Conceptualising the relationship types and attributes that enable stakeholders to recruit SME farmer users into IS design

It can be difficult for organisations which develop an information system (IS) for use by many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to recruit SME personnel during IS design. The paper addresses this problem by exploring the nature of relationships that organisational stakeholders can use to recruit SME personnel during IS design, which has received little attention in the literature. We present an interpretive, revelatory case study of the insights from managers and field officers who recruited SME farmers during the design of an inter-organisational IS. We identified three relationship types, based on an existing framework in the literature derived from stakeholder theory: between managers of organisations; between managers and field officers; and between field officers and farmers. We extend this framework by incorporating relationship attributes based on social capital concepts: ties, shared cognition, structure, homophily and bridging capital. We found that the complex interplay of the three relationship types, and the degree of strength of the social capital attributes of these relationships, help explain how farmers were recruited into, or were discouraged from participating in, a lengthy IS design process

Development of a decision-support system for rural eco-environmental management in Yongxin county, Jiangxi province, China

The study developed a decision support system (DSS) computer model for rural sustainable development to support comprehensive planning of socioeconomic development and eco-environmental protection in a rural region (Yongxin County, China). It also provides an optimal investment combination analysis for individual farmers. DSSs can support complex decision making through an accessible computer interface that presents results in an understandable form. Results from the representative scenario suggest that maximization of overall economic benefits for 23 towns in Yongxin would require relatively small increases in agricultural and horticultural areas, and significant increases in scale of livestock, poultry, sericulture, forestry, and fisheries

Climate Change and Water : final prospectus report

This report was prepared by the International Development Research Centre’s Climate Change and Water (CCW) program (2010-2015) as part of the program’s external evaluation. At the time of submission, the program’s portfolio included 121 projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, for a combined value of $75.3 million. Recognizing that climate change adaptation is a new concept, the program focused on three outcome areas: knowledge generation, capacity building and leadership, and informing climate change policy. Close to 1000 researchers have benefitted from the sustained support of the CCW program over the course of the program

L’edilizia rurale tra sviluppo tecnologico e tutela del territorio

The second Section of the AIIA promoted an opportunity to meet, discuss and reflect on the theme "L’edilizia rurale tra sviluppo tecnologico e tutela del territorio" (Rural construction between technological development and protection of the territory) through the collection of the results of the most recent research conducted on the subject by the SSD researchers “ Costruzioni rurali e territorio agroforestale” (Rural constructions and agro-forestry territory). The works included three sessions: in the first part, the results of PRIN 2008 on “Integrazione di sistemi tecnologici innovativi per il monitoraggio a distanza di animali” (Integration of innovative technological systems for remote monitoring of animals) were presented, with interventions by the various Operational Units involved. In the second and third sessions, the scientific results of research on the themes of technological innovation in agricultural buildings and of the Trends in the design of agricultural buildings for a sustainable use of the territory were presented