The Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order enacted in August of 2000 resulted in increased production and consumption of blueberries in the United States. As blueberry plantings increased, grower profitability was threatened. A mail survey addressed to blueberry growers of four Southeastern states. A binary logit model analyzed the grower’s decision of organic adoption and a cumulative logit analyzed those growers not producing organic blueberries but indicated some likelihood in the future. Results were based on 234 eligible responses. Positive significant relationships existed between organic blueberry growers and total acres of blueberry production, transfer of ownership of the blueberry operation and the average fresh price received of blueberries. Growers that indicated some likelihood of adopting organic blueberries in the future showed significant positive relationships with those willing to take more risks, transfer of ownership of the blueberry operation, concern about stability of blueberry prices and those of Hispanic descent.

The use of minimum tillage technology reduces the quantity of tillage required to produce a crop, thereby reducing soil degradation. The reduced tillage results in increased soil organic matter and a reduction in soil and water erosion. Producers, researchers, and farm implement manufacturers have reduced land degradation through innovative farming practices and equipment. An example is the innovation of minimum tillage equipment and farming practices which is designed to reduce damage caused by increased tilling of the land. Minimum tillage maintains more of the previous crops residue on the surface of the soil, thereby reducing the damaging effects of wind and water erosion. Some Prairie producers have chosen to adopt minimum tillage technology, while others continue to use conventional tillage. The objective of this thesis is to determine which socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics are influential in determining whether minimum tillage technology and practices are adopted. <p>The theoretical framework for this thesis is based on an agriculture producers objective function. A lexicographic utility function is used, which means that each element of the utility function must be satisfied in order of rank with the highest level of utility achieved when the greatest number of elements has been satisfied. For the empirical analysis a Probit model is used to model the decision of whether to adopt minimum tillage technology. A number of socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics, such as age, education, farm size, soil type, weather, and location of a research farm, were included as explanatory variables. The primary data source for the empirical analysis was farm level data from the Agriculture and Population Census data from 1991, 1996, and 2001, which resulted in over 42,000 observations in the data set. <p>A number of model specifications and sensitivity analyses were run and the results obtained were consistent with one another, thus the findings presented in this thesis are robust. A number of socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics are significant in determining whether minimum tillage is adopted. These variables include: Alberta dummy variable, summerfallow, age, total farm area, gross farm sales, black, brown, and dark gray soils, corporate operating structure, time, average maximum April and June temperature, and total June precipitation.

The use of minimum tillage technology reduces the quantity of tillage required to produce a crop, thereby reducing soil degradation. The reduced tillage results in increased soil organic matter and a reduction in soil and water erosion. Producers, researchers, and farm implement manufacturers have reduced land degradation through innovative farming practices and equipment. An example is the innovation of minimum tillage equipment and farming practices which is designed to reduce damage caused by increased tilling of the land. Minimum tillage maintains more of the previous crops residue on the surface of the soil, thereby reducing the damaging effects of wind and water erosion. Some Prairie producers have chosen to adopt minimum tillage technology, while others continue to use conventional tillage. The objective of this thesis is to determine which socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics are influential in determining whether minimum tillage technology and practices are adopted. <p>The theoretical framework for this thesis is based on an agriculture producers objective function. A lexicographic utility function is used, which means that each element of the utility function must be satisfied in order of rank with the highest level of utility achieved when the greatest number of elements has been satisfied. For the empirical analysis a Probit model is used to model the decision of whether to adopt minimum tillage technology. A number of socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics, such as age, education, farm size, soil type, weather, and location of a research farm, were included as explanatory variables. The primary data source for the empirical analysis was farm level data from the Agriculture and Population Census data from 1991, 1996, and 2001, which resulted in over 42,000 observations in the data set. <p>A number of model specifications and sensitivity analyses were run and the results obtained were consistent with one another, thus the findings presented in this thesis are robust. A number of socio-economic, farm, and regional characteristics are significant in determining whether minimum tillage is adopted. These variables include: Alberta dummy variable, summerfallow, age, total farm area, gross farm sales, black, brown, and dark gray soils, corporate operating structure, time, average maximum April and June temperature, and total June precipitation.

