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Corporate organizations could enhance their economic and commercial values through knowledge acquisitions and exploitations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic and commercial performance effect of poultry management absorptive capacity in Nigeria.

Structural equation modeling was used in the analysis of a random sample of 300 poultry managers and owners surveyed within the South-Eastern Nigeria. The scales that quantified the latent variables of the factors were tested for reliability and consistency using confirmatory factor analysis.

The study found evidence that the difference between economically and commercially viable poultry businesses and failing ones depends on the level of absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity advanced innovations that resulted in higher economic and commercial performance of poultry farm. Poultry firms' profitability, sales growth and market shares were positively increased by absorptive capacity dimensions of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation.

The study was carried out within a region in Nigeria and thus could be limited by generalization to the developed country.

This study is the first to link four dimensions of absorptive capacity to the economic and commercial performance of poultry businesses in Nigeria. As such, it originally breaks new frontier of poultry farming from dynamic capabilities and absorptive capacity perspectives.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing the performance of poultry farmers and examine the potential disparities in performance among gender, formalization and association membership and the source of such disparities if they are established.

This study focussed on the poultry farmers located in the Bono Region of Ghana. Data was gathered on a total number of 155 poultry farmers located in the study area for two rounds. This study augmented the traditional C-D function and estimate the determinants of performance using panel estimation technique. The Binder-Oaxaca was used to investigate disparities in performance.

The empirical results established a significantly positive relation between association membership, size, as well as formalization of farms and performance. However, there existed a negative relation between the level of education of managers and performance. Also, the discrimination analysis revealed the existence of discrimination stemming from association membership and formalization.

Although the data gathered was adequate for the purpose of this study, further studies on poultry production in Ghana/Africa can broaden the scope to other constructs which are not captured in this study.

This study contributes to the growing literature that delves into the poultry industry of the Ghanaian economy. Conducting a further discrimination analysis aside the determining factors make the study unique.

Entrepreneurship, Design thinking and innovation, Strategy, Social entrepreneurship and rural markets, Business at the base of pyramid, Sustainability and leadership.

Undergraduate and Post Graduate Students

Keggfarms Private Ltd was a private company started by Mr Vinod Kapur, a social entrepreneur who wanted to create a scalable social impact with his endeavor, which was the first of its kind outside the developed world. Keggfarms was established in 1967 with the aim of creating a business model which could benefit the rural sector by generating income and also enabling nutritional self-sufficiency. The case study aims to explore the sustainable model which had survived for 48 years without a push strategy and without a sole focus on profit. The business had spread to around 19 states in India, and the enterprise had decided to replicate a similar business model in the African continent. The social enterprise had aimed to touch the lives of millions of people in poverty by providing them with a low cost chicken – Kuroiler, which could survive the harsh weather and environmental conditions of rural India.

The study will help students to understand how social enterprises are born and built from the vision of the founder; how social capital is generated in the economy and how a blue ocean strategy was applied in this case to build a sustainable and financially viable social entrepreneurship model.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this study was to understand the usefulness of financial institution class ties in small commercial poultry farms’ (SCPFs’) survival in Ghana.

The study uses data from a network survey with associated attribute data on poultry small- and medium-sized enterprises. The data were collected in two waves between January 2014 and March 2015. Survival is estimated using a lagged probit model.

It was found that the survival rate of SCPFs is influenced by ties to universal banks and cooperative credit unions that have a positive effect while those with ties to savings and loans companies have a reduced survival probability.

The findings of the study make a significant contribution to the agricultural enterprise financing literature showing the relevance of the different financial institution types in the continued survival of agricultural SCPFs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of awareness of and compliance with chicken feed standards among chicken farmers in Tanzania.

A total of 107 respondents in two regions were selected through simple random sampling. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression approaches were used in data analysis.

The results revealed that the level of awareness of standards is low and the compliance level is even lower at the same time as the data indicated a positive relation between awareness and compliance. Attending seminars, knowledge dissemination by extension agents, farmers’ awareness of the existence of other standards and health consciousness have a significant and positive influence on awareness of feed standards while the age of the farm and dependence on farm formulated feeds have a significant negative influence on awareness of standards. On the other hand; knowledge dissemination by TBS, awareness of chicken feed standards and awareness of the existence of other standards apart from chicken feed standards, have a significant positive influence on compliance with feed standards.

