Farmers’ Attitudes Toward Recycled Water Use in Irrigated Agriculture

This study aims to investigate whether farmers are willing to use recycled water for irrigation purposes. It attempts to analyze the attitudinal, socio-demographics and environmental factors that affect a potential user’s acceptance for wastewater reuse. A primary research designed in order to elicit farmers’ preferences and a statistical analysis applied to analyze the relationships among the variables influence their attitudes. The results were obtained from data collected through 302 questionnaires that were answered by the farmers in Nestos catchment, Greece. The research findings might usefully assist policy-makers and planners in the implementation of strategy in water management sector. Farmers’ awareness about the recycling water and their level of acceptance to use it might constitute incoming parameters, on which the decisions in agriculture water planning could be based. Moreover, the identification of factors influencing stakeholders’ acceptance provide the underpinnings for success in any recycling project.     Keywords: public perceptions, behavior analysis, water recycling, integrated water resources management, agriculture water managemen

Farmers' Attitudes Toward Recycled Water Use in Irrigated Agriculture

This study aims to investigate whether farmers are willing to use recycled water for irrigation purposes. It attempts to analyze the attitudinal, socio-demographics and environmental factors that affect a potential user's acceptance for wastewater reuse. A primary research designed in order to elicit farmers' preferences and a statistical analysis applied to analyze the relationships among the variables influence their attitudes. The results were obtained from data collected through 302 questionnaires that were answered by the farmers in Nestos catchment, Greece. The research findings might usefully assist policy-makers and planners in the implementation of strategy in water management sector. Farmers' awareness about the recycling water and their level of acceptance to use it might constitute incoming parameters, on which the decisions in agriculture water planning could be based. Moreover, the identification of factors influencing stakeholders' acceptance provide the underpinnings for success in any recycling project.     Keywords: public perceptions, behavior analysis, water recycling, integrated water resources management, agriculture water managemen

Business model for developing strategies of forest cooperatives. Evidence from an emerging business environment in Greece

Forest cooperatives are essentially a form of entrepreneurship. However, they are confronted by various problems and they cannot pay enough attention to value creation. The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) the identification of the structural factors supporting the function of Greek forest cooperatives and the exploration of the possibilities of applying business model innovation to them; (b) the investigation of how the development of an integrated business model can help cooperatives stay ahead in the innovation game, while securing sustainability. By applying business modeling procedures to the forest cooperatives of the Region of Thessaly (Greece) this paper presents, the implementation of innovative development strategy, within the current legislative framework. Results show that the business model approach gives them the ability to develop a shared vision for value creation and delivering through the establishment of a framework related to sustainable forest management based on creation of bonds for achieving a win-win strategy, satisfying the increasing needs for innovative forest-based products, which constitutes a challenge for the sustainable management of forests. We argue that this is the first time this approach has been made regarding forest cooperatives in Greece in relation to the emerging parameters of the general business environment. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis

Circular economy. The Greek industry leaders’ way towards a transformational shift

Circular Economy (CE) has caught the eye of scholars, practitioners and policy makers. Τhe discussion so far seems to touch mainly the meso and macro level, while investigations on implementation issues regard mainly start-ups or new, flexible SMEs with CE-based visions. Up to date, there is extremely limited research on the challenges that well-established – usually deeply rooted in the linear model - organizations face when deciding a shift to the CE. However, this is undeniably a major challenge and it appears that there are many questions to be answered for such established organizations which indent to apply the concept in their business models successfully. The research purports to shed some light in this direction. For that purpose, a sample of the 200 TOP business in Greece that had implemented CE procedures was surveyed in order to: a) investigate the ways that Greek leading companies try to implement CE principles in view of procedures, practices and measures; and b) identify the level of adjustment to specific national directives and EU policies. The study uncovers the difficulty of such leading business to embrace the innovativeness of the circular economy and their positioning to encounter the emergent CE issue pointing to the need of different approaches for them by policymakers. This is actually the study's main contribution: it highlights the vulnerability of large national leading companies in such radical transitions, their selective strategic choices, their insecurity and confusion and the adjustments needed to decide a transition to CE. © 2020 Elsevier B.V

Greek Consumers’ Awareness and Perceptions for Green Hotels and Green Furniture

During the last years, several researches have shown that a significant group of hotel visitors with increased environmental awareness, prefer the so called “green hotels” for their accommodation. The aim of this prototype research was the collection of information and opinions of Greek consumers regarding green hotels and eco-furniture, studying the awareness of the consumers on the specific institution and meaning as well as their intension and acceptance in selecting such a hotel for their accommodation. The green hotels movement has been a growing industry in Europe and the U.S., but it is the first effort to study the potential those hotels to be equipped with green furniture. For the purposes of this study, which was conducted during 2016, we used a specially constructed questionnaire which was filled by 304 Greek consumers. We used personal interviews as well as electronic docs.google with the help of social media and mainly Facebook. Results have shown that only 6% of the Greek consumers know the meaning of green hotels very well, while the majority (58%) heard it for the first time through this specific study. While the majority of the Greek consumers consider the institution of the green hotels as quite significant, however more than 88% of them have never stayed in a green hotel and the rest stated that they have stayed 2–3 times. In general, there is an intention to pay a 5–10% more for a green hotel instead of a conventional one, among the people surveyed. Furthermore, they believe, at a percentage of 98%, that it is necessary for a green hotel to be equipped with ecological furniture and wooden constructions. The Greek consumers’ target-group, for green hotels equipped also with green furniture, consists of those with relatively higher income, while the support of this institution is independent from the income, educational level, age and sex of the respondents. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG