During the last decade, an encouraging environment for the restructuring and modernization of the agricultural sector has formed in Greece. The diversification into higher-value crops can be a promising option for small and average-sized farms, particularly during the current economic crisis. One of the most promising alternative crops that have been recently established in Greece is the organic Aloe vera crop. The main advantage of this crop is that it can utilize poor farmlands and, therefore, can facilitate rural development in marginal areas. This study explores the economic sustainability of the Aloe vera crop, considering the embedded risk and uncertainty. The results indicate that organic aloe farming is a promising alternative to “traditional” crops in Greece, particularly for family farms in rural areas. In contrast, this activity is not advisable to the most entrepreneurial type of farmers, unless their crop size allows economies of scales. Finally, the Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function (SERF) analysis associates farmers’ risk attitude with their willingness to be involved in organic Aloe vera farming. SERF analysis highlights the crucial role of farmers’ risk aversion and concludes that, above a certain level of risk aversion, farmers have no incentive to adopt this economic activity.

Small-scale fisheries account for 94% of the Greek fishing fleet. The sector consists mainly of family-owned vessels and highly depends on family labor. While the role of women as crew members is of particular interest, there is little evidence of their actual employment status, labor situation, and contribution in the fishing activity. This paper focuses on women in small-scale fisheries in order to investigate their role in the sector and reveal their contribution to fishing enterprises. In addition, it implements a comparative analysis to investigate the differences in various socio-economic indicators in small-scale vessels with and without female crew members. The results indicate that the presence of women has a positive outcome on several social and economic indicators that reflect the wealth of both fishing households and employees. In terms of employment, several differences in the structural characteristics appeared regarding the onshore employment, the share of unpaid labor, and the total hours worked. The majority of female crew members can be characterized as “fisherwomen,” since fishing is their main occupation. Further in-depth research to investigate the family relations among crew members and how they affect the fishing enterprise can supplement the existing research.

This study explores the technical and scale efficiency of two types of Greek fishing vessels, small-scale vessels and bottom trawlers, using a bias-corrected input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis model. Moreover, the associations between efficiency scores and vessel’s and skipper’s characteristics are also explored. The results indicate that small-scale vessels achieve a very low average technical efficiency score (0.42) but a much higher scale efficiency score (0.81). Conversely, bottom trawlers achieve lower scale but higher technical efficiency scores (0.68 and 0.73, respectively). One important finding of this study is that the technical efficiency of small-scale vessels, in contrast to trawlers, is positively associated with the experience of the skipper. In a looser context, it can be said that small-scale fisheries mainly rely on skill, whereas bottom trawlers rely more on technology. This study concludes that there is space for improvement in efficiency, mainly for small-scale vessels, which could allow the achievement of the same level of output by using reduced inputs.

Emerging technologies in the digital context can favor industrial sector firms in their aim to improve their performance. Digitalization is mainly expressed through the utilization of big data that originate from various sources. Blockchain technology has led to the extended adoption of capitalization of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) services, such as cryptocurrency trade platforms. Supply chain firms, in their quest to exploit any means and collaborations available to promote their services, could place advertisements on DeFi’s social media profiles to boost their financial performance. Social media analytics, as a part of the big data family, are an emerging tool for promoting a firm’s digital transformation, based on the plethora of customer behavioral data they provide. This study aims to examine whether the social media analytics of DeFi platforms are capable of affecting their website visibility, as well as the financial performance of supply chain firms. To do so, the authors collected data from the social media profiles of the most-known DeFi platforms and web analytics from the most significant supply chain firms’ websites. For this purpose, proper statistical analysis, Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, Hybrid Modeling, and Cognitive Neuromarketing models were adopted. Throughout the present research, it has been discerned that from an increase in the social media analytics of DeFi platforms, their website visibility increases, while the organic and paid traffic costs of supply chain firms decrease. Supply chain firms’ website customers tend to increase at the same time.