Strategic Group Analysis of U.S. Food Businesses Using the Two-step Clustering Method

strategic group, planning, strategy, performance, Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, M0, M14, M2, M30,

Market Orientation, Innovativeness, and Performance of Food Companies

Food processors have seen escalating levels of competition over the past three decades. An underlying objective of this research is to gain a greater understanding of how food companies thrive in the face of this increased competition. This study incorporates market orientation theory (competitor orientation, customer orientation, and interfunctional coordination) and firm innovativeness to explain differences in firm financial performance. A national survey of food processors was conducted and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that the more successful firms are more internally focused (interfunctional coordination and innovativeness) than externally focused (competitor and customer orientation).firm performance, food industry, innovativeness, market orientation, structural equation modeling, Agribusiness, Marketing,

The Development of a Quality Scale to Measure the Impact of Quality on Supermarket Fruit Demand

This research examines how fluctuations in quality affect consumer expenditures for fresh fruit at the retail level. This paper examines how consumersÂ’' purchasing behaviors react to changes in fresh fruit quality by quantifying quality characteristics based on weekly observations. A four-point scale was created and used to quantify four different quality characteristics: bruising, markings, brilliance, and maturity. A non-linear Almost Ideal Demand System was used to model the share equations for Gala apples, Fuji apples, Red Delicious apples, other sweet apples, tart apples, pears, bananas, and oranges. Seventy-nine weeks of data on weekly store sales were collected from two grocery stores in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Results from the quality measures are provided and discussed. Suggestions are made for modifications to the quality measures to improve the modeling results of future fruit-demand studies.Demand and Price Analysis,

Collecting Store-Level Data on Retail Supermarket Sales

Primary data-collection methods have been understood and studied to a great degree. For example, volumes can be written on the proper way to conduct a survey-based study. However, the process of collecting data from a retail establishment is not as well documented. This paper covers the tools and strategies used to collect weekly data in a retail environment and makes some suggestions for future researchers so that they may avoid similar problems that occurred during the data collection and entry process.Agribusiness,

Innovativeness and Innovation: Implications for the Renewable Materials Supply Chain

innovativeness, innovation, supply chain management, triple bottom line, corporate social responsibility, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, Q10, Q27, Q42, Q47,

Marketing-Management Impacts on Produce Sales

Produce departments are important to the profitability and competitiveness of grocery stores. Understanding how variables beyond price and seasonality impact the demand and ultimately sales for produce is vital. This study finds display size and the use of multiple displays to be the most powerful tools (after price) that produce managers have available to them, but only with the right products. Also, point-of-purchase signage is found to have limited impact. These findings are based on the estimation of a demand system of fruits with prices, advertising size and location, display size (including multiple displays), and product origin among the explanatory variables.Agribusiness, Marketing,

Substance Use-Related Brief Interventions With Emergency Department Patients Reduce Mental Health Co-Morbidities

Background: Research on screening and brief interventions (SBIs) has shown that, in addition to reducing alcohol use, interventions delivered in healthcare settings can reduce trauma readmissions, hospitalization days, driving offenses, and future healthcare utilization and costs. Mental health co-morbidities often accompany unhealthy alcohol and drug use, but few studies have examined the impact of SBIs on the mental health of patients. The present study determined if SBIs focused on reducing alcohol or drug use affected the mental health status of patients at a six-month follow-up. Methods: Participants (N=1152) were randomly sampled from patients receiving SBIs for at-risk alcohol or drug use after presenting to one of two urban emergency departments (EDs) in Georgia. Telephone follow-up interviews were completed with 698 of the original participants at six months after the intervention. Mental health co-morbidities were measured at both time points using the Global Assessment of Individual Needs Short Screener (GAIN-SS) and the SF-12. Analyses were conducted using paired samples t-tests. Results: Analyses found significant reductions in the percentage of patients reporting feelings of anxiety (45% to 33%, p\u3c0.001), depression (52% to 37%, p\u3c0.001), and suicidal ideation (13% to 8%, p\u3c0.001) as well as improvements in global mental health measures (SF12 mental health score and internalizing and externalizing subscales of the GAIN-SS). Conclusions: Six months after receiving SBIs for alcohol and drug use in EDs, several measures of the mental health of participants showed significant improvements. Widespread implementation of SBIs in Georgia\u27s EDs may affect a broad array of public health concerns, including mental health

Difficulties in early ice detection with the Small Ice Detector 2 HIAPER (SID-2H) in maritime cumuli

© Copyright 2014 American Meteorological Society (AMS).The Small Ice Detector 2 HIAPER (SID-2H) was used to attempt to detect small ice particles in the early stages of ice formation in the high liquid water environment of tropical maritime cumulus clouds sampled during the Ice in Clouds Experiment - Tropical (ICE-T) field campaign. Its performance in comparison to other probes, and the development of new corrections applied to the data, are presented. The SID-2H detected small ice crystals among larger particles. It correctly identified water drops, and discriminated between round and irregular particle shapes in water-dominated clouds with errors less than 5%. Remaining uncertainties in the sensing volume, and the volume over which coincidence of particles occurred, result in the data being used here in a qualitative manner to identify the presence of ice, its habits and sizes.Peer reviewe