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To address the challenges of the agricultural sector, innovation is necessary. This study aims to focus on knowledge circulation as a basis to facilitate innovation in viticulture in the context of climate change.

We have conducted interviews with viticulture stakeholders in Central Spain (Madrid region) on their perceptions and concerns about climate change, knowledge on practices to mitigate its effects on this crop and their relationship with each other for knowledge exchange. A map showing the knowledge nodes and their relationships with other stakeholders has been drawn based on the answers obtained.

Winegrowers have already noticed the effects of climate change, and they are changing some agricultural practices. Drip irrigation was the most frequently mentioned option to minimize these effects. The map of knowledge identifies the main nodes in the information flow. Results also highlight different approaches to climate change and interesting nuances in the maps of knowledge among winegrowers with and without winery.

This paper is focused on the Madrid region, a territory that is still consolidating its wine sector at the economic and marketing levels. We understand that regions with more consolidated or stronger sectors involve maps of knowledge more complex than that obtained in this study.

Showing the nodes of knowledge, as well as the weaknesses and strengths of the information circuit in the wine sector in the Madrid region, is very relevant to developing strategies aimed at supporting innovation in this sector. From a practical point of view, strategies for knowledge generation and circulation are only one part of the innovation process – policies for financial and technical support are key complementary measures.

Identification of key agents in the innovation process in the wine sector is essential to foster innovation processes. Ultimately, this will lead to more efficient adaptation to new challenges in the sector.

The Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) approach has a consolidated theoretical framework that pays great attention to knowledge flows, but specific studies are needed to capture the reality of AKIS by sector and by region.

In the context of US kidney disease care in 2020, this chapter highlights challenges of managing COVID-19–related acute pathology, sustaining safe chronic dialysis treatment for individuals with kidney failure during a pandemic, and identifying ways to effectively address intersections of race/ethnicity, SES, and health.

Medical literature and American Society of Nephrology (ASN) online member forum review, and Emory School of Medicine Renal Grand Rounds participant observation: April 2020–March 2021.

Among persons infected with COVID-19, especially persons of African descent, acute kidney injury (AKI) risk was elevated and associated with need for long-term dialysis. Dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease patients constituted a high-risk group for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization, due to underlying chronic conditions as well as required travel to clinics for multiple weekly dialysis treatments with exposure to possibly infected staff and other patients.

Findings that are discussed are based on a limited time frame. The longer-term impact of COVID-19 for patient outcomes and for the structure of kidney disease care is a fertile area for continued study, especially in relation to broad health equity goals.

Racial justice activism in 2020 highlighted the imperative to address socioeconomic and racially structured inequities in the United States, and health equity goals and strategies that target kidney disease care have been outlined. The acute/chronic continuum of kidney disease care is a fertile area for research that is informed by the COVID-19 experience and population health inequity challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS) of small‐scale farmers in Kirinyaga district, Kenya by identifying the key agricultural actors, establishing the information needs of farmers and how they access, share and exchange agricultural knowledge and information.

The study adopts a triangulation of qualitative, quantitative and participatory methodologies and methods for sampling, data collection and data analysis. The methods combine Relaxed Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), focus group discussions with farmers groups, observation and analysis of secondary data. The sense‐making methodology is used an alternative approach to study information behaviour, while the soft systems methodology is used to link up the different activities by diverse agricultural actors.

Richer and deeper data are collected through mixed methodologies and methods. The study identifies more than 100 active information and knowledge providers in Kirinyaga district, with extension emerging as the most important source of information. However, linkages between the various actors and farmers are weak. In particular, the findings of the study demonstrate that the AKIS of small‐scale farmers is location specific and varies with the enterprise(s) produced.

Triangulation of methods is expensive hence the study is limited to only one district in Kenya. The paper suggests further research into ways of strengthening and formalising linkages between key actors.

The study points to the need to strengthen and formalise linkages between farmers and extensionists, private sector, media, farmers' groups, civil society organisations, researchers, educators and microfinance institutions.

The study findings could inform policy development and reforms in agriculture, extension services and help to improve linkages and the flow of agricultural information and knowledge. Consequently, this would translate to improved farming methods and increased agricultural productivity.

The study contributes empirical data that builds on to the existing body of knowledge on AKIS among small‐scale farmers. The paper presents a useful mix of methods (RAAKS, PRA, focus group discussions and observation) for studying the management of agricultural knowledge and information.

The paper aims to analyze the relevance of networking and social capital in promoting the adoption of sustainable innovation, then reinforcing trajectories of multifunctional agriculture. It puts forwards a systemic perspective by focusing on agricultural knowledge and innovation systems. More precisely, we share the idea of “micro agricultural knowledge and innovation systems”, by addressing ambidexterity as engine for boosting sustainable innovation.

Empirical analysis is focused on sustainable innovation adopted by young farmers in Italy and on the mediation effect of ambidextrous relations in performing innovation adoption. Ambidextrous relations are analyzed within at the micro-AKIS level, through the lens of social capital. Relationships between social capital and innovation adoption are statistically measured.

The analysis shows how ambidexterity develops a mediation effect, with a strong impact on the farm's innovative capacity. Actually, our results confirm that ambidextrous relations reveal good performance and stimulate innovation and, consequently, farms' competitiveness, alongside the path of multifunctional agriculture. As a consequence, the relevance of networking activity in adoption of sustainable innovation may address possible policy action with the aim to strengthen ambidexterity and farm's innovativeness.

The paper tries to fill a gap in literature, by focusing on micro-AKIS which are explored through the lens of social capital.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the prerequisites for performance measurement supporting purchaser-supplier relationships and value co-creation. It also explains the causes for the limited use of collaborative measurement.

