Search results

The purpose of this research is to determine institutional commitment to sustainability by examining Natural Resource Extension program inputs, activities, and participation.

A document analysis of Natural Resource Extension planning and reporting documents was conducted to provide contextual and historical data for the study and 58 in‐depth interviews were conducted with Natural Resource Extension personnel in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Oregon State University Extension Service.

This research moves beyond the familiar teaching and research functions of higher education institutions and focuses on Cooperative Extension, which is the outreach arm of universities. The paper discusses challenges and opportunities associated with implementing sustainability through these outreach education programs. In both Alabama and Oregon, the Agriculture, Home Economics, and 4‐H programs dominate human and economic resource investment in Cooperative Extension. Natural Resource Extension programs in Alabama and Oregon represents 6 and 14 percent, respectively, of all program expenditures in Cooperative Extension. Both states have educational programs that address sustainability of natural resources and those programs were interdisciplinary in nature. Little evidence is found extensive participation in Natural Resource Extension programs by environmental groups, minorities, and other non‐traditional clientele. Lastly, Oregon's political context was more conducive to broadening Natural Resource Extension program work in sustainability.

Educational institutions such as Natural Resource Extension programs at universities play a significant role in educating private landowners, the public, and professionals about various aspects of forestry and natural resources. Based on this study of Natural Resource Extension programs in Alabama and Oregon, the following are needed for extension to address natural resource sustainability through its educational programs: sufficient intellectual and financial commitment to sustainability, diverse and inclusive participation in programs, and collaborative interdisciplinary programming. The analysis presented here can aid other educators as they explore sustainability through educational programming.

Since, Natural Resource Extension programs address societal concerns through problem solving, grassroots education, and research and technology dissemination, they are poised to do work in the sustainability arena. No study to date has examined sustainability from the aspect of Natural Resource Extension educators in Oregon and Alabama. An understanding of current investment in sustainability through education is fundamental to building a strong Extension program in this area.

The Agents of Change program is a two-year, project-based learning program to develop Extension Professionals’ capacity to engage in Adaptive and Transformative Leadership. Its primary goal is to develop the capacity of Extension Professionals to engage in leadership to create more diverse, equitable, inclusive and just Extension programs and community change initiatives. This manuscript describes the program and an initial evaluation and results.

Results of an evaluation of the first year of the program indicate that regular training sessions and support are appropriate for leadership development and that Extension Professionals are using the learning, awareness and tools from this program to address challenges with Adaptive and Transformative Leadership elements. Also, Extension professionals demonstrated commitment to personal growth, community engagement and understanding of their multifaceted roles as change agents.

Participants are sharing resources from the program with colleagues, leading meetings differently, questioning the status quo and pushing others to try new ways forward.

Measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) in training and development has consistently earned a place among the critical issues in the human resource development (HRD) field. Leadership educators may soon find that program sponsors and administrators asking for ROI information as well. This paper reports the ROI of the Southern Extension Leadership Development (SELD) program as implemented at The University of Georgia. To calculate the return on investment, the ROI model proposed by Phillips (2002) was used. New extension agents hired between 1995 and 2001 who completed the probationary period with the Cooperative Extension Service formed the population for this analysis. Analysis of the data indicated that the employee turnover rate for the participant group was significantly lower than for the non-participant group. Based on the ROI model calculations, every one-dollar spent in the SELD program returned $3.86 in benefits and $2.86 (286%) in net benefits were returned on Investment.

This research aims to explore the significance of cooperative efforts in promoting financial participation to enhance the socio-economic empowerment of the rural Muslims.

The primary study with a structured questionnaire has been conducted taking a sample of 398 rural Muslim respondents from various rural regions of south India through proportionate stratified sampling techniques. Regression analysis, paired sample t-test and structural equation modelling (SEM) through statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 26 & SPSS analysis of moment structures (AMOS) 23 software have been implemented to test the relationship.

The research outcome demonstrated a remarkable difference in the rural Muslim’s socio-economic conditions before and after availing the loans from cooperatives. Consequently, an extension of cooperative efforts widens the scope of financial participation which again has positively enhanced rural Muslim’s socio-economic empowerment.

This study will help various policymakers, academicians and communities to take necessary action for the upliftment of a particular community. The research further adds on to the existing research on the need and importance of cooperative efforts as an alternative finance for marginalised community in developing and emerging countries.

The result of this study is only confined to south India, posing a limitation for the study. Apart from the geographical restriction, the study solemnly covers the rural Muslim community extracting other sections of the society. Hence, for more generalisable pictures of the current results, further research is recommended from other stakeholders’ perspectives.

This quantitative study was completed in order to gather initial data on the leadership practices currently being employed by county level 4-H educators in a northeast state. A survey instrument including the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), and a demographics questionnaire, was sent to all extension 4-H educators. Findings had educators self reporting the use of transformational leadership skills fairly often while transactional skills only once in a while. Also, educators reported the moderate use of skills including role modeling and engaging others in activities; but low usage scores were reported in areas of visioning, bringing people on board, and rewarding people for successes. Recommendations include staff development opportunities that will specifically address the gaps in leadership skills.

