Addressing the complexities of managing domestic and multinational corporate brands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the differences between managing domestic corporate brands (DCBs) and multinational corporate brands (MCBs), and presents a framework highlighting six types of complexity associated with managing both forms of corporate brands in an international business context. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes a framework addressing six types of complexity involved in managing DCBs and MCBs drawing on the literature related to corporate branding, corporate brands, and domestic and multinational corporations. The six types of complexity examined include: strategic role, organisational structure, culture, knowledge, positioning and extended responsibility. Findings – The research identifies that DCBs have a lower degree of complexity in regard to strategic role, knowledge and positioning, but have a higher level in regard to organisational structure, cultural and extended responsibility complexity. MCBs face more complexity than DCBs across all dimensions because they operate across business environments and need to coordinate activities while adapting to environmental differences. Practical implications – The findings highlight the importance of environmental complexity for firms managing brands globally. The issues of complexity identified in this paper need to be understood if firms are to effectively build and manage their corporate brands within and across markets. Originality/value – The paper highlights the concepts of DCBs and MCBs, and identifies the factors that contribute to the complexity of managing these two types of corporate brands domestically and internationally

Ergonomic evaluation of tea farmers in north of Iran during plucking using body modeling

Introduction People in different jobs may face skeletal problems in their body due to poor physical conditions as a result of poor working conditions and inappropriate equipment. Harvesting tea is one of those jobs that are known as a very vigorous process and it requires hard work and perseverance. Moreover, after water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. This fact highlights the great importance of jobs related to tea. The most prevailing method used for tea harvesting in Iran is manual harvesting, although this job in some regions is mechanized. Manual harvesting intensifies the hardness of this job. Materials and Methods This study was launched and aimed to find harmful postures in tasks related to tea plucking in order to reduce the intensities in this job. To obtain this goal workers’ postures were needed while working. Different postures should be attained by filming during a working day. Films were recorded from 30 workers in tea farms at the different parts of Lahijan region, Iran, and were analyzed by modeling tea harvesters’ bodies by CATIA software. Then, the modeled postures were analyzed by three methods: OWAS, REBA and RULA. Results and Discussion According to OWAS analysis, 30% of postures placed at the first level, that means the postures have not harmful effects on musculoskeletal system, and the corrective action is not required. 10% of the tea harvest labors population was placed at level 2 so the posture has harmful effects on musculoskeletal system and the corrective action is necessary in the near future. This situation is not critical, only needs more attention. The corrective actions require soon in the third level. 33% of analyzed and modeled postures were in this level. In the fourth level which is absolutely critical and has biomechanical strain with very traumatic effect on musculoskeletal system and it is necessary to exert corrective action immediately, 27% of postures were observed. The results of REBA analysis showed that 24% of workers’ postures in tea farms and under this study were at level 1 where the risk level is low and the corrective action may be necessary to them. 53% of workers are at level 2 who are at the average risk and corrective action is necessary for them. 23% of tea harvesters are in level 3 with high level of risk, therefore the corrective action must be performed immediately. Finally, similar to results obtained from the analysis of OWAS, no posture placed at level 4. The results of RULA analysis show that there is no posture in positions 1 or 2 and all positions need to be investigated. According to this analysis, 2% of tea harvesters' postures are in position 3 and no posture in position 4. Therefore, in total, 2% were in second level. According to RULA analysis, 16% of workers' postures were in position 5. 44% of postures of tea harvesters working in different parts of Lahijan region were in position 6. Accordingly, 38% of the postures were in position 7. Conclusions The findings from this study showed that the highest prevalence rate of musculoskeletal pain or discomfort was in the trunk region (92%), following by the neck and upper arm (38%), lower arm (23%) and wrist (15%). For men the most frequent disorders were trunk (89%), upper arm and neck (33%), lower arm and wrist (22%). The results from this study also revealed that all women in this occupation faced musculoskeletal problems in the trunk region (100%). After trunk, neck and upper arm (57%) and lower arm (25%). No disorder was seen in wrist region in this analysis, which is consistent with female labors’ report. After this analysis finding uncomfortable postures in each duty and making changes in simulated bodies in CATIA software in order to reach a lower grand score can be helpful to improve working conditions. Reanalyzing new posture is the stage to obtain new grand score. Final step in this case is reporting harmful and improved postures to employees and employers. Notice that improved postures are not valid unless workers can have acceptable access to their work. Similarity between the results of OWAS and RULA methods and the difference from the results of REBA method could come to conclusion of not using REBA method for jobs similar to tea plucking