Because of the high cost and the irreversibility of the big investment company decision maker often choose to defer the investment until the uncertainty gets clear. That is a management flexibility to decrease the risky. This article analyze that when company faces two competing technology that one have competing advantage comparing with the other under an uncertainty situation how does the company decide when and which to adopt. We develop a continuous-time stochastic model that aids in determination of optimal timing for adoption within the framework of real options theory. We propose that the competing situation between two incompatible technologies follows the general Wiener Process. When company chose to defer the investment we use the expectations of the decision maker and the competing situation between two technologies to decide the optimal investment timing. The result of this thesis suggests that a technology adopter should defer its investment until one technology¡¦s probability to win out in the market place and achieve critical mass reaches a critical threshold. This research only provides a way to show the decision maker when and which to adopt but not guarantee that the technology being chose will dominate the market in the future.

There is a persistent problem of poor agricultural production which leads to household food insecurity problems for farmers in Ghana. Studies show that the adoption of improved agricultural practices and technology may help stabilize production, and lessen food insecurity problems. There, however, is a missing link between food insecurity and adoption of soil improving practices in the literature. The missing link is addressed by investigation whether the food insecurity group differs in adopting the use of soil improving practices. Conversely, the adoption of soil improving practices may influence a household’s food security position. With this in mind, the objectives of study are to determine the 1) likelihood of adopting the soil improving practices of Ghanaian households; and 2) determine if and how food insecure agricultural households differ from food secure agricultural households in terms of agricultural practices, household characteristics, and technologies adopted. A conditional logit model, based on random utility theory, is estimated to determine which factors affect adoption of soil improving practices; whereas, a multinomial logit model is used to examine factors influencing a household’s food insecurity position. Positions considered are chronic, seasonal, vulnerable food insecure groups and a food secure group. The positions are differentiated by the length of time a household went without sufficient food. Characteristics of operating under seasonal lease, being a food secure household, and households farming medium quality soil increase the probability of adopting soil improving practices. Application of chemical fertilizers, commercial seeds, and pesticides, along with operating under a seasonal lease tenure and adoption of improved soil practices are likely to improve the household food security position. Households with medium quality soil have a larger probability of not being a chronic food insecure household. Given the high priority that the government of Ghana has placed on food security, policies that encourage households to adopt soil improving practices may be beneficial to food insecure households. Household characteristics such as income, age, education level, and household size are not significant in determining the likelihood of a household being in one of food insecurity group. The insignificance may be attributed to the homogeneity of the surveyed household characteristics.

The forest sector is traditionally viewed as stagnant and non-innovative in comparison to higher-value added industries. The sector is being challenged by environmental, market and consumer changes at home and internationally. To combat these challenges, forestry firms must undergo a transformation in their activities, including their production methods by producing innovative and sustainable products and materials. This involves investing in innovation, advanced technologies and new products. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies on firm performance in the Canadian forest sector. The study is based on data from the 2007 Survey of Advanced Technology and interviews with technology adopters. The differences between technology adopters and non-adopters in terms of capital investment, R&D, training, management practices and innovation were analyzed. The findings suggest that the adoption of advanced technologies is important for the realizations of innovations. Firms which were both innovative and adopted technology were most likely to report improvements in performance post-adoption.

This thesis explores how, and to what extent, farm businesses are responding to changing demands on agriculture in terms of resource efficiency, entrepreneurship and understanding the role of soft technology in supporting these strategies. This is in response to a changing business environment which is challenging farming income streams and profitability. The research questions in this thesis are resolved by adopting a multi-method research strategy. This includes a survey of 738 Welsh Upland hill farmers from a population of 7,500, 10 semi-structured interviews and action research in the design, development and implementation of decision support systems. Together the methods address the issues of strategic stance, and technology adoption in agriculture. The study findings are intended to be useful for farm decision-makers, support and advisory bodies, and for informing policy in terms of farming approaches, technology infrastructure and farm resource management. The research outcomes presented in the main chapters provide, individually and in synthesis, a better understanding of farming strategies and the role of technology in assisting such strategies. Collectively, the multi-phased approach to the research topic identifies many important farm responses to the economic and political tensions facing agriculture. Farmers can decide on entrepreneurial and efficiency driven strategies whilst making the best use of resources and technology. The findings also show that the strategic objectives of farm decision makers are far more influential in technology adoption than the technology itself and therefore leadership and market maturity are key factors that must be considered as influencing the degree of technology adoption. Additionally, insights are provided regarding wider issues of ICT adoption amongst farmers with particular regard to barriers to technology adoption.

