Search results

The agribusiness sector has long been acknowledged as a major source of livelihood to many people in developing countries. Hence, determining the resources and capabilities influencing farm-level competitive advantage are vital to better understand and formulate appropriate strategies to increase the competitiveness ofminor export crops farms. This study aims to understand of the link between resources-capabilities-competitive advantage for appropriate measures to be recommended to enhance the competitive position of the smallholding farms.

This study adopts the resource-based view in combination with dynamic capabilities. The scope comprises owners of farms who possess experience in commercial cultivation of minor export crops in Sri Lanka. A self-administrated structured questionnaire was used to collect data.

Based on the responses from 456 farm owners, results of the multiple regression analysis indicate that variables representing resources such as human assets, physical assets, financial assets, institutional capital, collective action and entrepreneurial identity; and dynamic capabilities such as organisational learning, relationship building, quality management and marketing are significantly associated with competitive advantage of the minor export crops farms. Reputation and farm process management capability are the only two insignificant variables. Taken together, the resources and dynamic capabilities investigated explain 89.3 per cent of the variation in competitive advantage, in which 82 per cent is contributed by resources.

The findings provide useful insights not only in terms of understanding the link between resources, dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage but also how resources and capabilities can be channelled and leveraged to bring about competitive advantage to the minor export crops farms. Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of religiosity of farm owners on the resource-capability-competitive advantage interaction.

A self-administered structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from farm owners who possess the experience in commercial cultivation of three main minor export crops in Sri Lanka.

The results of linear regression analysis on 456 responses received suggest that the religiosity of farm owners significantly moderates the relationships between resources, capabilities and competitive advantage of the minor export crop farms, confirming the study hypotheses.

Future studies should consider the specific impact of different religious affiliations, traits and/or precepts of the farm owners. In addition, educational level, income level and mental capacity of the farm owners should be considered too since they may form part of the observed relationships.

The study has addressed the gap in literature by highlighting the potential of religiosity in the interaction between resources, capabilities and competitive advantage. From the practical standpoint, besides providing some directions to the farm owners, the results also benefit different stakeholders such as policy makers, government and local communities in suggesting and implementing appropriate measures with regard to selecting suitable resources and integrating them with proper capabilities for greater competitive advantage of the agribusiness sector.

It is imperative to offer a new perspective of Entrepreneurial Growth Intention (EGI) that draws directly upon the capability approach. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of capabilities in the context of EGI in the floriculture industry in Sri Lanka.

The study was exploratory and is mainly qualitative in nature. In-depth interviews were carried out with the owners of farms who possess experience in floriculture commercial cultivation in Sri Lanka.

The results emerged that there are different perspectives among farm owners regarding EGI. Drawing attention on the stories of our participants and making a three-phase analysis, we identified 31 key actions denoted by the farm owners. This work then suggests that the seven capabilities might be fruitfully framed around EGI.

As the results stress the role of capabilities in the formation of an entrepreneur's growth intention is vital. Therefore, more targeted measures should be drawn to build fair and supportive facilities to obtain advanced knowledge, to familiarise with the emergence of technology and to attain professional services specifically in financial literacy.

The question of what factors influence EGI at the farm level is still largely unexplored as less is known about the effect of capabilities on EGI. The study expands the current debates on EGI and institutional environment, which allows the mapping out of capability development.

The purpose of this monograph is to present the first English translation of a unique French colonial report on women living under colonial rule in West Africa.

The issue begins with a discussion of the contribution this report makes to the history of social development policy in Africa, and how it serves the on‐going critique of colonisation. This is followed by the English translation of the original report held in the National Archives of Senegal. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes, translator’s comments, a glossary of African and technical terms, and a bibliography.

The discussion highlights contemporary social development policies and practices which featured in identical or similar forms in French colonial social policy.

