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Rice is the primary staple crop in South Asia and is cultivated mainly on lowland ecosystems usually fed by the monsoon. With increasing climatic volatility, exclusively rain-fed rice paddies have experienced a triple threat in droughts, floods and salinity. This study investigates the linkages of these abiotic stresses on yield and subsequent farmer decisions on varietal choice.

A path analytic model is conceptualized where the relationship between yield (conditional on abiotic stresses) and the varietal choice decision is mediated by adaptation motive (latent construct) and market exposure (observed construct). The path model is validated using 2,523 observations from Bangladesh farmers to obtain parameter estimates for direct effects and mediated effects indicated above.

Findings reveal that drought and flood impacts, in contrast to salinity impacts, are influential to both yield and varietal choice. The adaptation motive, however, is clear only in the case of salinity. Time preference of farmers and previous exposure to climate shocks predict adaptation motive substantively. The study reveals that market exposure is also a significant mediator of varietal choice in addition to the mediating effect of adaptation.

The study adopts a path analytic model which is able to capture direct, indirect and mediated effects between exogenous factors and varietal choice decision. While the models provide conclusive statistical evidence to the above hypotheses, within-area variations of behavior may not be captured adequately by the method.

Analyzing the complexity of varietal decision-making choice using a path analytical model is a novel contribution to the literature. The application itself is unique to the context applied. The findings complement the literature on varietal adoption in the context of climate resilient paddy systems.

Subsequent to the First World War, the French Government regulated the Champagne industry, and locked the status of protected (and excluded) grapes into the new Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system, forever altering the incentives and output of wine producers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As a result, some indigenous varietals have disappeared entirely from the region – and a handful remain only in the vineyards and bottles of a few bold entrepreneurs, constituting less than 1 percent of Champagne production.

The authors assess several traditional explanations (from taste and preferences to agricultural resilience)-and dismiss them as unconvincing. Instead, the authors adopt a public choice framework of regulatory capture to explain the puzzle of thwarted entrepreneurship and consumer choice.

This paper is original.

Since the start of seed and other market reforms in the 1990s, the annual number of improved varietal releases for maize in Kenya has increased substantially. Prior to the reforms, private firms were restricted in introducing new varieties, could not protect their intellectual property and farmers had to rely exclusively on improved seeds developed and marketed by the public sector. Reforms have resulted in not only private firms entering the market and releasing improved varieties, but also an increase in varietal releases by the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the key policy reforms related to maize in Kenya, and their impacts on varietal development and yields.

The authors estimate a yield model that relates national maize yields to a number of input policy variables. The authors employ a two-stage least square regression, as one of the explanatory variables – the number of varietal releases – is likely endogenous with yield. The authors use policy variables such as public R&D, the number of plant breeder’s rights issued, and the years since private varieties have been introduced as instrument variables to estimate their influence new varietal releases directly, and then new varieties, inputs and other policies to measure their impact on yields.

The results show that policy changes such as the introduction of intellectual property rights had an important impact on the number of improved maize varieties released. However, the outcomes of the policy change such as the number of varieties and the share of area under improved varieties has no impact on increasing maize yields. The authors argue that this is because farmers continue to use older improved varieties because of the dominance of a parastatal in the maize, seed market and that newer improved varieties may not have the assumed yield advantage. Future policy and programs should be directed toward increasing the adoption of improved varieties rather than simply releasing them.

This paper provides evidence that while policy change may lead to new varietal development and release, its aggregate productivity impacts may be limited without additional reforms and intervention.

This paper aims to study low adoption of modern technology for pearl millet in Rajasthan, India, from the perspective of social networks. The state has the lowest adoption of modern pearl millet seeds among Indian states. . In particular, this paper tries to identify the limitations of channels with endogenous effects, thereby limiting large-scale adoption of modern varieties that would require social multipliers.

Defining the network/reference groups in terms of social identity and geographical proximity, this paper utilizes the intensity of interaction with different network nodes to identify the presence of endogenous effects. In particular, this paper uses the interaction of intensity of social exchange with the group level adoptions to establish the presence of endogenous effects. With adequate controls, greater intensity of interaction having a bearing on technology choice can only happen when there exists social learning (endogenous effect) and cannot be associated with other forms of social effects (namely, exogenous and correlated effects).

