Can Business Development Services practitioners learn from theories on innovation and services marketing?�

innovation, services, marketing, innovation, business development

Managing Diversity in a Glocalizing World

Our daily lives are governed by products and images originating from all over the world, through the process of globalization. At the same time, however, globalization creates favourable conditions for all forms of particularization, localization and even fragmentation. While individuals and groups acquire mul-tiple identities, the resulting plurality gives rise to conflicts, controversies and variations, but also to attempts to live peacefully together, to co-ordinate activities, and to balance interests. The paper thus suggests (1) a plea for compatibility – instead of commonality - with regard to cultural values and (2) a strong emphasis on the interaction model in decision making, i.e. a model which does not advocate uniformity, but the compatibility of views, and in particular, practices. It concerns the coordination and combination of the proper interests of the various actors who have to depend on one another for the satisfaction of their demands or the realization of their objectives.Managing diversity, globalization, localization, glocalization, compatibility, interaction model

Strategies to increase nitrogen use efficiency and reduce nitrate leaching in vegetable production in the Netherlands

Environmental concern and legislation of fertilization requires strategies to increase nitrogen use efficiency and reduce nitrate leaching. Strategies can be fertilizer choice, timing of N availability and fertilizer placement. Rainfall in the experimental year 2007 was moderate and different strategies were therefore not seriously tested. However, for crops that allow regular fertilization, it is questionable whether special fertilizers can do better than calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) when fertilizers are applied according to good practice (i.e., row application, side dressing and split applications). Specific application of small amounts of N near planted endive showed increased initial growth, even at high levels of soil mineral N, and was found to lead in one of two plantings to increased yield at harvest. Substitution of broadcast N before planting by a starter application close to the plants followed by side dressing maintains maximum production while leaching risk is reduced

The fate of nitrogen from crop residues of broccoli, leek and sugar beet

Environmental concern has lead to legislation on fertilization to reduce nutrient losses to the environment. Reducing N input may be inadequate for crops that have a high N content in their residues. Reducing N input will negatively affect yield, but the residues remain. Management of crop residues may then be a more effective strategy to reduce N losses, notably nitrate leaching. Two experiments were carried out in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to study all emission routes of N from crop residues of broccoli, leek and sugar beet, and to determine the contribution of N from the residues to nitrate in groundwater. Crop residues were surface applied or rototilled, and compared with a blank and application of fertilizer N. About 11 to 16% of the N-content was lost to the air. Total N-losses to the air as ammonia and through denitrification were little affected by tillage, but partitioning was. When residues were left on the soil surface, most N was lost as ammonia, when the residues were rototilled, most N was lost through denitrification. Year strongly affected N leaching from crop residues, and the fraction of N from crop residues that was leached was twice as high in 2006-07 than in 2007-08. Tillage increased N leaching from broccoli, but had little effect with leek or sugar beet. Between 20 and 60% of the N content of residues of leek and broccoli was leached. Removal of residues after harvest will therefore contribute to reduce N leaching. However, options for treatment and re-use of the residues need to be studied as well as the effects on nitrate leaching and gaseous losses to assess the effects of the system as a whol

Safety and Effectiveness of Struvite from Black Water and Urine as a Phosphorus Fertilizer

To ensure food supply, phosphorus must be recycled, for which an appealing method is using struvite fertilizer from human excreta. One struvite from black water and another from urine were assessed for safety under Dutch regulations, and for effectiveness as P fertilizer in a maize field experiment and a literature review. Both struvites contained 12% P, 12% Mg, 6% N, and 0.5-1.5% of several micronutrients. Struvites did not exceed Dutch regulations for heavy metals or pathogens, and based on literature, organic toxins should be far below regulatory limits. In this study and 18 others, struvite appears to have similar effectiveness to soluble fertilizer. Early in the season, 200 kg P2O5 ha-1 of black water struvite and soluble phosphorus improved maize performance (