scholarly journals Production and Marketing Practices and Trade Flows in the United States Green Industry in 2013

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan W. Hodges ◽  
Hayk Khachatryan ◽  
Marco A. Palma ◽  
Charles R. Hall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Wholesale Market ◽  
Bedding Plants ◽  
Green Industry ◽  
Herbaceous Perennials ◽  
Weather Uncertainty ◽  
Production Area

A national survey of 32,000 U.S. ornamental plant grower and dealer-retail firms was conducted to collect information on business practices and operating results for calendar year 2013. A total of 2,657 valid respondent firms reported annual sales of $3.957 billion, and employment of 38,657 fulltime, part-time, seasonal and foreign H2A workers. About 43 percent of sales were at retail to final consumers, and 57 percent through wholesale market channels, including landscape contractors, re-wholesalers, home centers, garden centers and mass merchandise stores. The top five specific plant categories reported were flowering annuals (bedding plants), deciduous shade and flowering trees, herbaceous perennials, deciduous shrubs, and vegetables/fruits/herbs. Container-grown plants were the predominant product form. Sales were reported for marketing practices such as advance contracting, brokerage, and transaction methods such as telephone or in-person sales. The internet was the largest advertising medium. International exports were a small share of total sales (<1%), while sales outside the production area for eight agroclimatic regions of the United States represented less than one percent to 36 percent of sales. Groundwater wells were the predominant source of irrigation water, and overhead sprinklers were the largest application method, followed by drip irrigation and hand watering. Factors perceived to be most important for the overall health of the green industry included market demand and weather uncertainty.

scholarly journals Business and Marketing Practices of U.S. Landscape Firms

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 884-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariana Torres ◽  
Susan S. Barton ◽  
Bridget K. Behe
Keyword(s):  
Business Practices ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Business Growth ◽  
Bedding Plants ◽  
Green Industry ◽  
Herbaceous Perennials ◽  
Hourly Employees ◽  
Deciduous Shrubs ◽  
First Time ◽  
Selection Of

Little information has been published on the business and marketing practices of landscape firms, an important sector of the green industry. We sought to profile the product mix, advertising, marketing, and other business practices of United States landscape firms and compare them by business type (landscape only, landscape/retail, and landscape/retail/grower) as well as by firm size. We sent the 2014 Trade Flows and Marketing survey to a wide selection of green industry businesses across the country and for the first time included landscape businesses. Herbaceous perennials, shade trees, deciduous shrubs, and flowering bedding plants together accounted for half of all landscape sales; 3/4 of all products were sold in containers. However, landscape only firms sold a higher percentage of deciduous shrubs compared with landscape/retail/grower firms. Landscape businesses diversified their sales methods as they diversified their businesses to include production and retail functions. Landscape businesses spent, on average, 5.6% of sales on advertising, yet large landscape companies spent two to three times the percentage of sales on advertising compared with small- and medium-sized firms. Advertising as a percent of sales was three to four times higher for landscape/retail/grower compared with landscape only or landscape/retail firms; most respondents used Internet advertising as their primary method of advertising. The top three factors influencing price establishment in landscape businesses were plant grade, market demand, and uniqueness of plants, whereas inflation was ranked as the least important of the nine factors provided. A higher percentage of small and medium-sized firms perceived last year’s prices as more important in price establishment compared with large firms. A high percentage of large landscape companies said the ability to hire competent hourly employees was an important factor in business growth and management, but this was true only for about half of the small and medium-sized landscape companies.

Mezcal: When Culture and Consumption Collide

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 120-128
Author(s):  
Tara Ceranic Salinas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Mexican State

Mezcal is a spirit distilled from the heart of the agave plant. It has been produced via traditional methods in Mexico for centuries, but recently has found popularity in the United States and other countries. The rise in demand for this artisanal product could greatly benefit the eight states in which it is legally distilled with an influx of capital from tourism and export. However, with this popularity comes outside influence and the potential for unfair business practices and cultural appropriation. This case provides a general overview of mezcal and the Mexican state of Oaxaca in which it is produced. Discussion questions are presented as well as a brief teaching note.

