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1 – 10 of 787Štefan Bojnec, Imre Fertő and József Fogarasi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of institutional quality (IQ) in exporting and importing countries on agro-food exports from the world's leading emerging…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of institutional quality (IQ) in exporting and importing countries on agro-food exports from the world's leading emerging economies: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China (BRIC countries).
Design/methodology/approach
Measuring is based on using the gravity trade model and econometric panel data analysis for the period 1998-2009.
Findings
Agro-food exports from the BRIC countries, particularly Brazil and China, have increased. The Russian Federation has experienced stagnating and volatile patterns. Brazil and India have strengthened market shares in the existing importing markets, while the Russian Federation has experienced severe deterioration. The export of existing products is more important than of new products. Agro-food exports are positively associated with IQ and the size of the gross domestic product in exporting and importing countries, but negatively with distance.
Research limitations/implications
Among IQ variables, the focus is on the indices of legal structure and security of property rights and freedom to trade internationally in agro-food importing countries and the BRIC exporting countries.
Practical implications
Different institutions and their quality can affect agro-food exports differently. The impact of institutions is not uniform across product groups.
Originality/value
This paper adds the impacts of IQ on agro-food exports. Except for processed products for final household consumption, agro-food exports from the BRIC countries are positively associated with the quality of the legal structure, the security of property rights and the freedom to trade internationally as IQ in exporting and importing countries.
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Stanley Kojo Dary and Harvey S. James Jr
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants and motives for supply of trade credit among agro-food manufacturing firms in African countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants and motives for supply of trade credit among agro-food manufacturing firms in African countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a subsample of food manufacturing firms from World Bank Enterprise Survey in eight African countries in 2014. Two-limit Tobit models are specified for the determinants of trade credit supply (TCS) and the motives for TCS are inferred from the determinants. An instrumental variable two-limit Tobit model is estimated to check the endogeneity of trade credit received (TCR) in relation to trade credit supplied.
Findings
The level of TCS is significantly related with degree of product diversification, manager experience, level of TCR and overdraft availability. From the results, financing motives (particularly liquidity and redistribution) and commercial motives (particularly marketing and quality guarantee motives) for TCS are implied.
Research limitations/implications
The parameter estimates may contain both demand and supply effects as the two effects cannot be separated due to absence of information on firms’ customers in the data set. The results should be interpreted in this context.
Originality/value
The motives for TCS by agro-food firms is less understood in the agricultural finance literature and this paper makes an important contribution in this regard. In particular, the paper shows the degree of product diversification is directly associated with TCS, a relationship which has not been explored in the trade credit literature.
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Domenico Carlucci, Bernardo De Gennaro, Luigi Roselli and Antonio Seccia
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the price of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and its main quality attributes, in the specific case of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the price of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and its main quality attributes, in the specific case of business-to-consumers electronic commerce (B2C EC) channel. The final objective is to provide useful insights for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interested in online selling of EVO.
Design/methodology/approach
A hedonic price model was estimated considering the following attributes: packaging, cultivar composition, organic certification, oil extraction method, origin certification and localization of selling firms. A survey was performed in 2012 considering 169 virtual stores of SMEs (farms, mills and bottlers) located in all the main Italian olive-growing areas. A data set of 667 references was used to estimate the implicit prices of considered attributes.
Findings
The EVOs sold through virtual stores are highly differentiated on the basis of several quality attributes among which the most important is the certification of origin (protected denominations of origin/protected geographical indication). Therefore the firm location could generate considerable advantages or disadvantages in adopting a B2C EC strategy.
Research limitations/implications
Future researches should develop a comparison between the premium prices and costs associated to each attribute in order to find the best product differentiation strategy. An accurate analysis about the implementation and management costs of EC systems as well as an examination of interactions between online and offline sale channels is needed. It would be useful to compare the manufacturer direct sell business model with other business model.
Originality/value
Few studies applied the hedonic price model to analyse the retail olive oil market. Nevertheless, no studies have analysed the market of EVO sold in virtual shops.
