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The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), a piece of US tax law that allows for tax‐deferred exchanges of like‐kind property.

The paper derives a theoretical premium value for exchanges and presents the first national level analysis of Federal tax data on the use of like‐kind exchanges involving farmland between 1999 and 2005.

There is significant interest in Section 1031 from stakeholders in rural communities because there is widespread belief that the recent growth in farmland values may have, in part, been stimulated by Section 1031 exchanges of farmland. Despite these concerns, little is known about the extent of such exchanges.

This paper provides insight into the value and use of the IRC's Section 1031 provision. Based on simulations of a theoretical model using plausible assumptions about asset growth, the paper shows how proposed tax changes will affect the tax value of the deferral.

The purpose of this paper is twofold, first: to define the profile of adopters of labor-enhancing technologies (e.g. platforms) identifying factors – such as operations size, mix of fruits grown, apple operation location, principal operators socio-demographics – and second: to estimate the efficiency threshold for platform adoption during apple harvesting to be financially feasible considering future increases in farm labor wages.

The authors conducted a mixed-mode survey in January-February 2010. Data were analyzed using a bivariate probit model, considering that the decision to adopt platforms was related with the orchard planting system. The authors conducted simulation scenarios to estimate the efficiencies – harvest – platforms must achieve in order to be economically feasible.

In total, 11 percent of the 316 apple operations covered by the survey used platforms. Orchard operations most likely to invest in planar structures are relatively large, produce high-value varieties, use organic systems, and have relatively young and educated operators. Similarly, operations producing high-value fruit such as “Honeycrisp” and controlled or patented varieties and relatively large operations are more likely to invest in platforms. The results of the comparison of the cost of harvesting apples using platforms vs ladders under several production assumptions indicate that platforms must increase labor productivity by at least 13 percent in order to be adopted by the industry.

This study caveat is the lack of inclusion of production and marketing uncertainties in the estimation of future apple harvest costs. Further research to deeper analyze these issues is needed.

The authors present information on the profile of mechanization adopters, so extension educators and engineers could concentrate efforts on them to increase adoption levels. In addition the authors provide a threshold of efficiencies for harvest platforms associated with cost savings compared to manual harvest.

Enabling the adoption of mechanization technologies by specialty crop industries would decrease the dependence on labor, decreasing labor uncertainties and facilitating the production of high quality produce to satisfy the needs of consumers. Second, it will end an era of importing poverty, given that the specialty crop industry has long benefited from seasonal migrant workers. It will improve rural American communities to shorten pools of farm workers, giving them access to permanent jobs with higher salaries.

The contribution of this study is to improve understanding of the degree of mechanization, financial feasibility of current existing technologies, and barriers to greater mechanization by the Washington apple industry. Given the similar labor challenges faced, in general, by the US specialty crop agriculture, results could be applicable to the entire industry.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the personal/situational and business factors that encourage or discourage pro bono service of professionals based on the theory of institutional logics framework and the extended purchase behavior model.

This paper collected the data using a mixed-method approach: 30 qualitative interviews and 443 cross-sectional surveys from professional service providers across industries. The constructs of interest were measured with the scales compiled from the literature, industry reports and the preliminary interviews.

The results highlight emotional value derived from personal/situational factors (intrinsic motivation, personal recognition, philanthropic disposition and lack of appreciation) drove professionals’ intentions to continue to undertake pro bono work. While employer encouragement motivated professionals to engage in pro bono service, the prospect of gaining business opportunities and time constraints discouraged this important practice.

While there has been considerable empirical study undertaken on charitable behavior, little attention has been given to this form of giving (pro bono work by service professionals). Overall, the results show that personal satisfaction with and feeling good about the study undertaken are required for continuation. Professionals who are intrinsically motivated, philanthropic-natured and properly-acknowledged through positive feedback and recognition tend to experience positive feelings that engender their good intentions to help the underprivileged, those in need and society more generally. The findings thus complement and extend the academic and industry literature on charitable giving.

This research identifies the drivers of service professionals’ continuation of pro bono work that the third sector relies heavily on its sustainability. As the study findings suggesting the importance of personal recognition, nonprofit organizations should demonstrate genuine gratitude and recognition of these professionals so that they continue to give their services pro bono.

The research is the first empirical study to develop a conceptual model that delineates the drivers and/or barriers to professionals continuing pro bono service. Unlike the previous study lacking a theoretical basis, this paper proposed and tested the conceptual model derived from the institutional logics framework and the extended purchase behavior model.

While product scandals generate many negative headlines, the extent of their impact on the scandalized brands’ equity remains unclear. Research findings are mixed. This might be because of the limitations of existing measurement approaches when investigating the effects of real crises after they occurred. This study aims to propose a new approach for measuring the impact of a real scandal on a high-equity brand using only post-crisis measures.

