Search results

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 analyse if German consumers are willing-to-pay a price premium for local food produced with local feed. The study provides insights into reasons explaining consumer preferences for animal products produced with local feed.

Computer self-assisted personal interviews (CASI) with 1,602 German consumers were conducted. To calculate the price premium for local feed, consumers were asked about their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for local feed. The respondents had to indicate their WTP for the local feed share levels 75, 90 and 100 per cent for pork cutlets, beef steaks, eggs and milk. To measure the impact of consumers’ attitudes and sociodemographic background on the WTP, a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model (ZINB) was calculated.

The study reveals that there is a high WTP for animal products produced with local feed. Furthermore, it delivers interesting insights into the WTP for different shares of local feed. Increasing WTPs for a 75, 90 and 100 per cent local feed origin could be found. The logit model in the zero-inflated regression showed that the buying frequency of organic foods exerted a particularly significant impact on one’s belonging to the group which has, in general, no additional WTP for locally produced feed.

Consumers’ perception of the supply chain of local products is virtually unexplored. This is one of the first papers that take this topic into account.

The results of qualitative and quantitative research into differentiation of compounds feeds are presented. The aim of the qualitative research is to define the compound feeds as product attributes in the context of marketing mix elements in order to understand product differentiation amongst products. The framework of the qualitative research is employed in the quantitative research where price and cost data for feed products are collected and related to the product attributes. Quantitative analysis is employed to identify some characteristics of products. Compound feeds can be defined as a set of product/service attributes. Both prices and costs can be related to these. The quantitative analysis reveals that whilst there is significant variation in the prices and costs of compounds in the same product category, the relative variation is greater for some product groups than others and that these categories form natural product groups.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact on household and farming systems of government efforts to modernise production, build scale and develop specialisation in the Tibet dairy industry.

An overview of policy strategies and industry developments is used to frame detailed micro-level analysis of household and farming systems where impacts on households are explored from both a comparative static and dynamic perspective.

Specialisation and intensification improve household returns but elicit major changes in the farming and household systems and engagement with external markets. For instance, scaling up from three to ten improved cows increases returns from farm activities by one-half but shifts households from a state of food self-sufficiency to one where they need to sell two-thirds of their dairy products and buy three-fifths of their livestock feed.

The diversity among Tibetan farm households and the dynamic changes occurring in farm productivity, product markets and agrarian systems means that the empirical results are used as illustrative rather than definitive.

Relative to the large attention on the Chinese dairy industry with regard to food safety and industry development, the impacts of dairy specialisation on smallholders especially in western China have been overlooked. The case highlights several issues relevant to agrarian transition and development including changing labour use, risk exposure and engagement with external markets.

New product development (NPD), entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/MSc in Marketing and Management course that cover the topics on NPD.

This case illustrates that commercialization of a new product requires a proper strategic direction to make it a reality. The case fact is positioned in livestock feed industry centered on commercialization of a newly developed urea-molasses mineral block (UMMB) or called Nutriblock. Dr Wan, a Senior Principal Research Officer of Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), developed food supplement for ruminants which contained urea, molasses, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Dr Wan believed that the UMMB was a better quality food supplement compared to products in the markets because it contained 12 raw feed ingredients and an anthelmintic medication. After almost 10 years of research, in 2003, Dr Wan completed his research and, thus, wanted to get a suitable way to commercialize this product. He had two options: commercializing the technology through licensing of intellectual property right (IPR), or to transfer it as a public domain. The Business Development Unit(BDU) was responsible for the former option, whereas Centre for Promotion and Technology Transfer (CPPT) was in charge for the latter. At the beginning of2006, MARDI decided to commercialize the Nutriblock through licensing the IPR to March Avenue Technology Sendirian Berhad (March Avenue), a newly formed company. March Avenue was formed byKarthiir, a lawyer and Ma Irwan, an electrical engineer. The operation was going smoothly for the first two years. However, problem started in 2008 when Karthiir left the company due to some disagreement with Ma Irwan. Since then, March Avenue failed to achieve its sales target that seriously affected its profit level. Moreover, it suffered from internal management problem. The company finally closed down at the end of 2009. By this four year of operation, March Avenue failed to pay any royalty to MARDI. This circumstance forced Dr Wan to think seriously about his next move regarding choosing the right way of commercializing his Nutriblock. MARDI requested him to give his opinion by January 15, 2010 about whether to give another chance to BDU to commercialize this technology through IPR or to go for public domain under CPPT?

Using this case, students can learn that new product development and its commercialization requires proper strategic directions. It illustrates the importance of managing the commercialization of a new product effectively. NPD involves many stages, and it is important to manage every stage properly. This is because a “high-quality product” and/or a “new to the market” product are not enough to succeed in the market. In other words, producing a “product that meets market needs” must be combined with appropriate strategies.

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

The dryer feed chute of the pellet plant plays an important role in the pelletizing process. The chute discharges sticky and moist iron ore fines (<1 mm) to the inline rotary dryer for further processing. Since the inception of the installation of the dryer feed chute, the poor flowability of the feed materials has caused severe problems such as blockages and excessive wear of chute liners. This leads to high maintenance costs and reduced lifetime of the liner materials. Constant housekeeping is needed for maintaining the chute and reliable operation. The purpose of this study is to redesign the dryer feed chute to overcome the above challenges.

