Rene Andrin Villano

University of New England (Australia) | UNE · UNE Business School

The farmers’ Behaviour Insight Project (FBIP) in the eastern Terai region of Nepal has been evaluating the value of behavioural economics in understanding decision-making by farm women and men, and using these behavioural insights to design, test and assess selected interventions in agricultural technology dissemination. Many government policy docu...

The Farmer Behaviour Insights Symposium aims to present the key findings of the Farmer Behaviour Insights Project (FBIP) to key stakeholders in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. This Regional Symposium provides a platform to discuss the Behavioural Economics methodology as an approach to understanding farm-household management decision making and how i...

Rural social enterprises (RSEs) are an emerging actor that applies market-based approaches to implement a social mission: steering social and economic development. They thus contribute to addressing intractable challenges such as poverty and inequality disproportionately faced in rural areas. However, there is limited empirical evidence of their pe...

Rural social enterprises (RSEs) represent an emerging actor in rural and local socio-economic development. The study of RSEs recognizes the importance of place-based actions for development. Social impacts of RSEs have been touted, particularly in filling roles in the rural context that are underperformed by governments and private actors. However,...

Citation: Villano, R.A.; Koomson, I.; Nengovhela, N.B.; Mudau, L.; Burrow, H.M.; Bhullar, N.

The present study examined smallholder farmer profiles based on key psychological variables associated with farm business performance in the South African context. A sample of 471 beef farmers (mean age = 54.15 years; SD = 14.46; men = 76%) and 426 poultry farmers (mean age = 47.28 years; SD = 13.53; women = 54.5%) provided data on a range of measu...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to guide commercial and policy action to improve smallholder Indonesian cattle systems. Design/methodology/approach A survey ( n = 304) of smallholder cattle farms in six villages in two districts of Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were employed to cl...

Rural social enterprises (RSEs) operate in rural areas, which disproportionately face intractable challenges such as poverty and inequality. They need to identify and develop the factors critical for their success. Data were collected in rural Uganda on a case study basis, using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, and analysed w...

Quantitative analysis of social enterprises' (SEs) performance is developed and extended using a survey (n=1021) of smallholder farmers in rural Uganda. A diversity/class analysis approach is used to disaggregate beneficiaries. The capability approach and network DEA are used to measure performance in terms of wellbeing operationalised as capacity,...

The field of social entrepreneurship has a limited focus on rural areas, and on developing countries. This particularly applies to the study of Social Enterprises (SEs) that address rural areas (RSEs). Rural areas are disproportionately affected by intractable challenges such as poverty and inequality. In addition, they suffer from significant orga...

Sustainable coffee production is significantly threatened by climate change. While implementing CSA practices offers numerous benefits, adoption rates remain low. Coffee plantations are dominated by smallholders and located in rural areas, making them more complex and requiring a comprehensive analysis and intervention. This study used an explorato...

COVID-19 significantly impacts coffee production, which smallholders dominate. Unaddressed impacts will affect coffee production sustainability. However, smallholders face some constraints. This study aims to determine the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of Arabica and Robusta farmers in Indonesia, examine technical recommendations as copin...

This paper examines the impact of financial literacy training on household asset accumulation using data collected from a randomised controlled trial implemented in Ghana. Financial assets are measured using account holdings and savings while durable assets and their decomposed components are captured using their total values. After testing for bas...

Early alert systems (EAS) are an important technological tool to help manage and improve student retention. Data spanning 16,091 students over 156 weeks was collected from a regionally based university in Australia to explore various microeconometric approaches that establish links between EAS and student retention outcomes. Controlling for numerou...

Social enterprises (SEs) are touted as a tool for steering equitable and sustainable development in both developing and developed countries through addressing today’s intractable challenges e.g. poverty and inequality (Bansal et al., 2019; Rahdari et al., 2016; Yunus & Weber, 2007) which are disproportionately faced in rural areas (Bird et al., 201...

Social enterprises (SEs), which have emerged more recently among social and solidarity economy organisations are touted for steering rural development through their social impacts. However, SEs' social impact measurement is underdeveloped theoretically and empirically despite its importance in the social and solidarity economy, specifically within...

Rural women entrepreneurs play a significant role in economic, social, and sustainable agriculture development aspects, increase the added value of a product, create a thriving community system, and encourage a competitive agribusiness system. One of the agribusiness systems that is developing in Indonesia is palm cattle integration. However, women...

Integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) play a vital role in ensuring food security and improved welfare for smallholder households, however, studies that focus on ICLMP adoption in Ghana (including its gender dimension) remain scant. This paper examines gender differences in the drivers and intensity of ICLMP adoption using farm-le...

In sub-Saharan Africa, financial inclusion remains low, with households being more vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. Mobile money has been identified as having the potential to boost financial inclusion while closing the related gender- and rural-gaps in the process. Nonetheless, little is known about how mobile money facilitates the sending and...

Social enterprises (SEs) are touted as tools for steering equitable and sustainable socio-economic development globally by addressing grand challenges e.g. poverty and inequality. SEs have even a greater potential in the developing world’s rural areas which suffer more disproportionately from poverty and inequality. To achieve their potential in ru...

Palm cattle integration as an integrated farming system is intrinsically complex. The model involves different processes and interactions between various actors in the value chain. The participation of women farmers in agriculture is considered the primary social capital in creating agricultural sustainability and improving productivity, but norms...

This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training programme on household consumption as a welfare indicator. Using data collected from a randomized controlled trial implemented in Ghana, we tested for baseline balance and applied ordinary least squares to estimate endline impact. Our findings revealed tha...

Social enterprises (SEs) have been touted for steering socio-economic development (Bansal et al., 2019; Rahdari et al., 2016; Tinsely and Agapitova, 2018; Yunus et al., 2010).This is through contributing to solving grand challenges e.g. poverty and inequality which are disproportionately faced in rural areas (Bird et al., 2012; Mair et al., 2016, 2...

In sub-Saharan Africa, financial inclusion remains low, with households being more vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. Mobile money has been identified as having the potential to boost financial inclusion while closing the related gender- and rural-gaps in the process. Nonetheless, little is known about how mobile money facilitates the sending and...

Cassava (Manihot esculanta Crantz) is an important tropical root crop for food security and national economies in Africa. In Ghana, it is the most important staple food also used in breweries, bakery and confectionery industries. Several high-yielding and disease resistant improved cassava varieties (ICVs) have been released and are being promoted...

This paper proposes a framework for identification of business models in smallholder cattle production and marketing that represents innovation behaviour. Cattle are vital to Indonesia’s smallholders’ livelihoods, and smallholder systems are key to serving the country’s growing demand for beef. Business incentives currently select against the devel...

Achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is a critical priority for East Timor. Food security, reducing poverty, and promoting environmental sustainability are among the key goals of the Timor Leste Government, which supports the identification and uptake by farmers of technologies that will improve agricultural productivity. Integra...

This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of Ghanaian households. Using data extracted from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey in 2016/17, a multiple correspondence analysis is employed to generate a financial inclusion index, and three-stage feasible least squares is used to e...

Administrative staff are a crucial human capital input in tertiary education institutions. Given the substantial investment in recruitment and selection of administrative staff, efficient and effective use of these staff affects the organisational and financial performance of universities. Whereas much concern has been placed on the performance of...

In this paper, a meta-regression analysis is presented by 38 empirical studies on the size of scale in various local government services. Our results show that income classification was the most important factor in determining size of scale and all selected local government services recorded decreasing size of scale in the recent decades, with wate...

Malaysian local government reform has been addressed through various public policies aimed at improving its performance over the decades. An important question which arises is whether these technological and management programs have translated into performance gains, particularly in the corporate centres of local authorities (LAs). Using a panel da...

This study examines the impact of financial literacy training on financial inclusion and its intensity using data collected from a randomised control trial. An additive index of financial inclusion is generated from four financial inclusion indicators. After testing for baseline balance and estimating impact, our findings show that beneficiaries of...

This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of Ghanaian households. Using data extracted from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey in 2016/17, a multiple correspondence analysis is employed to generate a financial inclusion index, and three-stage feasible least squares is used to e...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of crop-livestock diversification among smallholders in the forest-savannah agroecological zone of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a stochastic input distance function to investigate the evidence of economies of diversification and its effect on determining d...

The higher education system of Viet Nam has been undergoing reform process with the aim of seeking a position in the world’s education market. However, recent changes in the system have made the operational efficiency of the system less stable, thus making it more challenging to improve the country’s universities world rankings. In this paper, we i...

Higher education has been one of the central focus of data envelopment analysis (DEA) re-search, and there has been a remarkable growth in the number of studies using DEA in recent years. Heterogeneous DEA models have been applied in assessing the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs), and the multi-faceted production process of highe...