“The Death of Liberal Internationalism?: Donald Trump, Walmart, and the Two Koreas”

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-197
Author(s):  
Mitchell B. Lerner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Short Term ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
The People ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
Short Time

The election of Donald J. Trump unsettled many areas of U.S. foreign policy, but few more than the nation’s relationship with Korea. This article argues that the Trump administration’s vision for the world represents a stark break from the tradition of liberal internationalism and instead seeks to take the United States down a path that reflects the modern business practices of giant American corporations. A suitable label for this vision, as the following pages will show, is “Walmart unilateralism.” This framework abandons the traditional American policies of nation building and alliances based on shared ideological values. Instead, it embraces a more short-term approach rooted in financial bottom lines, flexible alliances and rivalries, and the ruthless exploitation of power hierarchies. This new approach, this article concludes, may dramatically transform the American relationship with Korea. Walmart unilateralism in Korea almost certainly will have some short-time positive ramifications for the United States, but its larger failure to consider the history and values of the people living on the Korean Peninsula may generate serious long-term problems for the future experience of the United States in the region.

The Informational Economy of Vaudeville and the Business of American Entertainment

2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-446
Author(s):  
Samuel E. Backer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Informational Economy ◽  
Analyze Data

In the early twentieth century, vaudeville was the most popular theatrical form in the United States. Operating before the rise of mechanically reproduced entertainment, its centralized booking offices moved tens of thousands of performers across hundreds of stages to an audience of millions. Designed to gather and analyze data about both audiences and performers, these offices created a complex informational economy that defined the genre—an internal market that sought to transform culture into a commodity. By reconstructing the concrete details of these business practices, it is possible to develop a new understanding of both the success of the vaudeville industry and its influence on the evolution of American mass culture.

Baseload power potential from optimally-configured wind, solar and storage power plants across the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D Rhodes ◽  
Aditya Choukulkar ◽  
Brianna Cote ◽  
Sarah A McKee ◽  
Christopher T M Clack
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Cost Optimization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Solar Pv ◽  
Wholesale Market ◽  
Optimal Technology ◽  
Current Price ◽  
The Cost

Abstract In the present paper, we assessed the potential for local wind, solar PV, and energy storage to provide baseload (constant, uninterrupted) power in every county of the contiguous United States. The amount of available capacity between 2020 and 2050 was determined via a least-cost optimization model that took into account changing costs of constituent technologies and local meteorological conditions. We found that, by 2050, the potential exists for about 6.8 TW of renewable baseload power at an average cost of approximately $50 / MWh, which is competitive with current wholesale market rates for electricity. The optimal technology configurations constructed always resulted in over two hours of emergency energy reserves, with the amount increasing as the price of energy storage falls. We also found that, given current price decline trajectories, the model has a tendency to select more solar capacity than wind over time. A second part of the study performed three million simulations followed by a regression analysis to generate an online map-based tool that allows users to change input costs assumptions and compute the cost of renewable baseload electricity in every contiguous US county.

A Code of Conduct on Restrictive Business Practices: A Third Option

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 198-235
Author(s):  
Samuel Wex
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Norms ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
International Agreement ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Trade Organization

Competing Goals in Formulating a Code of Conduct on Restrictive Business PracticesFor the past thirty years efforts to formulate and implement acceptable international norms to regulate restrictive business practices (R.B.P.’s) affecting international trade have largely failed. Yet, none can deny the necessity of such international norms in the face of the inability of national legal systems to cope with an economic order of international dimensions. The abortive International Trade Organization, as part of the Havana Charter of 1948, and the Draft E.C.O.S.O.C. International Agreement of 1953, which were originally initiated by the United States, were eventually rejected by it because “the various national policies, legislation, and enforcement procedures in this field were not sufficiently comparable.”

scholarly journals Alternative Auction Institutions for Electric Power Markets

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Bernard ◽  
Timothy Mount ◽  
William Schulze
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Electric Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Power Markets ◽  
Wholesale Market ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Uniform Price Auction ◽  
Uniform Price ◽  
Electric Power Markets ◽  
Price Auction

Restructuring of electric power markets is proceeding across the United States and in many other nations around the world. The performance of these markets will influence everything from the prices faced by consumers to the reliability of the systems. The challenges of these changes present many important areas for research. For much of the northeastern United States, restructuring proposals include, at least for the short term, the formation of a single-sided auction mechanism for the wholesale market. This research uses experimental methods to analyze how these markets may function. In the experiments, the two basic uniform price auction rules are tested under three different market sizes. Early experimental results suggest the commonly proposed last-accepted-offer auction works well, but market power could be a real concern.

