21 pages, Florists have been adopting social media as a new marketing instrument to promote their business. However, academic research has rarely looked into the existing state of that adoption. Consequently, several fundamental problems remain unknown regarding the application of social media marketing (SMM) among florists, which may limit the development of the flower retailing business in the current social media era. In seeking to address this deficiency, this study aimed to investigate florists’ motivations, strategies, and perceived performance in relation to the application of SMM, as well as to explore the barriers faced by florists regarding the adoption of SMM. The authors implemented these objectives by interviewing 35 flower shop owners who each had established a brand page on Facebook. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using a grounded hermeneutic editing approach. The study’s results revealed that even though there were different motivations for florists to adopt social media marketing, including increasing brand exposure, improving customer relationship, and reducing the cost of advertising, showing expertise in floral design to attract consumers was the most common motivation stressed by the interviewees. The strategies mostly used by florists in managing their Facebook brand pages included providing high quality posts, cross-industry advertising, and switching consumers from online questions to a physical store visit. The most significant benefit perceived by florists regarding the use of a Facebook brand page was the development of new customers. Although the interviewees recognized the benefitsofadoptingSMM,someofthemfacedgreatincompatibilityinlaborsourceforthatadoption. In addition, most interviewees focused on achieving general marketing goals rather than more advanced functions, such as business intelligence, in the application of SMM. The study results implied that the interviews mostly saw Facebook brand pages as a social network platform for increasing current sales volume, rather than for reaching a long-term quality customer relationship, which has deviated from the essence of social media marketing, and thus, limiting the synergy of the application of SMM in the flower retail sector.
16 pages, via online journal, Buying local food has become an increasingly popular way for consumers to engage with those who grow their food; however, research has shown a specific audience tends to buy local food due to individual-specific barriers. To better understand what motivates consumers to buy local food the Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a way to potentially predict consumers’ behavior toward buying locally grown blueberries. Also, the variables of past experience and self-identity/moral obligation toward buying local food were introduced to the model since both variables may increase the predictability of the Theory of Planned Behavior model in certain food-related behaviors. This study used an online survey completed by 1,122 respondents, from a sample frame of all consumers in Florida. The study used a non-probability sample of an opt-in panel, and weighting procedures were applied to the data to account for coverage errors associated with using a non-probability sample. The interaction of consumers’ past experience and self-identity/moral obligation was found to help explain consumers’ intention to buy locally grown blueberries when added to the Theory of Planned Behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior was shown to predict consumers’ intention to buy locally grown blueberries; however, their intent was better explained with the inclusion of the variables of past experience and self-identity/moral obligation toward buying local blueberries. Recommendations for future research and application include future research into other variables that may impact buying behavior and inclusion of these variables in future communication efforts focused on consumers buying and engaging with local food.
8pgs, We conducted a survey of New Jersey’s nursery industry to understand the current levels of labor shortage, how this has affected specific tasks related to the production capacity of the industry, and the actual level of mechanization. Survey results identified priority areas needing mechanization. There is a need for greater mechanization in almost all areas of nursery production to reduce the reliance on labor and or improve the efficiency of labor. Other Implications related to Extension programming on nursery mechanization are also discussed.
16 pages, Climate change is impacting the ecological, social and technological aspects of urban gardens. Gardens experience threats (e.g., water scarcity) but are also responding through adaptation strategies (e.g., selecting drought-resilient plants). A synthetic overview of how urban gardens are affected by climate change and responding to climate change is unclear. Here, we systematically reviewed articles and book chapters published in the last two decades (2000–2022) to illustrate the relationship between climate change and urban gardening. From 72 documents analyzed with Nvivo Software, we found that there has been an increase in academic publications. Universities from the US (14) and Germany (9) universities are the dominant producers. Evidence shows that climate change can have negative impacts on cities, people and urban food. Suggestions on how to build the adaptation capacity of urban gardens include collecting rainwater, changing plant selection, changing planting times, applying vegetative cover on the soil and other practices. For cities, community and allotment gardens are helpful for adaptation, mitigation and resilience. This includes the capacity to regulate the microclimate, to reduce urban heat island effects and to buffer urban floods, the power to capture carbon, the ability to create social networks and other socio-environmental benefits for urban climate planning.
The "market, message, means of communication" framework was tested in a case study, "adoption of rootstocks. It involved growing grapes for the wine industry and researchers found it a useful tool for ensuring that information is collected, analyzed, and used to inform extension program design.
Ginsburg, Ariel (author) and Morales, Dionisia (author)
Format:
Research report
Publication Date:
2017
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D09344
Notes:
Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). 7 pages., Report of a research project conducted through the ACE Grant Project 2016.
