Barriers to the Export of Greek Wine

Although Greek wine is a high quality product, it is not well known in the international marketplace and it has not a recognised brand name. The aim of the current research is to examine the barriers to the export of Greek wine. In-depth Personal interviews were undertaken with producers, managers and people involved in the Greek wine industry. Participants provided information about the current situation and their projections about future. This research is based on qualitative methods. According to the results of the research the barriers could be separated into three basic categories, logistic and financial barriers, marketing and promotion barriers and policy barriers. This research offers Greek wine export managers and people involved in wine industry in general a possible mean of evaluating the marketing potentials of Greek wine in the international marketplace. It also helps Greek wine export managers to identify and recognise the problems that their product face in the international market, in order to improve its image, to conduct a brand building strategy and as a result to increase the exports.Greek wine, Marketing, Barriers, Exports, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Barriers to the Export of Greek Wine

Although Greek wine is a high quality product, it is not well known in the international marketplace and it has not a recognised brand name. The aim of the current research is to examine the barriers to the export of Greek wine. In-depth Personal interviews were undertaken with producers, managers and people involved in the Greek wine industry. Participants provided information about the current situation and their projections about future. This research is based on qualitative methods. According to the results of the research the barriers could be separated into three basic categories, logistic and financial barriers, marketing and promotion barriers and policy barriers. This research offers Greek wine export managers and people involved in wine industry in general a possible mean of evaluating the marketing potentials of Greek wine in the international marketplace. It also helps Greek wine export managers to identify and recognise the problems that their product face in the international market, in order to improve its image, to conduct a brand building strategy and as a result to increase the exports

The implementation of hybrid evaluation in the European Union rual development programmes

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the success and failure factorsidentified by all stakeholders involved in the stages of design, implementation andevaluation of the Greek Rural Development Programme and affect directly orindirectly the achievement of its objectives. Beginning with the main aim, thisresearch effort makes an attempt to meet the requirement for a hybrid evaluation ofall the three stages / processes of the policy cycle mentioned above, combiningquantitative and qualitative methods beyond the Common Monitoring andEvaluation Framework of the European Commission. To ensure the participation ofall those who affect and are affected by the Rural Development Policy, a twoprongedapproach is adopted. Firstly, consider the issue from the perspective ofparticipants in the politico-administrative system of the Rural DevelopmentProgramme design, implementation and evaluation at national, regional and local level and, secondly, from the perspective of the final beneficiaries who are thecountryside residents.In-depth interviews and a focus group were held and Quantitative Network Analysiswas applied, regarding the investigation of the matter from the perspective of actorsinvolved in the design, implementation and evaluation politico-administrativesystem of the Rural Development Programme of Greece. The examination of thestakeholders’ views who are participating in the politico-administrative system putsa high priority on increasing all stakeholders’ participation in the stage of design,reducing bureaucracy, increasing and continuously educating personnel the stage ofimplementation. Regarding the stage of evaluation it is proposed to combinequantitative with qualitative methods beyond the Common Monitoring andEvaluation Framework of the European Commission. The evaluation results mustrepresent reality and be used as key tool for the redesign of the current and thedesign of the next programming period and not been faced only as an institutionalduty of each EU member - state to the Commission.With respect to the study of the final beneficiaries’ profile and behavior, who are theresidents of the countryside, quantitative research was undertaken. 107beneficiaries of the measure 121 "Modernisation of agricultural holdings" of the Rural Development Programme for Greece from 2007 to 2013 from Imathia Regionof Central Macedonia were participated. Based on the empirical results, the farmersdid not participate in the design of the measure 121. They believe that there isbureaucracy and the major problems are the requirement of multiple andunnecessary documents and long delays in the approval of the applications

Politico-administrative scenario evaluation through quantitative network analysis: Using Measure 121 (modernization of agricultural holdings) of Axis 1 as an illustration

In Greece, there is a fostered policy for the modernization of agricultural holdings. This aims in order at improving productivity and environmental performance within a highly competitive international environment. The main research questions are to find what structural changes are desirable or possible to appear in the politico-administrative hierarchy from the 3rd to the 4th Programming Period. Issues of power centralization, information management, dogmatism and conflict are examined. The main method applied for this purpose is the Quantitative Network Analysis. Primary data were collected with standardized questionnaires. State officials have been interviewed. Three scenarios are extracted: a) the real situation of the 3rd PP, b) the desirable situation of the 4th PP, and the probable situation of the 4th PP. Informal hierarchies are measured and visualized. The operationalization of the power dimensions and the other types of links is of crucial importance for the validity and reliability of the results. The results can be useful for policy consulting, if one compares the “probable” and “desirable” scenarios of the 4th PP with the past situation of 3rd PP and particular suggestions can be made. Greece is characterized by a top-down approach of rural development. The process of design and delivery is strongly centralized, and this leads to inflexibility. The bureaucratic procedures and the requirement of too many and possibly unnecessary documents are usual obstacles. The participants present ambitious desires but they also are realists rather than over-optimists concerning the simplicity of the procedures. They believe that the experience of the past can become a lesson for a realistic and not over-optimistic improvement

Rural development policy delivery and governance in Greece

The main purpose of this research is focused on understanding the politico-administrative system and structure of rural policy implementation in the third programming period (2000-2006). Case studies have been conducted for selected measures of the Greek Rural Development Programme (RDP) and LEADER+ initiative. In-depth interviews were conducted with officials involved in the rural development policy implementation. Inflexibility due to centralization, lack of personnel motivation and inadequacy of the personnel involved in policy implementation are the main weaknesses. Work seasonal overload is also a weakness, which can be caused by peak periods or by too many and in part possibly unnecessary documents, official permissions and other legal or administrative obligations. The administrative personnel should be better motivated by financial bonus and properly trained. A central integrated database, accessible to all administrative levels and units, should also be designed. Such changes could lead to a smoother decentralisation process because in some cases centralisation is considered to cause communication obstacles, work overload and delays

A Cautionary Note on the Reproduction of Dependencies through Linear Stochastic Models with Non-Gaussian White Noise

Since the prime days of stochastic hydrology back in 1960s, autoregressive (AR) and moving average (MA) models (as well as their extensions) have been widely used to simulate hydrometeorological processes. Initially, AR(1) or Markovian models with Gaussian noise prevailed due to their conceptual and mathematical simplicity. However, the ubiquitous skewed behavior of most hydrometeorological processes, particularly at fine time scales, necessitated the generation of synthetic time series to also reproduce higher-order moments. In this respect, the former schemes were enhanced to preserve skewness through the use of non-Gaussian white noise— a modification attributed to Thomas and Fiering (TF). Although preserving higher-order moments to approximate a distribution is a limited and potentially risky solution, the TF approach has become a common choice in operational practice. In this study, almost half a century after its introduction, we reveal an important flaw that spans over all popular linear stochastic models that employ non-Gaussian white noise. Focusing on the Markovian case, we prove mathematically that this generating scheme provides bounded dependence patterns, which are both unrealistic and inconsistent with the observed data. This so-called “envelope behavior” is amplified as the skewness and correlation increases, as demonstrated on the basis of real-world and hypothetical simulation examples