The discrete element method (DEM) has been used to model the flow of cohesive materials through the transfer chute. Physical experiments have been performed to understand the most severe flow conditions. A DEM material model is also developed for replicating the worst-case material condition. After identifying the key problem areas, concept designs were proposed and simulated to assess the design improvements to increase the reliability of chute operation.

Flow simulations correlated well with the existing flow behavior of the iron ore fines inside the chute. The location of the problematic areas has been validated with that of the previously installed chute. Subsequently, design modifications have been proposed. This includes modification of deflector plate and change in slope and cross-section of the chute. DEM simulations and analysis were conducted after incorporating these design changes. A comparison in the average velocity of particle and force on chute wall shows a significant improvement using the proposed design.

Method to calibrate DEM material model was found to provide accurate prediction and modeling of the flow behavior of bulk material through the real transfer chute. DEM provided greater insight into the performance of the chute especially modeling cohesive materials. DEM is a valuable design tool to assist chute designers troubleshoot and verify chute designs. DEM provides a greater ability to model and assess chute wear. This technique can help in achieving a scientific understanding of the flow properties of bulk solids through transfer chute, hence eliminate challenges, ensuring reliable, uninterrupted and profitable plant operation. This paper strongly advocates the use of calibrated DEM methodology in designing bulk material handling equipment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of the China’s rising meat demand and industrialization of the livestock sector for the vegetable oil market.

An equilibrium displacement model is constructed to analyze the interactions between meat consumption and vegetable oil market through the development of livestock sector modernization. Parameters derived from the 2006 to 2009 data are first used to produce the counterfactual growth rate of the non-soybean vegetable oil to validate the model. Then the authors use the second set of parameters derived from the 2010 to 2013 data to forecast the changes in the vegetable oil market in China.

Soybean oil, as a co-product of soybean processing, tends to crowd out other vegetable oils. In particular, the authors find that the market for non-soybean vegetable oils may shrink as long as the rapid industrialization pace above 10 percent within China’s livestock sector continues. Although their production takes up only 8.5 percent of all agricultural lands in China, oil crops remain as important cash crops for farmers contributing over 10 percent to the overall farm income in some provinces. The authors’ analysis suggests that stakeholders in these regions should closely monitor the structural changes within the livestock sector and consider the information for crop selection.

The authors’ analysis contributes to the literature on China’s meat demand by highlighting its implications for other agricultural markets involved in the food system.

The objective of the present research was to carry out a scientific map about life cycle assessment (LCA) and triple bottom line (TBL) at slaughterhouse areas, looking for Cleaner Production practices aiming at recognizing strategic themes for maintaining the sustainability of productive systems, according to the development of sustainable practices and production evolution in slaughterhouse areas.

The literature analysis was based on general approach, with steps adapted of study phases and activities of preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses (PRISMA) recommendation guide to do systematic literature review. Activities were subdivided to discuss the results in two kinds of analysis: quantitative and qualitative.

The main findings of our study reinforce the LCA importance in slaughterhouses to promote Cleaner Production, so that the main measures suggested and/or adopted by different authors include the substitution of raw materials by feeding, with the adoption of grains, protein supplements with less environmental impact in the composition of the feed and changes in the processes seeking for better energy efficiency and optimization of water consumption in meat processing.

There is another action of sustainability considering LCA and Cleaner Production practices in the industrial meat area that should also be considered. These actions are restricted to documents of business circulation, with limited access since they involve issues regarding innovations in economic and technological aspects of slaughterhouses, as well as industrial confidentiality. Furthermore, in patent bases it is possible to advance the studies looking for how the digital transformation has been carried out in this industrial branch, since the 4.0 transformation industry tends to use clean technologies.

There are LCA models with a systemic approach to measure the level of sustainability of a process, comprising analysis of impacts related to different areas: environmental, social and economic although in terms of the meat production chain, the impact analysis focuses mainly on the environmental area. So, future works should be developed in meat production chain to assess social and economic impacts, i.e. a sustainable LCA addressing the three areas to consolidate models and standardize metrics with a scientific basis.

In the UK, advertising of infant formula products direct to consumers is not permitted. These products must be used on the recommendation of suitably qualified health or medical professionals. The aim of this study is to examine formula manufacturers’ web sites to ascertain whether these are used as alternative forms of advertising that fall outside current regulations.

The web sites of five leading formula product manufacturers were surveyed in 2009 and again in 2012 as part of a wider assessment of infant and follow‐on formula advertising and presentation. These sites were assessed for the presence of text and images they contained relating to infant formula products that may not be directly advertised to consumers under current regulations.

Although not technically classified as “advertisements” all these web sites were found to contain formula product information that could be construed as promotional in nature in 2009. By 2012, this was true of just two of these sites. Infant formula product promotions occurred adjacent to ones for follow‐on formula products. The recommendations and warnings concerning use of infant formula that are statutorily required for advertising in the UK were present on these web sites.

Formula manufacturers use their web sites to promote infant formula products and do so alongside follow‐on formula products. These sites provide a promotional opportunity through which to gain access to consumers that is legally denied to infant formula manufacturers through advertising. The findings have significance in the context of other research showing that consumers have been found to mis‐recall follow‐on formula advertising messages as applying to infant formula products.

This analysis formed part of the most extensive study of formula product advertising and presentation undertaken so far. It represented the first attempt to provide a comprehensive audit of the ways formula manufacturers promote their products in the UK.