As the report demonstrates, access to basic education and improving maternal/infant health care have dominated the social development agenda for women in sub‐Saharan Africa for over a century, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in the Millennium Development Goals which define the international community’s agenda for social development to 2015. The parallels between colonial and post‐colonial social policies in Africa raise questions about the philosophical and cultural foundations of contemporary social development policy in Africa and the direction policy is following in the 21st century.

Though the discussion adopts a consciously postcolonial perspective, the report that follows presents a consciously colonial view of the “Other”. Given the parallels identified here between contemporary and colonial policy‐making, this can only add to the value of the document in exploring the values that underpin contemporary social development practice.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of the 2018–2020 China–US trade war on US farm bankruptcies as filed under Chapter 12. The key task is to identify the economic factors affecting farm bankruptcies generally, and to then control for the trade war impacts including the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), floods, agricultural conditions and the health of agricultural finance leading into the trade war.

Results were obtained using ordinary least square regression and panel fixed effect model using bankruptcy rates and number as the dependent variable. Independent variables included market effects, credit conditions, yield variation, trade impacts, 2019 flooding, macroeconomic conditions and regional fixed effects. The authors use cubic splines to interpolate annual and quarterly data to a monthly base.

Based on a fixed effect model, the authors find that all other things being equal the China–USA trade war would have had a significant impact on Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies, increasing the bankruptcy rate by 25.7%. The flooding in 2009 had minor effects of increasing the rate by only 0.05%. The overall impact will, however be substantially lower than the 25.7% because of the MFP. The MFP variables (binary) had mixed effects and its true impact is unknowable at this time; however, the authors also find that a 1% increase in the producer price index decreases bankruptcy rates by 2.62% and farm bankruptcy numbers by 3.70%. Likewise a 1% increase in GDP reduces bankruptcies by 3.25%. These suggest that the MFP program will have likely reduced farm bankruptcies considerably than what would have occurred in their absence. The authors also find that states heavily dependent on trade faced lower market uncertainty. Broader economic factors (net charge-offs of farm loans held by insured commercial banks, US real GDP, the average effective interest rate on nonreal estate farm loans) affect farm bankruptcy.

The authors use monthly bankruptcy statistics, however not all data were available in monthly measures requiring interpolation using cubic spline functions to approximate monthly changes in some variables. Although the MFP had mixed effects in the model, the mid- to longer-term effects may be more impactful. These longer-term effects (and even shorter-term effects through 2020) are complicated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which will require a different identification strategy than that employed in this paper.

The analysis and results of this paper are, to the authors' knowledge, the first to investigate the impact of the China–US trade war on Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings. The use of cubic splines in the interpolation of agricultural data is also a technical innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the adherence, constraints and key factors associated with smallholder pineapple farmers’ compliance with Global working group for Good Agricultural Practice (GLOBALGAP) standards in the Akuapem-South Municipal area, Ghana. It utilizes the modeling of socio-economic, farm, market and institutional factors influencing smallholder farmers’ compliance with GLOBALGAP standards. This paper aims to enhance smallholder farmers’ compliance with food safety standards in particular GLOBALGAP so they can continue to participate in international food trade.

The study uses mainly primary data solicited from 150 randomly selected smallholder farmers. Descriptive statistics are employed in estimating compliant farmers’ rate of adherence with standards requirements and identifying constraints of farmers while a probit regression model is used to determine the factors influencing GLOBALGAP compliance decision of farmers.

Findings of the study show that compliant farmers’ rate of adherence with the standard is about 90 percent and this is below the minor musts compliance criteria of 95 percent. The results also indicate that lack of access to farm credits, high cost of farm inputs and high cost of labor are the major constraints to GLOBALGAP compliance. Factors found to positively influence farmers’ compliance decision are number of pineapple farms, access to off-farm income, access to market information and extension services. However, compliance is negatively influenced by age.

Majority of Ghanaian smallholder pineapple farmers are not GLOBALGAP certified. The study was limited to Akuapem-South because most farmers produce pineapple for the export market and are certified under the Option II GLOBALGAP group certification.

