In this paper a system dynamics model for organic farming development to support government decision making is presented. The system incorporates relevant variables which affect organic farming development. The user seeks answers to strategic questions related to the level of organic farming development achievable in a long term dynamic horizon. The model’s basic structure is fully described and results are presented which show that the conversion process relies mainly on subsidies and selforganization resources. User can simulate different policy scenarios for organic farming and for assessing their impact on the economic and environmental parameters of organic production at aggregate level. After performing several simulation scenarios we discovered that conversion to organic farming relies on subsidies which provide the main motivation for conversion from conventional farming to organic farming. However, the subsidies are not the only driving force in the system, even more important are activities that promote organic be provided in order to complete the conversion from conventional to organic farming to the extent desired. Another important feature is food demand, determined by population size, which negatively influences the conversion to organic farming due to the increased demand leading to increased food prices.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 3526188The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study, which examines the relationship between continuous improvement (CI) and maintenance performance. By examining CI in relation to maintenance performance, this study seeks to increase the understanding of quality management practices in the field of maintenance. The findings suggest that CI significantly and positively relates to maintenance performance. In addition, findings advocate the importance of incorporation of quality management practices into maintenance processes.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 7001363This paper aims to study the deployment and use of total quality management (TQM) approaches and tools for the systematic implementation of TQM, especially within companies that have been applicants for the National Quality Award – Slovenian Business Excellence Prize (SBEP), and its relation to tools and approaches regarding people involvement, external recognition, benchmarking and financial results. The survey was based on the analysis of a sample of companies composed of the three subgroups: ‘top companies’ (based on their financial performance), a randomly chosen control group, and a group consisting of SBEP applicants. The questionnaire was distributed to 500 companies. The research was done on the basis of 110 respondents. Factor analysis was used to narrow the initial number of items, ANOVA to obtain statistically significant differences between the three group means and discriminant analysis to classify the sample according their use of TQM tools and approaches. The results showed that the main differences between the three groups of companies in favour of the SBEP group were related to the importance of benchmarking, peer assessment, collaborating in national quality awards (NQA) and partly in financial results. Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the companies that took part in the NQA have higher mean scores of observed variables as compared to the other two groups of companies.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 7282963Electronic interaction (EI) depends on technological capabilities that have only become available during the last quartercentury. The Bled eConference has straddled this period. A review of the conference’s successive themes, and of the corpus of over 1,000 papers presented at the 25 events to date, reveals three major Eras, referred to in this paper as the EDI, eCommerce and eInteraction Eras. A trace of the developments in the diverse array of EI technologies and EI technologiesinuse shows that researchers have focussed very heavily on economic concerns, and until recent years did so almost to the exclusion of social concerns. The paper proposes that EI research needs to seek better balances between organisational and human needs. In addition, because of the instability of bleedingedge phenomena,empirical research is being practitioners. The prevailing expectations of journals that rigour be pursued at all costs means that the relevance of research to the real world has become a quite secondary concern to many academics. The EI literature is accordingly at risk of following the IS literature more generally into a closed enclave, in which academics talk to one another and noone else. Key precepts for an alternative research philosophy are proposed.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 7239955