This paper finds evidence for the existence of endogenous social effects in adoption but largely from exclusionary channels. A comprehensively mapped network is used with its intensity to explain the extremely low rate of adoption. Only close-knit networks that, with social fragmentation, limit benefits to few, affect adoption significantly. The non-functionality of less exclusionary information sources and services can be a factor underlying low adoption.

The main limitation of the study is inability to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity because of the cross-sectional nature of data. Further, although an extensive mapping of individual networks has been done, it still cannot be guaranteed to be exhaustive.

With fragmentation, large-scale adoption programs would require networks, sources of information and services that are less exclusionary. Based on the survey data, media and non-religious organizations play a focal role here in the adoption of modern technology. This finding is extremely crucial for policy, as these channels comprise direct policy levers in a fragmented society like India. Indeed, several government programs in India have relied on these channels to run large-scale adoption programs. Their ineffectiveness could be a prime factor for such limited dissemination of technology in Rajasthan.

In different settings, social fragmentation could be an important factor determining technology adoption outcomes. The evolving consensus in the literature based on several studies is that ethnic fragmentation has potentially negative consequences on macro-economic performance (Alesina and Tabellini, 1989 and Collier, 2000). In the literature on technology adoption, the role of fractionalization is somewhat under-studied. With fragmentation, there can be significant micro-level impacts (for instance, low technology adoption of a crop) if channels that are inclusive are not well developed. The finding that channels like extension services, media or organizations are not effective in determining choice of technology does not mean that they should not be tapped. The empirical findings suggest that, in their current form in the state of Rajasthan, the roles played by these are limited. The policy implications would be to develop these systems in a way that there is a greater uptake. Recall that less than 4 per cent of the respondents got information on seeds from media sources, an extremely low number. There is certainly scope for increasing the outreach of these channels that are much more important for spread of agricultural technology in a fragmented society.

This paper is an attempt to come up with an empirical strategy to mitigate the issues related to reflection problem. In the cross-sectional data itself, we use the interaction of group choices with intensity of interaction within the group to introduce a non-linearity that tries to bypass the identification issues as in reflection problem. This method of introducing non-linearity in cross-sectional data is a novel attempt to achieve identification of endogenous effects.

The purpose of this paper is to give some enlightenments on value innovation in the wine industry and, more specifically in the US wine market, in order to suggest new strategic options to Italian wineries.

After having provided a theoretical framework about value innovation and the US Premium Bag in Box (PBIB) wine market, a case study about a leading firm is presented.

The adoption of a new packaging concept may help traditional Italian wineries to develop their sales. Understanding the dynamics and benefits of value innovation, would help wineries in getting over the obstacles for introducing innovation, and developing a truly perception of consumers' preferences and new managerial skills.

This research implies new studies in consumers' perceptions and willingness to pay for Italian wines in the USA. On the firms' side, it is important to understand wineries costs and organization structure in order to evaluate the possibility of new packaging introduction. Understanding the dynamics of value innovation in the wine industry would lead to gain a competitive advantage. Further researches should focus on the linkage between firms' structure and resources and the paths they choose to adopt.

This paper can offer a valid suggestion for those firms whose export is suffering “New World” wineries aggressive strategies. Through PBIB wineries can adopt a “me‐too strategy” or develop a further niche in this market. According to the strategy chosen, wineries have to face many concerns, mainly pertaining to finances, organization, and production.

Value innovation and its exploitation under a strategic viewpoint have not been deeply considered in wine business literature.

Wine marketers realise that to increase the overall size of the wine consuming population they must make wine more approachable and easier to understand. As it now stands, many consumers lack confidence in their ability to select a wine for either their own consumption or to share with others. Therefore, understanding the role played by consumer self‐confidence is especially relevant to marketers of wine, and the need to accurately measure the construct is important to scholarly research. Recently, the development of a scale to measure consumer self‐confidence has appeared in the consumer behaviour literature (Bearden, Hardesty and Rose, 2001). This study first adapts this consumer self‐confidence scale for use in wine‐related research. Next, the impact of six distinct dimensions of consumer self‐confidence on three different wine purchase situations is demonstrated. Results show the scale has the potential to inform both researchers and marketers about consumers' self‐confidence related to wine purchases.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate innovation practice of small family firms. Top management teams’ styles, their strategic orientations, and perceptions of external environment promote or deter innovation.

