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This chapter integrates two separate branches of the law and economics literature to demonstrate the two-sided risk of market exclusion by a vertically integrated firm (VIF) with upstream and downstream market power. The ratio of downstream (retail) to upstream (wholesale) price-cost margins is key. A margin ratio that is “too low” can result in a vertical price squeeze, whereas one that is “too high” can create incentives for the VIF to engage in non-price discrimination or sabotage. A price squeeze occurs when a rival is inefficiently foreclosed because the upstream (input) price is too high relative to the downstream (output) price. Sabotage arises when the VIF raises its rivals' costs which, in turn, raises their prices and diverts demand from the rivals to the VIF. Displacement ratios delineate the range of safe harbor margin ratios within which neither form of market exclusion arises. The admissible range of these margin ratios is decreasing in the degree of product substitutability and reduces to a single ratio in the limit as the competing products approach perfect substitutes. The policy challenge is to apply these pricing constraints judiciously to prevent market exclusion in accordance with a consumer-welfare standard, while recognizing the risk that these protections can be appropriated and used strategically in the errant pursuit of a competitor-welfare standard. These issues may take on greater prominence in light of the recent release of the DOJ/FTC draft vertical merger guidelines.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of transaction costs on economic welfare and development, and the role of information technology (IT) in reducing transaction costs.

The paper extends the static model of Romer, in which transaction costs reduce welfare by reducing the equilibrium number of intermediate goods, and estimate the welfare losses in the case of domestic transaction costs. The main analysis of the paper extends a dynamic model of Ciccone and Matsuyama to incorporate transaction costs. Also described are case studies of the use of IT in rural India.

In the static model, it is shown that domestic transaction costs have a substantial welfare impact when the number of goods is endogenous. In the dynamic model, it is shown that high transaction costs reduce the long‐run level of development, and may arrest development completely in the extreme case. Some preliminary, qualitative evidence from rural India is offered to illustrate how these reductions may occur through the use of IT.

The treatment of transaction costs in a dynamic model is novel, and the use of such a model provides a new theoretical underpinning for understanding the potential impacts of IT on development.

Food Industries have to cater a plethora of consumers having variety of tastes. For sustaining in such environment companies create their unique selling point and big data helps them to analyze market situation for such purpose. In this book chapter, the supply chain of fruits and vegetables and the post-harvest losses encountered at each stage in absence of data analytics is discussed. This can be an opportunity for the food industries to reduce food loss and gain better returns on investment by going for a digital transformation. Companies combine big data with technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence to get faster and more personalized experiences. This chapter includes comparative case studies of food and retail sector for better understanding of the outcome.

The study of the family firm has gained increased attention in recent years, judging by the number of articles and books published lately as well as the fact that a number of universities in the United States and elsewhere now emphasize a focused study of family business in higher education (Fletcher, 2002; Hoy & Verser, 1994; Litz, 1997). At the same time, the field of entrepreneurship has been enriched by perspectives from sociology and anthropology and has welcomed the study of ethnic business groups, especially in terms of their unique entrepreneurial tendencies as well as their organization and operations within a social order in which they remain a distinct minority (Aldrich & Waldinger, 1990; Light & Gold, 2000).

The purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis of potential benefits from usage of the futures markets for the farmers. The national commodity exchanges were established in India in the year 2003-2004. Though there has been a spectacular growth in trading volumes in these exchanges, participation of farmers in these markets has been very low. Efforts are being made to increase the awareness and participation of farmers in these markets. As such efforts are being made, it is critical to analyse the potential benefits from usage of the futures markets for the farmers. Our study performs such an analysis for soybean farmers in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh state in India.

The authors estimate the optimal hedge ratios in futures markets for farmers in different scenarios characterised by varying levels of different parameters relevant to the farmer. For these optimal hedge ratios, we then estimate the benefits from hedging defined as the change in certainty equivalent income (CEI) due to hedging.

Results indicate that the CEI gain due to hedging is positively related to the farmer’s risk aversion and inversely related to farmer’s price expectations and transaction costs. Also, only when the risk aversion is high, the CEI gain is positively related to the natural hedge. Thus, for a farmer with high risk aversion, hedging acts as a substitute to the natural hedge.

This is the first study that analyses the hedging for farmer in the Indian context by considering yield risk while doing so. Also, their study establishes a relationship between risk aversion, the natural hedge and benefits from hedging in futures markets for the farmer.

Using data from a retail chain of 193 bakery shops that underwent downsizing, we study the effects of two types of downsizing announcements – closure or sale to another operator – on sales in the affected shops, and how these effects are moderated by job security perceptions. On average, sales in the affected shops go down by 26% after a closure announcement and by 7% after a sale announcement. Sales decline more sharply in shops where employees had higher job security perceptions before the announcement. Our findings are consistent with psychological contract theory: a breach of an implicit contract promising job security in exchange for work effort results in a reciprocal effort withdrawal. We rule out several alternative explanations to our findings.

