Business Commons^™

Logistics And Supply Chain Job Placement: The 2007 Perspective, Cook Lorin Robert, Brian J. Gibson, Zachary Williams

Journal of Transportation Management

The development of an effective recruitment strategy that attracts and secures entry-level logistics talent is essential to maintain corporate performance. A critical aspect of job placement involves understanding the preferences of students and employers. This research presents results of parallel surveys of U.S. undergraduate logistics, transportation and supply chain student and employer preferences and perceptions regarding employment. Results provided include a demographic respondent profile, their organization /functional area preferences and their perspectives on selected entry-level employment issues. These research results are intended to provide employers, educators and students with information that can be used to improve job placement success.

Profit Contribution Information’S Impact On Internal Integration, Scott J. Grawe, Haozhe Chen, Daniel D. Mattioda, Patricia J. Daugherty

Journal of Transportation Management

An exploratory quantitative study on the relationship between profit contribution information and firm-wide internal integration is presented. Specifically, the authors examine how profit contribution information availability impacts firm-wide internal integration and, subsequently, logistics performance. This study provides greater insight into the area; only a few studies have empirically examined the impact of profit contribution information within a firm. The primary implication is that firms should utilize specific types of information, i.e. profit contribution information, for making more informed operational and strategic decisions. The paper also underscores the managerial value of using profit contribution information in decision making and planning.

Moving Towards A Resilient Supply Chain, John Mascaritolo, Mary C. Holcomb

Journal of Transportation Management

The nature of supply chain management—global in scope, the existence of interdependent activities in the various processes, the need for collaborative relationships between members, and the uncertainty that is inherent in both supply and demand - makes it vulnerable to unexpected events that have the potential to disrupt operations as planned. Disruptions to the supply chain can have a profound effect on the firm ranging from loss of revenue to increased costs when operations don’t proceed as planned. Firms realized that it was critical to their business interests to proactively manage, and even mitigate, the risks that are inherent in …

Safety Attitudes And Behavioral Intentions Of Municipal Waste Disposal Drivers, Swartz M. Stephen, Matthew A. Douglas

Journal of Transportation Management

The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to study factors useful for predicting Behavioral Intentions to commit unsafe acts while driving for commercial drivers working for municipal waste management operations centers. The Theory of Planned Behavior was found to be moderately effective in predicting behavioral intentions, particularly through the constructs of Attitude and Perceived Control. Driver perceptions of safety climate, self-assessed personal safety performance, risk aversion, and attitudes toward behavioral factors associated with engaging in risky behaviors while operating motor vehicles were studied. Risk aversion and driver perception of their own safety performance were also useful predictors of intention.

The Effects Of Interdepartmental Customer Orientation On Distribution Center Performance, Nancy M. Scott, M Douglas Voss, Scott B. Keller, Matt Schlosser

Journal of Transportation Management

Firms have begun to look internally for ways to increase external service quality. ANOVA is used to examine the effect of interdepartmental customer orientation on time, inventory, and customer service-based performance variables in distribution centers. Findings indicate that high interdepartmental customer orientation positively affects distribution center performance in terms of time-based performance measures and customer satisfaction. Interdepartmental customer orientation was found to have only a marginal affect on inventory performance. Implications of the current research for distribution centers and transportation managers are discussed along with limitations and opportunities for future research.

Welfare Issues With Caponizing Chickens

Agribusiness Reports

No U.S. state or federal regulations prohibit the practice of caponizing cockerels—castrating male chickens under one year of age. Crude instructions and surgical implements are readily available to provide any amateur “hobbyist” with the means to perform this procedure, typically on fully conscious, unanesthetized birds. Caponizing has been banned in the United Kingdom due to animal welfare concerns and should be disallowed in the United States.

The Welfare Of Crustaceans At Slaughter, Stephanie Yue

Agribusiness Reports

The most common methods of slaughtering crustaceans include splitting, spiking, chilling, boiling, gassing, “drowning,” and using chemicals or electricity. As crustaceans do not have a centralized nervous system, unlike vertebrates, they do not die immediately upon destruction of one discrete area, such as the brain. New technologies, including the Crustastun electrical stunning and killing system, may improve the welfare of crustaceans during slaughter, which is critically important as most if not all current techniques are inhumane.

The Welfare Of Animals In The Turkey Industry

Agribusiness Reports

The natural behavior and habitat of wild turkeys stand in sharp contrast to the life of turkeys commercially raised for meat. Overcrowded in automated, barren “grow-out” houses, turkeys are offered little opportunity to display their full range of complex social, foraging, and exploratory behavior. Today’s commercial breeds grow at an unnaturally rapid pace to unprecedented weights. This forced rapid growth further compromises their health and welfare, and causes them to suffer from skeletal, muscular, and other health problems, as well as painful and often crippling leg disorders. Breeding birds, unable to mate naturally due to genetic selection for fast growth …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Egg Industry

Agribusiness Reports

Hundreds of millions of chickens in the egg industry suffer from poor welfare throughout their lives. Male chicks, considered a byproduct of commercial hatcheries, are killed soon after they hatch. The females are typically beak-trimmed, usually with a hot blade, to prevent them from developing the abnormal pecking behaviors that manifest in substandard environments. The overwhelming majority of hens are then confined in barren battery cages, enclosures so small that the birds are unable even to spread their wings without touching the cage sides or other hens. Battery cages prevent nearly all normal behavior, including nesting, perching, and dustbathing, all …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Aquaculture Industry

Agribusiness Reports

In the United States, approximately 1.3 billion fish are raised in off-shore and land-based aquaculture systems each year for food, making them the second-most commonly farmed animal domestically, following broiler chickens. The majority of farmed fish are subject to overcrowded and restrictive conditions, which, if unchecked, can quickly deteriorate water quality, cause severe stress, and result in increased mortality. Aquaculture practices and production—including handling, grading, transport, genetic manipulation, aggression from conspecifics, predation, physiological stress, and inhumane slaughter—compromise the welfare of these animals.

