Where is the Action?

Taking a set of studies about business action as the empirical starting-point, this paper looks at the various ways in which action is represented. The overall research question can be stated as follows: how is business action reconstructed in our narratives? The texts analysed are collected from research on exchange relationships in the field of marketing. To analyse how these texts depict business action, four narrative constructions are focused: space, time, actors, and plots. The categorisation and analysis are summarised and followed by a set of concluding implications and suggestions for the use of narratives aiming to reconstruct business action in the making.Marketing; narrative; plot; marketing methodology; business action; industrial marketing research

THE HORSE SECTOR: DOES IT MATTER FOR AGRICULTURE?

EU policies focus ever more on rural development initiatives. The horse sector provides some opportunities. An I/O model is used to examine the aggregate effects of the horse sector on Swedish agriculture. The maximal potential of the sector accounts for around 12% of the total contribution to GDP by agriculture.Horse sector, Input-Output, Livestock Production/Industries, Q19,

Spatial Competition and Farm Tourism - A Hedonic Pricing Model

Changes in EU agricultural policies towards additional focus on rural development issues raise questions regarding the economic impact of local/spatial competition. Traditionally, farmers have typically been price takers in markets for major agricultural products. This is, however, not necessarily true in the case of local markets for “new enterprises”. This article examines local/and spatial competition for farm tourism services, specifically “Self catering” in Sweden. The results show that spatial dependences exist and have to be considered in the econometric estimation of the hedonic pricing model. Using spatial econometrics it is shown that the price is affected by the average price, the demand for and supply of lodging in the regional market. Notable is that the results indicate that local competition has a positive effect on the price while regional competition has a negative effect. Marketing channels used as well as size and ranking of the service were found to affect the price of lodging. Diversification does not seem to positively affect prices. The findings illustrate the potential importance of local competition for rural developments studies. It also raises questions concerning policies promoting diversification and multifunctionality as a way of revitalizing urban areas.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

A COMPARISON OF MINNESOTA'S FARM BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION MEMBERS AND THE USDA'S FARM COSTS AND RETURNS SURVEY

Many states have farm record associations which collect individual farm data. This data are used for research, extension, and teaching purposes. However, since membership in the associations is voluntary, the question arises whether the members are representative of the population of all farmers in that area. This study compares farm record data collected through the Southeastern and Southwestern Minnesota Farm Business Management Associations (FBMA) and data obtained through the USDA's Farm Costs and Returns Survey (FCRS). Both data sets were for 1987. By design, the FCRS survey is not subject to the self-selection bias that may occur in the FBMA data. The objectives of this study are to: (1) determine which farm characteristics are statistically the same in the FBMA and FCRS data, and (2) determine the farm size ranges in which FBMA farms are statistically representative of FCRS farms'. FBMA farms were not representative of all farms in their area. FBMA farms do not include small operations. Major differences exist in total tillable acreage, rented land and livestock production, especially hogs. These combined differences result in a substantial difference in net farm income between the two farm categories. However, the FBMA farms reflect FCRS farms' solvency conditions relatively well. FBMA farms were more similar to farms with sales exceeding $60,000 per year but differences still existed. Total acreage, total sales (especially sales of hogs), total expenses, and net farm income were significantly (p<.01) higher for FBMA farms. Even at higher sales levels, FBMA farms were characterized by a higher level of livestock production and a slightly larger tillable acreage mainly due to renting additional land. Economic performance measured by net farm income and returns to total assets and family labor also was significantly (p<.01) better for FBMA farms. So even though differences in assets, liabilities, and thus solvency positions were insignificant (p>.10), the economic performance of the FBMA farms appears to be better than FCRS farms even in larger sizes. On the basis of these findings, the FBMA data cannot be used to represent all farms or even all commercial farms. It does appear that FBMA farms can be used to represent larger farms with livestock. Thus, the FBMA data is not well-suited for estimation of economic relationships to be used in aggregate economic analyses of the agricultural sector.Farm Management,

On the Property Rights System of the State Enterprises in China

Detailed analysis of spinal deformity is important within orthopaedic healthcare, in particular for assessment of idiopathic scoliosis. This paper addresses this challenge by proposing an image analysis method, capable of providing a full three-dimensional spine characterization. The proposed method is based on the registration of a highly detailed spine model to image data from computed tomography. The registration process provides an accurate segmentation of each individual vertebra and the ability to derive various measures describing the spinal deformity. The derived measures are estimated from landmarks attached to the spine model and transferred to the patient data according to the registration result. Evaluation of the method provides an average point-to-surface error of 0.9 mm ± 0.9 (comparing segmentations), and an average target registration error of 2.3 mm ± 1.7 (comparing landmarks). Comparing automatic and manual measurements of axial vertebral rotation provides a mean absolute difference of 2.5° ± 1.8, which is on a par with other computerized methods for assessing axial vertebral rotation. A significant advantage of our method, compared to other computerized methods for rotational measurements, is that it does not rely on vertebral symmetry for computing the rotational measures. The proposed method is fully automatic and computationally efficient, only requiring three to four minutes to process an entire image volume covering vertebrae L5 to T1. Given the use of landmarks, the method can be readily adapted to estimate other measures describing a spinal deformity by changing the set of employed landmarks. In addition, the method has the potential to be utilized for accurate segmentations of the vertebrae in routine computed tomography examinations, given the relatively low point-to-surface error

