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On completion of this case study, students will be able assess new venture opportunities by properly allocating expansion fund in growing the business; analyzing various scaling-up options; applying the Ansoff matrix for growth and expansion; designing a framework for scaling up; and using the business model canvas.

Mr Sreeram established Eruvaka Technologies in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (India), in 2015 to provide products and services related to aquaculture. The company was founded with the goal of assisting prawn farmers who had trouble keeping up with the demands of the industry. Eruvaka Technologies created risk-reducing and productivity-boosting on-farm diagnostic devices for aquaculture growers. The company developed low-cost monitoring and automation solutions for aquaculture by merging sensors, mobile connection and decision tools. Eruvaka’s primary objective was to offer reasonably priced, technologically advanced goods and services to farmers. Eruvaka matured into a promising startup over time, attracting $5m in funding. Sreeram and his team had to detail their plan to their investors about how they intended to use the money from each funding rounds toward growing the business, how the company planned to achieve sustainable and competitive advantage while providing value to its consumers and how they would address critical issues including product acquisition cost, supply chain problem and customer anxiety.

This case study can be taught as part of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level courses and Master of Business Administration courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Research efforts aiming to improve understanding of how various organisational relationships contribute to better food quality (FQ) in a constantly changing business environment are limited. This study examines the effects of supply chain (SC) organisations on the quality of food products across multi-tiered segments with dynamic business situations.

Guided by a conceptual research framework based on contingency theory and netchain analysis, moderation-based partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse multi-tiered data from 405 shrimpers and 238 women processors in Akwa-Ibom, Lagos and Ondo states in Nigeria.

The authors' findings show that unpredictable business environments such as market turbulence (MT), power asymmetry (PA) and distrust (DT) not only directly influence SC organisations but also moderate how organisational networks contribute to improved FQ. Further results reveal that closer vertical ties such as relational contracts are prerequisites for small-scale actors to guarantee improved FQ along multiple nodes of the food system.

This is the first study to examine, from a contingency and multi-tiered perspective, how small-scale actors can maintain FQ across interdependent nodes of a food chain in a developing country context and to explore the complex interplay between SC networks and the quality of highly perishable food products in unpredictable business environments. Relevant theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

This study explores the integration of smallholder farmers into the export market in Vietnam, an emerging economy. By introducing a prospective framework, we seek to provide insight into factors that influence this integration process.

This study examines the expected growth and entry of Vietnamese smallholder farmers into high-value export markets. We collected information from 200 independent farmers as well as from five local extension workers, who provided information on 50 farmers.

The study reveals that the adoption of new business models is more influential than the variables traditionally included in models of export-market integration in predicting expected growth and entry into high-value export markets. In addition, the results highlight divergent views between farmers and extension workers regarding the role of collectors, with farmers perceiving collectors as potential partners, while extension workers see them as impediments to growth.

The prospective model presented in this study highlights the importance of policy interventions aimed at promoting new business models and addressing infrastructure and capital constraints for the sustainable transformation of agricultural sectors in emerging markets.

This is one of the first articles to apply a prospective approach to export-market integration and demonstrate its efficacy through an empirical study. The suggested prospective approach could facilitate the design of policies aimed at export-market integration within the context of dynamic, emerging markets.

Much has been written on the effect of fast-moving business environments on organizational and supply chain (SC) management. Yet, empirical findings on the effect of changing external and internal contingencies on today’s globalized agrifood SC networks and performance are still fragmented into different organizational instruments, with some conflicting results remaining unexplained. This study aims to address these deficiencies by providing a comprehensive research framework to investigate how SC external and internal contingencies jointly influence organizational SC network structures and agrifood performance across mutually dependent tiers.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the so-called “contingency–netchain–performance” framework, based on contingent resource-based theory and the netchain approach, was empirically tested on data obtained from a standardized survey of 405 artisanal producers and 238 processors in the Nigerian shrimp sector.

The results provide statistical evidence that supports the path dependency of firm performance from the interplay of vertical, horizontal and lateral relationships and, primordially, from both external and internal contingencies. The findings show that the contingency paradigm of fit among small-scale food producers and processors cuts across tiers and uncover a tendency to adopt relational governance and tighter network structures that result in an organic organization as the best-fitting structure.

The paper presents a new research framework that offers comprehensive empirical explanations for the joint influence of SC external and internal contingencies on organizational SC network structures and performance across mutually dependent agrifood tiers. This study’s conceptual, practical and policy implications for SC management provide a nascent and flexible basis on which to identify the best-fitting organizational strategies that maximize firm performance across agrifood SC tiers characterized by changing business environments.

Grounded on resource dependence theory, the authors explored how power and dependence affect sustainability adoption in an artisanal fishing supply chain (AFSC) in Mexico.

An in-depth longitudinal case study was conducted to identify relationships among fishers, a cooperative and intermediaries using a content analysis of data gathered from a combination of interviews, focus groups, observations, participatory workshops and secondary data.

As a result of the existing power imbalance among AFSC members, mediated forces (e.g. rewards for intermediary–fishers relationship) were the most prominent observed. In addition, a close and high dependence on resources affecting supply chain sustainability (SCS) adoption was identified. For example, within intermediary–cooperative relationships, a power imbalance caused mostly by financial resource dependence generated a negative impact on economic sustainability related to unfair prices and unfair trade. The results, thus, showed the detrimental influence of intermediaries among AFSC members on SCS adoption.

