Reframing Agribusiness: Moving from Farm to Market Centric

Agribusiness is moving from farm to market centric, where effective activities anticipate and respond to customers, markets, and the systems in which they function. This evolution requires a broader conceptualization and more accurate definition, to convey a more dynamic, systemic, and integrative discipline, which increasingly is committed to value creation and the sustainable orchestration of food, fiber, and renewable resources. We discuss the forces driving this shift to the market, offer a new and more representative definition of agribusiness, provide models to illustrate some of the most compelling trends, and articulate key elements and implications of those models.agribusiness definition, conceptual models, market centric, market systems, Agribusiness, Marketing, Production Economics,

Voluntary Recognition of Unionized Labor in a Resort with Leased Food and Beverage Outlets

The food and beverage industry in Las Vegas gaming resorts has rapidly been moving towards a lease model where independent third parties operate outlets. This is in comparison to the past where resorts operated such outlets with their own employees. Food and beverage operations in resorts have always been labor intensive, requiring the need for large numbers of employees to run properly. As food and beverage operations in resorts are heavily intertwined with organized labor, it warrants a look into the changing aspects of the relationship due to this new leasing trend. This includes the long held practice of gaming resorts voluntarily recognizing union representation of employees. This presents the ideal opportunity to look into the interactions between continuing the practice of voluntarily recognizing, and the trend of continued restaurant leasing. Included in this is an evaluation if discontinuing the practice of voluntarily recognizing union representation would increase lease values of food and beverage outlet spaces

The purpose of magazine Web sites

The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether online versions of printed magazines shared an overall purpose. Guided by grounded theory, interviews were conducted of publishers and staff members from the Web sites of 15 printed magazines. The analysis of the interviews suggested that the overall purpose of online versions of magazines is marketing of the printed magazine, and that the sites also are intended to accomplish a number of secondary purposes

GATOR: Requirements capturing of telephony features

We are developing a natural language-based, requirements gathering system called GATOR (for the GATherer Of Requirements). GATOR assists in the development of more accurate and complete specifications of new telephony features. GATOR interacts with a feature designer who describes a new feature, set of features, or capability to be implemented. The system aids this individual in the specification process by asking for clarifications when potential ambiguities are present, by identifying potential conflicts with other existing features, and by presenting its understanding of the feature to the designer. Through user interaction with a model of the existing telephony feature set, GATOR constructs a formal representation of the new, 'to be implemented' feature. Ultimately GATOR will produce a requirements document and will maintain an internal representation of this feature to aid in future design and specification. This paper consists of three sections that describe (1) the structure of GATOR, (2) POND, GATOR's internal knowledge representation language, and (3) current research issues