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1 – 3 of 3Hui Tao, Hang Xiong, Liangzhi You and Fan Li
Smart farming technologies (SFTs) can increase yields and reduce the environmental impacts of farming by improving the efficient use of inputs. This paper is to estimate farmers'…
Abstract
Purpose
Smart farming technologies (SFTs) can increase yields and reduce the environmental impacts of farming by improving the efficient use of inputs. This paper is to estimate farmers' preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for a well-defined SFT, smart drip irrigation (SDI) technology.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) among 1,300 maize farmers in North China to understand their WTP for various functions of SDI using mixed logit (MIXL) models.
Findings
The results show that farmers have a strong preference for SDI in general and its specific functions of smart sensing and smart control. However, farmers do not have a preference for the function of region-level agronomic planning. Farmers' preferences for different functions of SDI are heterogeneous. Their preference was significantly associated with their education, experience of being village cadres and using computers, household income and holding of land and machines. Further analysis show that farmers' WTP for functions facilitated by hardware is close to the estimated prices, whereas their WTP for functions wholly or partially facilitated by software is substantially lower than the estimated prices.
Practical implications
Findings from the empirical study lead to policy implications for enhancing the design of SFTs by integrating software and hardware and optimizing agricultural extension strategies for SFTs with digital techniques such as videos.
Originality/value
This study provides initial insights into understanding farmers' preferences and WTP for specific functions of SFTs with a DCE.
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Keywords
Michael Yao Ping Peng, Zhidong Liang, Ishrat Fatima, Qian Wang and Muhammad Imran Rasheed
The purpose of this study is to examine job engagement and creativity of employees in the hospitality industry of Pakistan as outcomes of empowering leadership through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine job engagement and creativity of employees in the hospitality industry of Pakistan as outcomes of empowering leadership through the mediating role of creative self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
An electronic survey was conducted to collect data from 373 employees of food-chain restaurants in Pakistan. The data was analyzed by applying structural equation modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS 3.
Findings
Results indicated that empowering leadership has a positive association with job engagement and employee creativity in the hospitality industry. Further, creative self-efficacy has been found as mediating the relationship of empowering leadership with job engagement and employee creativity.
Originality/value
The study has substantial implications for the employees, managers and organizations of the hospitality industry as well as for the scholars of services industry research.
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Keywords
This paper aims to explore the relationship between ethical self-fashioning and citizenship practices in the ongoing revival of “Chinese Traditional Culture” pursued in tandem by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the relationship between ethical self-fashioning and citizenship practices in the ongoing revival of “Chinese Traditional Culture” pursued in tandem by the party-state and by private actors in present-day China.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting an anthropological approach, the author draws from three sets of resources: (1) research literature on China’s political history and key texts of early Chinese thought, (2) contemporary state discourses on citizen formation, and (3) participant observation notes and interviews with organizers and followers of the Wu-Wei School (a pseudonym). The author conducts a textual analysis of primary and secondary literature and a critical discourse analysis of the ethnographic data and examines emerging themes.
Findings
Firstly, the author identifies a crucial dimension in the historical and cultural roots of Chinese citizenship practices: an enduring conception that binds individual ethical self-improvement with socio-political flourishing. Secondly, examining contemporary state discourses on “citizen quality” and “reviving China’s outstanding traditional culture”, the author showcases how party-state authorities call on individuals to self-reform for national rejuvenation. Thirdly, the author investigates how members of the Wu-Wei School construe their individual pursuits of ethical self-improvement as significant for societal progress.
Originality/value
Based on these findings, the author demonstrates the ways in which autochthonous conceptions of Chinese citizenship give a central place to private acts of self-fashioning. The author argues that the entanglement between individual ethics and citizenship practices constitutes a crucial but largely understudied dimension of Chinese citizenship.
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