Evaluating the Mechanical Properties of Tomato Based on Electrical Conductivity

Evaluation of mechanical and electrical properties of agricultural products plays an important role in equipment design and optimizing post-harvest operations. Among the crops, tomato and its products are the major processing industries in the world and its economic importance is increasing. Considering the importance of the quality and various post harvesting uses of tomato, the evaluation of mechanical properties including rupture force and deformation and the work done to establish the rupture of two tomato cultivars (Petoearly CH and Newton) were studied under penetration test based on the electrical conductivity. These properties were measured at three levels of 1, 3 and 5 days after harvesting. The evaluated mechanical properties of both cultivars were decreased by increasing the storage time. Interaction of cultivar and time were significant at the 1% level, for all mechanical parameters except the deformation failure in both cultivars. The electrical conductivity of both cultivars was decreased by increasing the storage time. Interaction of cultivar and time on the electrical conductivity of both cultivars were significant at the 1% level. Significant relationships were found at the 1% level between electrical conductivity and mechanical properties except for deformation of Petoearly CH cultivar. Among the mechanical parameters, rupture forces and rupture works of both cultivars were highly correlated with the electrical conductivity

Comparison of Two Methods of Purple Top Turnip Drying Based on Energy Consumption and Quality Parameters

Drying is one of the oldest methods to preserve agricultural products and hence expanding the food market. By drying, the agricultural products can be stored and transferred to the market throughout the year. One of the most important and nutritious vegetables is turnip which can be used by drying in out of season. In this research, the hot air and vacuum drying methods of turnip were compared. The effect of independent factors including temperature and vacuum, on dependent factors such as the shrinkage, rehydration and rate of electric energy consumption on final products of turnip were investigated. A randomized completely design for hot air dryer and a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design for drying under vacuum condition were used. Results showed that the temperature and vacuum have affected the shrinkage, rehydration and electricity consumption. Shrinkage parameter is more depend on the final humidity of product and the energy consumption of the devices depends on time. The best quality of dried turnip was achieved from hot air drying device with final humidity of 14±1%, shrinkage of 39.98%, rehydration of 4.45 and consumed electricity of 32.36 kWh kg-1 of DM in 60˚C. For the vacuum drying device the best quality of produce achieved with shrinkage of 38.12%, rehydration of 4.87 and consumed electricity of 30.58 kWh kg-1 of DM in vacuum condition of 10 kPa in 60˚C. Comparison of results showed that the vacuum dryer is more appropriate than the hot air dryers for drying turnip with better quality and lower power consumption

Environmental impacts modeling of Iranian peach production

The environmental hazard is a major concern in Iran. On the other hand, agriculture plays a key role in environmental impacts in this country, because this sector is both a producer and consumer of energy as well as it can increase or reduce the environmental impacts. Therefore, in this research the cradle to gate environmental impacts associated with Iranian peach production through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model is studied. According to the ISO 14040 standard, an LCA was carried out in four main steps included goal definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. In order to have better comparison, we also applied normalization and weighting indices. The results highlighted that the characterization indices of global warming, acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, depletion of fossil, phosphate and potash resources for one tonne of peach production were 172.16 kg CO2eq, 2.55 kg SO2eq, 5.68 kg NOxeq, 1058.51 MJ, 1.72 kg P2O5, 0.85 kg K2O, respectively. Farm gate to gate phase of production accounted for 61%, 83% and 97% of the global warming, acidification and eutrophication impact categories, respectively. So this shows that the agricultural sector of Iranian peach production (on-orchard emissions) has the greatest negative effect on the environment. The depletion of phosphate resources and followed by terrestrial eutrophication had the greatest negative effects on the environment among in different impact categories. To better environmental management of Iranian peach production, it is recommended to encourage the farmers to choose fertilizer with low environmental impact like bio-fertilizer or chemical fertilizer with lower environmental burdens respect to urea fertilize

The effect of fan speed control system on the inlet air temperature uniformity in a solar dryer