This paper brings to bear issues confronting food safety standards compliance among smallholder farmers in developing countries, particularly Ghana.

This article evaluates contemporary Cuban economic policy and development prospects after a decade of market experimentation in a socialist context. An introductory historical review assesses the successes and failures of Cuban development policy in the 1970s and 1980s and describes the staggering dimensions of the economic crisis triggered by the abrupt disruption of Cuba's relations with the Soviet bloc in 1989–1991. The next section, “To the market in the 1990s,” examines Cuban efforts to stabilize the economy in the early 1990s while maintaining a strong social safety net. The historic policy shift toward limited market liberalization within a state-dominated economy is analyzed and the key market concessions described. The economic turnaround of the late 1990s and Cuban macroeconomic and industrial performance over the past decade are then examined. The final part of the article evaluates the coherence and sustainability of Cuba's emerging economic model and assesses prospects for the survival of some form of Cuban socialism.

This study revisits the Great Canadian Grain Logistics Crisis of 2013-14 to explore the competitiveness of the country's grain exports. An approach to comprehending the dilemmas of the international grain supply chain and trade, and national logistics policy in an era of multinational corporations, draws upon the literature on global value chain analysis. This analysis identifies both the grain industry's global and local dimensions. An important literature on the 'politics’ of the supply chain is also called into play to discuss who controls what aspects. This task of interpreting the various steps in Canada's grain logistics chain recognizes the key economic actors - producers, grain companies, railway companies, port terminal operators and export buyers - and political struggles between them as they each seek to maximize their self-interest. Policy implications for streamlining logistics operations are drawn from identifying where changes in the supply chain arrangements have gained or lost opportunities in export markets, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the United States, successive farm bills and the 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) have largely defined domestic subsidy and conservation programs and U.S. food-aid initiatives over the past decade. This chapter examines the effects of the current mixture of U.S. agricultural policies and international food-aid programs on domestic and global food-insecure populations. A detailed research-based examination is carried out with respect to the impacts of U.S. subsidy programs on agricultural production, domestic and global agricultural commodity prices, and their implications for food-insecure populations. The impacts of the RFS are assessed along with the effects of current and potentially reformed U.S. international food-aid programs.

This study concludes that current U.S. agricultural subsidy programs have small or negligible impacts on the aggregate level and mixture of U.S. agricultural output, U.S. domestic prices and global prices, and domestic and global food insecurity among poor households. The RFS has increased prices for food and feed grain and oilseeds with adverse implications for the urban poor in developing countries and some poor U.S. households. The portfolios of U.S. food-aid programs are managed inefficiently because of congressional mandates designed to aid special interest groups that waste 30% of the current budget. While U.S. subsidy programs likely should be moderated for other reasons, they have few impacts on domestic and globally food-insecure households. However, in relation to global and domestic food insecurity, the RFS should be discontinued and major reforms to U.S. international food aid implemented.

Few studies have analysed the determinants of exports in emerging economies, which are critical in the exporting reality of firms. Two variables decisively affect the export performance of firms – their size and their export experience. This paper analyses the relationship between size and export experience in the export intensity of Brazilian firms. In addition, it considers two variables (location and sector) that identify firms in Brazil and could affect their export intensity. This research answers the question of which characteristics of Brazilian companies determine their export intensity.

A statistically significant sample of 318 firms is collected from Brazilian exporting companies. Regression analysis is performed, and data describing the relationship between the export determinants and the export intensity of Brazilian firms are presented. Three evaluation models are proposed. In the first, the location and sector variables are considered. In the second, the firm size, firm location and sector are presented. In the third, the firm size, export experience, location and sector are proposed.

The results of the third model confirm that only export experience is statistically significant. Therefore, there is no relationship between firms' size, location and sector and export intensity for companies in Brazil.

This work shows the organisational characteristics that affect export performance in Brazil from the firm’s perspective; these are aspects that have been analysed less in emerging economies.