Hedonic Pricing Evaluation on Agritourism Activity in Italy: Local Culture-based or Facility-based?

This paper focused on how and what diversified activities influence the price level of agritourism. A hypothesis that contrasts two directions was examined: facility-based and local culture-based activities. First, from the conceptual consideration, we defined that agritourism based on local cultural resources can internalize positive externalities, which are accompanied by local cultural resources, into income, unlike facility-based activity that has no connection with local cultural resources. Second, the results of estimations from the price determinant ordered logit model clarified that owning a swimming pool was the most common and influential factor in enhancing the price level while regional diversity was observed in terms of local cultural resource-based activities such as restaurants, world heritage sites and DOC wines. These findings indicate that hardware-based evolution is more effective in the short term than evolution based on software aspects. Nevertheless, this hardware-based evolution of agritourism is implicitly based on the assumption of continuously growing demand and sufficient financial capability for the fixed investment. When growth in demand becomes stagnant, facility installation can be a heavy burden on operators. Consequently, for the sustainable development of agritourism it will be necessary to harness locality to create a balance between facility-based services and local culture-based services.agritourism, local cultural heritage, hedonic pricing, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

The Vatican, American Catholics and the Struggle for Palestine, 1917-1958: A Study of Cold War Roman Catholic Transnationalism

The modern relationship between the Vatican and the state of Israel is rooted in a much deeper history of relations between Judaism and Christianity. In the main, this relationship was fraught with tensions and animosity, as early Christian writers chastised and demonized Judaism, ensconcing a hostility that endured for centuries. The advent of political Zionism in the nineteenth century renewed Roman Catholic fears of a Jewish-dominated Palestine, where religious sites sacred to Catholics would fall under the political jurisdiction of a Zionist state. In 1904, Pope Pius X granted an audience to the prominent Zionist Theodor Herzl, in which he reminded his guest that the Roman Catholic Church could never endorse or support the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine. This was to remain the essence of papal policy on Palestine for decades to come. This study examines the relationship between the Vatican and Zionism from the Balfour Declaration (1917) to the creation of Israel in 1948, as well as Vatican attempts to constrain the nascent state in the years after its birth. More specifically, it considers the transnational nature of Roman Catholic responses to Zionism and the creation of Israel. The Vatican was supported in its anti-Zionist stance by an international network of national Catholic hierarchies, lay Catholic organizations and an active Catholic press. Leading this international Roman Catholic lobby against Zionism were the Catholic bishops of the United States. From the 1920s through the 1950s, American Catholic leaders had become crucial intermediaries in the relationship between Washington and the Vatican. Speaking as both loyal American citizens and as devout Roman Catholics, the bishops were uniquely positioned to transmit the Vatican’s policy objectives to the American government. The American bishops were also instrumental in advocating Vatican positions on Zionism at the United Nations, evidence of the importance of the American Catholic Church, and its various organs, in disseminating the positions of the Vatican to the international community. Through an examination of a comprehensive range of primary materials, this study demonstrates that an understanding of the Vatican’s relationship with Zionism and the nascent Israeli state must take into account the transnational Roman Catholic consensus on the future of Palestine, an advocacy led by American Catholics, who represented the leading edge of Vatican attempts to shape the future of Palestine

Territory: A Living Book to be Able to Read Which Inspires and Contaminates Feelings of Wellbeing

The world turns quickly in the current phase of globalization, and the themes of sustainable development are part of this transformation. In this context the territory plays a fundamental role. The importance of the territory is underlined especially in cases of natural disasters that cause serious damage both material and social, thus affecting the wellbeing of entire communities. It is time to change significantly the way to govern the problem. The territory must be preserved, managed and promoted with an holistic approach so that it can deploy to local population the full potential of intelligent and cognitive system based on the new paradigm of the tradi-ovation. This work introduce a new approach which can address new generations to understand the territory for a new era of people wellbeing

