Agri-food entrepreneurship. Harvesting, growing and reseeding the orchard through a bibliometric study

PurposeScholarly literature on entrepreneurial activities in the agri-food sector has flourished over the years in several different ways. This study uses the metaphor of an orchard to describe how this stream of literature has evolved from its initial “seeds” to the rich and diversified “fruits” of current debate. It is now time to harvest and catalogue these “fruits”. This study aims to map out and systematise the current stock of knowledge on agri-food entrepreneurship, so as to identify gaps and thus “plant” new seeds for the future of the “orchard”.Design/methodology/approachTo identify thematic clusters, this study used a bibliometric analysis coupled with a systematic literature review performed over a dataset of 108 peer-reviewed articles.FindingsThe results revealed six thematic clusters related to agri-food entrepreneurship: ecosystems, formal and informal institutions; contextual entrepreneurial practices; community and stakeholders’ engagement; barriers and opportunities; entrepreneurial orientation; and sustainable entrepreneurship. After investigating each of them, this study created a framework to highlight future avenues through which the topic could be further developed.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to systematise, analyse and critically interpret the literature concerned with agri-food entrepreneurship.

Knowledge Diffusion, Trade, and Innovation across Countries and Sectors

This paper provides a unified framework for quantifying the cross-country and cross-sector interactions among trade, innovation, and knowledge diffusion. This framework is used to study the effect of trade liberalization in an endogenous growth model in which comparative advantage and the stock of knowledge are determined by innovation and diffusion. The model is calibrated to match observed cross-country and cross-sector heterogeneity in production, innovation efficiency, and knowledge spillovers. The counterfactual analysis shows that a reduction in trade costs induces a reallocation of R&D and comparative advantage across sectors. Heterogeneous knowledge diffusion amplifies the specialization effects of trade-induced R&D reallocation, becoming an important source of welfare. (JEL F12, F14, O33, O34, O41)

Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management Using Blockchain Technology

DSlesinger and M. Stephenson in the Enclyclopaedia of Social Sciences define research as “The manipulation of things concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in construction of theory or in practice of art” Research thus is an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge making for its advancement. In short, the search for knowledge thorough objective and systematic method of finding solution to a problem is research.[1] This paper is written with the purpose exploring a possible use case of blockchain technology in supply chain management which has the potential to solve many of the existing problems related to the industry along with the scope of improving the same for better. Starting with the introductions of the technologies involved, the paper proceeds to discuss the limitations of supply chains in current scenario and then propose a method in which the adoption of this technology could take place followed by the limitations and hurdles associated with the adoption of this technology. Keywords: Blockchain, Supply chain, Distributed ledger, smart contract, Network.

Offa’s Dyke: A Continuing Journey of Discovery

New observations concerning the Mercian/Welsh frontier, principally on Offa’s Dyke (but also on Wat’s Dyke and in the Vale of Clwyd), were made each winter between 2016/17 and 2019/20 by the lead author with, at one time or another, each of the collaborators in this article. The prime focus here is upon Offa’s Dyke in west Gloucestershire and in Flintshire, in both of which areas fieldwork is adding incrementally to our stock of knowledge about the extent and nature of the monument. However, observations elsewhere on its course, such as in west-central Herefordshire, at Hem (Montgomeryshire), and near Trefonen (Shropshire) are also noted in brief descriptive sections. The identification of ‘new’ lengths of Offa’s Dyke in Tutshill (near Chepstow) and between Lower Redbrook and Lower Lydbrook south-east of Monmouth indicates that the linear earthwork was built as a near-continuous or continuous monument in these southerly areas. Meanwhile, the discovery of lengths of linear earthwork in Flintshire that could have formed part of a continuous course reaching the sea near Gronant east of Prestatyn has also raised important questions about the relationship of Wat’s Dyke to Offa’s Dyke.

Coordinating Human and Machine Learning for Effective Organization Learning

With the rise of machine learning (ML), humans are no longer the only ones capable of learning and contributing to an organization’s stock of knowledge. We study how organizations can coordinate human learning and ML in order to learn effectively as a whole. Based on a series of agent-based simulations, we find that, first, ML can reduce an organization’s demand for human explorative learning that is aimed at uncovering new ideas; second, adjustments to ML systems made by humans are largely beneficial, but this effect can diminish or even become harmful under certain conditions; and third, reliance on knowledge created by ML systems can facilitate organizational learning in turbulent environments, but this requires significant investments in the initial setup of these systems as well as adequately coordinating them with humans. These insights contribute to rethinking organizational learning in the presence of ML and can aid organizations in reallocating scarce resources to facilitate organizational learning in practice.

