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The purpose of this paper is to determine which financial record‐keeping system farmers use, as well as what system attributes farmers value and to what degree.

This research uses a choice experiment to examine farmer's demand for attributes of financial record‐keeping systems. A sample from the general Michigan farm population is compared to samples from university and agribusiness record system clients.

Results reveal that university and agribusiness clients are willing to pay considerably more for a farm‐specific record system to backstop their farm management decisions.

The results provide an understanding of farmer demands for farm financial record systems and can be used to position record‐keeping systems to meet those demands.

This paper describes and analyzes farm financial accounting system use and preferences by type.

European Union (EU) central and eastern economies have gone through a process of structural change since 1989, when the post-communist transition started. This process was afterwards reinforced by the three EU enlargement waves that took place in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Though exhibiting low levels of aggregate productivity, this group of countries joined the EU with higher levels of human capital than the southern member states, an advantage that should have accelerated real convergence towards the EU15. However, evidence to date suggests that the convergence process came to a halt in 2007–2008 when massive capital inflows stopped, highlighting the fragilities of the growth strategies implemented so far. In these peripheral countries, structural change has been characterised by an expanding services sector alongside growing income inequality. The two strands of literature on these issues highlight that: (a) an expanding services sector may not be detrimental for growth, quite the opposite, depending on services composition and on the capacity of services sub-sectors to incorporate information and communication technologies (ICTs); and (b) inequality is negatively related to growth through the fiscal policy, socio-political instability, borrowing constraints to investment in education and endogenous fertility channels and positively through the savings channel and incentives. We analyse the nexus between structural change, inequality and growth in this group of countries highlighting income inequality as a potential mechanism that connects the other two variables. We provide a descriptive quantitative analysis of the profiles of structural change and income inequality in our sample and apply dynamic panel methods to investigate the existence of causality among services sector expansion, inequality and aggregate productivity considering a maximum period between 1980 and 2010.

Although a need for innovative approaches to the strategic management of human resources (HR) has been identified, many firms continue to rely solely on their HR information systems instead of adapting to the digital consumer with innovative tools and digital HR management (d-HRM). This research aims to evaluate critically the degree of digital innovation of HR practices in the Irish hotel industry.

For this qualitative study, a total of 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key personnel at both corporate and property level HR in the two largest Irish hotel groups.

Findings show an overall lack of technological innovation and most of the principal HR activities are digitalised to a very limited extent. In addition, the perception of the degree of digitalisation varies significantly between the managers in both organisations.

In order to attract digital natives and to increase their competitiveness within the sector, Irish hotel corporations will need to invest significantly in innovation within their HR departments to capitalise on the strategic and operational advantages of d-HRM. Thus, a more strategic approach towards HR innovation is needed.

This chapter operationalises the concept of HR innovation in the context of the hotel industry; it analyses the key HR activities in hotel operations with regard to the extent to which they are digitalised; and it develops a model of HR digitalisation that can be applied to the hotel and other industries. This research, therefore, contributes to the existing body of knowledge on HR innovation with a specific focus on the hotel industry.

As recycling is associated with various environmental benefits, it is important that it is encouraged in Malaysia. Taking the disappointingly low recycling rate in Malaysia as its backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to examine recycling intentions and behaviors among micro-entrepreneurs in Kelantan, Malaysia, drawing on the theory of planned behavior.

The study adopted a cross-sectional design and stratified random sampling method to select 200 informal micro-entrepreneurs from Kota Bharu, Kelantan; then, quantitative data were collected through structured interviews. For data analysis, this study adopted variance-based structural equation modeling, i.e. PLS–SEM.

The findings indicated that environmental awareness had a significant positive effect on micro-entrepreneurs’ attitudes toward the environment. They also confirmed a positive and significant effect of attitude and perceived behavioral control on intention toward recycling and the effect of intention toward recycling on recycling behavior among the study sample.

Policies and programs focused on environmental awareness could nurture a positive attitude toward the environment, which, together with the capacities and resources available, could significantly influence the adoption of recycling behavior among informal entrepreneurs.

It is recommended that both public and private environmental protection and socio-economic development organizations combine their efforts to formulate and enforce policies and programs to promote recycling behavior among Malaysian entrepreneurs, which could spread the recycling spirit among all Malaysians.

This chapter examines patterns of neighbouring in the small Essex town of ‘Eastside’, located in London’s eastern suburban periphery. Drawing on qualitative interviews, two groups of resident interviewees are discussed: established, long-term, white British residents who have lived in Eastside for many years, and ethnically diverse newcomers who have recently moved to the area. This chapter focuses on patterns of neighbouring – both positive in the form of ‘neighbourliness’ and negative in terms of ‘unneighbourliness’ – and considers whether neighbouring provided the basis for residents to develop a sense of community. Basic neighbouring activities, such as saying ‘hello’ and the mutual provision of support, were commonplace, although proactive intervention and socialising with neighbours were more limited. Only a minority of both long-term and incoming interviewees identified a sense of community based upon neighbouring. The dominant aspect of the former’s sense of community was a ‘narrative of decline’ in which they lamented the loss of the more intense neighbourliness that they recalled from the past. Unneighbourliness was also evident, for example, in relation to noise, and various reasons for this are analysed including deficiencies within the physical environment, tenure prejudice, and established/newcomer resident tensions.

This paper aims to present the prototype of a 140 kVA shunt active power filter (APF) for current harmonics and fundamental reactive power compensation of a 200 kW induction heating system.

Design issues of the power components, of the switching ripple filter and of the digital control are addressed and discussed. The APF control algorithm has been implemented on the 16‐bit, fixed‐point, TMS320LF2407 A DSP controller. The current control is based on proportional‐sinusoidal signal integrators with good performance in current harmonic elimination and power factor compensation.

