The appearance of Artificial Intelligence implementations, such as text-based virtual assistants (chatbots) in education is relatively new. These implementations can be useful for helping teachers and students to solve both educational questions and routine tasks. This paper examines the factors that explain teachers’ acceptance of chatbots through the dimensions of the Technology Acceptance Model (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), its conversational design (use of social language and proactiveness), and the teachers’ age and digital skills. The data collection process included a pre-test and an online survey with four different types of chatbots. We analyse 225 responses of primary and secondary education teachers. The results show that the perceived easiness and perceived usefulness leads to greater acceptance of chatbots. As for the chatbots’ features, formal language by a chatbot leads to a higher intention of using them. These results can help in chatbot design and communication decisions, improving the acceptance of the educational community.

The survival of agricultural marketing co-operatives depends on their capability of satisfying and maintaining their base of farmer members. Hypotheses regarding these two success factors are developed in neoclassical economics and transaction cost economics. They are tested with a survey of 321 members of marketing co-operatives specialising in fresh fruits and vegetables. Our results show support for both perspectives. Price paid to farmers is important for their satisfaction with the co-operative. Farmers' perceptions of transaction costs are even more important.

Agricultural marketing cooperatives are of panoramic socioeconomic importance. As owners, decision‐makers, and suppliers, their members' opportunism is of great concern to their competitiveness. In this study, we analyze sthe impact of governance mechanisms on opportunism. We explore the nonlinear effects and differences between the memberships of first‐tier cooperatives and federated cooperatives. Empirical results show that not all the mechanisms are equally effective: effective mechanisms for first‐tier cooperatives memberships should be employed with lower intensity, whereas those effective for federated cooperatives memberships need a higher intensity of employment. The results of this study allow presenting theoretical and managerial implications in an underexplored field of research [EconLit Citations: D22, D23, P13, Q13].

Managing an agricultural marketing cooperative is largely a matter of managing relationships with its members. They are not just owners participating in decision making and the provision of funds; they are also suppliers of the product the cooperative is offering to the market. This study analyses how transaction costs in the relationship of the cooperative with its member-suppliers contribute to its success in the market. An analysis of data from 124 Spanish marketing cooperatives operating in the fresh fruit and vegetables sector confirms most of the study's research hypotheses. The authors find that a cooperative's market performance is improved when it invests in specific assets and has more safeguards, lower levels of behavioural and environmental uncertainty and higher levels of adaptation in the relationship with its member-suppliers.

Undercapitalization has been recognized as a problem affecting Italian co-operatives to perform in modern agri-food markets. An empirical study on 50 Italian agri-food co-operatives was carried out to investigate co-operatives members’ commitment capability to impact on the level of capitalization. The level of capitalization was also investigated as a mean to influence co-operatives’ innovation and subsequently their performance. The results show how co-operatives with more committed memberships display higher levels of capitalization and that capitalization positively relates with innovation levels. The latter is also confirmed to enhance co-operatives’ performance. These results are relevant from a managerial point of view as they reveal the importance of members’ commitment in this particular type of organizations and provide new insights to improve co-operatives’ innovation and performance.