This paper evaluates the performance of maize farmers in three agroecological zones in Ghana. A metafrontier model is used to estimate the average technical efficiencies and maize productivty gaps across the agroecological zones. The results shows that land, labour and fertilizer significantly influence maize production. Managerial performance of f...

Empirical studies of customers' response to their favored brands' being out of stock (OOS) have focused on customers' characteristics and have been almost exclusively conducted in metropolitan areas of Europe and North America. Less is known about the effect of new retail market entry on customers' OOS response and the associated implications for r...

In this paper, we assess the resilience of households in responding to climate-induced calamities such as flash floods and landslides in Compostela Valley of the Philippines. Using cross-sectional survey data collected in 2013 and 2014, we applied the integrated data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based network model to estimate a composite resilience...

Pre‐committed consumption represents the portion of demand that is determined by non‐price and non‐income factors. This study uses quarterly data to estimate a Generalised Almost Ideal Demand System (GAIDS) to test for the existence of pre‐committed meat consumption in Australia. Two specifications are estimated to evaluate the impact of seasonal a...

This paper examines the productivity of diversified farming systems in the Forest-Savannah Transition zone of Ghana. Cross sectional data from 568 smallholder farmers and a metafrontier framework are used to investigate the opportunities for improving the performance of three types of farming systems: crop; livestock; and integrated crop-livestock....

This paper analyses the operational efficiencies of Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs) after three decades of transition to the market-orientated economy. Using data from 112 universities and 141 colleges in the period 2011–2013, a new stage is proposed to integrate the bootstrap procedure into the environmentally-adjusted multi-stage...

This paper analyses the operational efficiencies of Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs) after three decades of transition to the market-orientated economy. Using data from 112 universities and 141 colleges in the period 2011–2013, a new stage is proposed to integrate the bootstrap procedure into the environmentally-adjusted multi-stage...

Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking technological solutions to not only enhance the learning environment but also support students. In this study, we explored the case of an early alert system (EAS) at a regional university engaged in both on-campus and online teaching. Using a total of 16,142 observations captured between 2011 a...

There is strong evidence that innovation is a primary driver of a nation's economic growth. As Australia continues to compete in the global economy, it is imperative that businesses should be innovative to improve their performance. In this paper, we evaluate the status and main drivers of innovation in small businesses in the food sector in Austra...

Australia's highly concentrated food retail environment is examined in the context of competitive entry in a small city. Based on a conceptual framework that draws on existing literature, food stores’ customers’ share of wallet (SOW) is measured in a survey (n = 379) which brackets the opening of a new supermarket. A number of variables are recorde...

Vietnam’s higher education has witnessed substantial improvements since the implementation of the Doi Moi (renovation) policy. One of the significant developments is the promotion of establishment and enhancement of the role of private institutions in national education systems. However, the quest to improve the overall performance of the private h...

The overall performance of an organization depends on the operational efficiency of different divisions in a network structure. The organization is really efficient only if each division is operating efficiently. The linkage between divisions is inherently complex and needs to be perused to provide more appropriate solutions for further improvement...

The overall performance of an organization depends on the operational efficiency of different divisions in a network structure. The organization is really efficient only if each division is operating efficiently. The linkage between divisions is inherently complex and needs to be perused to provide more appropriate solutions for further improvement...

The purpose of this study is to explore reasons for the decline in agricultural performance in Botswana that has occurred during the implementation of a variety of policy measures, as well as the introduction of new technologies, and to identify ways in which it might be reversed. Panel data from six regions in Botswana (period 1979–2012) is analyz...

The present study adds to the empirical literature examining the effects of conditional cash transfers on school outcomes. Using school-level and student-level enrolment data from Davao Oriental Philippines, we evaluate the influence of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (also known as 4Ps), a social development policy program, on the growth r...

Universities in Vietnam are inclined to have an inefficient mix of input resources because of rigidities restricting the adoption of advanced teaching technology. There has been a deferral of the adoption of new teaching technologies to meet the rest of the world's higher education standards. Using an input-orientated data envelopment analysis (DEA...

The widely acknowledged low salaries of teachers makes them deficit units who often seek loans from banks or engage in hire purchases in their bid to smoothing consumption within their households. Despite the financial stress that comes with such tendencies (as a corollary) and its effect on teacher attrition, previous studies have remained silent...

