Education and economic performance of occidental and oriental family farm operators

This article is an attempt to evaluate the relative effect of sociological and economic factors on economic performance of occidental and oriental family farm operators in Israel. Unusual circumstances prevail in Israel, where farm operators with modern and traditional backgrounds co-exist within a modern economy. This setting allows us to evaluate the effect of the human factor under conditions of relative independence from the organizational set-up. Economic performance has been found to be closely associated with the level of formal schooling, status of women, degree of literacy and family size.     

Mortality salience – shedding light on the dark experience

ABSTRACT

Mortality salience, a key term in Terror Management Theory, refers to self-awareness of one’s vulnerability and ultimate mortality. This exploratory study, based on psychology and tourism literature, clarifies the degree to which a visit to a heritage site of death and atrocities evokes mortality salience as well as the relationship between mortality salience and various dimensions of the visit experience. The findings indicate that not only was mortality salience evoked during the visit, it is also an important component in understanding the motivation to visit dark sites, the emotional experience of the visit, and the impact of the visit on visitors. We therefore propose that the conceptualization and management of a death-centered heritage site can be enriched by the integration of sense of mortality salience. Additionally, the high Cronbach’s alpha suggests that the study can provide an initial basis for a scale to quantitatively measure Mortality Salience.     

Technology,market policies and institutional reform for sustainable land use in southern Mali

To identify appropriate interventions that support sustainable land use; a farm household modelling approach is applied to analyze micro-economic supply reactions to various policy measures. The modelling framework links agro-technical and economic data, and takes both production and consumption decisions into account, allowing land use and production technology adjustments in accordance with farm household objectives. Different types of farm households are distinguished on the basis of their resource endowments, savings coefficients and time discount rate. Actual and alternative (sustainable) cropping and livestock activities for different weather regimes are defined for southern Mali. The effects on sustainable land use and expected farm household welfare of adopting alternative technologies and modifying prices, transaction costs, access to credit and land taxes are demonstrated. Even with full information on sustainable technologies, strong policy interventions are required to halt soil degradation. Structural policies proved to be more effective than price policies to reduce soil degradation while maintaining positive income effects. When prices are determined endogenously, structural policy loses some effectiveness as an incentive for sustainable land use due to the effect of additional supply on local cereal and meat Prices.     

Determinants of smallholder farmers' participation in banana markets in Central Africa: the role of transaction costs

A bivariate probit model was employed to jointly and separately estimate banana market participation decisions of buying and selling households in Rwanda and Burundi using household survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for estimating the transacted volumes using Heckman's procedure. The results showed that transaction cost‐related factors such as geographical location of households, market information sources, and travel time to the nearest urban center influence market participation. Non‐price‐related factors such as security of land tenure, labor availability, off‐farm income, gender of the household head, and years of farming experience had a significant influence on the transacted volumes. Output prices had a significant correlation with sales volume, indicating price incentives increased supply by sellers. Generally, the findings suggest that policies aimed at investments in rural road infrastructure, market information systems, collective marketing, and value addition of banana products may provide a potential avenue for mitigating transaction costs and enhancing market participation and production of marketed surplus by rural households.     

Constraints on transactions in the futures markets for output and inputs

In previous studies it was shown that the prevailance of a forward market in which a competitive firm can sell and buy unrestricted quantities of its output or of an input in employs in production eliminates the effects of the corresponding price uncertainties on production decisions. In this study we examine the effects on production decisions of narrowing the range of transactions a firm can perform. It turns out that restricting the firm only to hedge either in the output forward market or the input forward market makes the production decisions again sensitive to expected future prices and the attitude of the firm towards risk.     

Research and Technology Commercialization

This paper introduces the special themed section on organizational interactions involving universities and firms that result in the commercialization of research and technology. Our objective is to shed light on some of the most vexing, yet under‐researched predicaments research institutions encounter, despite their best efforts to advance commercialization. First, we synthesize and extend recent studies, including the papers in the special themed section. Next, we develop a taxonomy of modes of commercialization. Specifically, we consider internal approaches, quasi‐internal approaches (e.g. incubators), university research parks, regional clusters, academic spin‐offs and start‐ups, licensing, contract research and consultancy, corporate venture capital, and open science and innovation. We also identify areas for further research at the individual (e.g. heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams and experience; incentives), organizational and intra‐university (e.g. corporate governance; nature of growth strategies; relationships with trading partners; boundary spanning activities) and technology levels (e.g. institutional context; reconfiguration of technology; valuation of technology).     

The effects of cognitive thinking style and ambient scent on online consumer approach behavior,experience approach behavior,and search motivation

This study evaluates the effect of the interaction between cognitive variables and the presence of scent on online search motivation, purchase characteristics, and telepresence. An interaction between consumers' type of thought process and the presence of scent was identified as influencing search motivation (attention focus and challenge) and telepresence experience. Ambient scent influenced the search motivation of consumers possessing systematic cognitive thinking style (SCTS) and the telepresence experience of consumers with intuitive cognitive thinking style (ICTS). In addition, much in the same way that ambient scent affects consumer behavior in traditional stores, in online settings consumers exposed to scent were found to demonstrate a higher degree of approach behavior. The results suggest extending the S‐O‐R model by emphasizing cognitive thinking style as a mediator of environmental stimuli. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.