Managing Emerging Market Operations

Emerging markets have been a critical part of global business, with high share of global GDP and rapid economy growth. My dissertation research focuses on studying risks and opportunities in emerging market operations. One critical characteristic of emerging markets is that agriculture remains an essential sector. The world looks to emerging countries to meet the increasing food demand. However, the output remains significantly below the potential due to limited financial, technology and policy support. Scientific agriculture such as effective planting and mechanization could potentially help farmers achieve higher yields. In the first chapter of my dissertation, we study the optimal seeding policy under rainfall uncertainty. Utilizing field weather data from Southern Africa, we investigate the advantage of the optimal planting schedule and the impact of climate conditions on this advantage in a real-size large-scale problem. Another critical characteristic of emerging markets is the low labor cost. This makes emerging markets attractive bases for global manufacturing and service operations. However, the globalization of supply chains complicates the logistics and procurement operations. In the second chapter, we focus on the warehouse outsourcing strategy in global supply chains. We establish the optimal warehousing strategy and demonstrate that excluding the logistics dynamics from contracting and making warehousing decisions unilaterally afterwards can lead to a suboptimal warehousing strategy for the retailer. Furthermore, a variety of threats such as supplier failure and transportation disruption could delay or even disrupt the operations, offsetting the low-cost benefit of emerging economies. In the third chapter, we study the optimal sourcing strategy under disruption in global supply chains. We establish the optimal sourcing strategy and provide insights on the roles of the nearshore supplier in response to supply chain disruption. Overall, my dissertation concentrates on the application of scientific methods to planting and farm machinery procurement to improve agricultural productivity in Africa and leveraging low-cost benefits in emerging markets.Doctor of Philosoph

Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

The purpose of the Sourcebook is to act as a guide for practitioners and technical staff in addressing gender issues and integrating gender-responsive actions in the design and implementation of agricultural projects and programs. It speaks not with gender specialists on how to improve their skills but rather reaches out to technical experts to guide them in thinking through how to integrate gender dimensions into their operations. The Sourcebook aims to deliver practical advice, guidelines, principles, and descriptions and illustrations of approaches that have worked so far to achieve the goal of effective gender mainstreaming in the agricultural operations of development agencies. It captures and expands the main messages of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development and is considered an important tool to facilitate the operationalization and implementation of the report's key principles on gender equality and women's empowerment

Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, andmost are involved in farming. In the 21st century, agriculture remains fundamental to economic growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental sustainability. TheWorld Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development publication series presents recent analyses of issues that affect agriculture’s role as a source of economic development, rural livelihoods, and environmental services. The series is intended for practical application, and we hope that it will serve to informpublic discussion, policy formulation, and development planning