To overcome the challenge of comparing a priori and ex post outcome measures, this study draws on the brand management literature to evaluate a real scandal’s impact. Volkswagen’s emission scandal serves as a failure context. Two consumer experiments are conducted to examine its impact.

The results provide (longitudinal) support for the proposed evaluative approach. They reveal new evidence that building brand equity is a means to mitigate negative effects, and indicate that negative spillover effects within a high-equity brand portfolio are unlikely. Finally, this research identifies situations in which developing a new brand might be more beneficial than leveraging an existing brand.

This research has significant implications for firms with high-equity brands that might be affected by a scandal. The findings support managers to navigate their brands through a crisis.

This research adds to the discussion concerning the role of a brand’s equity in a crisis. Existing research findings are contradictory. This research provides new empirical evidence and another view on how to measure “impact”.

The production of the ‘good life’ or the ‘less bad-life’ (Berlant, 2007, 2011), especially among generations of the Marcos dictatorship and the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue revolutions (henceforth, EDSA revolutions) in the Philippines, is animated by the ‘mobility imperative’ (Farrugia, 2016). The mobility imperative includes processes that encourage or demand mobility (Farrugia, 2016) for individuals and institutions. It figures in various ‘systems of practice’ (Levitt, 1998, 2001) among families in migrant-sending communities, government and corporations that magnify how migration is the ticket to better life (McKay, 2012) or its glorification as a heroic act (de los Reyes, 2013, 2014). Among the generations of the Martial Law and the EDSA revolutions, therefore, the ‘good life’ is hinged upon departure as professionals (e.g. nurses and engineers), workers in elementary occupations (e.g. construction and domestic workers) or mail-order brides or pen pals. Put simply, the good life in these generations is a function of remittances.

This chapter examines how the contemporary generation of young people construct the ‘good life’ in differential and new terms (de los Reyes, 2023; McKay & Brady, 2005) from previous generations. Using interviews and vision boards of left-behind children (15–18 years old), it argues that left-behind children critically appraise the ‘mobility imperative’. The chapter shows that there is a growing imagination of alternatives to the migration-induced good life among left-behind children, and therefore, they gradually refuse the ‘mobility imperative’. For them, the aspired good life consists of potentially being employees or entrepreneurs in their own villages and living a life with their own families (de los Reyes, 2019, 2020).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of interest groups in the formation of online echo chambers and to determine whether interest groups’ use of social media contributes to political polarization.

This study used a content analysis of nearly 10,000 tweets (from 2009 to 2014) by the Brady campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the National Rifle Association to examine how groups engage with their political allies and opponents.

The results indicated that both groups engaged primarily with their supporters on Twitter while avoiding confrontation with their opponents. In particular, both groups used hashtags designed to reach their supporters, retweeted messages almost exclusively from other users with whom they agreed, and disproportionately used Twitter handles of their allies, while avoiding the use of Twitter handles of their opponents.

The findings suggest that interest groups’ use of social media accelerates the formation of online echo chambers, but does not lead to an increase in polarization beyond existing levels, given practices that maintain civility between opposing sides.

This is one of few studies to examine the role of interest groups in the formation of online echo chambers. It also uses a novel approach – the examination of both the interactions that occur among social media users and those that are explicitly avoided.

Previous research studies assume that influential consumers (“influentials”), who play a powerful role in the marketplace, are persuasive (or not) based on innate, static personality traits. By contrast, this paper proposes an emergence-based view of influentials. Grounded in dynamic self-concept theory, this research establishes that individuals possess an “influential” self-concept that can be activated by firm-originated communications. Specifically, the authors examine the impact of firm feedback on the three dimensions of influentials (and the corresponding traits and behaviors): who they are (propensity to connect with others), who they know (WOM) and what they know (expert power).

The study tests whether an influential self can be evoked by marketers using a longitudinal experimental test with data collected in three periods. The data are analyzed using a multi-mediation model and partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results reveal that even after controlling for the extroversion trait, firm-originated positive feedback increases perceived expert power of participants, which increases word-of-mouth behavior in a subsequent period, both directly and indirectly via an enhanced propensity to connect with others.

Cultivating the influential self-concept requires time to ensure that the self-concept is sufficiently realized to become an enduring self-concept.

By cultivating influentials, practitioners are able to leverage diffusion mechanics and reduce costs and inefficiencies associated with traditional customer relationship management marketing strategies focused on finding them.

These findings have implications across all domains that rely on the diffusion and adoption of ideas or products via influentials, including but not limited to public policy, politics, public health and sustainability, in that influentials can be evoked and leveraged to diffuse ideas in these important social domains.

This paper provides empirical evidence that firms can evoke influential consumer behavior challenging existing views of influence as a static personality trait. It casts a line to connect influential consumers to the nascent study of social emergence.