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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of psychologists in considering the barriers to people with intellectual disabilities being able to access mainstream mental health services.

The information relating to participant experiences was gathered by conducting two focus groups: one with psychologists working in the adult mental health service and the second with psychologists working in the learning disability service. A thematic analysis was used to determine the main themes from each of the focus groups.

The overarching themes for the psychologists in the adult mental health service related to: service restrictions; confidence in their ability/skills; and resistance to change. The overarching themes for the psychologists in the learning disability service reflected: future thinking; protection; pessimism; and clarification around mental health and learning disability.

The discussion includes consideration of the dynamic positions of the two services and recommendations for an integrated system of working.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer preferences towards innovative rice products, and cross-cultural determinants of customers’ perceived value and loyalty.

A self-administered survey was designed to obtain participants’ perceptions about Thai rice, and preferences towards innovative Thai rice products. A total of 937 surveys were distributed and 908 valid surveys were returned, yielding a 96.7 per cent overall response rate. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assure the reliability and validity of the measures used in the survey instrument. Structural equation modelling was employed to assess the five hypothesised relationships between the four elements of the marketing mix, customer perceived value, and post-purchase behaviour, and to compare the path coefficients across the two cultural groups.

The findings reported herein show that eastern and western customers’ perceptions of marketing mix variables positively impact their perceptions of value, in turn, enhancing their loyalty to Thai rice. A successful marketing strategy should meet changing customer needs through adopting new products, services and unique marketing mix bundles. Such strategies should be tailored to the differing needs across cultures, and can address issues arising from changing competitive and environmental landscapes.

The first limitation concerns the scope of the study. Specifically, the authors only conducted surveys during a two-month time period in 2018; the sampling sites were limited to several shopping malls in Bangkok; and the authors surveyed a high proportion of young, single, educated participants. The second limitation pertains to the selection and adaptation of constructs and their observed variables (such as the 4P indicators). Most of the observed variables were selected based on a literature review and the opinions of the scholars who participated in this study.

These results should be beneficial to members of the international rice industry, Thai rice exporters, the Thai government and to academics. Long-term success will be supported by focused attention on target segments and launch of innovative rice products that match differing preferences across nationalities.

Understanding consumers’ perspectives and preferences are critical to appropriate positioning and marketing of value-added Thai rice products. This study represents one of the first attempts to integrate marketing mix decisions, customers’ perceived value and loyalty within a Thai rice purchase behaviour context across eastern and western customers.

Employment Characteristics of Older Women. This is the title of an article by Diane E. Herz in the September 1988 issue of Monthly Labor Review. It examines the employment characteristics of older women in America in 1987.

Ecosystem-based livelihood diversification (ESLD) approaches have been identified as one of the best solutions to alleviate poverty and improve living standards in rural communities in developing nations. This study aims to elucidate the motivations that drive Sri Lankan women in rural agri-based community to adopt ESLD activities.

The sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) five pillars were used as a theoretical framework. This study was carried out with women living in farmer families located in Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka. A purposive sampling technique was used, and semistructured interviews were performed with 46 women in a noncontrived setting. Deductive content analysis approach was used for answering research questions.

Making handcrafts using different plants, composting and home gardening are the major sources of ESLD of women in the study areas. Under the SLA factors, human resources include family size, education, vocational training, age and attitude. Social resources like participation in community work, family support received and becoming members in cooperatives encourage the women to partake in ESLD. Nonagriculture natural resources were considered as an incentive to engage in ESLD. Satisfaction with the income generated by the livelihood, other income sources and loans from the informal sector were the vital financial resources. Regarding the physical resources, the respondents were profound with infrastructure, marketplaces, training centers and tools/equipment.

Knowing the existing ESLD strategies and pointing out the determinant factors affecting women in practicing ESLD activities are unquestionably important in the provision of information to formulate an appropriate strategy for the development of the rural agri-based community.

Little is known about the ESLD efforts and the extent of adoption of ESLD practices by women in rural communities. The findings based on the SLA framework help to understand what is happening in livelihood diversifications in agri-based community and suggest important implications for the development of ESLD for the future.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a diversification by grape varieties may help wine producers reduce uncertainty in quantity and quality variations due to increasingly erratic climate conditions.