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Shikha Jha, David Roland-Holst, Songsak Sriboonchitta and Drew Behnke
Trade in food and other agricultural products is increasingly important across East and Southeast Asia, where high-income Asian economies have driven significant agricultural…
Abstract
Trade in food and other agricultural products is increasingly important across East and Southeast Asia, where high-income Asian economies have driven significant agricultural expansion, and the People's Republic of China's (PRC) momentous growth promises more stimulus to agro-food activity in the region. The PRC is expected to become a net importer of agro-food in the coming decades, which will have significant implications within the region. As its middle class continues to emerge, the resource intensity of food consumption (e.g., meat and dairy) will lead to net imports and require expansion of agricultural capacity elsewhere. Because low-income Southeast Asia is generally seen to be well below its agro-food potential, this situation suggests a significant opportunity for self-directed poverty reduction through regional agro-food market expansion. This chapter reviews the history of high-income Asia and the PRC's emergence in the region's agro-food markets. Finally, the Greater Mekong Subregion's role is analyzed for the potential of Asian agro-food trade to contribute to poverty reduction.
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Christian Ritzel, Andreas Kohler and Stefan Mann
The purpose of this article is to provide empirical evidence about the potential positive effects of switching from given non-reciprocal trade preferences granted under the Swiss…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to provide empirical evidence about the potential positive effects of switching from given non-reciprocal trade preferences granted under the Swiss Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries (DCs) to negotiated reciprocal trade preferences under a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Design/methodology/approach
In a case study of Tunisia’s exports to Switzerland, the authors apply methods of matching econometrics, namely, Propensity-Score Matching and Nearest-Neighbor Matching. Hereby, they are able to identify the average treatment effect on the treated.
Findings
Overall preferential exports increased by 125 per cent after the entry into force of the FTA in 2005 until the end of the observation period in 2011. Additionally, an analysis of the agro-food and textile sectors likewise indicate boosting preferential exports in the amount of 100 per cent.
Research limitations/implications
Case studies in this vein have their disadvantages. The greatest disadvantage is the lack of generalization. In contrast to studies estimating the potential effects of an FTA for several countries, the authors are not able to generalize their results based on a single case.
Practical implications
Because trade preferences under the Swiss GSP are offered to the country group of DCs as a whole, non-reciprocal trade preferences are not tailored to the export structure of a particular DC. By switching from non-reciprocal to negotiated reciprocal trade preferences, DCs such as Tunisia expect to negotiate terms which are tailored to their export structure as well as better conditions than competitors from countries which are still beneficiaries of the GSP.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate explicitly the switch from non-reciprocal to reciprocal trade preferences using econometric matching techniques.
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Christian Ritzel, Andreas Kohler and Stefan Mann
The purpose of this paper is to determine if the institutional quality of developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs) contributes to a significant increase in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine if the institutional quality of developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs) contributes to a significant increase in the utilization rate of the Swiss generalized system of preferences in the agro-food sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use state of the art regression techniques accounting for zero values to identify if the institutional quality – separately depicted by the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Index of Economic Freedom and the Human Development Index – can contribute in overcoming non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade.
Findings
The institutional quality exerts a consistent positive effect on the level of utilization of trade preferences.
Research limitations/implications
Swiss food trade represents, of course, only a very small share of world trade, therefore it would be worthwhile to extend the analysis to other countries and sectors.
Practical implications
Industrialized countries’ development policies should more strongly focus on capacity building in DCs and LDCs to strengthen trade-related institutions.
Originality/value
The study focuses on an often underemphasized element in international trade relations – the role of the institutional quality in overcoming NTBs to trade.
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For Small Island Developing States (SIDS), achieving export manufacturing competitiveness is a major challenge. This paper aims to provide a framework that can be used to study…
Abstract
Purpose
For Small Island Developing States (SIDS), achieving export manufacturing competitiveness is a major challenge. This paper aims to provide a framework that can be used to study the export competitiveness for food manufacturers.
Design/methodology/approach
The revealed comparative export advantage (RXA) and the constant market share (CMS) measures are used in a case study set in the Trinidad and Tobago’s food and beverage sector to study export manufacturing competitiveness.
Findings
When using the RXA and CMS measures to assess the current state of export manufacturing competitiveness in SIDS, specific product groupings should be used in the analysis to obtain a more accurate assessment of competitiveness than that provided when using aggregate commodity groups. Furthermore, the export market section of the conceptual framework provides a structured approach towards studying the distribution effect element of the CMS analysis.
