Bowman, Brittany (author), Settle, Quisto (author), North, Elizabeth Gregory (author), Lewis, Kerri Collins (author), and Oklahoma State University
Mississippi State University
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2018
Published:
United States: New Prairie Press
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D10159
18 pages, via online journal, Extension is often called the “best-kept secret” having low awareness with the public but high satisfaction with clientele. Extension services nationwide have faced budget cuts, creating a need for the organization to re-evaluate its activities, including how it communicates with its stakeholders. While Extension personnel are the ones who will do most of the communicating, their supervisors impact the personnel’s actions, which means it is important to assess both groups. A survey was conducted with Extension personnel and their supervisors in Mississippi assessing engagement in communications activities and perceptions of those activities, as well as personnel’s preference of professional development activities. Personnel reported higher use, comfort, and importance of more traditional (e.g. making a speech) and written activities (e.g. writing a promotional handout) than media-relations activities (e.g. being interviewed for TV), social media-related activities (e.g. managing a Twitter account), and visual communication activities (e.g. graphic design). Supervisors perceived individual communications activities as less important overall than personnel did, and although supervisor and communication scores for use and comfort/capability were similar for most communication activities, there were noticeable exceptions. Additionally, personnel preferred professional development activities that were hands-on or showing the activities first-hand (e.g. demonstrations and field days). Future research should be expanded to other states, conducted in a case study format to study specific relationships, and involve qualitative components. Extension should ensure clear supervisor-communication dialogue on prioritizing communication activities, provide training on communication activities with low use and comfort, and utilize early innovators who are comfortable using newer communication activities.
12 pages, via online journal, This study, underpinned by the Resource-Based View and its association with the Relational View, contributes to the existing cross-disciplinary literature involving economic geography, tourism and marketing by extending the current understanding of the relationship between firms' value co-creation activities and sales performance in the context of rural wine producing firms. Specifically, by investigating how a firm's competitor orientation (possessing and acting upon knowledge of competitors) affects the relationship between firms' capabilities to engage in value co-creation activities and sales performance. This investigation utilises a multi-level qualitative investigation within small-to-medium-sized, New Zealand wine producers engaging in various value co-creation activities (wine hospitality and tourism such as accommodation and restaurants through to wine sales, including at cellar doors). The methods employed involved 40 interviews across 20 businesses; observations of cellar door employees in all 20 firms; and collection of archival data. The findings reveal that by having a high degree of a competitor orientation, the enhanced value co-creation activities can help individual companies improve sales performance and support cluster sustainability, including via repeat tourism. However, results vary among competing businesses based on the product-markets served, where illustrations of potential tensions highlight the need for the management of complementary relationships, within and across clusters (the latter typically being to serve overseas markets). This study consequently offers new unique insights that explain strategies affecting not just an individual firm's performance, but also, the sustainability of other businesses.
Mitchell, Glen H. (author) and Mitchell, Mark L. (author)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1979-06
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08730
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, MW-35. Community Consumer Education Awareness Project sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Extension Division in cooperation with the Title 1 Higher Education Act of 1965, Blacksburg, Virginia. 47 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 150 Document Number: C24270
Notes:
Abstract of 18 min. DVD shown at conference (DVD not in collection)., 1 p. Abstract presented at the Australasia Pacific Extension Network in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia, March 6-8, 2006
10 pages., Via ebook., Research on public markets in small provincial towns is scarce,
particularly on the role they play in maintaining a relationship with the local
culture, environment and production. This paper examines consumers’ habits and
preferences for food shopping in three European regions with respect to the
purchase of fish products. The goal is to investigate consumers’ preferences for
local fish to highlight the motivations that lead to different choices. A multiple
correspondence analysis explores the motivations behind purchasing preferences,
showing the complex process that drives individual consumer choices. Based on
504 interviews conducted in cities and areas adjacent to the cities of Girona,
Reggio Calabria, and Lipari, we found no evidence of converging habits and
homogenization on preferences. It supports the perspective in which the interplay
between local culture and consumption of local products is strictly associated.