Farmers' risk attitudes and risk perceptions play an essential role in shaping risk management strategies to address risks and uncertainties. Contract farming is considered as one of the feasible approaches to tackle farmers' concerns. However, risk perspectives under various categories have not been included in studies on farmers' preferences for contract farming in the literature, especially in Vietnam. This study aims to determine factors affecting farmers' choices of different contract farming practices.

The explanatory factor analysis (EFA) and multinomial logit model (MNL) were applied to explore the impacts of risk perspectives on farmers' preferences for contract farming. Data have been collected from 211 rice farmers in An Giang Province, “the rice bowl” of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

The study found that farm size, cooperatives, extension, market access and trust have significantly impacted on contract participation while a delay payment was a barrier for farmers' motivation to opt for the contract. Farmers' contract choices were also influenced by their risk attitudes and perceptions under different risk dimensions. The financial, policy and human risk-averse behavior predisposed farmers to single out the full contract while the policy and human risk-loving and production, market and finance risk-averse respondents were in favor of the marketing contract. Moreover, the findings indicated that the more farmers concerned about risk of weather and market, the more choices for the full contract, whereas the risk perceptions of weather and policy encouraged farmers to use the limited contract. By contrast, farmers who perceived the impacts of risk of diseases/pests and human were likely to adopt the marketing contract.

This study just focuses on collecting data from farmers’ perspective. Future studies involving stakeholders such as enterprises and policy makers are strongly recommended so as to design suitable contracts and enforce contract schemes effectively in Vietnam.

The findings also contribute to the literature on different types of contracts and the multidimensional aspect of risk for rice production in Vietnam.

Whereas traditional book and journal publishing remain the gold standard for many post-secondary institutions, nontraditional publishing is just as prolific at the flagship university in Maine. The university has strong land and sea grant missions that drive a broad research agenda, with an emphasis on community outreach and engagement. However, the impact of researchers’ contributions outside of academe is unlikely to be accurately reflected in promotion, tenure or review processes. Thus, the authors designed a series of altmetrics workshops aimed at seeding conversations around novel ways to track the impact of researchers’ diverse scholarly and creative outputs.

This paper presents a case study of the instructional approach taken at the University of Maine library to facilitate discussions of alternative impact assessments that reach beyond traditional publications.

Evaluations revealed an increased awareness of, and interest in, impact tracking tools that capture both traditional scholarship, like journal articles, and nontraditional scholarly and creative outputs, such as videos, podcasts and newsletters. The authors learned that altmetrics provides an entry point into a broader conversation about scholarly impact, and was best received by those whose scholarly output is not always captured by traditional metrics.

Scholars are equipped with novel methods for describing the value of their work and discovering a broader audience for their research. Future initiatives will target the needs identified through initial conversations around altmetrics.

Altmetrics workshops provide spaces to explore the potential for new tools that capture a range of previously unconsidered measures of impact, and to discuss the implications of those measures.

This paper seeks to report the results of an empirical investigation of the relationship between internship participation and student employment marketability. The study aims to identify the value that employers attribute to internships as a qualification for employment and as a factor in determining compensation.

The study presents the results of a survey of 185 employers of 392 interns enrolled in an AACSB‐accredited business college in a Northeastern US university. The survey examined the perceived value of the internship experience, the effect of intern performance on internship value perceptions, and the relationship between internship participation and employer selection and compensation decisions.

The survey results indicate significantly more full‐time opportunities for undergraduates with internship experience, corroborating earlier published empirical research. Additionally, while even average‐performing interns were significantly more likely to receive full‐time job offers than non‐interns, high‐performing interns were more likely to receive higher starting salaries. Finally, the study shows that high intern performance results in enhanced employer‐perceived value of the internship program.

Field internships are endorsed by business schools as an effective way to gain practical experience and enhance employment marketability. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence linking internship participation to success in postgraduation employment. The study confirms the value of an internship in job marketability. In addition, the study provides an estimate of the perceived value of internship experience in employee compensation. Finally, the paper affirms the internship as a component of experiential learning that can enhance the employability development opportunities offered by institutions of higher learning.

This chapter squarely attributes DEI responsibility to powerful corporations that have historically benefitted from a history of discrimination against people of color and recommends a path forward that embraces DEI-PR-CSR intersections by placing DEI within a CSR office rather than in HR.

The intent of this research is determine the extent to which selfreported measures of fiscal condition are consistent with commonly identified measures of fiscal condition using secondary financial data. While the field of government finance has amassed a lengthy list of research on fiscal condition and fiscal stress assessment, there remains a gap in the research on the extent to which practitioners' perceptions of fiscal stress are consistent with such measures. Our results suggest that there is limited evidence of a relationship between self-reported and objective measures of fiscal condition