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With its presence, which can create inefficiencies, uncertainties and risks, information asymmetry poses a significant challenge to successfully managing the agri-food supply chain (AFSC). Understanding the variables that influence information asymmetry is crucial for devising more effective strategies to mitigate it. This study, therefore, explores the variables that influence information asymmetry in the AFSC.

A qualitative analysis was conducted, relying on semi-structured interviews with 17 experts representing different actors in the AFSC (e.g. seed producers, retailers, etc.) in Germany. The collected data was analysed using the GABEK® method.

The study confirms that the influencing variables derived from the existing theory, such as price performance, digitalisation, environmental, process and quality measures, contribute to information asymmetry. It further reveals new variables that associate with information asymmetry, including documentation requirements, increasing regulation, consumer behaviour, incorrect data within the company as well as crises, political conflicts and supplier–buyer conflicts. Furthermore, the study shows that supply chain actors counteract asymmetry by focusing on social behaviour and monitoring suppliers through key performance indicators, employees and social aspects.

The study was limited to the universal influence of the variables on information asymmetry in the AFSC, making the magnitude of the influence and its context-specific nature unexplained.

This study is one of the very few that examines information asymmetry across the AFSC from the perspective of different actors, providing a more overarching and deeper understanding of information asymmetry.

Like a well-designed procurement strategy, a well-designed rolling stock strategy promotes the development of a railroad company and contributes to its competitive advantage. Effective implementation of the rolling stock strategy enhances the likelihood of enjoying the benefits of the strategy’s design. A successful implementation relies on the strategy being known, understood, controlled and communicated to the entire organization.

The research consists of an extensive literature review as well as a series of workshops with rolling stock suppliers, railway authorities and representatives and rail users.

This paper presents a collection of solutions for passenger rail rolling stock procurement. The authors offer guidance to the strategic procurement of rolling stock in the European Union (EU) and propose key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of a rolling stock strategy.

While this study presents a thorough evaluation of rolling stock procurement practices, it is limited by its geographic isolation. Future studies should compare the procurement practices discussed here to others in the EU, as well as in North America, South America and Asia. Additionally, this study focused on the passenger rail segment. Passenger transport is an important function of the rail network in the EU, but future research should expand the assessment of rolling stock procurement strategies to freight rail as well.

Overall, this work provides visibility into common rolling stock procurement practices in complex EU railway markets. This work expands the literature through a review of these practices and through enabling research into best practices or a commonly accepted procurement model.

The purpose of this paper is to test the asymptotic properties and prediction accuracy of two innovative methods proposed along the hedonic debate: the geographically weighted regression (GWR) and the generalized additive model (GAM).

The authors assess the asymptotic properties of linear, spatial and non-linear hedonic models based on a very large data set in Germany. The employed functional form is based on the OLS, GWR and the GAM, while the estimation methodology was chosen to be iterative in forecasting, the fitted rents for each quarter based on their 1-quarter-prior functional form. The performance accuracy is measured by traditional indicators such as the error variance and the mean squared (percentage) error.

The results provide evidence for a clear disadvantage of the GWR model in out-of-sample forecasts. There exists a strong out-of-sample discrepancy between the GWR and the GAM models, whereas the simplicity of the OLS approach is not substantially outperformed by the GAM approach.

For policymakers, a more accurate knowledge on market dynamics via hedonic models leads to a more precise market control and to a better understanding of the local factors affecting current and future rents. For institutional researchers, instead, the findings are essential and might be used as a guide when valuing residential portfolios and forecasting cashflows. Even though this study analyses residential real estate, the results should be of interest to all forms of real estate investments.

Sample size is essential when deriving the asymptotic properties of hedonic models. Whit this study covering more than 570,000 observations, this study constitutes – to the authors’ knowledge – one of the largest data sets used for spatial real estate analysis.

RICHARD DE BURY'S prayer that war, the great enemy of the book and therefore of the library, be averted must have risen to the minds of some librarians recently. As we write these lines international relations seem to have reached a boding complexity unrivalled since 1939 and with potentialities for ill as great or even greater. By the time these words appear we hope sanity and a calmer spirit will prevail and that the Christmas we face as librarians may indeed be a happy one. However that may be, the many frustrations all development, including library development, have suffered in the past year, are not likely to be overcome soon. The 35 to 50 millions our interruption for good or ill in the Israel‐Egyptian affair has cost—a relatively small matter financially against our national annual spendings of thousands of millions—are not likely to make for library progress. Yet, paradoxically, our greater advances in modern times have been the outcome of conditions created it would seem by war. The Great World War showed the naked need of the public library service in a way that the previous seventy years of peaceful advocacy had failed to do. Even greater progress came out of the Second World War. What was lost in each of these catastrophes no one has been able to calculate.

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is increasingly being explored as a commercial fabrication method due to its ability to produce net or near-net shape parts directly from a computer-aided design model. Other benefits of technology compared to conventional manufacturing include lower cost for short runs, reduced product lead times and rapid product design. High-performance polymers such as polyetherimide, have the potential for FDM fabrication and their high-temperature capabilities provide the potential of expanding the applications of FDM parts in automotive and aerospace industries. However, their relatively high glass transition temperature (215 °C) causes challenges during manufacturing due to the requirement of high-temperature build chambers and controlled cooling rates. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanical properties of ULTEM 1010, an unfilled polyetherimide grade.

In this research, mechanical properties were evaluated through tensile and flexural tests. Analysis of variance was used to determine the significance of process parameters to the mechanical properties of the specimens, their main effects and interactions. The fractured surfaces were analysed by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy and porosity was assessed by X-ray microcomputed tomography.

A range of mean tensile and flexural strengths, 60–94 MPa and 62–151 MPa, respectively, were obtained highlighting the dependence of performance on process parameters and their interactions. The specimens were found to fracture in a brittle manner. The porosity of tensile samples was measured between 0.18% and 1.09% and that of flexural samples between 0.14% and 1.24% depending on the process parameters. The percentage porosity was found to not directly correlate with mechanical performance, rather the location of those pores in the sample.

This analysis quantifies the significance of the effect of each of the examined process parameters has on the mechanical performance of FDM-fabricated specimens. Further, it provides a better understanding of the effect process parameters and their interactions have on the mechanical properties and porosity of FDM-fabricated polyetherimide specimens. Additionally, the fracture surface of the tested specimens is qualitatively assessed.