Search results for " certification"
showing 10 items of 49 documents
The integration of quality and safety concerns in the wine industry: the role of third-party voluntary certifications
2016
Abstract Over the past few years, public attention has focused on the quality and safety control, traceability, and environmental issues surrounding food products. Several mandatory public standards and private voluntary schemes worldwide have been developed to address these concerns. Using survey data, this paper analyses the key factors affecting the adoption of voluntary quality standards in the wine industry and the existence of a relationship between the adoption of voluntary quality standards and economic performance, measured in terms of labour productivity and marketing behaviour. The survey involved 89 cellars, of which 68 were non-certified and 21 had one or more food quality cert…
Driving forces affecting the adoption of certifications in the forest-based industry: a systematic literature review
2021
Several forest certification schemes have become increasingly popular over the last few decades as voluntary mechanisms to tack sustainability in the forest-based industry to an environmental, social, and economic paradigm. This study aims to systematically review the economic literature on the main motivational factors affecting the adoption of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certifications in order to perform a broadly theoretical assessment of this research field and identify the most relevant driving forces affecting the adoption of third-party certification in the forest-based industry. Results reveal that the most relev…
A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR A STANDARDIZED COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE
2017
The methodological rigour in the competence assessment represents a strategic choice to achieve a successful promotion of human capital. The role of personal and professional competences has been recognized in every professional areas and a huge number of studies have contributed to better understand how competence affect individual and organizational behaviour and what are the best methods to assure its effective assessment. The paper aims to propose an operative and standardized competence assessment procedure coherent with the more recognized international qualification frameworks, even if allowing customized reports. The proposed procedure is the result of the operationalization of a ge…
The Dynamics of (De)Stigmatization : Boundary construction in the nascent category of organic farming
2020
This study finds that it is possible for organizations in emerging categories to resist stigmatization through discursive reconstruction of the central and distinctive characteristics of the category in question. We examined the emerging market of organic farming in Finland and discovered how resistance to stigmatization was both an internal and an external power struggle in the organic farming community. Over time, the label of organic farming was manipulated and the practice of farming was associated with more conventional and familiar contexts, while the stigma was diverted at the same time to biodynamic farming. We develop a process model for removal of stigma from a nascent category t…
Unraveling the Composition of Insecticidal Crystal Proteins in Bacillus thuringiensis: a Proteomics Approach.
2020
ABSTRACT Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is the most widely used active ingredient for biological insecticides. The composition of δ-endotoxins (Cry and Cyt proteins) in the parasporal crystal determines the toxicity profile of each Bt strain. However, a reliable method for their identification and quantification has not been available, due to the high sequence identity of the genes that encode the δ-endotoxins and the toxins themselves. Here, we have developed an accurate and reproducible mass spectrometry-based method (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-multiple reaction monitoring [LC-MS/MS-MRM]) using isotopically labeled proteotypic peptides for each protein in a particular mix…
A fact-finding investigation on Sicilian wine firms attitude towards third party voluntary certifications: motivations and alternative impact assessm…
2015
In the last few decades an increasing emphasis of public and private organization on quality and safety control, on traceability of food products and on environmental issues, has been registered. Mandatory public standards and private voluntary today drive this process in order to assure food safety and traceability standards. The aim of this work is to analyze the main reasons that drives some Sicilian wineries in the adoption of quality voluntary standards, and comparing their economic attitudes and performance with those firms not certified. Results show a very similar performance patterns among the two groups of firms, highlighting a series of differences that are not directly attributa…
SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATIONAL MODELS IN THE GREEK WINE INDUSTRY
2018
The objective of this paper is dual. The first is to identify the key factors that characterize the most successful organizational models of firms operating in the Greek wine industry. The second is to verify if the adoption of third party certifications influences the firms performance. In particular, paying attention on the internal resources of firms, the Resource based view approach is proposed as theoretical framework. Through a cluster analysis has been possible gather the wineries observed on the basis of a similar organisational model, while a non parametric test has been used in order to verify the influence of voluntary certifications on firm performance. Findings show that the mo…
Toward a European Eco-label brand for residential buildings: Holistic or by-components approaches?
2011
The Eco-label scheme is becoming ever more important in the environmental certification of products and services, especially in light of the recent ambitious aim of containing greenhouse emissions and improving the efficiency of utilizing energy sources. A recently-introduced hypothesis concerns the European Eco-label scheme relating to buildings, in the awareness that the construction industry is of primary importance to the whole economic and social life of states. This scheme should adopt an integrated approach to environmental problems and include construction, day-to-day management, and the possible disposal of building materials, throughout the life cycle of the building. In addition,…
The energy certification of buidings through the dynamic simulation of variable consumption
2008
The problem of energy quality control in buildings was officially recognised for the first time at a European level in the EEC directive no. 93/76 of 1993. This directive represented the formal act of an undertaking to promote actions that would lead to a reduction in global carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions. Article 2 of this directive established that states should carry out programmes concerning the energy certification of buildings, which were consistent in the description of their energy parameters, so as to allow future users of a building to know and understand its energy efficiency. Italy acknowledged this directive, along with the subsequent European directive 2002/91/CE on energy effi…
A Blockchain-based Platform for Positive Energy Districts
2022
The reduction of climate change effects (mitigation) is now mainly driven by the limitation of CO2 emissions which is currently becoming increasingly necessary and urgent to achieve. In this context, within the past Horizon 2020 program, the Urban Europe Joint Programming Initiative aimed to promote the development and deployment of at least 100 Positive Energy Districts by 2025. The latter are flexible, energy-efficient urban areas or groups of buildings that produce zero net CO2 emissions and actively manage annual renewable energy surplus production at the local or regional level. As they are connected to the electric power system, Positive Energy Districts have the ability to offer flex…