Airport stops and flights on small airplanes as inhibitors of tourism-related air travel: A case study

This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.     

基于现金流量的企业财务预警系统构建

构建科学完善的财务预警系统,完善以偿债能力为核心的长期财务预警指标体系,从定性、定量、定性与定量相结合构建企业长期财务预警方法,将财务分析方法沃尔比重评分法应用到财务预警领域,使其成为一种定性与定量相结合的财务预警方法。     

Is external research assessment associated with convergence or divergence of research quality across universities and disciplines? Evidence from the PBRF process in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Performance-based research evaluations have been adopted in several countries both to measure research quality in higher education institutions and as a basis for the allocation of funding across institutions. Much attention has been given to evaluating whether such schemes have increased the quality and quantity of research. This paper examines whether the introduction of the New Zealand Performance-Based Research Fund process produced convergence or divergence in measured research quality across universities and disciplines between the 2003 and 2012 assessments. Two convergence measures are obtained. One, referred to as β-convergence, relates to the relationship between changes in average quality and the initial quality level. The second concept, referred to as σ-convergence, relates to the changes in the dispersion in average research quality over time. Average quality scores by discipline and university were obtained from individual researcher data, revealing substantial β- and σ-convergence in research quality over the period. The hypothesis of uniform rates of convergence across almost all universities and disciplines is supported. The results provide insights into the incentives created by performance-based funding schemes.     

Gliricidia sepium Carbon Inputs and Soil Carbon Pools in a Costa Rican Alley Cropping System

Alternative land management practices, including agroforestry, help to maintain levels of soil organic matter (SOM) and can facilitate soil carbon (C) sequestration for mitigating atmospheric CO₂ emissions. This study quantified C inputs and determined the changes of the soil C pool in a 19-year-old Gliricidia sepium alley cropping system, studied at two fertiliser levels (tree prunings only [? N], and tree prunings plus chicken manure [+ N]), and was compared to a sole crop system. Carbon input from tree prunings ranged from 455 to 457 g C m^{? 2} y^{? 1}, whereas C inputs from crop residues were similar between alley- and sole crops ranging from 121 to 159 g C m^{? 2}y^{? 1}. The soil organic C (SOC) pool in the alley crop was 16–23% higher than the sole crop. In the 19th year of alley farming, SOC was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the alley crop (3.2%) compared to the sole crop (2.4%), and was also greater compared to that at the time of establishment of the agroforestry system (2.8%). Gross SOC turnover to a 20-cm depth ranged from 12 to 14 years in the + N and ?N alley crops compared to 49 and 50 years in the + N and ?N treatments for the sole crops. Residue stabilisation efficiency in the alley crops was 39% and 55% in + N and ?N treatments respectively.     

辽宁东部水源涵养林计量指标体系及其效益评估

对辽东山区水源涵养林产生的各种效益进行计量评价研究,制定了水源涵养林计量效益评价指标体系,包括3级结构、16项指标、49项因子;依各功能因子的重要性并经测算,对各项指标赋予权重和排序,森林的蓄水、减少径流、改善水质功能的权重值较高;采用条件价值法,估算辽东山区水源涵养林的各种功能价值,森林的林副产品和木材收益的功能价值较高。辽东山区水源涵养林按整体处在一般经营状态下计算,年均创造功能价值约为30.2亿元。     

Incentives and disincentives for diversified agroforestry systems from different actors’ perspectives in Bolivia

Even though diversified agroforestry systems can provide sustainable livelihoods and a resilient production of different goods, adoption remains limited in Bolivia. We examine major obstacles to agroforestry adoption and possible incentives proposed by farmers and civil-society organizations, and relate them to governance and international mechanisms that might play a role in agroforestry adoption. Market access for produce from diversified agroforestry remains difficult, as does its processing and transport. Moreover, farmers have difficulties in achieving the quantities and homogenous quality demanded by markets in the major cities. But most importantly, farmers and civil-society organizations saw little government support, although ‘ecological production in harmony with Mother Earth’ is prescribed by law and the constitution. Agroforestry farmers needed support most urgently in the initial phase, when investment costs are high and returns low. They suggested affordable credits, subsidies for diversified farming systems, and insurance against fire. We identified important albeit small steps towards developing markets for agroforestry products, but government support – mostly in the form of diesel subsidies, materials, and infrastructure – mainly benefitted large-scale monocultures and cattle ranching. In response to this, interviewees opted for strengthening farmers’ organizations, for demanding support with the help of civil-society organizations, and for disseminating best practices.     