The experimental tests, performed in real industrial environment for a 200 kW induction heating plant, show that the performance goals are fulfilled.

The sinusoidal signal integrators (for consistency with the other plural forms of acronyms) of the current controller are implemented in the rotating reference frame aligned with the voltage vector at the point of common connection. This allows the compensation of two harmonics with a single SSI, thus halving the computational effort of the DSP.

In industrial induction heating, the need for harmonic and reactive power compensation lasts a few seconds per minute, making passive solutions not suitable. The presented APF is a valid solution for this application, where only a few tailored implementations are available on the market.

The widespread dietary adoption of cultured meat could provide important benefits to animal welfare, the environment, food safety and security. This study examines consumer segmentation and consumer motives for choice of cultured meat in China.

The data were collected by means of a web-based questionnaire (n = 608) distributed in the two cites of Shanghai and Chengdu. Factor analysis, cluster analysis and path analysis were employed for data analysis.

Three consumer segments were identified with regard to the acceptance of cultured meat in China: Conservatives (25.7%), Acceptors (41.9%) and Pioneers (32.4%). Significant differences were recognised in age, household income, education and household size between the three consumer segments. The following meat choice motives (MCMs) have significant influences on Chinese participants’ attitudes and/or purchase intentions towards cultured meat: usually eat, environmental concern, societal concern, mood, purchase convenience and price.

This is the first study to develop a factorial construct of MCMs based on a previous theoretical model of food choice motives (FCMs) in China. The study contributes understanding of choice motives for cultured meat in a non-Western setting, particularly in China - the country consuming the largest quantity of pork. Further, this is the first study to recognise segments that are directly based on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions towards cultured meat. The findings of this study will help global producers and policymakers to create effective promotion strategies and policies for this innovative product in developing countries, particularly in China.

Although recent research acknowledges the importance of reducing the inefficient activities from road transportation, there is still a missing link in literature of how transportation extended wastes impact road haulers efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between waste reduction practices (WRP) and fleet operational efficiency (FOE) in road hauler firms.

A theoretical model was developed to assess this relationship. The authors test the model with a sample from logistics companies providing road haulage services in the Middle East, providing a contribution to extant literature from a different setting.

Results suggest that WRP have a positive and significant impact on FOE. A valuable scale for the measurement of operational efficiency was developed and validated, representing an index toward the most efficient organization.

The findings of this study serves as a tool for shippers to benchmark the efficiency levels of their motor carrier service providers against each other, considering that segmentation is a relevant issue to understand the choice in favor of a given provider to the detriment of another. Furthermore, road haulers can use the efficiency measurements as a basis for establishing future action plans to adopt waste reduction practices.

The research deals with a newly emerging stream of research on linking waste practices to road transport. The authors contribute to this developing body of research through filling a gap in the link between waste and road transport operational performance. The research is also different from recent literature in that the authors provide insights from a larger population, unlike other similar studies who used VSM and studied only a particular case. Thus, the work is important to generalize the findings, especially that the authors provide a perspective from a non-western perspective.

Although not yet fully defined, natural wine represents a sector that has gained the widespread attention of final consumers and, therefore, also of the restaurant world, because of its promise of sustainability. The objective of this paper is to understand Italian haute cuisine's interest in natural wine, with the aim of analysing what qualifies this product as sustainable.

After introducing a theoretical framework based on the concept of natural wine, a brief paragraph is dedicated to consumer preferences; subsequently, the analysis focusses on a questionnaire given to restaurateurs to determine the impact that natural wine has had in the Italian context. The results try to identify the importance that restaurateurs give to the characteristics of natural wine and their propensity for using such wine in their own businesses.

The analysis, conducted on a sample of medium-high range restaurants, highlights their strong interest in natural wine, as a result of the final consumers' attitude towards wine with characteristics attributable to sustainability. The positive perception by restaurateurs is similar across Italy, both geographically and in terms of the size of the restaurant.

The originality of the work is the focus on the world of restaurants. To date, the literature on natural wine remains embryonic and always refers to the final consumer. This research is the first step in a broader study that will involve a greater number of restaurants, extending beyond Italy to all of Europe, with the aim of understanding the real development potential of natural wine.

The purpose of this paper is to detect what experience and credence quality attributes contribute to the consumer decision to consume cactus pear fruit. The authors therefore try to measure the effect of each quality attribute on consumer choice.

As a theoretical basis, two principal quality attributes emphasised in the literature on consumer behaviour were analysed and adjusted to the specific fruit features. The empirical strategy was carried out by administering a telephone questionnaire survey of 270 interviewees who consume cactus pears in Italy. The questionnaire, consisting of 14 items expressed on a metric scale (five-point Likert scale), was used to rate the importance of cactus pear fruit quality attributes. An ordered logit model was employed for data analysis.

The results show that consumption of cactus pear fruit is mainly based on credence and experience attributes, which have different effects on the consumer decision to consume cactus pear fruit. Among experience quality attributes, the colour red, a low quantity of seeds, and being peeled are the attributes with major effects, following by credence attributes such as environmental sustainability, healthiness, and Italian origin.

The research was based on a particular fruit, and further comparative research is clearly needed. In fact, further advancement in cactus pear research would require that the validity of the empirical findings and their degree of generalisation be examined in other geographical areas.

The results of this study could help to identify some factors on which business could intervene to create a more effective consumer-based approach.

This study contributes to a better definition of cactus pear fruit quality for consumers with the aim of developing marketing strategies to increase farm business. To the best of the knowledge, no study has ever measured the effects of cactus pear fruit quality attributes on consumer choice.