The commercial impact of live streaming: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Live streaming allows streamers and viewers to watch, create, and share videos in real time on topics from gaming, shopping, and social channels to tourism and entertainment. It is distinct from earlier forms of social media in that it allows for real-time interaction and is extremely synchronous. That makes live streaming an important new area of enquiry. Yet live streaming platforms, streamers, and scholars lack an informed structure from which to build more holistic understanding and strategy. Following the theory–context–characteristics–methodology framework, we undertake a framework-based systematic literature review of 89 articles to source, review, and synthesize disparate findings in the arena of live streaming and live streaming commerce users' motivation and interactions. A dual stimulus–organism–response integrative framework is developed to further explore the characteristics of interaction and motivation factors. A future research agenda highlights areas of research focus that are critical next steps for scholars.     

Dynamics of smallholder participation in horticultural export chains: evidence from Ecuador

We study the dynamics of smallholder participation in export value chains focusing on the example of small‐scale broccoli producers in the highlands of Ecuador. Combining cross‐sectional data from a household survey with 11‐year longitudinal data on export market transactions, we explain the hazards of dropping out of a high‐value export chain. We apply a multispell cox duration model that allows us to consider multiple entries and exits from the supply chain. We also provide evidence on the welfare impacts associated with participation. The results suggest that small‐scale farmers’ exit from the export sector is accelerated by high transaction risks experienced in the past. While we find no particular evidence for the exclusion of small‐scale farmers from the export sector, we do find that poorer households and female‐headed households tend to drop out faster, especially as long as the sector is still prospering. Finally, when considering welfare effects, we do not find evidence that participation translates into tangible benefits for broccoli farmers. We discuss some measures that could help improve the long‐term sustainability of smallholder integration in high‐value chains.     

Interviewing and surveying over the phone: a reflexive account of a research on parenting

This paper is on the role that the phone plays in a mixed-methods empirical research. In the current sociological literature, the phone is a methodological object associated with quantitative fieldwork, while little is said on the phone as a tool for qualitative research. We reflect here on a case study on the use of parental leaves by fathers in Spain, which included the phone as the only communication tool between researchers and subjects. We collect out own experience as interviewers in the qualitative phase of the research project, and interviewed surveyors working in the field. We analyze the discursive data following grounded theory principles and compare the use of both techniques in the data gathering process, including sampling and design. Thus, we consider interviewing and surveying as mediated communication situations. Our findings show that the value of the phone as a tool for research is a matter of adequacy to a given methodology, rather than an issue of validity, reliability, or credibility.     

Multinational Corporations,Property Rights,and Legitimization Strategies: US Investors in the Argentine and Peruvian Oil Industries in the Twentieth Century

Multinational corporations in the extractive sector have historically faced challenges to their property rights, particularly in oil. International business scholars argue that firms can decrease these challenges by approaching domestic legitimating actors or seeking home government support. Through a study of the operations of Standard Oil of New Jersey in Peru and Argentina in the twentieth century, we find that these legitimating strategies can backfire due to two main elements: first, the multinational might approach actors with a different agenda from those defining, delineating, and enforcing property rights. Second, host countries can use home government support to multinationals to delegitimise foreign firms' operations.     

Linking agricultural and consumer Cooperatives — A strategy for cooperative development

To counteract the fragmentation of cooperative development in California, U.S.A., a multi-stage strategy was developed to link capital-intensive agricultural cooperatives with member-intensive consumer cooperatives. The strategy began by identifying issues on which agreements between the two groups could come easily. These included joint sponsorship of a statewide Co-op Month and the initiation of a university Center for Cooperatives. Specific details of the implementation process are discussed.

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Die Zusammenführung von landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaften und genossenschaftlichen Verbrauchergemeinschaften — eine Strategie für die Weiterentwicklung der Genossenschaften

Zusammenfassung Um der Zersplitterung der genossenschaftlichen Bewegung in Kalifornien entgegenzuwirken, wurde ein mehrstufiges Vorgehen entwickelt mit dem Ziel, die kapitalintensiven Agrar-Genossenschaften mit den mitgliederstarken Verbraucher-Kooperativen zusammenzuführen.Am Anfang steht dabei der Versuch, gemeinsam solche Bereiche auszumachen, bei denen eine Interessenparallelität oder überhaupt nur eine Einigungsmöglichkeit zwischen beiden Parteien besteht. Der Beitrag berichtet auch über konkrete Ergebnisse der Strategie wie beispielsweise die gemeinsame Finanzierung von Informationskampagnen, die Einführung eines landesweiten Genossenschafts-Tages in Kalifornien oder die gemeinsame Trägerschaft eines Forschungsinstituts für genossenschaftliche Fragen an der Universität von Kalifornien.