Accessing demand characteristics of agritourism in Italy

The purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the demand characteristics of agritourism in Italy, which has not been fully investigated despite the relatively high number of the supply-side studies on the Italian agritourism. Design – First this paper conceptually characterized the features of agritourism as the old and modern types and outlined the trend of supply and demand in agritourism in Italy in comparison with Japan. Second, this paper statistically examined the characteristics in the demand side for agritourism in Italy in comparison with tourism demand in general, such as that for hotels. Methodology and approach – Data were obtained from ‘Annuario Statistico Italiano’ edited and issued by ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica). Data from 1997 were compared with those from 2006. We examined the regional characteristics and trends in the composition of domestic and inbound tourists in relation to agritourism. Findings – (1) Agritourism experienced rapid growth in the number of beds available and of those tourists who stayed overnight during the last decade while the operation rate of agritourism is much lower than that of tourism in general. (2) The market for agritourism domestic demand accounted for more than half of the total agritourism demand. The remaining demand was filled by inbound tourists from European countries. These inbound tourists are driving the growth of agritourism in this country. Even if we consider the particular reasons for low barriers to travel in Europe, these findings clearly indicate that it is essential for the development of agritourism to count not only on domestic but also inbound tourists to raise the operation rate. Originality of the research – The originality comes from the investigation of agritourism in Italy by focusing on the demand factors in comparison with tourism in general

The measurement of liquidity creation: a strategic approach to a sustainable farm business

Misja przypisana rachunkowości w początkowym etapie rozprzestrzeniania się tej techniki na świecie, aż do lat 30. była w zasadzie charakteryzowana jako przewidywanie i kontrola sytuacji finansowej. Wielki włoski specjalista, Fabio Besta, w drugiej połowie XIX wieku napisał wielkie dzieło, które zatytułowane jest właśnie „Rachunkowość – La Ragioneria”. Należy wziąć pod uwagę, że firma, podobnie jak ludzkie ciało mające 4 obiegi (żylny, tętniczy, limfatyczny, nerwowy), posiada ich również cztery: szlak dziedzictwa, ekonomiczny, finansowy i gotówkę. Ewoluują one ciągle, jednak asynchronicznie, fakt po fakcie, w ciągu roku, w trakcie ewolucji różnych zdarzeń administracyjnych. Niezdolność do generowania wystarczających dochodów w wielu przypadkach doprowadziła rolników do zróżnicowania bazy rolnej i podjecia wielozawodowości (Fleischer & Pizam, 1997). W tym kontekście dywersyfikacja z i w obrębie działań podstawowych stała się koniecznością a drugorzędne działalności rolnicze i usługowe, związane ze środowiskiem wiejskim, były głównym motorem wzrostu w UE w ostatnich kiludziesięciu latach. W związku z kryzysem, który rozpoczął się w 2007 roku i trwa nadal, analiza finansowa i środków pieniężnych obecnie powinna być traktowana jako funkcja rzeczywistego zarządzania. Celem niniejszej pracy jest analiza płynności przedsiębiorstw rolniczych, porównanie i analizowanie trzech rodzajów firm o tradycyjnej kulturze oraz biznesu wielofunkcyjnego.The mission that was assigned to the accounting for the initial spread of the technique in the world, until the '30s was basically characterized by the prediction and control of the financial position. The great specialist Italian Fabio Besta7, in the second half of the nineteenth century, had given rise to a great work which is titled precisely “The Accounting – La Ragioneria”. It must be taken into account that a company like a human body has 4 circuits (venous, arterial, lymphatic nervous). So the company also possesses four: the heritage trail, economic, financial and cash. These, evolve, continuously but asynchronous, fact by fact, during the year, during the evolution of the various administrative events. The inability to generate sufficient revenue has in many cases, led farmers to diversify from an agricultural base and undertake pluriactivity8. In this context, diversification from, and within, primary activities has become a necessity and agricultural secondary activities and services, related to the rural environment, have been the major driver of growth within the EU during recent decades9. Following the crisis, which started in 2007 and is still in progress, financial analysis and cash is now to be considered a real management function. The aim of this paper is to analyze the creation of liquidity of agricultural enterprises, comparing and analyzing three types of firms with traditional culture and multifunctional business

Performance assessment in business of agricultural companies using balanced scorecard model