The Impact Of Industrialized Animal Agriculture On The Environment

Agribusiness Reports

The continuous confinement of chickens, pigs, turkeys, cattle, and other animals raised in industrialized agricultural systems jeopardizes the animals’ welfare and degrades the environment. Factory farms produce immense quantities of animal waste and byproducts, which threaten water and air quality and contribute to climate change.

The Impact Of Industrialized Animal Agriculture On Rural Communities

Agribusiness Reports

Industrialized animal agriculture production practices and systems not only jeopardize the welfare of farm animals and the environment, but also negatively impact public health, independent family farmers, and quality of life in rural communities. The tolls exacted on rural communities necessitate dramatic and immediate changes in animal agriculture.

The Impact Of Animal Agriculture On Global Warming And Climate Change

Agribusiness Reports

The farm animal production sector is the single largest anthropogenic user of land, contributing to soil degradation, dwindling water supplies, and air pollution. The breadth of this sector‘s impacts has been largely underappreciated. Meat, egg, and milk production are not narrowly focused on the rearing and slaughtering of farm animals. The animal agriculture sector also encompasses feed grain production which requires substantial water, energy, and chemical inputs, as well as energy expenditures to transport feed, live animals, and animal products. All of this comes at a substantial cost to the environment.

One of animal agriculture‘s greatest environmental impacts is its …

Factory Farming In America

Agribusiness Reports

The True Cost of Animal Agribusiness for Rural Communities, Public Health, Families, Farmers, the Environment, and Animals

Food Safety Concerns With The Slaughter Of Downed Cattle

Agribusiness Reports

Nonambulatory cattle may be at higher risk of harboring foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and, very rarely, the infectious agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy, colloquially known as “mad cow disease.” The exclusion of nonambulatory cattle from slaughter for human consumption may strengthen the safety of the food supply and is a prudent measure already in place throughout the European Union.

Human Health Implications Of Live Hang Of Chickens And Turkeys On Slaughterhouse Workers

Agribusiness Reports

Nonambulatory cattle may be at higher risk of harboring foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and, very rarely, the infectious agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy, colloquially known as “mad cow disease.” The exclusion of nonambulatory cattle from slaughter for human consumption may strengthen the safety of the food supply and is a prudent measure already in place throughout the European Union.

Human Health Implications Of Non-Therapeutic Antibiotic Use In Animal Agriculture

Agribusiness Reports

For decades, the U.S. meat industry has fed medically important antibiotics to chickens, pigs, and cattle to accelerate their weight gain and prevent disease in the stressful and unhygienic conditions that typify industrialized animal agriculture production facilities. A strong scientific consensus exists, asserting that this practice fosters antibiotic resistance in bacteria to the detriment of human health. In response to this public health threat, the European Union has banned the non-therapeutic feeding of a number of antibiotics of human importance to farm animals. Given these serious concerns as well as recent data that suggest an overall lack of financial benefit, …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Duck Industry

Agribusiness Reports

Duck production in the United States shares many of the same intensive husbandry practices found in the chicken and turkey industries, despite being much smaller in scale. The vast majority of farmed ducks are reared in dimly lit sheds with high stocking densities and without access to water for swimming, a significant welfare concern for these aquatic animals. Lameness, feather pecking, respiratory problems, and eye infections are common, and most birds are subjected to bill-trimming, a physical mutilation known to cause pain. The stress and physical trauma of catching and crating for transport, as well as the journeys themselves, further …

Welfare Issues With Transport Of Day-Old Chicks

Agribusiness Reports

In the United States, more than 9 billion chickens and 250 million turkeys are raised and slaughtered annually for food. Virtually all broiler chickens (those raised for meat) and turkeys come from strains produced by four and three primary breeding companies, respectively. Within several hours after hatching, the chicks are typically relocated from the hatchery or breeder farm to the commercial grow-out facility via ground and air transportation. Small hatcheries also send chicks to backyard “hobbyists” via U.S. Postal Service delivery. Unless carefully controlled and properly managed, transport—whether by truck or plane and regardless of scale, commercial or specialty—can subject …

Economic Literacy At The University Of Arkansas, Amanda Otto

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

In this study, the researchers developed a survey asking students what topics were most desired, what the ideal format of the program would be, and what would motivate students to participate. Each of these questions allowed participants to rank options within topics, formats and motivators. The survey also collected demographic information concerning age, gender, university classification, and specific college so that the researchers could analyze the needs of different groups on campus. A total of 397 students participated. To analyze the data, the rankings were summed to create an aggregate ranking for each question. The demographic information was used in …