A greater understanding of power imbalance and dependence can help AFSC members to identify their weaknesses and develop actions to adopt sustainability.

Unlike previous research, the authors go beyond the often positive research focus of SCS studies and provide, through the resource dependence theory, a longitudinal view on how power imbalance negatively affects SCS adoption.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS) requires all members to avoid subsidy policies and financial measures that weaken sustainability in fishing and instead divert public spending in such a way that it is more beneficial to fisheries sectors. This paper aims to argue that the WTO fisheries subsidies rules can be considered as a mechanism not only for achieving fisheries sustainability but also for supporting food security in Indonesia.

The methodology of this study consists of descriptive and analytical legal research that identifies the relation between fisheries subsidies and food security policies in Indonesia.

Fisheries subsidies policies in Indonesia focus on government support for small-scale fishers not only to promote fishing sustainability and marine resource protection but also to improve their ability to participate in food security strategies.

The elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies could be regarded as a mechanism for not only preserving and sustaining marine resources but also achieving food security in other developing countries.

The author’s knowledge of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is valuable in elaborating a new paradigm on how the WTO is achieving SDG 14 (Life below Water) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) in parallel by analysing Indonesia’s efforts to implement the AFS while also allocating public spending to fisheries sectors to accommodate food security.

Of critical concern to the world is the need to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources. This study provides a multi-level exploration of the ways situational and transformational links between levels and challenges are related to the adoption and utilization of material flow cost accounting in Vietnam, to encourage green productivity.

Based on triangulation of public documents at different institutional levels and a set of semi-structured interviews, situational and transformational links and challenges for material flow cost accounting in Vietnam are examined using purposive and snowball sampling of key actors.

Using a multi-level framework the research identifies six situational and transformational barriers to implementation of material flow cost accounting and suggests opportunities to overcome these. The weakest links identified involve macro-to meso-situational and micro-to macro-transformational links. The paper highlights the dominance of meso-level institutions and lack of focus on micro transformation to cut waste and enable improvements in green productivity.

The paper identifies ways for companies in Vietnam to reduce unsustainability and enable transformation towards sustainable management and waste reduction.

The paper is the first to develop and use a multi-level/multi-time period framework to examine the take-up of material flow cost accounting to encourage transformation towards green productivity. Consideration of the Vietnamese case builds understanding of the challenges for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12, to help enable sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Drought and salinity intrusion aggravated by climate change threaten agricultural livelihoods in Viet Nan's Mekong Delta. In response, authorities have built water management infrastructure for irrigation and salinity protection. This study assessed the impact of one such project, the Ba Lai dam in Ben Tre province, on the livelihoods of aquaculture farmers.

This study uses the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to assess the impact of the Ba Lai dam on the livelihood capitals of 18 farming households in four communes, located both upstream and downstream of the dam.

The authors find that, apart from some positive effects, the dam has also brought negative environmental consequences, such as increased water pollution. The authors also find that farmers have responded to the changes by adapting their livelihood practices.

The samples were relatively small, encompassing four communes in Ben Tre province. On the other hand, this case study is instructive to the many ongoing infrastructure projects in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

The project have caused an increase in water-related social conflict.

The case of the Ba Lai dam provides a cautionary example for infrastructure-based water management plans, both in Viet Nam and more broadly. The study suggests the need to strengthen community participation and prioritize impacts of farmers' capital assets when constructing water management infrastructure for climate change adaptation.

This chapter provided systematic and comprehensive analysis on trawl fisheries management and conservation measures in the Straits of Malacca. Detailed analysis is conducted on Malaysian fishery management framework particularly domestic country's trawl fishery status, legal structure, input-control strategies, ecosystem protection plan, pollution, law enforcement, and complementary measures that designed to reduce and prevent overfishing in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Malacca Straits. Gaps and challenges found in existing trawl fisheries literature are presented followed by recommendations for improvement in the management and conservation of trawl fisheries.

This paper aims to analyze relative contribution of intensive margin (IM) and extensive margin (EM) to growth in India's agricultural exports for the period 2001 to 2020. It also analyses the determinants of IM and EMs through a standard gravity model.

The study uses export data from United Nations Comtrade, which is accessed through World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) software. Data for the period 2001 to 2020 were compiled for analysis using the Harmonized System (HS) of commodity classification system at the six-digit level. This study decomposed the contribution of IM and EM in the growth of Indian agricultural trade by using Hummels and Klenow's approach. After performing the export decomposition analysis, the authors analyze the factors influencing IM and EM by using the Tobit regression model and Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) method of estimation.

The EM grew at 1.24% per annum, while the intensive margin (IM) increased by 0.23%. The contribution of growth at the EM increased from 58.8% in 2001 to 70.2% in 2020. Export growth along the IM was relatively high for animal products and agricultural raw materials, while growth at the EM was an important contributor to the export growth of horticultural and processed agricultural products. There was a positive and significant effect of the free trade agreement (FTA) on export margins.

More disaggregated commodity-specific studies on value chain analysis would provide valuable insights into the issues hindering exports and realizing the untapped export potential.

There is a scarcity of holistic and recent studies illustrating the role of IM and EMs in agricultural trade growth, covering a large number of commodities and geographies associated with Indian agricultural trade. The study would be helpful to the stakeholders in facilitating informed policy decisions.