Many fields of economics point to technology as the primary vehicle for change. Agencies pushing change often promote technology adoption to achieve their goals. To improve our understanding of how efforts to push new technologies should be focused, two studies are undertaken. The first study defines and tests for universality using meta-regression analysis on 170 analyses of agricultural production technologies. The second study, a case study on an emerging information technology - climate forecasts, examines how the timing of adoption affects the benefits. A factor exhibiting a systematic positive or negative effect on technology adoption is a universal factor. If the impact is the same regardless of location or technology type, the factor is strongly universal. The factor is weakly universal if the impact varies by location or technology type. Education and farm size are found to be weakly positive universal, age is found to be weakly negative universal, and outreach is not found to be a universal factor in the adoption of technology. These results indicate that technology-promoters may want to change their approach and focus on younger, more educated producers with larger farms. In the second study, an international wheat trade model incorporating climate variability is used to simulate different scenarios when wheat producers in the U.S., Canada, and Australia adopt ENSO-based forecasts for use in production decisions. Adoption timing and levels are varied across countries in the different scenarios. The results are highly consistent. Early adopters benefit the most, there is no incentive for more producers to adopt after 60% to 95% have adopted (meaning the adoption ceiling has been reached), and slower adoption corresponds to ceilings closer to 60% than 95%. Examining technology adoption from two angles provides a deeper understanding of the adoption process and aids technology-promoters in achieving their goals. In addition to focusing on younger, more educated producers with larger farms, technology-promoters wanting wide-spread adoption with high benefits need to push constituents to adopt early and fast.

An extensive amount of research has been conducted on Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) in the context of logistics, supply chain and manufacturing. Additionally, marketing opportunities related to RFID usage have been argued to exist. Despite this, limited research has focused on RFID in a marketing context which constitutes the research gap for this study.  A literature review on the subject area yielded an overview of the existing literature within the field. The literature review identified a research gap that constitutes the purpose of this study. The purpose is to investigate the factors influencing the adoption of Radio Frequency IDentification technology and whether it enhances retailers’ marketing opportunities. The study was of a qualitative nature and was conducted through a multiple case study. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with four companies. An archival analysis was performed in addition to the interviews. The interview data reveals that RFID technology adoption still has barriers to overcome, especially in regards to the identified marketing opportunities. Based on the conclusions of this study recommendations for managerial implications were formed. The findings of the study were able to support previous research stating that the main challenge for RFID adoption is the cost of the equipment. However, the previously identified marketing opportunities were not fully supported by the interviewed companies, thus, this area of research needs to be developed further.

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the economics of the Internet. The first chapter begins with presenting the advertising spending patterns of US local restaurants that have different ratings on Yelp.com. Rating information on Yelp includes display ratings and review distributions. The Yelp's rounding algorithm creates a discontinuity in display ratings. Therefore, I use a regression discontinuity design to identify the effect of a higher display rating on local restaurants' advertising spendings. I find a significantly negative effect of display rating for highly-rated restaurants on advertising. However, when the display rating is constant between two steps, the relationship between local restaurant advertising spending and average rating is significantly positive. The second chapter uses a game-theoretic model to analyze competing firms' advertising and pricing decisions. Here customer reviews are available and firms may build up loyal customer bases. I find that highly-rated firms are more likely to advertise more, i.e., online reviews complement advertising. Comparative static results can explain the results found in the first chapter. Intuitively, when the capacity of a local business becomes limited, a jump in the display rating will reduce the complementary effect of online reviews on advertising. I also analyze an extension of the model, where an entrant and an incumbent interact. I find that customer reviews undo the "fat-cat" effect of a large incumbent with lots of loyal customers. The third chapter proposes a new explanation for adoption failure or delay in markets with network effects. In the model, consumers and software providers play a dynamic adoption game. Each group of players choose between two incompatible technologies. Consumers may wait, but firms may not. Although efficiency requires one technology to be adopted by all consumers and firms right away, there is a "market split and adoption delay" equilibrium. In this equilibrium some consumers choose to wait at first and firms split between the two technologies. The model is motivated by the 56K modem market, in which competition between two technologies appears to have led to adoption failure, until an industry standard setting organization coordinated the market on an alternative standard.