Introduction: Drying process of agricultural products, fruits and vegetables are highly energy demanding and hence are the most expensive postharvest operation. Nowadays, the application of control systems in different area of science and engineering plays a key role and is considered as the important and inseparable parts of any industrial process. The review of literature indicates that enormous efforts have been donefor the intelligent control of solar driers and in this regard some simulation models are used through computer programming. However, because of the effect of air velocity on the inlet air temperature in dryers, efforts have been made to control the fan speed based ont he temperature of the absorber plate in this study, and the behavior of this system was compared with an ordinary dryer without such a control system. Materials and methods: In this study, acabinet type solar dryer with forced convection and 5kg capacity of fresh herbs was used. The dryer was equipped with a fan in the outlet chamber (the chimney) for creating air flow through the dryer. For the purpose of research methods and automatic control of fan speed and for adjusting the temperature of the drying inlet air, a control system consisting of a series of temperature and humidity sensors and a microcontroller was designed. To evaluatethe effect of the system with fan speed control on the uniformity of air temperature in the drying chamber and hence the trend of drying process in the solar dryer, the dryer has been used with two different modes: with and without the control of fan speed, each in twodays (to minimize the errors) of almost the same ambient temperature. The ambient air temperature during the four days of experiments was obtained from the regional Meteorological Office. Some fresh mint plants (Mentha longifolia) directly harvested from the farm in the morning of the experiment days were used as the drying materials. Each experimental run continued for 9 hours, startingat 8:00 am and terminating at 17:00. To determine the moisture content for the purpose of observing and recording the drying process, the drying materials were sampled with one hour time step. The moisture contentwas determinedin the laboratory using the well- known method of oven drying which is presented elsewhere. Results and discussion: Since the ambient air temperature during the four days of experimental runs was almost the same, the effect of ambient air temperature on the drying process was ignored. Considering the dryer inlet air temperature charts obtained in this study (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3), it can be concluded that for those tests using the fan speed control system, the outlet air temperature of the collector during drying period associated with very little variations, is compared with the no control mode runs. At the beginning of the day and also during the hours at the end of the day, due to a decrease in the temperature of the absorber plate compared to the middle of theday, the fan speed is reduced as air passes slowly through the absorber plate and hence the temperature rises. But in the middle of the day, with increasing the temperature of absorber plate, the speed of the fan is increased to provide sufficient airflow and to prevent the absorber plate from warming up. Inexperiments without fan speed control, the fan works with no limitation, and the temperature of the inlet air was changed with the temperature change in the absorber plate. The fan speed control system in addition to lowering the temperature changes in the outlet air, also increased the average outlet temperature about 3C, compared to the dryer without such a control system. During the twodays of experiments, the average ambient air temperature was 28C and at the sametime the outlet air temperature was 40.6 and 40.8C, respectively. In twodays of no control system, the average temperature of the ambient air was 28.5 and 28C and at the sametime the outlet air temperature was 38 and 37.8C, respectively. The results showed that with fan speed control mode the variation of inlet air temperature of the drying chamber was more limited and remained within the range of 39 to 42 and 40 to 42°C during the two experimental days, respectively. However, without fan speed control, the system exhibited a wider variation of inlet drying air temperature and limited within the range of 33 to 44 and 32 to 43°C. Furthermore, with fan speed control in a solar dryer, along with more uniformity in moisture content, the drying rate may speed up and with further decrease in final moisture content up to 8%, when compared to a system with no fan speed control. Conclusions: The average temperatures of the outlet air of collector in two days with fan speed control system, were 40.6 and 40.8°C while in the system without the fan speed control, were 38 and 37.8, respectively. This clearly indicates that the system control could increase the temperature of the collector outlet. The dryer was also able to control the fan speed during the 9hours of drying mint with initial moisture content of 85% (w.b) and to reduce it to about 24.5 and 25.5%, during the two experimental days, respectively. While the corresponding values without the use of a control system were 33.5 and 33.5%, respectively. In other words, in the experiments with the use of control system, the final moisture content was about 8% lower than the moisture content of materials dried without such a system. Furthermore, the control system reduces the volume of air required by the system and hence speeds up the drying process

Analysis of different inputs share and determination of energy Indices in broilers production in Mashhad city