Ten Tuscan and ten Californian family wineries are investigated via questionnaire and in‐person interviews to develop longitudinal case studies describing barriers or incentives to innovate.

Changes in processes, products, or market orientations are subordinated to how top managers perceive internal and external pressure to implement innovation.

This exploratory research proposes a model depicting the extent to which location impacts the selected variables.

This paper examines the labour demand associated with hybrid chilli adoption, a relatively labour-intensive crop in Indonesia.

Using 228 chilli producing households in West Java Province, Indonesia’s primary chilli production region, the analysis extends previous research on household labour demand by assessing the impacts of hybrid chilli seed adoption on both family and hired labour on a gender-specific basis. Instrumental variables 2SLS approach is employed to address potential endogeneity that may occur related to hybrid seed choices.

The results demonstrate that hybrid chilli seed use is more likely to increase demand for hired labour, particularly female hired labour; However, hybrid seed adoption is insignificantly associated with demand for male and female family labour.

The sample size used in this paper is relatively small; however, the sample is chosen from the biggest chilli producing area in Indonesia and can still be considered reasonably representative.

The results indicate that hybrid seed adoption creates rural employment opportunities for rural women in Indonesia, which could potentially help empower them in rural economic activities and household decision making.

This study contributes to the literature assessing modern agricultural technologies by evaluating rural employment impacts on a source- and gender-specific basis, which is much less understood. It, therefore, complements the existing knowledge regarding welfare impacts in other aspects such as poverty reduction, food security and nutrition enhancement and suggests another dimension where desirable impacts may occur through associated women’s empowerment.

New York is the third top wine producing state in America. Competitive wine production across the United States has challenged New York winemakers to secure a place in the domestic market in order to support the long-term viability of the local economy. As businesses of agriculture become increasingly disrupted by the changing natural environment and consumer demand for sustainable products grows, vintners may distinguish themselves through the production and promotion of strategic initiatives on wine bottle labels.

Fueled by the distinct fields of green marketing and environmental communication, this research investigates the promotion of sustainable practices on wine bottle labels. Through the methodology of content analysis, this project examines all 13 wineries on the Shawangunk Wine Trail located in the Hudson River Region of New York.

The findings from this study show that less than half of wineries in the sample selection employ environmental marketing as a communication strategy.

This research carries practical, business and social implications for the local Hudson River Region, the larger New York wine industry, and any organization looking to remain viable in a competitive marketplace.

This paper reveals the potential for the Hudson River Region wine industry to promote its “distinctive” and “innovative” environmental philosophy of “terroir driven and sustainably produced” winemaking on wine bottle labels to differentiate themselves in a crowded and expanding marketplace and build a Basis of Legitimacy with consumers.

In Nepal, not much is known about the adoption of improved vegetable varieties. Also, there are reasons to expect that the determinants of adoption may vary between subsistence and commercial farmers, given their different production/market orientations. Therefore, the paper aims to examine the adoption intentions of commercial and subsistence vegetable farmers.

A logistic regression model was used to empirically test the determinants of the intention to adopt and recommend improved vegetable varieties. The paper also uses propensity score matching (PSM) to assess the causal effects of production/market orientation on household dietary patterns. Cross-sectional data of 600 Nepalese vegetable farmers are analyzed.

Compared to subsistence farmers, commercial vegetable farmers obtain seeds mainly from formal sources and use hybrid seeds. The most consistent covariates of vegetable adoption intentions were risk preferences and experience growing vegetables. Overall, adoption intentions were higher among commercial farmers, and commercial vegetable households tend to consume more vegetables.

Considering that vegetable farming provides an important supplementary food production system for the household, adopting improved vegetable varieties is pivotal to increasing productivity and improving household level dietary diversity in developing countries. Actions to promote wider adoption of vegetable varieties and encourage healthier dietary patterns could be successful if these efforts also focus on subsistence farmers. The findings in this paper will be useful to policymakers to better prioritize dissemination strategies.

The paper highlights the differences in characteristics and adoption intention towards new vegetable varieties between subsistence and commercial farmers. The impact of commercial production on healthier household dietary patterns is accentuated.