conducted in Nanjing in the spring of 1996.  

To explore these issues, Veeck’s research will focus on the rapid globalization and privatization of the markets in China that have resulted in dramatic changes in food consumption patterns in urban areas. She will expand upon her dissertation work to measure and analyze important behaviors and perceptions related to food shopping, including food expenditures, timing of food shopping trips, choice of food retailers, patronage of restaurants, and use of processed food.

Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies Research Grants are awarded annually and provide support to Western Michigan University faculty for research and creative activities that support the study of Greater China.  For more information, visit the Light Center online at:  www.wmich.edu/chinesestudiescenter