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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of supermarketization in the vegetable retail sector in China and its impact on food safety.

Data from food safety reports by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) are used to investigate the degree of vegetable safety in different value chain types. To assess the predictors of the degree of vegetable safety, a logistic regression model is applied.

Supermarketization has led to the reorganization of the vegetables provision system, through closer coordination along the supply chain and the use of secured production bases. We identify four types of vegetable value chains in China based on their form of coordination. Supermarkets improve vegetable safety even when they rely on external suppliers, but also wet markets perform significantly better than other small-scale retailers in terms of vegetable safety.

The study has expanded the knowledge of the supermarketization in urban China by collecting data from CFDA. Furthermore, the study used the theory of food value chain to understand determinant factors in securing food safety. Moreover, this study reveals that wet markets also have prospects in solving vegetable safety problems in China, especially in underdeveloped areas.

This paper aims to deliberate about the problem of tight and seamless integration in a supply chain by conceptualising and understanding how looseness and its creation represent an effective supply chain design.

This research is grounded in system theory and industrial network research, while the case study of a textile and garment supply network coordinated by a third party in Mexico empirically illustrates how looseness in the supply chain may be created. The information gathered through in-depth interviews with critical informants at Aztex and three of their suppliers, visits in situ and secondary information, was organised with the template analysis technique and interpreted from three different but complementary perspectives, system theory, supply chain coordination modes and industrial networks, to establish the particularities of the triad model.

The study shows that supply chain integration may take place in a variety of forms, and that new theoretical perspectives are required to understand how the looseness in the connections among actors contributes to the flexibility and efficiency of the chain. Additionally, the analysis of the case puts forward the trader’s crucial role as linking pin between suppliers and customers in the specific context of the garment sector.

Additional cases and triangulation of information from traders, suppliers and customers would contribute to explore in more detail how integration takes place not only in the textile and garment industry sector but also in other industries.

A rational explanation of why establish full integration across several tiers of suppliers and customers is too difficult to attain is given to managers. They may recognise that tight couplings will be necessary and possible only with strategic counterparts; meanwhile, others are more suitable to be delegated to a third party.

The economic and industrial stability and progress of low-cost sourcing countries depends on the selection of international purchasers. The advancement of triangle manufacturing facilitated by a trader may become another criterion to drive the selection towards a region. In the case of Mexico, this adds to the near sourcing advantages of the country.

The research confirms that there is no unique global mode of supplier integration and suggests that different approaches are viable as long as the objectives of operational efficiency, good customer service and flexibility are satisfied.

Using an analysis of marketing margins and the key dimensions of long‐term buyer‐seller relationships, it is possible to demonstrate that the supply chain for potatoes cultivated in the Red River Delta (Vietnam) is surprisingly efficient. While the prices paid to farmers are ultimately determined by supply and demand, the price farmers receive from traders and collector agents is influenced by tuber quality and the costs of transportation. Farmers are seldom dependent on their preferred trading partner and indicate that numerous alternative traders are available to purchase the potatoes they have harvested. While the traders similarly enjoy a strong positive relationship both with farmers and collector agents and their down‐stream customers, wholesalers report that they are much less satisfied in their exchange relationship with both the traders and the retailers. Wholesalers are more dependent on both their up‐stream and down‐stream trading partners and are more dissatisfied and less trusting of their exchange partners.

This paper examines the attempts to create new online markets for the trading of wholesale standardized goods during the late 1990s. The vast majority of these business-to-business (“B2B”) exchanges failed. These failed attempts provide invaluable data on the necessary underpinnings of online commodity markets and the social dynamics that drive them. Focusing on the US market for propane as our case, we discuss the model that drove the development of many business-to-business exchanges, the social dynamics of the propane industry and the attempts to create an online propane market, the role of informal risk management, and some initial lessons about the design of markets. Ignoring the behavioral realities of markets led to designs and technology that in many cases were incompatible with the needs of market participants.

Despite the existence of a variety of approaches to the understanding of behavioral and managerial ethics in organizations and business relationships generally, knowledge of organizing systems for fidelity remains in its infancy. We use halakha, or Jewish law, as a model, together with the literature in sociology, economic anthropology, and economics on what it termed “middleman minorities,” and on what we have termed the Landa Problem, the problem of identifying a trustworthy economic exchange partner, to explore this issue.

The article contrasts the differing explanations for trustworthy behavior in these literatures, focusing on the widely referenced work of Avner Greif on the Jewish Maghribi merchants of the eleventh century. We challenge Greif’s argument that cheating among the Magribi was managed chiefly via a rational, self-interested reputational sanctioning system in the closed group of traders. Greif largely ignores a more compelling if potentially complementary argument, which we believe also finds support among the documentary evidence of the Cairo Geniza as reported by Goitein: that the behavior of the Maghribi reflected their deep beliefs and commitment to Jewish law, halakha.

Applying insights from this analysis, we present an explicit theory of heroic marginality, the production of extreme precautionary behaviors to ensure service to the principal.

Generalizing from the case of halakha, the article proposes the construct of a deep code, identifying five defining characteristics of such a code, and suggests that deep codes may act as facilitators of compliance. We also offer speculation on design features employing deep codes that may increase the likelihood of production of behaviors consistent with terminal values of the community.

