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The purpose of studying the low voltage direct current (DC) microgrid, which uses computerised control system techniques, an orderly coordination control stratagem considering optimisation of a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) was projected in this paper.

The projected control stratagem was divided into three levels: topmost power dispatch level, transitional bus voltage regulation level and bottommost converter control level.

At the topmost power dispatch level, the cost of system stability was introduced, which is related with state of charge and discharging power of HESS.

Furthermore, the cost of system stability and HESS depreciation was compared with commercial price, and HESS switches its operating mode to discharge more at higher price or charge more at lower price to ensure the DC microgrid in economic operation. At the transitional bus voltage regulation level, DC bus gesturing is used as a control signal to achieve an autonomous decentralised operation of DC microgrid. The Matlab/Simulink simulation inveterate that the economical and autonomous decentralised operation can be achieved through the control stratagem.

Storage systems are deemed to be unable to provide revenue commensurate with the resources invested in them, thus discouraging their incorporation within power networks. In prosumer microgrids, storage systems can provide revenue from reduced grid consumption, energy arbitraging or when serving as back-up power. This study aims to examine stacking these revenue streams with the aim of making storage systems financially viable for inclusion in prosumer microgrids.

With the aim of reducing self-consumption and maximising revenue, the prosumer microgrid incorporating hybrid energy storage systems (HESS) and solar PV power is solved using the CPLEX solver of the Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modeling Software (AIMMS). The financial analysis of the results is carried out to provide the payback periods of different system configurations of the prosumer microgrid.

The findings reveal that the payback period of the three HESS when minimising grid expenses during self-consumption alone and when compared with stacked revenue streams shows an improvement from 4.8–11.2 years to 2.4–6.6 years. With stacked HESS revenues, the supercapacitor-lithium ion battery HESS gave the shortest payback period of 2.31 years when solar PV power is at 75% penetration level.

Existing literature has considered revenue streams of storage systems at the electrical power transmission and distribution levels, but not for prosumer microgrids in particular. This study has captured these benefits and verified the profitability of stacking revenue from HESS to prosumer microgrids, using a case study.

The purpose of this paper is to be a teaching case about organic wine in Argentina, in a sustainable perspective, showing the advantages that this country has related to others in terms of organic and biodynamic production of wine. It shows also the potential of this kind of production, and its limitations, using for that the case of Bodega Colomé, owned by Donald Hess, a global wine producer.

This paper uses case study methodology; this is an adequate approach, as Argentina has some specific characteristics (geography, labor and other conditions) that makes it unique. The information about Bodega Colomé was obtained from secondary data such as academic articles, specialized magazine articles, web sites about wine production, and an interview conducted with the General Manager of Bodega Colomé, Caspar Eugster, in July, 2009.

Organic and biodynamic wine production are discussed as an alternative to the traditional production in developing countries, specifically in Argentina, where a series of factors – geographic characteristics (altitude), lands and technology used in a sustainability logic, labor conditions, tradition, history, brand and nature characteristics – allow a competitive advantage to develop. Donald Hess, president of Bodega Colomé, bets in the direction of investment maintenance in organic wines, given the favorable conditions cited, adding brand value, but this kind of production is impossible for less expensive wines as producing wines organically is labor intensive.

The main limitation of this case is its uniqueness and its findings cannot be applied to the universe of companies in Argentina, the country studied; but it encourages future research and more investigation about the subject. The main implication of this case is the possibility of generating some discussion about the theme: do the wine producers of developing countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Brazil produce organic wine (added into the company's sustainability actions) for export, or should they dedicate themselves to the production of traditional wines for internal market?

This case study is relevant for groups of students or professionals interested in discussing the strategies of wine production and marketing. The case may also be used by policy formulators of the winegrowing industry.

The organic and biodynamic production of wine is a recent subject and there are few studies about this theme. Mainly, the role of Latin American players is not very clear and this paper contributes to the discussion about the opportunity of organic and biodynamic wine production as a possible source of competitive advantage to Latin American wine producers in the global market.

A standalone microgrid (MG) is able to use local renewable resources and reduce the loss in long distance transmission. But the single-phase device in a standalone MG can cause the voltage unbalance condition and additional power loss that reduces the cycle life of battery. This paper proposes an energy management strategy for the battery/supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy storage system (HESS) to improve the transient performance of bus voltage under unbalanced load condition in a standalone AC microgrid (MG).

The SC has high power density and much more cycling times than battery and thus to be controlled to absorb the transient and unbalanced active power as well as the reactive power under unbalanced condition. Under the proposed energy management design, the battery only needs to generate balanced power to balance the steady state power demand. The energy management strategy for battery/SC HESS in a standalone AC MG is validated in simulation study using PSCAD/EMTDC.

The results show that the energy management strategy of HESS maintains the bus voltage and eliminates the unbalance condition under single-phase load. In addition, with the SC to absorb the reactive power and unbalanced active power, the unnecessary power loss in battery is reduced with shown less accumulate depth of discharge and higher average efficiency.

With this technology, the service life of the HESS can be extended and the total cost can be reduced.

