Forecasting agricultural policy decisions in the European Community

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D72400/87 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Collaborative commerce or just common sense? Insights from vegetable supply chains in Ho Chi Minh City

Purpose - To demonstrate that collaborative commerce is not restricted to trade in branded products between large, multi-national organisations. Design/methodology/approach - Insights from extensive field research in Viet Nam. Findings - The benefits from collaborative commerce are plain for all to see yet very little of it is being practices in retail food chains at present, due primarily to incompatible organisational cultures and a competitive market environment that drives large corporations towards transactional relationships based on price competition. The insights from the Vietnamese vegetable supply chain demonstrate the simplicity of the principles of collaborative commerce and the ease with which they are adopted when the culture is conducive to collaboration and a partnership approach to trading relationships. Research limitations/implications - Findings are based on research conducted in and around Ho Chi Minh city and on a narrow product range, but anecdotal evidence suggests the principles apply across all commodities and extend beyond the South of the country. Practical Implications - Demonstrates the importance of organisational culture in collaborative commerce, so businesses who wish to benefit from collaboration in the supply chain need to look at ways of developing an organisational culture that is conducive to collaboration. Originality/value - This paper sheds new light on the application of the principles of collaborative commerce in a developing country context and in a low value-high risk food category, without major investment in IT systems. (Résumé d'auteur

Market linkages: characterizing business-to-business relationships in Vietnamese vegetable supply chains

When attempting to help farmers link to markets, development organizations emphasize the nature of the target organization (private trader, cooperative, non-government organization, processing plant, etc.) as a crucial element in developing a sustainable trading link. This paper argues that there is another facet to linking farmers to markets which is just as important in explaining the outcome of a trading relationship: the nature of the business-to-business relationship between stakeholders in the supply chain created. This paper synthesizes research findings on supply chain arrangements and mechanisms in business-to-business relationships encountered in supply chains distributing fresh vegetables to Ho Chi Minh City. Eleven months were spent in the field from July 2003 to May 2004 to conduct in-depth interviews with stakeholders in the chain. The links between important elements of good supply chain management practice and performance are illustrated by concrete examples from in-depth case studies. The positive impacts on performance of the following elements of business-to-business relationships are reviewed: commitment, coordination and joint planning, market orientation and information sharing, frequency of communication, and innovation. The results show that parallel vegetable supply chains differ in their structure and in the existence or lack of formal links (contracts) between business partners. However, the five elements of good supply chain management practice which are reviewed can be identified to varying degrees in all supply chains as strategies to achieve higher levels of performance. This research uncovers the existence of several hybrid forms of economic organization in the vegetable industry, thus highlighting the importance of characterizing the type of business-to-business relationship which evolves between supply chain stakeholders when attempting to link farmers to markets