Agritourism in the Arkansas delta byways: assessing the economic impacts

Large parts of rural USA are seeing gradual decline in economic fortunes. The small and medium scale farms are especially dwindling in numbers and their incomes are stagnating. Towards revitalizing the rural agrarian economies, agritourism is being seen as a catalyst to supplement income and trigger economic growth in some parts of the USA. This study focuses on a 15‐county region in the Arkansas Delta Byways (ADB) predominantly dependent on agriculture. The study uses agritourism visitor and expenditure data to estimate the baseline economic impacts in 2007 and predict potential impacts in 2012 on the region's economy. The study is conducted in two stages; the first stage involves statistical predictions of future agritourism visitors using time series extrapolation models. In the second stage, an input–output (I–O) framework is used to estimate the economic impacts relating to sales, employment, income and tax revenue to federal, state and local governments. Three alternate scenarios, where the agritourism visitors as a percentage of total visitors increases from the baseline level to hypothetical higher levels as a result of the state's agritourism promotion and initiatives are examined, and the net economic gain from additional visitors are estimated. Findings suggest that farms will benefit from increases in income but do not see any significant increase in jobs mainly due to the family nature of the enterprises. Economic benefits from on‐farm hunting far outstrip other agritourism activities and their impacts reverberate across many other sectors of the local economy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A componovation perspective of innovation in emerging markets: Evidence from Indian organizations

In todays market landscape firms can effectively compete without the benefit of resource advantages, proprietary technology, or market power but by being more aligned towards creative combination and responsive innovation. This study approaches the concept of componovation from the composition based view (CBV) developed by Luo and Child. The CBV emphasizes how firms with ordinary resource endowments can achieve outstanding results through the creative use of open resources and unique integrating capabilities that result in an enhanced speed and a value‐price ratio that are well suited to large numbers of mass market consumers. Thus componovation is a new approach aimed at innovation in emerging markets.     

Examining Sustainability of Federal Finances in India: An Application of Non-Stationary Panel Methods

This paper examines the fiscal sustainability of Indian States during the 1990s on the basis of their budgetary data. Sustainability has been discussed using the inter-temporal budget constraint framework and has been tested by applying the panel co-integration technique. The panel analysis reveals that revenue receipts and revenue expenditures are co-integrated across the States. Further, the insensitivity of the results to the choice of the period of analysis attests robustness to the result that the State finances in India may not be unsustainable.

     

Seamless sustainable transport connectivity in Asia and the Pacific: prospects and challenges

In view of the ongoing financial and economic crisis originated during 2008?C09 and the possibility of a double dip recession in advanced economies, export-dependent economies of Asia and the Pacific need to rebalance its growth toward domestic and regional demand for sustainable growth of Asia and the world. Despite remarkable growth during the last decade, the region still faces extensive basic infrastructure needs such as transport, energy, telecommunications and water. Asia, therefore, needs to enhance its connectivity through developing transport infrastructure at the national and regional level to rebalance its growth through enhancing intraregional trade, to enhance economic integration and to meet basic infrastructure needs. Transport plays a significant role in enhancing connectivity within and across Asian economies. However, building massive transport infrastructure will have profound implications on environment and climate change at the national, regional and global levels. In this evolving scenario, Asia needs to build efficient, safe, affordable, timely, world-class, socially and environmentally sustainable and seamless transport connections within the region, and with the rest of the world, in order to be competitive and prosperous. This paper analyzes the major challenges in developing sustainable transport connectivity, by fostering regional cooperation toward a seamless Asia. The paper examines the needs and benefits of transport connectivity and financing requirement for 2010?C2020. It examines the impact of transport connectivity on environment and the prospects and challenges for developing seamless sustainable transport connectivity. Finally, the paper provides policy recommendations on what the region can do to meet these challenges.