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Women of Haitian nationality comprise a sizeable proportion of all women seeking labor and delivery services in a public hospital in Dominican Republic (DR), along the central border of Haiti. The purpose of this paper is to better understand and address the needs of Haitian women receiving labor and delivery services in this border region.

The authors conducted a mixed-methods study to identify personal motivations, demographic characteristics, and migration history of women seeking labor and delivery services at a public hospital.

The majority of women (83 percent) were born in Haiti but spoke Spanish (74 percent) and were long-term residents of the DR (mean 7.8 years). While many women reported they felt they had a positive experience delivering at the public hospital, some described feeling unwelcome or resented.

The study sample was small and from one hospital. Future studies could explore the differences in experiences among Haitian women who are long-term residents of the DR and those whose presence is more transient.

Women residing on both sides of the border would likely benefit from coordinated efforts by the Haitian and DR Ministries of Health to strengthen referral services to and from either country.

Hospital staff and services in the DR should consider the unique needs of this population, which makes critical contributions to workforce and culture in the DR.

This study is the first to assess labor and delivery service seeking practices and experiences within this population.

Customer retention and attraction are common concerns in the financial services industry but are acute concerns for farm credit associations, given competition from commercial banks. Not only do Farm Credit associations face restricted territories but also they have a considerably smaller borrowing population when compared to commercial banks. Oklahoma AgCredit, a Farm Credit association in east and central Oklahoma, is considering creating additional services to increase the number of business interactions they have with their member-borrowers. Their goal in adding services like crop and livestock insurance is to retain current customers and attract new borrowers. The purpose of this research is to assess current and prospective borrower responses to added services in terms of loan volume and insured crop acres and head of livestock. Survey results determine the change in expected loan volume from current customers and additional loan volume from previous and potential customers. The analysis finds that while little can be inferred regarding customer retention, additional services have a positive impact on customer attraction. Expected service utilization and coverage of common crop and livestock enterprises vary between customer subsamples, but all customer types indicated they would cover some level of livestock, forage, hay, wheat and sorghum. While a recommendation cannot be made based on this research, it does seem that expanding the services offered is a viable pursuit for an agricultural lender to improve customer attraction.

Three groups of current and potential borrowers were surveyed to assess their current loan activity with Oklahoma AgCredit. Respondents were asked about their likely loan volume if an internal crop and livestock insurance agency was offered by Oklahoma AgCredit and their likely use of the crop and livestock insurance agency. Using survey results, the expected change in loan volume due to the proposed insurance enterprise was calculated.

Results show no statistically significant difference in current borrower loan intentions. However, there were six current borrowers who also operate crop and livestock insurance agencies. These borrowers likely biased results downward. A slight increase in borrowing from potential customers was found. A high percentage of current and potential borrowers, 70–80%, were likely to use the insurance service.

The study measures the expected impact of additional services by an agricultural lender in attracting and retaining borrowers.

Crowdfunding has become a popular method to acquire capital for entrepreneurial ventures. To successfully achieve funding goals, it is critical for crowdfunding campaigns to attain support of individuals (backers). This paper aims to presents a conceptual model that links a reward-based crowdfunding campaign’s product, pitch and promoter characteristics to expert and casual backers’ evaluation and behavior.

This paper draws from literature from consumer behavior, network, signaling and informational social influence theories to design a conceptual framework that highlights factors that influence potential backers’ participation in crowdfunding campaigns.

It is demonstrated that the conceptual framework presented in the manuscript usefully organizes the real-world tactical marketing decisions of a crowdfunding backer while also being readily amendable to integrating theoretical accounts of human behavior from a diverse body of social science literature. Empirically testable propositions are derived from this social science literature and recast into a manner that could be investigated in the crowdfunding context to expand the body of knowledge on this topic.

This manuscript provides a framework that can be useful to crowdfunders who wish to strategically plan how their marketing communication plan features may be tailored to attract both early- and late-stage crowdfunding backers.

This paper is novel in the crowdfunding literature because it integrates a diverse body of literature to explicitly identify how the strategic and tactical marketing communication characteristics of a crowdfunding campaign are likely to differently influence different types of potential crowdfunding backers.

Smart-home technology (SHT) has been identified by the World Health Organization as a possible solution for assisting older people to maintain their independence and to live safely at home when performing the activities of daily living. This study aims to identify the factors, as well as their inter-relationships, influencing senior citizens to adopt elderly-friendly SHT that supports ageing-in-place in high-density Hong Kong living settings.

An interpretive structural modelling approach has been used to analyse the factors to develop a better understanding of the relationships between factors influencing SHT adoption, and “Matrice d’Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement” analysis has been used to classify the analysed factors.

The results suggested that strong government support, efficient backup supporting service and the design of user interface devices have been found as the driving factors encouraging the adoption of SHT. Other factors, including the maintenance of devices, levels of usage and penetration of devices, individual needs and financial considerations, were considered as autonomous factors and are less important to the decision to adopt SHT.

This study provides useful information to policymakers and building designers on the human perspective of SHT adoption, such as the needs and requirements of older people to be considered in SHT technical design and appropriate technological solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to study the utilization of the rice bran protein concentrate (RBPC) in biscuits to upgrade the nutritional quality.

Extraction of rice bran protein concentrate (RBPC) from defatted rice bran was standardized using alkali extraction method. Defatted rice bran and RBPC were analyzed for their proximate composition. RBPC was analyzed for its bulk density, foaming capacity (FC), emulsion activity (EA), and water and oil absorption capacity. RBPC was incorporated in biscuits at 5, 10 and 15 per cent levels. The biscuits were analyzed for their physicochemical, fracture strength (texture analyzer) and sensory attributes (nine‐point hedonic scale) to assess their acceptability.

The maximum yield of 13.2 per cent for RBPC was obtained at alkaline pH of 11, temperature of 60°C and extraction time of 60 minutes. The bulk density, foaming capacity, emulsifying ability, water and oil absorption capacity of RBPC were 0.4 g/ml, 11 per cent, 40 per cent, 2.9 ml/g and 2.3 ml/g respectively. The protein content of biscuits increased significantly from 7.3 per cent in control biscuits to 15.4 per cent in the 15 per cent RBPC supplemented biscuits with their fracture strength also significantly higher than the control biscuits (p<0.05). Replacement of refined wheat flour up to 10 per cent RBPC produced protein‐enriched biscuits with desirable overall acceptability.

Rice bran protein concentrate can be beneficially utilized to formulate protein enriched biscuits with enhanced nutritional value especially for malnourished or undernourished people.