These findings indicate that regulators should invest more in awareness creation campaigns to enhance compliance with feed standards at the same time as feed processors should develop closer knowledge and learning links to farmers.

The findings of the study are expected to positively contribute to performance of chicken industry in Tanzania by promoting production of products that are of quality accepted domestically and abroad.

This study empirically examines the effect of supply chain integration (SCI) on financial performance (FP) and controls for the mediating effects of supply chain agility (SCA), supply chain (SC) innovation and operational performance (OP).

Through a causal research design, structured questionnaires were used for primary data collection from 217 commercial poultry farms (CPFs) operating in the Bono Region of Ghana. Structural equation modeling was reflectively configured to test the formulated hypotheses.

SCI causes a statistically significant moderate positive variance in OP in terms of cost-effectiveness, order fulfillment rate, operating cycle, inventory turns, business process innovation. SCI is an insignificant weak positive predictor of FP (growth in revenue, profit, return on investment, sales growth) of CPFs operating in Ghana. Furthermore, OP significantly and positively mediates the predictive relationship between SCI and FP. Again, SC innovation significantly mediates the predictive relationship between SCI and OP. However, SCA fails to significantly mediate the predictive relationship between SCI and OP.

Focal firms' characteristics were ignored, although they may determine how SCI affects OP and FP in the presence of SCA and SC innovation.

Empirically, SCI has no direct impact on FP of CPFs but does so indirectly through the mediating role of OP.

The study aims to determine the resource access mechanism in inter-firm networks that aids SME survival in Ghana.

The authors collect census data on a poultry cluster in Ghana and construct a directed network. The network is used to extract direct and indirect ties both incoming and outgoing, as well as estimate the structural holes of the actors. These variables are used to estimate for survival of SMEs after a one-year period using a binary logit model.

The study finds that out-indirect ties and structural hole have a significant influence on SME survival. This works through the global influence and the vision advantage that these positions and ties offer the SMEs.

The study offers SMEs a choice of whom to collaborate with for information (resources) in the form of outgoing and incoming ties at both the global and local level.

This paper aims to investigate the competitiveness of two enterprise chicken regimes (upgraded and indigenous) in Eastern Uganda for poverty reduction in small farm enterprises.

The paper utilizes primary data collected using a structured questionnaire from a randomly selected sample of 108 chicken farmers (54 crossbred and 54 indigenous). Econometric methods are employed to analyze the data. Competitiveness is measured using unit cost ratio while the determinant factors are identified by the use of regression analysis.

The econometric results show that the most critical factors in increasing the competitiveness of the chicken enterprise are: proportion of birds weaned to the total flock, number of chickens reared and farmer's rearing experience. The main conclusion is that in order to increase performance of chicken enterprise and improve income of the rural population, upgrading of indigenous chickens through crossbreeding should be pursued. This approach should put emphasis on improving the management systems which will involve offering an enabling environment for farmers to access credit and markets.

Given the importance of poultry rearing in every household in Uganda, the sub‐sector provides a good entry point for poverty alleviation in this part of Uganda. However, limited information on economic analysis exists and hence the value of this study. The paper identifies a number of variables that must be addressed, if the sector is to play its rightful role in poverty reduction.

Rural farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) play significant roles in job creation as well as food security for the majority of rural dwelling citizens (UNCTAD, 2018). This chapter examines the policies and strategies for supporting both farm and non-farm entrepreneurial activities within rural communities in SSA. In order to achieve this, the authors have completed a systematic literature review of both conceptual and empirical work on the role of policies and strategies for rural entrepreneurship in selected SSA, namely Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and the United Republic of Tanzania (URT). This was completed alongside an assessment of the constraints and potential opportunities in order to stimulate linkages between rural entrepreneurship and structural economic transformation including the potential roles of both farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities. Key linkages between rural farm and non-farm based entrepreneurial activities are emphasised The chapter also highlights mechanisms through which governments and private sectors can work together for the maximisation of available opportunities and best practices that rural entrepreneurship can offer for job creation among rural communities in SSA.