Introduction The high energy consumption is one of the serious problems in poultry industry. The poultry industry consume about five percent of total energy sources in different countries, with consideration of losses, it increases up to 16-20%. In the year 2003 also, the Iranian chicken meat consumption per capita was 13.3 kg, while in the year 2013 it increased to 25.9 kg (FAO, 2014). It shows that in the diet of Iranian people, the chicken meat has become a strategic food. Poultry industry is one of the biggest and most developed industries in Iran. In the past two decays, mainly due to population growth and increase demand of white meats, it is necessary to change and improve energy efficiency in this industry. Technical efficiency of broiler farms in the central region of Saudi Arabia was analyzed through stochastic frontier approach (Alrwis and Francis, 2003). They reported that many farms under study work lower than their total capacity. In the research, the output was chicken meat weight in the term of the kilogram per one period and the inputs were the number of chicks, feed, the total of all variable expenses and fixed input except chicks and feed and the total cost of fixed inputs including building, equipment and machinery used for the broiler houses. They found that the small and large size broiler farms in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia were produced chicken with mean technical efficiency 83 and 88%, respectively (Alrwis and Francis, 2003). Efficiency measurement of broiler production units in Hamadan province was investigated by Fotros and Solgi (2003). They reported that the minimum, maximum and mean technical efficiency under variable return to scale were 12.7, 100 and 64.4%, respectively. Their results showed that technical efficiency at 16.5 (14 units) and 42.35% (24 units) of farms were more than 90 and 70%, respectively (Fotros and Salgi, 2003). Khorasan Razavi province after Esfahan and Mazandaran provinces is the third largest producer of broilers in Iran. This research was performed because it is necessary to have energy consumption status; also there is a few data about broiler’s energy consumption in Mashhad. In this research, the data of Mashhad’s broilers was analyzed by Data Envelopment Analysis Method. The other objectives of this study were to separate efficient and inefficient units to use energy resource efficiently and determine total energy saving. Materials and Methods This study was performed in 2013 in Mashhad, Iran. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from 36 poultry farmers for a growing period of April to May. Input energies were the feed, fuel (gas and gas oil), electricity, labor, equipment and chicken, and the output energies were the chicken meat and the manure. The energy consumption for each element was calculated by multiplied amount of inputs/outputs to energy equivalents. Results and Discussion The total of input and output energies were obtained 125.2, 24.9 GJ/1000Birds, respectively. Energy indices such as energy ratio, energy efficiency and specific energy were determined to be 0.2, 0.019 kg/MJ and 52.55 MJ/kg, respectively. The highest share of energy consumption were 50.84 and 42.43%, for fuel (natural gas and diesel fuel) and feed respectively, the lowest share among the input energies were 0.39 and 0.06%, for chicken and labor respectively. Comparison of energy in three levels of farm sizes (≤15000, 15000-30000 and ≥30000 chicks) showed the energy ratio for large farms were higher than the other levels. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the poultry efficiency. The results showed that 13 poultry units had average technical efficiency (0.93) in the definition of Constant Returns to Scale (CRS), and 21 poultry units had pure technical efficiency (0.99) in the definition of Variable Returns to Scale (VRS). Conclusions The Fuel (natural gas and diesel fuel) consumption energy had the highest shares of energy consumption; it is because of the low efficient heating equipment in poultry houses and low fuel prices in Iran. Energy efficiency of broiler farms in Mashhad was obtained 0.2 that show low energy efficiency. Improvements in energy efficiency could be achieved by increasing yield or reducing inputs energies

Effect of Moisture Content on Mechanical Properties and Terminal Velocity of Berberis

The study of mechanical properties of Berberis not only is useful for design and optimization of transportation, processing and packaging equipment but also can prevent mechanical injuries and losses. In this study force, deformation, energy and toughness were measured at different moisture content levels including 70-76, 45-50, 25-30 and 7-10 percent (w.b.). The decrease of moisture content caused increasing rupture force from 1.387 to 2.679 N, decreasing shape deformation from 3.387 to 2.413mm, increasing toughness from 4.297 to 8.220 J/cm3 and decreasing rupture energy from 0.921 to 0.661mJ. Effects of loading speed, force orientation and their interaction were investigated on just fresh Berberis fruit. It was indicated that only force orientation was effective on all investigated properties except toughness. The moisture content was identified as an effective parameter on terminal velocity. It decreased from 9 to 4.5 m/s with decrease of moisture content from 76 to 7 percent (w.b.)

Effect of Farm Size on Energy Consumption and Input Costs of Peanut Production in Guilan Province of Iran

In this study, the energy and economic analysis of peanut production in Guilan province of Iran was studied. Data were collected from questionnaires of 75 farmers. The data were collected from three farm size categories namely: 0.1–0.5 ha, 0.5-1 ha and larger than 1 ha. The results revealed that 19407.36 MJ ha-1 energy input was totally consumed. The highest share of energy consumption belonged to diesel fuel (50.05%) followed by chemical fertilizers (19.14%). The mean difference of energy inputs including machinery, diesel fuel and electricity among different sizes of farms was significant at the 5% level. The average energy efficiency in different farm size categories including less than 0.5 ha, 0.5-1 ha and more than 1 ha were 3.67, 4.02 and 4.12, respectively. The energy productivity of these sizes was calculated as 0.155, 0.169 and 0.174 kg MJ-1, respectively. The Cobb-Douglas model results showed that the effects of inputs including human labor, machinery, chemical fertilizers and electricity on the yield were positive, while the effect of inputs including seed, diesel fuel and chemicals on peanut yield were negative. The benefit-cost ratio was calculated as 1.82. Farmers with a farm larger than 1 ha used the least amount of energy and input costs