Integrating the environmental and economic consequences of converting to organic agriculture: evidence from a case study

In the current debate about the future of food quality, the merits of organic agriculture are frequently championed, but few studies have sought to integrate the changes in soil conditions, biodiversity and socio-economic welfare linked to the conversion from non-organic to organic production. This article aims to undertake this approach with respect to one case study. Its conclusions may not be representative for all organic conversions, but the findings are of relevance at a time of debate over changing patterns of subsidies and other incentives in agricultural policy. The study showed that there were demonstrable differences in overall environmental conditions in the comparison of organic and non-organic farming, with field evidence of increased species diversity, and an eventual improvement in the profitability of the organic farming regime. The broad conclusion is that there are definite environmental and economic advantages arising from organic agriculture that are not fully reflected in the present pattern of agricultural incentives. The study also showed that variations in farm management practice strongly influence the notion of on-farm and off-farm environmental consequences. The implications of these findings for the future of sustainable agriculture and for interdisciplinary science are also discussed.     

The Customer Concept: The Basis for a New Marketing Paradigm

Recent developments in both marketing theory and marketing practice make it necessary to formulate a new marketing paradigm. This paradigm consists of three elements: (1) a concept, which is the core of the paradigm, (2) a set of activities, and (3) a domain. The customer concept is the new marketing concept. It is a management orientation which maintains that firms establish relationships with selected individual target customers with whom superior customer values are designed, offered, redefined and realized in close cooperation with other partners in the marketing system such as suppliers and intermediaries, in order to realize long-term profits through customer satisfaction, partner- and employee satisfaction. The new marketing activities include decisions with regard to the firm's stated vision, objective(s), strategy, organizational structure, culture, information system, marketing instruments, business processes and human resource management. The new marketing domain encompasses the broader interpretation of marketing as the central concept in the behavior of the firm. The customer concept implies a reorientation of marketing to one that places the customer in a pivotal role.     

Strategy on a Page: An ArchiMate‐based tool for visualizing and designing strategy

Nowadays, organizations need to be able to adjust more rapidly to the circumstances of their environment, at a strategic, tactical, and operational level. However, most software tools are designed to support the tactical and operational levels, while at a strategic level there are not many options available. In this paper, we propose a software tool which supports modelling of strategic information, covering several well‐known strategy techniques, and also facilitates the design of highly customizable management dashboards. To validate our proposed software tools, we perform two case studies, with two inherently different organizations, namely a public university and an investment fund.     

Comparing measures of persuasion knowledge adapted for young children

Young children under 8 years old are viewed as especially vulnerable to marketing communications because they do not have sufficient knowledge about the purpose of persuasive advertising messages, also known as children's persuasion knowledge (CPK). However, a review of 25 studies that have tested CPK effects, on primarily older children, finds inconsistent or no support for CPK. The lack of support depends on the effect studied, and a measurement challenge because of young children's limited capabilities in reading and responding to questions from interviewers. Thirteen measures of CPK have been tested but not compared for CPK effects. These measures were simplified to nonverbal options for young children and tested on a sample of 4‐ to 7‐year‐old North East Chinese children (n = 233). These measures were each tested in relation to the children's age (positive), their skepticism toward advertising (positive), their disbelief of false claims in a TV commercial (TVC) (positive) and their affect toward the TVC (negative). Only two measures of CPK show any expected associated responses with “knowing the source” of advertisements the best measure. Perceived marketer intentions had no expected associations, nor did the age of the child. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of theory, measurement, and applications for marketers and public policy.     

DDB Greater China Group

在2010年中,你们得到了哪些收获,做成了哪些值得您记忆和书写的事情？     

Understanding peak avoidance commuting by subway: an empirical study in Beijing

Congestion is a major problem for peak-hour commuters in the Beijing subway system, as it leads to long queuing times and overcrowded vehicles. This paper explores to what extent peak travel can be reduced by providing incentives for peak avoidance. In a stated preference study, travellers’ responses to two financial and two non-financial incentives were measured, and factors increasing or limiting the response were identified. Our results suggest that all four incentives can be reasonably effective tools and the financial incentives seem to have a slightly stronger effect than the services and credit-for-gifts-based scenarios. Ordered logit models indicate that various factors influence people’s receptiveness of incentives for peak avoidance which relate to the ease of change or presence of alternatives and receptiveness to incentives. Both theoretical and policy implications are concluded that the proposed factors and incentive system can help solving the subway congestion in Beijing.     

Importing High Food Prices by Exporting: Rice Prices in Lao PDR

Lao PDR has extensive export controls on its staple food, glutinous rice, which keep domestic prices low relative to international prices. Using price, harvest, and export data this paper analyses how glutinous rice prices in Laos PDR are related to those in its trading partners, Thailand and Vietnam. We find that rice prices in Lao PDR are more likely to rise following a good harvest year than a bad or a normal year. This is consistent with export controls being relaxed after good harvests, leading to an increase in exports early in the season and rising prices later as stocks are depleted. There is thus a case for removal of trade restrictions since they give rise to price spikes while keeping the long‐term price of glutinous rice low, and thereby hinder increases in income from agriculture. However, since high rice prices are likely to affect the poor negatively in the short to medium term, a combination of an export tax and cash transfers is recommended during the transition period. Although this is a case study of Lao PDR, the findings may equally apply to other developing countries that export their staple food.     

The role of politics in the migration of Zimbabwean teachers to South Africa

This paper contributes to the debate on the role played by the political crisis in Zimbabwe in causing teacher migration to South Africa in the presence of other social and economic drivers. The paper uses data collected through a questionnaire self-administered by 100 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa (migrants) and another 100 in Zimbabwe (non-migrants). In-depth interviews with a few migrant teachers were used to supplement these data. Although it was the second most mentioned reason for the teachers' migration to South Africa, the role played by political violence or repression in Zimbabwe in causing this migration should not be downplayed. Most migrant teachers came from Zimbabwean schools affected by political violence to a large extent before or after the 2008 presidential elections, especially rural areas. Teachers that held positions or distributed opposition party regalia were mostly displaced by violence. There is an urgent need for political transformation to more democratic rule in Zimbabwe.     

The impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and choice

This study examined the impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and purchase behavior. Subjects participated in a computerized simulated shopping experiment, and chose between three competing videotape rental stores, receiving feedback about purchase utility on each occasion. Manipulations included the presence or absence of an initial membership-fee requirement at the dominant store and the timing of a lowering of that store's utility to the same level as that offered by a competing establishment. Store loyalty is shown to vary as a function of membership fees and utility changes in a manner consistent with hypotheses generated from prospect, escalation-of-commitment, cognitive-dissonance, and self-perception theories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.