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1 – 10 of 316The wine industry is very sensitive to climate risk, mainly due to the grape crop. The aim of this paper is to understand whether weather derivatives (WDs), mainly developed for…
Abstract
Purpose
The wine industry is very sensitive to climate risk, mainly due to the grape crop. The aim of this paper is to understand whether weather derivatives (WDs), mainly developed for the energy industry, can also be useful to cover climate risk for the wine industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The work is based on both literature review and the development of a suitable hedging strategy, using WDs, to reduce volatility affecting crop economic results.
Findings
A WD discovered to be useful for this task is similar to a cooling degree day (CDD) contract in the energy industry, and a possible hedging strategy is a strangle consisting of combination of a call and a put on a suitable climate index. In the case history presented, relating to the Bourgogne Côte de Nuits Pinot Noir red grape, the strangle covers the climate risk effectively, because it is able to reduce volatility related to the crop economic value.
Research limitations/implications
Even if single fields are not still enough to evaluate whether a WD's hedging strategy is effective or not, implications affect both supply and demand for hedging instruments. On the demand side, the wine industry could rely on hedging strategies different from insurance policies. In particular, WDs offer to wine makers more flexibility and transparency in selling climate risks to counterparts. On the supply side, the financial industry could overcome limits related to insurance policies which pose many problems of efficiency, as pointed out in the literature, and do not usually cover the temperature risk.
Originality/value
The paper is a comprehensive work about the possibility of developing WDs for the wine industry.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial and leadership challenges faced when managing personnel in the retained duty system (RDS) within English fire and rescue…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial and leadership challenges faced when managing personnel in the retained duty system (RDS) within English fire and rescue services. It examines the key areas of motivation, commitment, culture, relationships and practical management arrangements.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory research, using primary and secondary sources, adopted a deductive approach, incorporating questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and document analysis.
Findings
The research identified issues agreed upon by both employees and managers, and as well as areas of disparity and conflict. It also highlighted matters that appear to be pivotal to the successful management of a RDS, and in particular the importance of how roles are deployed, and managed by senior management, as well as how employees perceive them.
Practical implications
This paper offers recommendations regarding the managerial understanding and appreciation of an RDS as some managers in this research appear to have little or no knowledge of (or indeed a misconception of) key issues in the effective management of the RDS It suggests recommendations for the wider support and engagement of RDS personnel.
Originality/value
This paper offers a contemporary assessment of the challenges faced when managing RDS personnel. While firefighters and whole-time unionised firefighters in particular, have attracted interest from scholars of industrial relations, there has been relatively little academic research from a public management perspective.
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Ken Bierman and Brad Eden
Aims to provide a summary and analysis of the organizational changes of the UNLV Libraries Knowledge Access Management Division since it was previously described in Library Hi Tech…
Abstract
Purpose
Aims to provide a summary and analysis of the organizational changes of the UNLV Libraries Knowledge Access Management Division since it was previously described in Library Hi Tech.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes and analyzes the significant and unanticipated changes in organization structure that occurred as the UNLV Libraries attempts to respond to the web and digital scholarly information world.
Findings
Several alternative organizational structures to respond to web and digital initiatives are described. The process used to select an organization structure that was not anticipated three years earlier is documented.
Originality/value
This article provides useful reading for academic library administrators contemplating organizational change to respond to the web and digital information world.
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W. Todd Nelson and Robert S. Bolia
UAVs have been used by military forces since at least the War of Attrition – fought between Egypt and Israel between 1967 and 1970 – when the Israeli Army modified…
Abstract
UAVs have been used by military forces since at least the War of Attrition – fought between Egypt and Israel between 1967 and 1970 – when the Israeli Army modified radio-controlled model aircraft to fly over the Suez Canal and take aerial photographs behind Egyptian lines (Bolia, 2004). Although the Israelis ill advisedly abandoned the concept before the Yom Kippur War, it was taken up by several nations in the ensuing decades, and today UAVs are regarded as a routine component of surveillance operations, having played a significant role in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
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