Schutzian social cartography

The aim of this paper is to explore an uncharted aspect of Schutzian description of the structure of the stock of knowledge. The linkage between the stock of knowledge and the life-world isexamined through the cartographic metaphor of the map. Starting from an analysis of different manuscripts, it is shown that the cartographic metaphor is the heuristic resource used by Alfred Schutz to depict the complex relationships between knowledge and life-world. It is argued that the allegorical reference to the use of maps expresses the conversion of our perception of the life-world into contour lines or hatchings, which corresponds to the phenomenological insight that objects are given in perception through manifesting sides or adumbrations. Moreover, it is stated that the metaphor of the relevance-isohypses helps Schutz to describe not only the structurization of our stock of knowledge into theme and horizon and the levels of familiarity and typicality we perceive in the objects of the world, but also the incomplete character of our knowledge, i.e., the shadows and hatchings sketched in it as a consequence of the opacity of the life-world. It is maintained that far from belonging solely to geography, the metaphor of the unknown world as a «terra incognita» suggests an inquiry into the process of production of knowledge. The cartographic blanks do not preclude the impossibility of knowledge, but, on the contrary, they constitute its original source.

Sociocultural Structure in the Context of the “Stock of Knowledge” Labeling the Identity of Women in the Process of Identity Construction: The Example of Proverbs

Individuals’ gender identities and their roles ascribed to these identities are not the natural result of biological sex, but are culturally constructed by the sociocultural structure. In order to explain the construction of social identities, in this study, using Schutz’s concept of “Stock of Knowledge”, it has been tried to reveal how negative descriptions of female identity stigmatize women’s identity within the concept of culture. The study is limited to the example of proverbs because it consists of culture, social ethics and values, customs and traditions, language and belief elements and is comprehensive. For data analysis in the context of proverbs in the study; The Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary, which is the work of Ömer Asım Aksoy published by the Turkish Language Association, and the Proverbs and Idioms in the Dialects of the Region published by the Turkish Language Association were used. Among the 7898 proverbs found in the related works, 66 proverbs containing stigmatizing descriptions of the identity of women were identified. 66 proverbs determined were subjected to “Interpretative Phenomenological” analysis by using the computer-aided qualitative data analysis program. As a result of the analysis, three different themes, namely “Woman’s Character Traits”, “Man’s View of Woman”, “Woman’s Relationships with Man”, about female identity have emerged in the relevant proverbs. It was concluded that he was stigmatized as “Unreliable”, “Deceitful”, “Spiteful”, “Ungrateful”, “Wasteful”, “Worthless” and “Incompetent”.

МЕЖДУКУЛТУРНО ОБЩУВАНЕ И РАВНОПОСТАВЕНОСТ МЕЖДУ УЧАСТНИЦИТЕ В БЪЛГАРСКИЯ ДИАЛОГ / INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND EQUALITY BETWEEN THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE DIALOGUE IN BULGARIAN

The ways in which we communicate, what we communicate and our response to communication are greatly influenced by our culture. Cultural differences have strength and value. Intercultural communication is the exchange of cultural information be-tween groups of people from different cultures. Effective communicators are those who are motivated, who have a significant stock of knowledge to draw upon and possess the needed communication skills. Motivation understood as competence means that one wants to interact with a person from another culture and to get to know that culture. The knowledge dimension of communication competence means that one has knowledge about the other person and his or her culture. Skills are the actual application of specific behaviours that enable one to accomplish one’s goals. The skills need to be adapted to the rules of interaction that are appropriate to the host culture.

Collective Immersion by Affections

This article explores, through group-interviews and in terms of peer-culture, the ways in which pupils negotiate experiences from school-excursions to three heritage sites, Vadstena Castle, a former Royal Castle connected to the royal dynasty of Vasa; Witches’ forest, the place for interrogation by torture and executions of nine women, accused of witchcraft in 1617, and Linköping Cathedral Ages at the visitor programs “Middle Ages in the Cathedral”. The article, which is part of a larger project on learning processes and historical sites, investigates how pupils collectively load the heritage site with values reflected in immersion by affections, and what significance immersion of affections can have on the pupils’ process of stock of knowledge. The following research questions are asked: What kind of affections are evoked? Which situations and circumstances during the visit at the heritage site, mould impressions and immersion in the collective recalling? By drawing on affection, peer culture and critical heritage studies’ verb “heritaging”, we have studied how the pupils collectively load the heritage sites with values reflected in immersion by affections, and what significance immersion of affections have on the pupils’ process of historical understanding. To understand how the heritage site in terms of a material and physical place loaded with narratives of the past affects the children, the analysis aimed to explore under what circumstances the immersion took place. The article localize three situations that led to surprise and thereby friction between the expected (the stock of knowledge) and what was experienced at the site (the immediate experience), namely conflicts caused by expectations and experiences at the site, conflict caused by replicas in relation to originals, and finally conflict between lived experiences and insights at the site.