The performance management is a strategic and integrated approach for long-time success of the activity of agricultural companies, by improving the performance of the organization, teams and individuals. In search of success, the performance management uses a variety of models, techniques and methods, some taken from other systems and improved and others of its own, focusing on strategy and differentiating features that provide a strong competitive advantage. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model identifies several dimensions of the organization, representing areas where organizations need to achieve results at department, team or individual level. According to the type of the agricultural company, there can be esential financial aspect, customers, internal processes, knowledge and learning, service quality, market share etc. The company under study, S.C. Agrocomplex Lunca Paşcani S.A., is representative in terms of ownership, farm and profile of the agricultural production in Moldavia region. According to the methodology developed, starting from the strategy of S.C. Agrocomplex Lunca Paşcani S.A. we identified the strategic objectives for each situation and the level of reaching the objectives using several indicators. In the second stage of the BSC analysis, the indicators are defined according to the management priorities of S.C. Agrocomplex Lunca Paşcani S.A. in four categories, corresponding to the four dimensions of the classical model: customer perspective, perspective of processes within the company, employee perspective and financial perspective

Sustainable management and promotion of territory: a challenge for the rural areas in the world

The authors present at the first part some considerations about the relevance new approach about the modern governance of territory an its promotion. In the face of the global crisis which involves manufacturing, financial, social and moral aspects, a continual process must be initiated that must go beyond the options of sustainable development, green economy and a third industrial revolution, in order to give tangibility to the two guidelines of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 (Rio +20) for an operational implementation of the Strategy of Sustainable Development and Fight against Poverty in the World. The territory in its widest and most holistic form, together with man with his capacity to analyse, choose and operate together with the “humanity” which distinguishes him from all other living creatures, should be brought back to the center of strategies used by any development model by using a concrete, operational parameter in order to create the basic conditions for an indefeasible “NEW RENAISSANCE”

Satellite imagery evidence for a multiannual water level decline in Hulun Lake, China, with suggestions to future policy making responses

Lakes are ecosystems characterised by a substantial vulnerability to climate change. Their geomorphological features mean that they are particularly exposed to extreme events, which are known to put a significant pressure on fauna, flora and human populations. An example of the impacts of climate change on lakes canbe taken from Hulun Lake, China, whose water levels have changed over time due to the combined impact of climate extremes and anthropogenic activities. There is a limited amount of literature on Hulun Lake and a perceived need to monitor, document and disseminate information on how water level changes influence suchecosystems. This paper attempts to address the current information needs by reporting on a study, which lists the pressures and stressors Hulan Lake is exposed to and considers the role of policy-making in addressing them. The methods used  in this paper and the results obtained may serve the purpose of encouraging similarstudies elsewhere

Marketing analysis of a new wine-based beverage

Mestrado em Engenharia de Viticultura e Enologia (Double Degree) / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do PortoSince 2019 an impressive "boom" of a new type of alcoholic drink called Hard Seltzer has been observed in the United States. It owes its success to its particular characteristics that perfectly match with some of the new trends that are spreading especially among younger consumers. In particular, health and wellness trends are increasingly influencing consumers' daily choices, including in alcoholic beverages consumption. That, combined with the growing appreciation of packaging that offers sustainability and convenience to be transported and consumed "on-the-go", has created the basis for the rise of Hard Seltzers. In fact, they are characterized by a low level of alcohol and a reduced-calorie content, easy-drinkable, and contained in a recyclable can format. Therefore, they became the ideal drink among millennials, suitable for many occasions. In this context, taking advantage of the rising popularity of sparkling and fruit-infused sparkling wines in the US, the wine company Sogrape is developing a new drink with similar characteristics to a Hard Seltzer but based on wine. This "Wine Seltzer" aims to enter that new category of drinks that presents largely positive prospects, debuting in the US market, in order to expand and diversify its production, meeting a new market share by employing wine in a new consumption concept. The study will start with an analysis of the wine trading, sparkling wine and hard Seltzer context and competition, in order to prepare launch guidelines containing the necessary characteristics to make the product realistic and competitive. These will be then used to create proposals containing the product's name, packaging and storytelling. At the same time, a first analysis of the potential suitable markets, subsequently to the US, will provide a longer-term vision of the project's potential. This thesis aims to support the company in achieving the above-mentioned information, which will then be submitted to a company board that will decide whether the project worth resource employment or notN/