1,721,029 research outputs found
Generating cropping schemes from fadn data at the farm and territorial scale
Full text linkThe paper presents an innovative approach to cropping scheme classification based on fadn data with two main goals. First, the identification at the regional level (nuts2) of land use patterns common to similar farms defined ‘group cropping scheme’. Second, the farm-level construction of farm cropping schemes, which expand the observed crop mix and identify suitable variation ranges considering the farm production context. The schemes are based on the observed behaviour of homogeneous farms and capture their common structural characteristics regarding land use.
The schemes can be used at the territorial scale to analyse land- use trends and patterns over time. At the farm level, the method is designed to analyse short-term adaptations and is suitable to be used, together with other data, in mathematical programming models to run policy analysis exercises. At this latter scale, crop substitution within a scheme allows the set of eligible crops to be expanded while remaining linked to the observed behaviour on a spatial basis.
The paper applies the methodology to identify and quantify the cropping schemes using fadn data on Italian farms specialising in annual field crops. An algorithm implemented in gams automates the process. Results confirm the validity of the method and open a field of research for future applications
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
Is innovation needed in the Old World wine market? The perception of Italian stakeholders
No full text
Purpose
The wine market in Italy has been through several changes in the last decade. Actors in the supply chain need to find new strategies or tools in order to remain competitive in what has become a fiercely competitive sector. Innovation is one of the tools which have been successfully used in the New World wine market, hence innovation might also be a useful resource for actors in the Old World wine market, such as in Italy. The purpose of this paper is to explore stakeholders’ perception of such innovation, including how its usefulness in the Italian wine production and distribution chain is perceived.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were carried out in Emilia-Romagna with a wide range of actors in the Italian wine chain and consumer focus groups and the resulting data were analyzed using the content-summarizing approach.
Findings
These stakeholders agreed that innovation is needed for production and processing as well as in quality control, but only on condition that it should maintain the quality and value of traditional wines. Innovative wine products tend to be unacceptable to consumers. Most stakeholders associate innovation with communication as producers and distributors seek innovative ways to convey information regarding the value of wines to final consumers.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are qualitative and based on a small group of Italian wine industry players and consumers who operate mainly in a domestic context.
Practical implications
The paper provides industrialists with information useful in the search to find the right strategies to make them more competitive in the Italian wine market. It is crucial to find and adopt innovative approaches toward communication throughout the chain. Information appealing to tradition and sentiment could be highly effective ways to reach the consumer.
Originality/value
This is the first in-depth study of the perceptions of all stakeholders (from producers to consumers) regarding innovation in the Italian wine chain; of particular importance as the industry is currently in transition toward globalization.
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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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Evaluation of the Potential Interest of Italian Retail Distribution Chains for Kamut-Based Products
No full textKamut® is a registered trademark cereal (an organic crop) whose origins are much older; it has Egyptian origins and at the present time it is grown in different areas of the world (mainly in Montana and Canada), but considering the agronomic requirements of this crop, the tests in Thailand are the most reliable. Evaluation of the interest of retail distribution chains for Kamut-based products belongs to the researches regarding the evaluation of the
quality food products trade. In this case, countries involved are Thailand, one of the most important producers, and Italy, one of the most important market of the EU. Qualitative analysis technique was the most appropriate tool. This survey consisted of in-depth semistructured interviews directed at Italian large scale retails (purchasing and marketing managers). The final information were obtained through a subjective analysis of the content of the interviews’ summaries, a statistical analysis of the content of the interviews and the creation of conceptual positioning maps. The awareness of the product, the communicative factor, the consumers’ reactions, the specific requirements of the distribution chains and production areas are some of the most important elements that can influence the creation and the development of a international trade relationship
The challenge of the international organic certification: a new opportunity for agricultural trading?
No full textThe successful literature about gravitational models stresses that bilateral trade flows among countries is influenced by GDP factors and transaction costs. In other words the mass of bilateral trade would be related to the typical demand-supply factors which explain the quantity of traded goods in perfect competition models and a wide series of variables which express transaction costs
whose role is strongly highlighted by institutional economists. If compared to the previous literature our paper shows a twofold novelty. First it is the first attempt to analyse the bilateral trade of specific agricultural goods for Italy by a cross country and panel analysis and second it provides an original specification for transaction costs. In particular, other than the distance as typical approximation for transaction costs, we clearly distinguish transaction costs which affect the whole economic system and those which specifically affect the agricultural sector. We assume
that the level of organic certification standards harmonisation between Italy and extra-european countries could represent a good “proxy” for the cultural, political and social affinity in the
agricultural sector. Interestingly we find that the absence of specific import harmonisation rules between Italy and other extra-european countries decreases the level of bilateral trade for all the
agricultural produce. A plausible explanation could be that trust and affinity in trading partnership for agricultural products among countries promotes harmonisation of organic standards. In this
context for a specific country the awareness of a high harmonisation level of organic standards towards another region could represent the signal of a more general awareness of the affinity in the trading activities for the whole agricultural produce. The policy agenda about the harmonisation of the agricultural standards should be tackled in the context of a more complex agenda concerning the affinity of political, cultural and social practices among different regions in the agricultural sector
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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