Double-Layer Silicon PIN Photodiode X-Ray Detector for a Future X-ray Timing Mission

A double-layer silicon detector consisting of two 500micron-thick silicon PIN photodiodes with independent readouts was mounted in a vacuum chamber and tested with X-ray sources. The detector is sensitive from 1-30 keV with an effective area of 6 mm^2. The detector performs best at -35 C with an energy resolution of 220 eV (FWHM, full width at half maximum) at 5.9 keV, and is able to operate at room temperature, +25 C, with moderate resolution around 760 eV (FWHM). The response of the top layer sensor is highly uniform across the sensitive area. This large-format silicon detector is appropriate for future X-ray timing missions.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, NIM A to appea

Perspektiv bakåt och framåt på medeltida stadsforskning

I uppsatsens första del diskuteras den svenska forskningen kring den medeltida staden och de linjer som kan skönjas. En viktig utgångspunkt är därvidlag Adolf Schücks doktorsavhandling från 1926, där han definierar stad på följande sätt: ”en tätare bebyggelse, vars innevånare på grund av sina handelsintressen bilda en samhällsenhet i ekonomiskt eller rättsligt avseende eller i bägge dessa hänseenden”. Det var för sin tid en öppen och vid definition, som bl a gjorde det möjligt att brygga över från de vikingatida tätorterna till medeltidens städer. Betoningen kom att ligga på det de ekonomiska incitamenten för stadsutvecklingen. Detta karakteriserade också den historiska forskningen långt fram i tiden. En betoning på det hanseaternas innovativa roll förbyttes efter andra världskriget till att en betoning av 1100-talets interna ekonomiska utveckling som en grund för stadsutvecklingen. De begynnande arkeologiska resultaten spelade därvid en roll. Från 1970-talet ändrades fokus och centralmaktens aktiva roll i stadsutvecklingen betonades mera än de rent ekonomiska faktorerna. Denna syn togs också över av arkeologerna, som mera aktivt blandade sig in i diskussionen om den medeltida urbaniseringen. Under senare år har genom arkeologin intresset särskilt varit koncentrerat på förhistoriska centralplatser och den äldre medeltidens städer. Sammanfattningsvis kan man ändå säga att både historiker och arkeologer arbetat utifrån forskningslinjer som drogs upp för ganska länge sedan. I uppsatsens andra del ifrågasätts om inte det är dags att ändra fokus. Den medeltida stadsforskningen har varit mycket specialiserad. Det är framför allt städerna i sig som varit studieobjekten. Andra linjer vore tänkbara som mera såg till urbaniseringsprocessen som sådan och staden som del av ett landskap. Det är inte alltid så lätt att avgränsa olika ortstyper. Urbana och rurala funktioner finns både i staden, byn och på borgen. Bebyggelseutformningen kan ibland vara mycket lika. Hur hanterar man detta? En annan fråga som tas upp är makten i landskapet, som tar sig flera uttryck. Staden är ett, borgen, huvudgården ett annat, kyrkan kanske ytterligare ett. För att diskutera dessa frågor krävs enligt artikelförfattaren att arkeologer och historiker mera blandar sig i en mera generell urbaniseringsdiskussion, där också internationellt material förs in. I detta ligger både en utveckling utifrån de forskningstraditioner som hittills rått och ett prövande av nya perspekti

Tankar och perspektiv - ja, slutsummering, nja. Avslutningsföreläsning 31 okt. 2001

Thoughts and Perspectives - yes, a final summing-up - well... Prof. Hans Andersson's last lecture before his retirement, given on the 31th of October 2001

Price Pooling and the Gains from Hedging: Application to a Swedish Grain Cooperative

Optimal hedging strategies are analyzed for a cooperative operating a price pooling system in the presence of price and quantity risk. A three-period model, accounting for default risk and storage, is developed. Hedging allows the cooperative to increase the pool price offered to farmers by 2.8 - 4% for moderate risk parameters.Agribusiness, Marketing,

VALUE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN DAIRY FARMING: THE CASE OF ROBOTIC MILKING

The economic value of the innovation robotic milking systems (AMS) is examined for Swedish dairy operations. A mixed integer mathematical programming model, considering crops, calving distribution, seasonality and capacity constraints of the AMS system, is developed. The marginal value of increasing the capacity of the AMS unit is found to amount to 40-60% of the milk revenues per cow.Technology innovations, Dairy systems, Livestock Production/Industries, Q12,