The USDA CSREES Higher Education Program: Doctoral Fellowships in the National Need Area of Management and Marketing

The objective of this study is to summarize the HEP graduate fellowship program in the national need area of management and marketing. The fellowships are the most prestigious in the agricultural sciences in the United States and the monetary amount of the fellowship is the highest in the agricultural sciences at $22,000 per year. Almost 40 percent of all graduated fellows are currently employed in academic positions in the United States and are represented on the faculty of 27 universities. This program could serve as a model for other countries that seek to develop similar fellowships for the purpose of creating a cadre of leaders within agribusiness management. It is important that qualified fellows be recruited, trained, and graduated from doctoral programs that have demonstrated success in training students in the national need of management and marketing.Marketing, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Economic Analysis of Options for Food Aid Policy in Honduras

economics, food policy, Latin America, nutrition, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

INCREASING COORDINATION IN THE PLANT AND PLANT PRODUCT PROCESSING AND HANDLING SECTOR

Agribusiness, Food Economy, Industry Analysis, Five Forces, Food Processing, Agribusiness, L10, L16, L66, Q13,

North American Bison Cooperative and North Dakota Natural Beef LLC: Governance of a Contractual Alliance

In 2005, North American Bison Cooperative formed a contractual alliance with North Dakota Natural Beef, LLC. The alliance was formed in order to enable the cooperative to enhance returns from its physical and managerial assets by entering the natural beef market. This case describes the resources shared by the cooperative and LLC, how the alliance was governed, the risk of opportunism by the CEO and associated trust building and control mechanisms, and the benefits cooperative members received. Although the two companies operate under different business principles, cooperative members exercise indirect control over the resources they contribute to the venture.Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries,

MEASURING INDUSTRY AND FIRM EFFECTS IN FOOD AND AGRIBUSINESS FIRMS

Managers craft strategies that, if successfully implemented, can improve profitability and financial performance over time. Can firms repeat their performance over time? If so, then a manager who crafted a successful strategy could expect her/his firm to achieve greater profitability relative to other firms within its industry. The objective of this study was to compare business performance (accounting profitability) for publicly traded and cooperatively-owned food and agribusiness firms. We used the Standard and Poors Compustat database using the methodology of McGahan and Porter's paper which used on 4,112 manufacturing firms. Return on investment for each SIC code in each year was calculated. A regression equation with return on investment as the dependent variable and the average returns on the right hand side were used in a weighted least squares regression. The data was broken out into processing, wholesaling, restaurants, and retail supermarkets. Industry effects are greatest across all business segments and the processing sector. The retail supermarket sector has had relatively stable profits due to both industry and firm effects over time. This would suggest that the retail industry structure is conducive to stable profits and that firms within the industry are able to differentiate themselves, which also contributes to permanence of profits. Our results suggest that industry structure does not contribute to stable profits in the wholesale and restaurant sector. Industry effects are more persistent than corporate effects. These implications are also of interest to land grant universities. Agribusiness economics research and extension programs exist at many land grant universities to educate producers and management about producer-owned businesses. Finally, persistence of profitability in certain firms has long been noted by economists. Further research is needed on identifying characteristics of those firms that contribute to their persistent profits.Agribusiness,

DIVERSIFICATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN THE FOOD ECONOMY

The effects of diversification on firm value in the food economy are analyzed within four major sectors: processing, wholesale, retail, and restaurant. We find that diversification in the food economy contributes to positive excess firm value. Processing firms are most likely to diversify while restaurant firms have the largest positive diversification effect.Industrial Organization,

Cass-Clay Creamery: A New Direction for an Old Brand

Consolidation and industrialization are increasingly important factors affecting the level of membership in cooperative businesses. This article presents information about the development of the dairy industry in North Dakota and its effect on Cass- Clay Creamery, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative. Students are asked to analyze decisions about branding and being acquired by another larger cooperative.Dairy, cooperative, acquisition, North Dakota, Cass-Clay, AMPI, Agribusiness,

MARGINAL VALUE OF QUALITY ATTRIBUTES FOR NATURAL (ORGANIC) BEEF

Demand and Price Analysis,

Cargill: Biotechnology and Value Creation in Wheat

About 40 percent of the world's food supply came from rice and wheat-based foods. The genome of wheat (a genome is a set of chromosomes) was much larger than those of other crops such as rice. Deciphering the wheat genome was a much more complex process. Wheat had six DNA strands (e.g., humans have only a double-helix DNA strand) and almost twice as many genes as humans. GM wheat would be available for production by 2004. The objective of this case is to describe: segregation and identity-preservation issues in the wheat value chain, the role of Cargill in that value chain, and issues surrounding the introduction of genetically modified wheat.Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Leadership Development in Agricultural Economics: Challenges for Academic Units

Crafting and executing strategy are key tasks to be carried out by a manager of an enterprise. Unit leaders are managers of an academic enterprise called a department. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of information collected from interviews with unit leaders of departments of agricultural economics and discuss challenges being faced by these unit leaders in March 2009.academic units, agricultural economics, leadership, Western Agricultural Economics Association, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,