Research limitations/implications
Trade data are heavily used, which is subject to a number of well-documented limitations. In addition, there is no mandatory registration for companies operating in the case country, which results in under-reporting of industrial activity, and so limits the use of the framework in studying the exporting companies and the export products. Finally, a single case study limits the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
In particular, policymakers responsible for designing interventions for increasing export manufacturing competitiveness can use the framework to consider specific strategies as they relate to the exporting companies, the export products and the export markets.
Originality/value
This paper brings together three basic elements that contribute to export manufacturing competitiveness in the form of the conceptual framework.
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Dzung Dao Dong, Masahiro Moritaka, Ran Liu and Susumu Fukuda
Restructuring swine and pork value chain plays important role in agriculture reformation of Vietnam, the top global pork-lover and swine producer worldwide. This study aims at…
Abstract
Purpose
Restructuring swine and pork value chain plays important role in agriculture reformation of Vietnam, the top global pork-lover and swine producer worldwide. This study aims at investigating the modernization of its entire swine-to-pork value chain.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines the secondary data and primary data. The secondary data included the publications, procurements, databases from both worldwide and in Vietnam. Primary data comprised the results from field-trips in March 2018 and February 2019 that used in-depth interviews with representative key persons of involving stake-holders.
Findings
The prevalence of contract farming, vertical expansion and conglomerate mergers mainly boost vertical coordination in the industry, which creates three hierarchy paradigms of governance named the full- and semi-vertically integrated model, and the formal coordinating relation institution. Consequently, consolidation has occurred and lead the swine and pork value chain toward modernization.
Research limitations/implications
This study generalizes its first trends of the modernization of the swine-to-pork industry instead of provides its concreted impacts to the involved stakeholders.
Social implications
Swine and pork industries retain historical and socio-political issues in Vietnam. Social problems are going to raise if number of traditional swine producers are failed in the competition from the equipped large-scale producers leading by the giant vertically-integrated contractors.
Originality/value
This study provides the empirical synthesis of the vertical coordination in entitle swine and pork value chain of Vietnam through combining the view of the strategic alliance of the firm and global value chain governance.
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Bruno Henry de Frahan and Nicodème Nimenya
This chapter investigates to what extent private and public European food safety standards affect European imports of a key high-value horticultural product such as green beans…
Abstract
This chapter investigates to what extent private and public European food safety standards affect European imports of a key high-value horticultural product such as green beans from Kenya. First, we estimate the ad valorem tariff equivalents of these nontariff measures (NTMs) for the main European importing countries using an extension of the price-wedge method. Second, we embed these estimated tariff equivalents into a gravity model. We find that the trade effects of these measures during the period 1990–2011 move from being positive in the beginning of the period to being increasingly negative from 1995 until 2003 and then tend to vanish at the end of the period as if Kenyan suppliers have progressively adjusted their trade to these NTMs. We also show that the establishment of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community stimulates that trade with European countries.
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Jin Hooi Chan and David Reiner
The purpose of this paper is to examine pre-entry resources and capabilities (R&Cs) of de alio and de novo entrants in an emerging industry. Then, the authors investigate how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine pre-entry resources and capabilities (R&Cs) of de alio and de novo entrants in an emerging industry. Then, the authors investigate how entrants modify their firm boundaries, after entering a new industry, to acquire the R&Cs deemed critical to be competitive and survive in the industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis uses the global biofuel industry as a case study. The authors use multiple sets of data, including primary data collected from semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders and experts across major biofuel-producing countries as well as quantitative data from industry reports.
Findings
Firms typically deploy two successive strategies in order to survive and grow. First, they extend vertical boundaries to capitalize on their own pre-entry R&Cs. Then they move quickly to acquire new R&Cs, which are classified as critical in the value chain of the industry. A new taxonomy of pre-entry R&Cs is proposed to distinguish critical and non-critical forms of R&Cs, and to reflect the ease of acquisition of any requisite R&Cs, which are context specific. These strategic moves lead to the bi-directional vertical integration observed in the biofuel industry.
Research limitations/implications
Managers need to be able to assess the opportunities for entry and subsequent strategies to be competitive by assessing their R&Cs in terms of criticality and ease of acquisition in their entry decision making.
Originality/value
A new taxonomy of R&Cs of the firm is proposed which has theoretical significance and practical implications for new entrants.
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