This study focuses on evaluating the technical and scale efficiencies of smallholder pineapple farmers in Ghana’s Central Region. We surveyed 320 participants selected using random sampling and applied an input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to gauge their technical, pure, and scale efficiencies. Our findings indicate that the mean technical efficiency among these farmers is 0.505, with individual scores ranging from 0.079 to 1.000. Notably, 90.82% of the farmers are operating below maximum efficiency levels, suggesting a potential input reduction of up to 49.5% while maintaining current production levels. Relaxing the assumption of constant returns under Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) conditions reveals a notable improvement in technical efficiency, with 10.82% more farmers achieving optimal efficiency levels. Furthermore, our analysis highlights scale inefficiencies, with 67.26% of farmers operating below optimal scale levels. By increasing production by 22.8%, these scale-inefficient farmers could enhance their efficiency and productivity within existing technological frameworks. These findings underscore the importance of collaborative efforts among policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders within the agricultural value chain to implement interventions such as improving access to technology and innovation for smallholder farmers and making necessary investments in farmer education and training programs to enhance both technical and scale efficiencies in Ghana’s pineapple sector. Such initiatives can drive sustainable growth, improve farmers’ livelihoods, and bolster the sector’s overall competitiveness.

BACKGROUND: Work stress and feeling of entrapment are harmful physical and emotional results for employees when the workload demands exceed their capacities. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effects of the career management system and succession plan on employees’ work stress and feelings of entrapment in hopes of improving employees’ well-being to promote business continuity. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the convenient sampling method was adopted. The research was conducted with the participation of call center agents (n = 621) of three call centers in Turkey. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) path analysis was performed on the collected data for hypothesis testing. RESULTS: Both career management systems (CMS) and succession plans (SP) reduce employees’ work stress and feelings of entrapment. Work stress was found to mediate the effects of CMS and SP on the Feeling of Entrapment. The CMS reduces the work stress of employees with university degrees than those with a high school diploma. Meanwhile, SP reduces more of the feeling of entrapment for employees newly starting their jobs (with 0–2 years of seniority) than the workers with three or more years of seniority. CONCLUSION: Empirically, the feeling of entrapment seems higher among the employees with three or more years of seniority, suggesting that human resource management should focus on employees’ work stress and feeling of job insecurity issues and offer possible and timely solutions. Furthermore, organizations showing care to newly arriving staff and giving them job assurance is believed crucial to improving employees’ recruitment and retention.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, vaccination against the virus has been implemented and has progressed among various groups across all ethnicities, genders, and almost all ages in the United States. This study examines the impacts of socioeconomic status and political preference on COVID-19 vaccination in over 443 counties in the southwestern United States. Regression analysis was used to examine the association between a county’s vaccination rate and one’s personal income, employment status, education, race and ethnicity, age, occupation, residential area, and political preference. The results were as follows: First, counties with higher average personal income tend to have a higher vaccination rate (p < 0.001). Second, county-level vaccination is significantly associated with the percentage of Democrat votes (β = 0.242, p < 0.001). Third, race and ethnicity are vaccine-influencing factors. Counties with more Black residents have lower vaccine acceptance (β = −0.419, p < 0.001), while those where more Hispanics or Native Americans reside are more likely to accept vaccines for health protection (β = 0.202, p < 0.001; β = 0.057, p = 0.008, respectively). Lastly, pertaining to the age difference, seniors aged 65 and older show substantial support for vaccination, followed by the median age group (all p < 0.001).

The study focused on the technical and scale efficiency of smallholder pineapple farmers in the Central Region of Ghana. The input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate technical, pure and scale efficiencies of the smallholder pineapple farmers, of which a random sampling procedure was used to select 320 respondents. The study revealed that the farmers were technically inefficient with mean technical efficiency under Constant Returns to Scale (CRS), pure efficiency under Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) and the Scale Efficiency levels of 0.505, 0.641 and 0.772, respectively, due to farmers’ inability to exploit fully the available technology while experiencing evident post-harvest losses resulting from low adoption of post-harvest technologies. Such findings are meaningful and could help the farming communities and relevant policymakers to understand the issues in farming production and hence undertake necessary actions to potentially improve farmers’ technical and scale efficiencies in the study area.

“Double-Eleven” Day (aka 11.11 [November 11th], Singles Day, and Bachelors Day) is an e-commerce shopping spree celebrated by millions of Chinese e-shoppers. Since 2013, Chinese e-tailers have experienced record 1-day sales on that date. Qualitative secondary data about ‘Double-Eleven’ Day e-shoppers suggests they are short-term oriented and individualistic, anti-hierarchical in buyer–seller relationships, focused on immediate consumption and hedonic pleasure, and prone to spontaneous trust and superficial interactions when online. In contrast, traditional Chinese shoppers conform to long-established Chinese personal selling strategies by being long-term oriented, collectivistic, and seekers of long-term mutual trust in hierarchical buyer–seller relationships. Hence, Chinese e-tailers should adapt their selling practices to Chinese e-shoppers’ attitudes and behaviors.

Background/Objectives: The implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in the United States has revealed substantial disparities driven by geography, socioeconomic conditions, and political ideology. This study examines the association between these factors and COVID-19 vaccination uptake across 360 counties in four U.S.–Mexico border states, characterized by distinct socio-political traits. Methods: Using county-level data, this study employed multivariable regression analysis and GIS mapping to assess the effects of income, education, employment, age, race, ethnicity, occupation, metropolitan status, border status, and political affiliation on Dose 1, Dose 2, and booster vaccination rates. Results: The analysis showed that Dose 1 vaccination rates were significantly higher in border counties and metropolitan areas. Democratic population share and per capita income were positively associated with vaccination uptake. Dose 2 vaccination rates exhibited patterns similar to those observed for Dose 1. Booster vaccination rates were positively associated with Democratic affiliation, the proportion of the population with at least a high school education, and the share of individuals aged 65 years and older. In contrast, unemployment rates were negatively associated with booster uptake. Racial and ethnic composition was also associated with vaccination outcomes: higher Black population shares were associated with lower Dose 1 vaccination rates, whereas higher Native American population shares were associated with higher vaccination rates. Booster uptake was higher with larger shares of the Asian population but slightly lower with larger shares of the White population. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccination uptake in U.S.–Mexico border counties was associated with a complex interaction of geographic, socioeconomic, demographic, and political factors. These findings underscore the importance of targeted, context-specific public health strategies to reduce vaccination disparities and improve booster coverage in border regions.