1,720,991 research outputs found
Impact of government support on the level of traceability implementation and business performance in the Italian fishery supply chain
No full textGovernments view agri-food traceability as a tool to protect public, animal and plant health and to protect buyers against fraud (Food Standards Agency 2002). At the firm level, however, the level of traceability is determined by expected and actual costs and benefits. Costs can be divided into implementation (or set up) and operation (or maintenance) costs. Benefits can arise from compliance with regulatory requirements, enhanced food safety and recall performance, improved marketing performance and increased supply chain efficiency (Sparling and Sterling, 2004). While food operators tend to have a good understanding of the likely cost of traceability, performance or competitiveness benefits are more difficult to grasp (Verdenius 2006).
While governments around the world support food operators in the implementation of traceability practices and systems, there is a clear need for research to understand how food operators’ perceptions of costs and benefits affect the level of traceability implementation (Meuwissen et.al 2003). In particular, there has been no research to date that documents and analyses how government support affects business performance.
This paper aims to contribute to closing this research gap. It proposes a conceptual decision model that incorporates both expected and actual costs and benefits of traceability in the analysis. Received government support, amongst other firm characteristics, is hypothesized to affect actual costs and benefits via expected costs and benefits and the chosen traceability level/sophistication. The analysis uses a sample of 60 Italian fish processing businesses that were surveyed in spring 2008.
The results show that food operators who received government support adopted a higher level of traceability, and reported a higher level of expected and actual costs and benefits, in comparison to food operators who did not receive any kind of support. However, these operators also reported actual benefits to be smaller than expected, mainly because of overly optimistic expectations about the impact of traceability implementation on prices and market share
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On the linkages between traceability levels and expected and actual traceability costs and benefits in the Italian fishery supply chain
No full textEC Regulation 178/2002 introduced mandatory traceability for all food operators, but they can choose the level of traceability. We propose a model incorporating three indices of traceability – breadth, depth and precision – that affect costs and benefits. We empirically test the model by regression analyses, using data collected on a sample of Italian fish processors. While higher precision corresponds with larger perceived benefits, an increasing traceability breadth raises costs. A measure of the extent of the discrepancy between expected and actual costs and benefits is also established. Implications are discussed in light of future uptake of continuously advancing traceability technologies
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Trust in authorities monitoring the distribution of genetically modified foods: dimensionality, measurement issues, and determinants
No full textBased on a combined internet and mail survey in Germany the independence of indica-tors of trust in public authorities from indicators of attitudes toward genetically modified food is tested. Despite evidence of a link between trust indicators on the one hand and evaluation of benefits and perceived likelihoods of risks, correlation with other factors is found to be moderate on average. But the trust indicators exhibit only a moderate relation with the re-spondents’ preference for either sole public control or a cooperation of public and private bodies in the monitoring of GM food distribution. Instead, age and location in either the New or the Old Lander are found to be significantly related with such preferences
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A critical account of the relationship between institutional trust, risk perception, and technology acceptance with an application to genetically modified foods
No full textThis article critically reflects on the widely held view of a causal chain with trust in public authorities impacting technology acceptance via perceived risk. It first puts forward conceptual reason against this view, as the presence of risk is a precondition for trust playing a role in decision making. Second, results from consumer surveys in Italy and Germany are presented that support the associationist model as counter hypothesis. In that view, trust and risk judgments are driven by and thus simply indicators of higher order attitudes toward a certain technology which determine acceptance instead. The implications of these findings are discussed
On the linkages between traceability levels and expected and actual traceability costs and benefits in the Italian fishery supply chain
No full textEC Regulation no.178/2002 introduced mandatory traceability for all food operators, but they can choose the level of traceability capacity. We propose a conceptual model incorporating three distinct indices of traceability capacity – breadth, depth and precision - that affect associated costs and benefits. We empirically test the model by regression analyses, using data collected on a sample of 60 Italian fish processors/wholesalers. While higher precision corresponds with larger perceived benefits, an increasing traceability breadth raises both the implementation and the operating costs. A measure of the extent of the discrepancy between expected and actual costs and benefits is also established. Implications are discussed in light of future uptake of continuously advancing traceability technologies and services
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Perceived Traceability Costs and Benefits in the Italian Fisheries Supply Chain
Full text linkThe paper proposes a model in which it is hypothesized that firm characteristics influence both costs and benefits of traceability. The proposed model differentiates between aggregate measures and specific categories, as well as between expected costs and benefits on the one hand and perceived actual outcomes on the other, and is tested in a series of regression analyses based on a survey sample of 60 Italian fish processors. The findings indicate that firm characteristics are not strongly associated with any specific cost or benefit measure. However, expected overall benefits are highly significantly impacted by firm size and the number of quality management systems certified, while actual overall benefits only by firm size. Finally, the study also finds considerable discrepancies between expected and actual costs and benefits. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed.</span
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Impact of firm characteristics on expected and actual traceability costs and benefits in the Italian fishery supply chain
Full text linkSince 2005, the implementation of a traceability system is mandatory to all European food chain operators. The balance of costs to build and maintain the traceability system and benefits of traceability depends on the firm’s traceability objectives and its resources, as reflected in characteristics, such as adopted quality management systems (QMS) or firm size. Mora and Menozzi (2005) mention that the cost of traceability is lower when firms already have a QMS in place. Moreover, US producers exporting to multiple destinations, in particular EU and Japan, need to comply with more stringent traceability regulations (De Souza Monteiro and Caswell 2004). This may request the adoption of more sophisticated and costly traceability systems. Food operators tend to have a good understanding of traceability cost, while performance benefits are usually more difficult to grasp (Verdenius 2006). This research aims at improving the understanding of how expected and actual costs and perceived benefits are influenced by firm characteristics (Meuwissen et al. 2003).
This paper proposes a conceptual decision model that incorporates firm characteristics and both expected and actual costs and benefits of traceability. It is hypothesized that firm characteristics influence both expected and actual costs and benefits, while the level of traceability is influenced by expected and actual costs and perceived benefits as well as firms’ characteristics. Costs can be divided into implementation and operation/maintenance costs. Benefits can arise from compliance with regulatory requirements, enhanced recall performance, improved marketing performance and increased supply chain efficiency (Sparling and Sterling 2004).
The analysis uses a sample of 60 Italian fish processing businesses that were surveyed in 2008. Indicators of firm’s characteristics such as number of QMS certifications, operations complexity, firm size and complexity of customer requirements, are entered as independent variables in regression analyses to predict expected and actual costs and perceived benefits which were measured on 9-point semantic scales and constant sum scales.
The findings show that none of the firm characteristics investigated influence costs, while firm size and QMS certifications influence benefits in different ways. Somewhat surprisingly, firm size was found to be negatively correlated with expected and actual benefits; i.e. larger firms reported lower benefits both expected ex-ante and realized ex-post traceability system implementation. Finally, the number of QMS certifications is positively associated with expected benefits; i.e. expected benefits increase with the number of QMS certifications acquired by a firm, but no association with actual perceived benefits of traceability was found
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