Communicating about Fossil Fuel Divestment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill E. Hopke ◽  
Luis E. Hestres
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Population ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Responsible Investing ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
The Guardian

Divestment is a socially responsible investing tactic to remove assets from a sector or industry based on moral objections to its business practices. It has historical roots in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The early-21st-century fossil fuel divestment movement began with climate activist and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben’s Rolling Stone article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.” McKibben’s argument centers on three numbers. The first is 2°C, the international target for limiting global warming that was agreed upon at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2009 Copenhagen conference of parties (COP). The second is 565 Gigatons, the estimated upper limit of carbon dioxide that the world population can put into the atmosphere and reasonably expect to stay below 2°C. The third number is 2,795 Gigatons, which is the amount of proven fossil fuel reserves. That the amount of proven reserves is five times that which is allowable within the 2°C limit forms the basis for calls to divest.The aggregation of individual divestment campaigns constitutes a movement with shared goals. Divestment can also function as “tactic” to indirectly apply pressure to targets of a movement, such as in the case of the movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States. Since 2012, the fossil fuel divestment movement has been gaining traction, first in the United States and United Kingdom, with student-led organizing focused on pressuring universities to divest endowment assets on moral grounds.In partnership with 350.org, The Guardian launched its Keep it in the Ground campaign in March 2015 at the behest of outgoing editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. Within its first year, the digital campaign garnered support from more than a quarter-million online petitioners and won a “campaign of the year” award in the Press Gazette’s British Journalism Awards. Since the launch of The Guardian’s campaign, “keep it in the ground” has become a dominant frame used by fossil fuel divestment activists.Divestment campaigns seek to stigmatize the fossil fuel industry. The rationale for divestment rests on the idea that fossil fuel companies are financially valued based on their resource reserves and will not be able to extract these reserves with a 2°C or lower climate target. Thus, their valuation will be reduced and the financial holdings become “stranded assets.” Critics of divestment have cited the costs and risks to institutional endowments that divestment would entail, arguing that to divest would go against their fiduciary responsibility. Critics have also argued that divesting from fossil fuel assets would have little or no impact on the industry. Some higher education institutions, including Princeton and Harvard, have objected to divestment as a politicization of their endowments. Divestment advocates have responded to this concern by pointing out that not divesting is not a politically neutral act—it is, in fact, choosing the side of fossil fuel corporations.

Backbone Topology, Access, and the Commercial Internet, 1997–2000

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton E O'Kelly ◽  
Tony H Grubesic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Telecommunications Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Telecommunications Infrastructure ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Us

As the Internet grows in popularity, telecommunications infrastructure in the United States continues to increase in capacity and geographic reach to meet market demand. Important components of this infrastructure include the commercial fiber-optic backbones used to transport digital information between locations. The spatial organization of commercial Internet backbones reflects an increasingly competitive privatized market for service provision, in which certain locations are more accessible and better connected than others. The authors have three objectives. First, they explore the current state of the telecommunications industry, paying special attention to current trends, mergers, and new company business models. Second, they use a standardized methodology to examine the topological structure of the US commercial Internet and the resulting differences in city accessibility. Third, this methodology is put to the test by an exploration of an empirical database of 41 network providers in the United States. Results suggest that significant changes in city accessibility to the commercial Internet occurred between 1997 and 2000.

scholarly journals The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Windhorst
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
School System ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
American Education ◽  
American School ◽  
Main Ideas

Diane Ravitch created quite a national stir when The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education came out last year in the United States.  Here was a highly respected historian of American education publically recanting her previous advocacy of two main ideas shaping educational reform today: 1) the adoption of free market business practices to make schools more competitive, and 2) the use of standardized testing as the main assessment tool of student learning.  

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