Four case companies representing different contextual settings are studied. The primary source of empirical material is an interview study addressed to 24 interviewees. The empirical data are analyzed according to the constructs created as a result of the literature review.

The results reveal that prevailing performance measurement practices represent a more transactional than relationship-oriented approach to purchaser-supplier collaboration. The technical prerequisites for collaborative performance measurement are mostly not fulfilled, inhibiting the use of performance measurement in a collaborative manner. It is proposed that the differentiation between project and process production types has implications on the importance of collaborative performance measurement.

The paper illustrates the desirable characteristics of performance measurement supporting collaboration. It also presents an application of collaborative performance measurement in a single case context. The research reveals the need to develop non-financial performance measures further in order to facilitate the more proactive use of performance measurement supporting true value co-creation between purchaser and supplier companies.

The empirical research on the topic of performance measurement in purchasing and supply management (PSM) is often limited to intra-organizational measurement and highlights transactional approach to collaboration between parties, although PSM research has otherwise acknowledged the importance of value creation and relationships between organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the characteristics of performance measurement in cross-functional and supplier-oriented purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices. It clarifies the purposes and content of performance measurement in three PSM practices.

A multiple case study approach is utilized in this study. Each of the cases is related to a contemporary performance measurement development project during the period 2015–2016. Interviews are conducted to obtain a pre-understanding of the research questions at hand. The case studies continue as an action research including measurement development workshops.

Identification of causalities between measurement objects and the measurement value benefits are contemporary issues of performance measurement development in the PSM context. The findings indicate that the measurement of outputs and outcomes instead of inputs and measurement supporting supplier relationship management is increasingly important in the service context. Measurement purpose affects the characteristics of PSM performance measurement. This study identifies that more informal control and non-standard measures are needed in interactive PSM practices such as cross-functional integration.

The study provides practical examples of performance measurement in service purchasing, classifies the characteristics of performance measurement and highlights the need to extend the scope of measurement in the PSM context. The findings of the case studies reported support practitioners in developing performance measurement that satisfies contemporary managerial needs.

Earlier studies are often not explicit with the purpose of performance measurement. This study contributes to the existing literature by linking performance measurement characteristics to the understanding of PSM practices and providing a wider overview of the varying characteristics of performance measurement supporting strategic purchasing of services.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how middle managers utilize performance measurement information in their work. More specifically, the study gives understanding on the impact of performance measurement, policies and procedures (formal controls), and individual intuition and experiential knowledge (informal controls) on strategy implementation and decision making. The study also identifies hindrances to the use of measurement information.

The study is carried out as a semi-structured interview study in Finnish companies representing five industries and 29 interviewees. Empirical data were analyzed deductively according to the research framework combining informal and formal management controls with two managerial processes.

The work of middle managers is clearly affected by informal controls. Much of the managerial work relies on individual intuition and judgment based on experience instead of performance information or formal instructions. The study also unveiled that top management sees the status of utilizing performance measurement information in a more positive light than do middle managers. This is the case especially in strategy implementation. Deficiency of measurement information was found to be a key factor hindering the use of measurement information but improper analysis of results is also a challenge.

This study examined the work of middle managers widely in different positions and industries which means that the findings are rather explorative. Simplification was required in order to operationalize the complex tasks of strategy implementation and decision making. Further, more contextually focused research is required in order to understand better the contextual causes of the findings and to provide more understanding on the appropriate ways of improving the utilization of performance measurement information.

The practical contribution of this study lies in the detailed description of strategy implementation and decision-making processes based on observations in several large companies representing different industries. The study also suggests areas to which development efforts should be concentrated on in order to improve the use of performance information among middle managers.

This study contributes to the earlier literature by highlighting the usage of performance measurement information as opposed to developing new measures. In addition, the novelty value of the paper relates to the focus in the work of middle managers which has gained less attention in the previous research.

The problem of automatic diagnosis by use of a computer is expressed as an optimization problem in which parameters are chosen to minimize the diagnosis errors in reference to a previously treated set of patients. The results are expressed in terms of statistical measures of mutual associations of symptoms, and of symptoms with diseases. A decision criterion is discussed, and a formula is derived to describe the diagnostic value of each symptom. No assumptions are made regarding mutual exclusiveness of diseases or statistical independence of symptoms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of crop insurance among Hungarian crop farmers and the responses to the introduction of the two-scheme risk management system. Specifically, first, it examines the economic and environmental factors affecting the willingness of farmers to contract crop insurance. Second, it reveals the relationship between having crop insurance and technical efficiency of crop producing farms.

Probit models of panel data are applied to explore the factors of insurance decisions. The relationship between efficiency and insurance is investigated with two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with double bootstrap using panel data for the 2001 to 2014 period.

The results of Probit model estimations show that the education, the size, the indebtedness of crop producing farms and the new two-scheme risk management system are in positive correlation, while the concentration of farming activity are in negative correlation with the crop insurance contracting. The estimations of two-stage DEA model reveal that crop producing farms with an agricultural insurance contract are more efficient than the farmers without using this risk management tool.

Empirical investigation of the influencing factors of agricultural insurance demand in Hungary and the examination of the relationship between insurance and technical efficiency may contribute to the development of Hungarian risk management system.

In a previous paper [COMPEL, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 117–139], an analysis was presented of a discretization procedure for a class of elliptic problems, including the Scharfetter‐Gummel method for the continuity equations of stationary semiconductor device models. Here, the previous results are extended in two directions: firstly, to such problems in an arbitrary number of dimensions and, secondly, to include the computation of suitable moments, as opposed to point‐values, of the carrier density distributions.