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Robert Sommer is Professor and Director and Lori Lynch is Postgraduate Researcher; both are at the Center for Consumer Research, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.The research was done under contract with the California Department of Consumer Affairs and the University of California Task Force on Cooperatives. The assistance of Robert Neptune, Emily Burstein, and David Kupfer is gratefully acknowledged.     

COMPROMISE-RISK PROGRAMMING FOR AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROBLEMS: AN ILLUSTRATION

This paper presents a novel approach for dealing with risk in agricultural resource allocation decisions by synthesising the conventional Markowitzean, or MOTAD, methods within a compromise programming model to generate ‘best-compromise’ solutions which come closest to an ideal point defined in terms of risk minimisation. This approach can be regarded as the compromise-risk programming model. The purpose here is to show how this ‘hybridisation’ of Markowitz/MOTAD and compromise programming approaches overcomes some of the weaknesses of the traditional approach to handling risk in resource allocation models.     

The structure-climate relationship in Korean organizations

Research using U.S. samples has demonstrated a significant relationship between organizational structure and organizational climate. Given recent developments in Korea, as well as the call to test organization theory and behavior concepts across cultures, this study analyzed the structure-climate relationship in large Korean organizations (N = 1,192 employees in 27 firms). Similar to U.S.-based results, it was found that lower levels of centralization and conflict in the Korean firms were associated with more positive employee perceptions of organizational climate. However, contrary to U.S.-based findings, greater formalization in the Korean firms also led to positive perceptions of climate. Interpretations of these findings are discussed and implications for future management practice offered.     

The potential of international coastal mass tourism destinations to generate creative capital

This paper introduces a new line of research in international coastal mass tourism destinations. Such destinations have started to function in a more complex and potentially beneficial way, acting as transitional areas between the global city and local territory while at the same time developing their own unique characteristics. From this perspective, such destinations can potentially become environments for creativity and innovation, two factors that act as economic driving forces in the so-called “knowledge society”, thereby promoting the sustainable development of the destination from a socioeconomic perspective.

The methodology used herein develops 10 indicators that are calculated and mapped out for two case studies which examine the same geographical context and comparable populations in order to demonstrate the creative capacity of a location whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism. The results show that tourist destinations have greater potential for generating creative capital than non-tourist destinations. Therefore, the consolidation of international mass tourism destinations as creative and innovative spaces which are capable of generating creative capital without losing their competitiveness as tourist destinations merits a reconception of their current role in global–local networks.     

The Agile–Stage‐Gate Hybrid Model: A Promising New Approach and a New Research Opportunity

Agile development methodologies have been widely employed in the software industry, where they have been found to yield positive results. But can these new methods, with their new tools such as sprints, scrums, burndown charts, and backlogs, really be integrated with the traditional and popular Stage‐Gate approach and then applied to physical products? Initial but limited evidence suggests yes: Larger IT firms have already integrated Agile and Stage‐Gate and gained the benefits of both approaches; and most recently, a handful of manufacturing firms have employed this Agile–Stage‐Gate hybrid model for physical new products. And if recent evidence can be trusted, this new approach promises to be the most significant change to our thinking about how new‐product development should be done since the introduction of today's popular gating systems 30 years ago. The benefits of this hybrid model are a faster and more adaptive response to changing customer needs, better integration of voice‐of‐customer, better team communication, improved development productivity, and faster to market. A case example from a toy company, LEGO, is provided as an illustration. But there are negatives as well, and additionally, manufacturers must make modifications to Agile in order to adopt it successfully. Although initial results appear promising, much research is needed to explore this new Agile–Stage‐Gate hybrid model, and many research challenges remain.