Although growing Internet penetration in the hinterlands has attracted agribusinesses to promote digital platforms, farmers are sceptical about using them. The literature discusses agricultural platforms from the theoretical perspective of technological determinism, where the platforms are developed and promoted by firms in a top-down manner to be accepted by farmers. However, this approach results in poorly configured platforms with limited utility for farmers. It is evident from the existing literature that the mere creation of a platform business is not sufficient to guarantee adoption by users. Hence, this study explores how to make the agricultural platform more attractive for farmers.

The present study is based on a discrete choice experiment performed on 126 Indian farmers using agricultural platforms. The data were analysed using the conditional logistic regression method.

The study suggests that farmers expect government and cooperative entities to be also embedded with the platforms. Complementary features such as prompt service, competitive pricing and farm credit were identified as essential attributes. Further, the platforms should enable smallholders to trade farm produce by providing a mechanism for real-time online nudging and bargaining with buyers.

The study is based on the applications of random utility theory. The research has utility for Agtech managers, cooperative institutions and agricultural policymakers.

This is one of the first studies focussing on agricultural platform design from the farmers' perspective. The study implies that incorporating preferred attributes can help practitioners configure platforms to benefit farmers with prospects concerning farm management decisions.

The paper describes techniques developed by Tome Associates to process natural language queries into search statements suitable for transmission to online text database systems. The problems discussed include word identification, the handling of unknown words, the contents and structure of system dictionaries, the use of semantic categories and classification, disambiguation of multi‐meaning words, stemming and truncation, noun compounds and indications of relationship between search terms.

Outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has created the catastrophic situation, it has crippled all the economic activities and seized off the operations of food supply chain (FSC). Disrupted FSC escalated the societal concerns related to food safety and security. The purpose of this study is to consolidate various issues, exploring the perspectives associated with the agricultural practices, food industries and society concerns related with the FSC performance system dynamics amid of COVID-19 pandemic.

To structure this work, a detailed research literature insight focussing on the key findings associated with the past disease outbreaks like influenza, avian flu, Ebola, bird flu, SARS, foot and mouth disease and ongoing phase of COVID-19, encompassing the perspective related with various agricultural and concerned supply chain practices is clustered. Furthermore, issues having relevancy with the notion of this work, sourced from platforms of print and electronic media have been incorporated to ground the reality associated with the impacts, for better visualisation of the perspectives.

This study outlays the key findings which are relevant with the past pandemic outbreaks from the core of the research literature. It details the impact of the current COVID-19 scenario on the various FSC operations, focussing on dimensions allied with the industry, economic and society concerns. For the same, to mitigate the effects, relief measures focussing on the short- and long-term perspectives have been incorporated. Steps ramped up by the Government of India (GOI) to safeguard masses from the threat of food security, accelerate pace of the FSC operations and upscale operating capacities of the industries and agriculture practices have incorporated.

Presented work is persuaded amid of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions hence it outlays the theoretical perspectives only. But, these perspectives portray the ongoing scenario's impacts, extending its implication to the people coming from the industry and academia background. This study can felicitate the government bodies to make them familiar with the various impacts which indented the FSCs, food industries and added woes to the society concerns.

India is the second largest populated nation of the world, and outspread of the COVID-19 has capsized the FSCs and raised the various instances, making population vulnerable to the threats of food insecurity. This study encompasses effect of the FSC disruption by incorporating its effect on the food industries practices, societal issues and extending possible relief measures to restructure the FSC dynamics. As of now, study focussing on the Indian FSC concerns, detailing of impacts due to pandemic outbreak, relief measures to sail out of the hard times are not available.

To understand the role of the unorganized sector in the push toward a circular economy (CE), the authors consider the case of the unorganized tire retreading industry in India and examine the barriers it faces in contributing to a circular tire supply chain in India.

The authors used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to understand the barriers to realizing the CE in the Indian unorganized tire retreading industry. This methodology facilitates the acquisition of new insights into an existing phenomenon or in studying emerging areas that require investigation.

Through the analysis, the authors tease out ten critical barriers that impede the Indian unorganized tire retreading industry. The two most vital barriers are the lack of effective promotional methods and the poor implementation of standards.

This study emphasizes the importance of further investigating the potential role of the unorganized sector in fostering the transition to a CE in emerging economies.

The research provides useful policy prescriptions to regulators and insights to original tire manufacturers (OTMs) that enable the unorganized tire retreaders in India to contribute to the movement toward a circular supply chain (CSC).

This study is the first to systematically examine the unorganized sector to understand the barriers to CE. This study provides an original theoretical contribution by expanding the scope of stakeholder and institutional theories.