Will future land based food and fibre production be in family or corporate hands? An analysis of farm land ownership and governance considering farmer characteristics as choice drivers. The New Zealand case

Family farming in various guises has been the dominant ownership and governance system in primary production over recorded history. This outcome has been controlled by farmers and their families, possibly due to tradition, opportunities, personal characteristics, skill sets and the nature of primary production. Of these, it is hypothesised that the farmers’ personal characteristics play a major part in the choice, and continuance, of current ownership and governance systems. Equally as important, they, and therefore the land ownership system, play a part in the efficiency of production systems and improvement of the biological and production environment.The benefits and difficulties of commonly used ownership systems in Western society are reviewed. Using a sample of New Zealand (NZ) farms, a comparison of the managers’ features for owner/operator, partnership and corporate based systems is presented. There were significant differences in many variables including the farmers’ age, education, number of children, asset levels, years on the current farm, and similar, but more importantly, the farmers in the ownership system groups had differing personal characteristics. Significantly, despite the corporate based farms employing more professional assistance, the profit levels were similar across ownership systems leaving the farmers’ characteristics the main factors correlating with system choice. However, governance systems per se are only marginally correlated with production systems and efficiency.As successive generations of farmers are unlikely to have different characteristics, and corporate based systems continue to exhibit similar profit levels, relatively simple family based systems will continue to dominate farm land ownership and control. The trends suggest family farms will increase in size and involve family conglomerates facilitating the management of larger, and in many cases multiple, farms. While currently there are few differences in biological efficiency between ownership systems, given the efficiency benefits of size and scale, this could well change with the increase of family conglomerates. Relative to increasing corporatisation, the continuance of family based ownership and governance will also be of benefit to the environment. When developing land policies, these highlighted relationships should be taken into account. This study is a first to consider personal characteristics relative to ownership.     

Designing and evaluating sustainable development pathways for semi‐subsistence crop–livestock systems: lessons from Kenya

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in African agriculture requires a better understanding why high levels of poverty and resource degradation persist in African agriculture despite decades of policy interventions and development projects. In this article, we hypothesize that policies need to account for the key features of the semi‐subsistence crop–livestock systems (CLS) in the region to become effective. The semi‐subsistence CLS are characterized by a high degree of biophysical and economic heterogeneity and a complex, diversified production system involving a combination of subsistence and cash crops with livestock. We investigated the potential for interventions proposed by the Government of Kenya to meet the SDGs by 2030. The analysis uses an integrated modeling approach designed to deal with the key features of these systems. A strategy that stimulates rural development, increases farm size to a sustainable level, and reduces distortions and inefficiencies in input and output markets could lead to a sustainable development pathway and achieve the SDGs for rural households dependent on CLS.     

The Coal Crisis in Appalachia: Agrarian Transformation,Commodity Frontiers and the Geographies of Capital

Capital's commodity frontiers strategy has at once woven together regional differences within an expanding world‐system and remade the productive and reproductive activities of humans and the rest of nature. The development of successive commodity frontiers gave way to long waves of economic expansion that have been pivotal to accelerating accumulation and transcending capital's recurrent crises. In short, commodity frontiers are constitutive of world‐ecological moments premised on booms and crises of accumulation. In this paper, I examine the coal commodity frontier in Appalachia, to illustrate the region's history as one of succeeding frontiers in and out of the region over the long twentieth century of American capitalism. I argue that the origin of Appalachia's coal frontier was decisively made through the nineteenth‐century agricultural revolution expressed outside of the region. Appalachia's full‐fledged development was an outcome of capital's under‐reproduction strategies. The crisis of the region's frontier turned on a lack of surplus from under‐reproduction strategies, competing coal basins, economic diversification and competing energy sources. I find that the commodity frontier concept not only illuminates regional political economies and ecologies of difference, but also explains the production of nature of historical capitalism.     

Localization and Customer Retention for Franchise Service Systems

This is one of the first studies to explore customer retention in reference to the franchisee–customer relationship. A subsequent objective was to examine localization and standardization from a franchise unit and system-level perspective. Data was collected using a self-administered survey based on customers of pet grooming services in Australia. Findings suggest that the addition of a customer retention perspective reveals a greater depth to the franchisee–customer relationship. Importantly, this implies that there are additional factors likely to influence franchisee–customer retention within franchise outlets. We suggest that individual franchise units, in cooperation with local customers, should co-create local marketing initiatives.