The present study investigated the influence of a quality-grading system, demographic information and consumption preferences on consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for sheep meat. Eating quality was defined by four grades developed by the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) sheep meat-grading scheme. These grades were based on consumer palatability score...

This paper evaluates the performance of smallholder farmers in three districts of the forest-savannah transition agroecological zone of Ghana and examines the effect of integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) on the productivity and technical efficiency of production of small-ruminant outputs of farmers. Using farm-level data collec...

Purpose – In Australia, the vocational education and training (VET) sector accounts for approximately A$8 billion of public spending, of which around A$6.6 billion is spent on government providers that include Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes. The TAFE institutes in Australia are large, public VET providers, generally funded and ma...

Agricultural diversification has been identified as one of the mechanisms for managing household food security and poverty in developing economies, because it can spread the risk among multiple production enterprises and provide a range of food items for the households. By examining the integrated farming systems of 608 smallholders in Ghana, this...

This article provides an analysis of the academic performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam with 50 universities and 50 colleges in 2011/12. The two-stage semiparametric data envelopment analysis is used to estimate the efficiency of HEIs and investigate the effects of various factors on their performance. The findings reveal t...

Viet Nam's tertiary education sector has obtained remarkable achievements in terms of policies of national reform and strategies of international cooperation during the renovation process. However, whether these policies are appropriate for the country to quickly find its place in the global market place is still unclear. Although a number of gover...

Access to quality seed yam is a major constraint to yam production in Cameroon. This study evaluated the performance of farm enterprises engaged in seed yam (minisett) production as a source of quality planting material for yam-growing communities. Using cross-sectional data from 131 smallholder seed yam farm enterprises, a translog stochastic prod...

The beef cattle production system in Botswana is dualistic in structure in that it includes both traditional and commercial production systems, which are distinct from one another in terms of objectives, land tenure, technology, and management practices. The purpose of this paper is to measure the key performance indicators of beef cattle productio...

In this paper, the influence of socio-economic and product quality attributes on consumers’ willingness to pay for good quality sweetpotato in Papua New Guinea was examined. The quality of sweetpotato was assessed by consumers based on its physical appearance, taste and maturity. Using a two-step double hurdle model, the determinants of the discret...

The present paper examines the administrative efficiency of implementing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the Philippines. Using data collected at a municipal level for four provinces in the Davao Region, administrative efficiency scores were computed, employing cost transfer ratios (CTR) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the...

Budgetary constraints on the public purse have led Australian Federal and State governments to focus increasingly on the efficiency of public institutions, including Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes. In this study, we define efficiency as the relationship between financial and administrative inputs and educational outputs. We emplo...

The prevalence of early alert systems (EAS) at tertiary institutions is increasing. These systems are designed to assist with targeted student support in order to improve student retention. They also require considerable human and capital resources to implement, with significant costs involved. It is therefore an imperative that the systems can dem...

This article provides an analysis of the academic performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam with 50 universities and 50 colleges in 2011/12. The two-stage semiparametric data envelopment analysis is used to estimate the efficiency of HEIs and investigate the effects of various factors on their performance. The findings reveal t...

Agricultural diversification may provide synergies in farm enterprises, spread production risks and improve income stability of farmers. This paper investigates characteristics of crop-livestock diversification among smallholders in the forest savannah agro-ecological zone of Ghana. Using an econometric model we obtain evidence that scope economies...

The stars appear to be aligned for a sustained effort to improve information to rural development policy makers about the impact space has on the opportunities for development of the ubiquitous smallholder households in rural areas of Southeast Asian countries. The influences of spatially heterogeneous resource constraints on farming activities, di...

This paper examines the technical efficiency of extensive beef farms in different regions of Botswana and attempts to explain differences in regional performance in terms of environmental and economic constraints. Using a panel dataset of 26 agricultural districts (distributed across six agro-ecological regions) for the period 2004 to 2012, we esti...

This paper evaluates current payment schemes employed by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the Philippines using six assessment criteria: transaction cost, security/risks, speed and timeliness, acceptability, resilience and flexibility. Employing data collected at the regional level, we establish four main findings: (1) all 4Ps payme...

In Vietnam, public colleges play a crucial role in shaping the socioeconomic and educational development strategies and providing a skilled labor force needed for the country’s market-oriented economy. Using balanced panel data for 2011–2013, we use the integrated data envelopment analysis based dynamic network model to examine dynamic changes in e...