This study hand-collects granular quantity and quality data from wine harvest reports for vintages 2003 to 2017 for the Valais region in Switzerland. The data allows us to obtain detailed data on harvested kilograms/liters and Oechsle/Brix degrees. It is then merged with precise meteorological data over the same sample period. The authors use this data set to capture weather conditions and their impact on harvested quantities and quality. Finally, they build portfolios including different grape varieties to evaluate whether this reduces variations in quality and quantity over vintages.

The findings highlight that the weather varies relatively strongly over the sample period and that climate hazards such as hail, frost or ensuing vine diseases effectively occur. These strongly impact the harvested quantities but less the quality of the wine. The authors further show that planting different grape varieties allows for a significant reduction in the variation of harvested quantities over time and thus acts as a good solution against climate risk.

The effect of climate change on viticulture is becoming increasingly important and felt and bears real economic and social consequences. This study transposes portfolio diversification which is central to reducing risk in the finance industry, into the wine industry and shows that the same principle holds. The authors thus propose a novel idea on how to mitigate climate risk.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate a recent trend in climate change and its impact on livelihood of community living in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam. Further, it aims to increase the government attention for adaptation measures by providing awareness of climate change and its negative impacts on livelihood.

For study purpose, cross-sectional and secondary data sets were used. The community perceptions about climate change were recorded by face-to-face interviews of 500 respondents from Nam Dinh province, Vietnam in April 2015 by using a well-structured questionnaire, whereas secondary data were collected from the statistical yearbook of General Statistics Office of Vietnam. To accomplish the study objectives, Cobb–Douglas production function and Likert scale were used to estimate the community perceptions of climate change and impact of climate change on livelihood, respectively.

Results depict that climate change negatively impacted on the productivity of rice and livestock. Particularly, frequently occurring of droughts, floods and salinity intrusion negatively impacted on rice productivity, while livestock productivity is decreased by frequent occurring of flood storms in study area.

The study results suggest a government support is essential to achieve sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities living in the Red River Delta, particularly some adaptation measures in the context of climate change are required in study area.

The Italian government enacted two laws: ruling innovative startups (Law 221/2012) and innovative SMEs (Law Decree 3/2015), respectively. Despite renowned differences between them, the parameters selected and included in these laws are the same: investments in research and development (R&D) activities, hiring specialized researchers and holding patents/property rights. Taking a cue from the Italian case, the following research question emerges: whether small business policies, concerning innovative startups and SMEs, should be differentiated to be effective and support enterprise development. The Italian case is invoked to offer suggestions and recommendations to policymakers around the world.

Stochastic frontier analyses (SFA) were conducted by using data provided by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) about 14,595 innovative startups and 2,338 innovative SMEs.

Statistical results reveal that enterprise development processes are different between innovative startups and SMEs. Innovative startups may start a virtuous model, while innovative SMEs may not. This corroborates the idea that small business policies need to be differentiated in order to be effective.

Unlike other papers, small businesses are not considered as a whole. Innovative startups and SMEs are two different types of firms, so specific investigations are conducted to remark on the already-known differences and disclose new ones.

Diversity in entrepreneurship has become a noteworthy topic of research since consistent differences – and few similarities, if any – exist among entrepreneurial profiles. The present paper aims to compare different entrepreneurial profiles managing innovation processes in new technology-based firms (NTBFs). In particular, attention is focussed on young entrepreneurs who are in a critical phase of their lifelong learning, the school-to-work transition.

Statistical elaborations are based on data retrieved from Italian Ministry of Economic Development in January 2021 and carried out through stochastic frontier analyses. Respectively, 1,699 young entrepreneurs, 1,079 female entrepreneurs, 205 ethnic entrepreneurs and 8,224 stereotyped entrepreneurs are considered.

Factors affecting the performance of innovation processes managed in NTBFs are the same for stereotyped and female entrepreneurs, but they consistently differ for young and ethnic entrepreneurs. Achieved results are not in the position to offer a complete analysis of the phenomenon but – hopefully – can corroborate a very interesting and up-to-date research path that merits further development. In particular, young entrepreneurs disclose an unexpected skills mismatch that should be investigated in-depth.

Most contributions offer a narrow view of entrepreneurial profiles since they focus on one profile per time. The present paper, instead, considers four entrepreneurial profiles and compares them. Moreover, young entrepreneurs reveal an unexpected skills mismatch that underlines the relevance of specific activities of on-the-job training and apprenticeships in order to try to overcome it and improve the results achievable by young entrepreneurs.