This Introduction gives a historical and theoretical overview of this volume on Fields of Knowledge: Science, Politics and Publics in the Neoliberal Age, which showcases original research in political sociology of science targeting the changes in scientific and technological policy and practice associated with the rise of neoliberal thought and policies since the 1970s. We argue that an existing family of field theoretic frameworks and empirical field analyses provides a particularly useful set of ideas and approaches for the meso-level understanding of these historical changes in ways that complement as well as challenge other theory traditions in sociology of science, broadly defined. The collected papers exhibit a dual focus on sciences’ interfield relations, connecting science and science policy to political, economic, educational, and other fields and on the institutional logics of scientific fields that pattern expert discourses, practices, and knowledge and shape relations of the scientific field to the rest of the world. By reconceptualizing the central problem for political sociology of science as a problem of field- and inter-field dynamics, and by critically engaging other theory traditions whose assumptions are in some ways undermined by the contemporary history of neoliberalism, we believe these papers collectively chart an important theoretical agenda for future research in the sociology of science.

The emergence of climate science denialism in the United States provides a challenge to STS theories of the relationship between scientific expertise and public policy because a situation of epistemic rift occurs: the capacity of scientific consensus to establish the grounds of political debate is broken, and the standard circulation of expertise from the scientists and funding from the state is interrupted. Three mechanisms for the containment of scientific expertise are studied: direct intellectual suppression of climate scientists, industry support of contrarian scientists and policymakers, and cutbacks on government research programs that support climate change. This situation politicizes climate scientists, who are drawn into the public sphere as a counterpublic to the effort to contain the circulation of their knowledge in the political field. Although the strategy of contained expertise has been effective in blocking climate legislation at the federal government level in the United States, it may be losing effectiveness, and an emergent alternative strategy based on adaptation may be coming to replace it. Factors that affect the reduction in the capacity to contain the circulation of scientific expertise are also analyzed.

This study aims to investigate three relevant antecedents of digital transformation (digital orientation, digital intensity and digital maturity) and their influences on the financial success of companies.

Building on the strategic management and digital transformation literature, five hypotheses are developed to find the relationships between these antecedents and financial success.

Digital orientation and digital intensity alone do not contribute to the financial success of companies. Specifically, digital intensity serves as a negative moderator between digital orientation and financial success, meaning that it reduces the performance effects of digital orientation. Digital maturity acts as a mediator between digital orientation and the financial success of companies and between digital intensity and the financial success of companies.

This research contributes to the literature on strategic management and digital transformation by providing a further understanding of three relevant antecedents of digital transformation (digital orientation, digital intensity and digital maturity) and how they should be positioned alongside digital transformation settings to achieve financial success.

Effective discussion is inextricably linked to democracy. Social studies curriculum and instruction should engage students in practicing democratic skills and habits of mind. This case study provides a microanalysis of one U.S. History teacher’s commitment to fostering discussion in her classroom as a theorized pedagogical practice. A better understanding of what motivates teachers to engage students in classroom discussions paralleled with rich descriptions of how this teacher plans and implements discussion could encourage others to try this approach to teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Halal entrepreneurs perceive success and accordingly develop a novel scale to measure Halal entrepreneurship success.

A sequential mixed methodology was used to develop the Halal entrepreneurship success scale (HESS). The qualitative phase began with a literature review to gain insights into (Halal) entrepreneurship success and identify gaps. Ten respondents were then interviewed to understand how they perceive success. The scale items were then generated based on insights from the literature and the interview findings. The quantitative phase was carried out in two cycles. In the first cycle, a questionnaire was developed and pilot data were collected from a representative sample of 100 respondents. In the second cycle, the revised scale was tested on 300 respondents to confirm its final items and dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used in the quantitative phase.

The final HESS scale contains 24 items divided into four dimensions: Islamic success (seven items), economic success (six items), social success (five items) and environmental success (six items).

This scale is perhaps the first to measure entrepreneurial success in its association with religion. It is expected to be a useful contribution to entrepreneurship theory and the Halal industry. The paper presents a foundation for future works on how to define the measures of success of Halal entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to examine the sources of consumer‐brand relationship investment, specifically isolating the sources and outcomes of communality and exchange relationship characteristics.

The paper utilizes a survey‐based empirical study and subsequent structural modeling approach to test a series of hypotheses concerning how brand performance perceptions influence the development of consumer relationship connections.

The paper finds that perceptions of product performance and service quality influence the development of brand reliability and brand fidelity respectively. Similarly, brand reliability is the primary source of an exchange orientation, while brand fidelity leads to communal brand connections and, ultimately, consumer‐brand relationship investment.

This research is limited by the scope of the sample, fast food restaurants. Future research should explore consumer relationship investment in other product and service categories in order to determine the extent to which relationship development processes vary by product category.

Brands that wish to develop enduring relationships with their customers must understand the relative impact of both personal and functional (exchange) relationship characteristics on the development of relationship investment. Each has a specific role to play and the roles of each vary at different relationship stages.

This research offers at least three significant contributions to the marketing discipline and marketing practice. First, it introduces constructs and associated scales for brand fidelity, communality, exchange and relationship investment. Second, it demonstrates how brand service and product performance differentially contribute to two dimensions of consumer‐brand relationships. Finally, it describes three discrete relationship development stages that play specific roles in the evolution of consumer‐brand relationship investment.