This chapter focuses on donkey traders and trading in Kashgar in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, an area which has experienced unrest and also seen sporadic incidents of violence that reflect the social and political instability in China since the 1990s. The Uyghurs are a Turkic speaking Islamic people who are classified as one of the country's 56 ethnic groups. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, mass migration of Han Chinese to this remote Central Asian region has intensified relations between the indigenous Uyghurs and the migrant Han Chinese, with many socioeconomic and political consequences. Through an exploration of the Uyghurs' cultural and religious understanding of donkeys and the multidimensional transactions of donkeys in livestock markets between Han Chinese and Uyghurs, the chapter argues that the practices and meanings of culture are both accommodated and contested when economic and political realities are simultaneously in play. Examining the changing characteristics of the intermediaries at donkey markets also sheds light on the ways in which these actors are becoming agents who bridge peasant communities in remote parts of southern Xinjiang and national markets amidst otherwise unfavourable social and economic conditions.

This paper aims to understand the significant farm and market-level factors that incentivize the adoption and marketing of pulses influencing its supply response to changing demand.

The authors first use a modified Nerlovian supply response model using secondary data to identify the major price and non-price factors influencing the supply of pigeon pea, black and green gram in the major pulses growing states in India. Second, using primary qualitative data the authors map the pulses value chain from farm to retail to identify the how proportional and fixed transaction costs (FCTs) influence market participation of pulses growers and limit the transmission of price and quality information.

The supply response model shows some positive influence of price on area allocation for pigeon pea and black gram and some negative effects of yield and price increase of competing crops on pigeon pea acreage. However, for the most part, the area of Kharif pulses is inelastic to prices in the long run. Irrigation, rainfall and yields in the lag year are shown to have a significant influence on area allocation for pulses. The market study reveals that low yields, low landholding size and geographical disadvantages of high agro-climatic risk and poor connectivity hinder market access of pulses farmers relative to other crops. Market power in favor of buyers and poor price and quality information is a disadvantage to sellers, influencing their ability to participate in markets.

A quantitative study would be required to identify the magnitude of farm and market-level transaction costs.

This study helps to understand the supply response of pulses and gives suggestions to direct policy to rectify this.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study into demand management practices in a trading organisation. It aims to bring together a number of key principles, including forecasting, promotions management and power, and examine how they impact the operations of the organisation. On the basis of its findings, the paper also aims to propose a framework for efficient use of forecasting resources.

A single case study approach was used. Iteratively designed semi‐structured interviews with different departments were used to identify the key challenges facing the organisation. Data analysis was then used to confirm some of the issues and identify emerging issues in the industry.

Intermediary trading organisations in the UK food industry occupy a vulnerable position in their supply chains. For promotional products, in particular, the supply chains are characterised by unmatchable upstream‐downstream lead times and little flexibility in demand and supply requirements. Furthermore, consumers may be getting used to buying certain products only when they are on promotion.

Trading organisations suffer disproportionately from the inefficiencies of their supply chain and, consequently, need to take a leading role in co‐ordinating and synchronising supply chain activities. They also need to understand their supply chain positioning, relative power and the factors that are beyond their control.

The demand management operations and challenges of intermediary food traders have not previously been studied in great depth. The paper provides new knowledge and further contributes to academic thinking by proposing a forecasting framework.

Marine fisheries are one of the few economic activities present everywhere along the Kenyan coastline. The local population is involved mainly in artisanal fishing which uses small non‐motorized fishing crafts that stay close to shore. Some of the catch is destined for local consumption but most is for sale. The purpose of this paper is to question whether fish traders in artisanal fisheries along the Kenyan coast earn enough money from only fish trading to support a household.

Fish traders were surveyed at two landing sites at each of five coastal tracts. Structured questionnaires, informal interviews and participatory observations were used in collecting data.

Average income for the fish traders from only fish trading was Ksh 1,268 per week; only 20.3 percent of the households was at or above the poverty line. However, there was a large difference between male and female traders in earning. Men earned Ksh 1,693 per week and women Ksh 795 per week. The poverty line for households was reached by 30.8 percent of the male traders but only by 8.8 percent of the female traders.

Livelihood diversification could greatly help improve the income. It was estimated that when earnings other than from fish trading (from the traders or someone else in the household) were added to that of fish trading, 27.4 percent of the households was at or above the poverty line. For men traders, it was 54 percent of the households but for women it was only 15 percent.

Amidst burgeoning attention for global value chains (GVCs) in international business (IB), this paper aims to identify a clear “missing link” in this literature and discusses implications for research and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy-making and implementation.

The paper combines an overview of relevant literature from different (sub)disciplinary fields, with insights from practitioner and expert interviews and secondary data.

Because IB GVC research stems from a focus on lead firms and their producing suppliers, it lacks attention for intermediary actors that may significantly impact the organization of production in general, and firms’ CSR commitments in particular. Import intermediaries are often “hidden” in GVCs. This paper indicates the emergence of GVC parallelism with “frontstage” chains managed by lead firms and increasingly exposed to public scrutiny following calls for transparency and CSR, and “backstage” ones in which buyers and intermediaries operate more opaquely.

This study points at salient yet little known practices and actors that influence the organization of production and the implementation of CSR policies in various ways, and therefore offers ground for reflection on the design of proper supply chain and CSR policies.

This study exposes a hitherto neglected category of actors in GVCs and broader IB research and discusses implications, relevance and areas for further investigation. An illustrative example explicates the importance of carefully considering this “missing link”. The study emphasizes the need for further study into ways in which both lead firms and intermediaries deal with contradicting demands of implementing CSR policies and offering competitive prices with short lead times.