Because of its potential role in providing ecosystem services and private benefits (food security), the concern about the loss of agrobiodiversity has grown. We explore the links between agrobiodiversity and farm financial benefits in small-scale agroecosystems. We measured crop diversity in a subsistence-oriented agricultural production system: home gardens (n=250) in the Iberian Peninsula. We...

Environmental unpredictability is known to result in the evolution of bet-hedging traits. Variable dormancy enhances survival through harsh conditions, and is widely cited as a diversification bet-hedging trait. The floating aquatic plant, Spirodela polyrhiza (Greater Duckweed), provides an opportunity to study diversification because although partially reliable seasonal cues exist, its growing...

This working paper is produced for discussion purposes only. The papers are expected to be published in due course, in revised form and should not be quoted without the author's permission. Assessing the context, nature, and extent of MNEs' Backward knowledge transfer to Chinese suppliers 2004.07 Richard Fairchild The effect of product differentiation on strategic financing decisions. Introduct...

In 2013, China imported 282 million tons of crude oil with an external dependence of 58.1%, surpassing the USA as the world’s largest net oil importer. An import source diversification strategy has been adopted by China to ensure oil supply security and to prevent oil supply disruption. However, the strategy is restricted by the imbalance of oil reserves. What is the reasonable and clear object...

this paper presents an analytic procedure for the value added to different production levels with different policy options. the approach is stochastic and thus provides a framework for informed decision-making on productivity growth under uncertainty conditions. the model was applied to data collected from a firm and re-sults recommend that the firm should redevelop if in diversification and sy...

there is little consensus on the corporate diversification-efficiency relationship in the diversification literature. according to the corporate diversification, firms have a tendency to get more market share with diversifying in the local segment or in the international market. theoretically, a contradictory exists between the profitable strategy and the value reducing strategy in the diversif...

There is little consensus on the corporate diversification-efficiency relationship in the diversification literature. According to the corporate diversification, firms have a tendency to get more market share with diversifying in the local segment or in the international market. Theoretically, a contradictory exists between the profitable strategy and the value reducing strategy in the diversif...

Agroecosystem plant diversification can enhance pest biological regulation and is a promising alternative to pesticide application. However, the costs of competition for resources between plants may exceed the benefits gained by pest regulation. To disentangle the interactions between pest regulation and competition, we developed a generic process-based approach that accounts for the effects of...