Corporate Social Responsibility in Agribusiness: Empirical Findings from Germany

The social responsibility of businesses has developed into a highly debated issue in recent years. Especially in agribusiness, recent scandals as well as information asymmetries concerning food production have led to high external pressure on firms from the wider public. Being confronted with a variety of stakeholder goals and relationships, it could be particularly advantageous for enterprises in agribusiness to pursue a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. Based on a literature review, we introduce a conceptual framework that provides insights into the determinants of CSR and its effects, in particular, on the legitimacy and reputation, and finally, the performance of enterprises in agribusiness. This contingency-theoretic approach allows a more thorough analysis of CSR strategies and has guided an empirical study. In 2008, 170 German agribusiness companies responded to an online survey, using a standardized questionnaire. The empirical findings provide in-depth insights into the perception of external pressure in various fields linked to food production (for instance, use of genetically modified organisms), the understanding of social responsibility by the agribusiness companies surveyed and the way CSR is integrated into the firms’ strategic management. We also present three clusters of companies that differ with regard to their dominant motives for pursuing CSR strategies.corporate social responsibility, CSR, agribusiness, survey, sustainability, food scandals, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Strategies and challenges of internationalisation in BRIC-countries: Empirical results from the German agribusiness

The objective of this paper is to identify the strategies and instruments that agribusiness companies currently use to cope with the globalisation of agricultural markets. This aim is achieved by means of presenting the empirical results of an online and telephone survey that was undertaken between April and August 2010 with the participation of 113 German agribusiness firms. The majority of respondents expect that the importance of the markets in the BRIC countries will increase remarkably in the future. For developing international business activities, comparatively simple strategies such as direct and indirect exports via domestic and international traders are most widely used. This may be the result of challenges the agribusiness companies are facing in the context of handling international markets, especially in BRIC countries. --agribusiness,internationalisation,firm strategy,BRIC

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE AGRIBUSINESS: A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

In this paper we analyze the relevance of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy for enterprises in the agribusiness. Based on an overview about existing approaches to cope with conflicts in the agribusiness, we define CSR and introduce a conceptual framework that provides insights into the determinants of CSR and its effects. These are in particular, the legitimacy and reputation, and finally, the performance of enterprises in the agribusiness. Being mutually confronted with multiple stakeholder goals and relationships, it could be notably promising for enterprises in the agribusiness to pursue a CSR strategy.Corporate social responsibility, reputation management, stakeholder theory, legitimacy, CSR, Agribusiness,

Legitimating Business Activities Using Corporate Social Responsibility: Is there a Need for CSR in Agribusiness?

result, enterprises in the agribusiness sector are increasingly exposed to the public eye (Jansen/ Vellema: 2004). The perception of consumers and other stakeholders - which are according to Freeman “any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the organization’s objectives” - is of growing criticism and risk-consciousness and manifests itself in changed attitudes towards food production (Jäckel/Spiller: 2006; Haddock: 2005). The use of GMO in agriculture, e.g., is regarded to be morally reprehensible (Becker: 1999). The BSE-crisis and other food scares led to growing consumer uncertainty and resulted in decreased meat consumption and in the increasing percentage of outspoken vegetarians and low-meat consumers (von Alvensleben: 1997; Staack: 2005). Moreover, the influence capacity of stakeholders is growing (Gerlach: 2006). As a result these factors have reduced the legitimacy of traditional (e.g., animal production) as well as new production technologies (e.g. bioenergy) in the agribusiness. In the long term the success of enterprises in the agribusiness can be affected by legitimacy losses. Against this background, legitimacy is regarded as a resource that guarantees the long-term survival of an enterprise (Palazzo/Scherer: 2006). Primarily the market based view in general management literature and the macro-institutional approach in neo sociological-institutionalism are employed to understand business operations embedded in societal structures. In this context legitimacy means the conformation of an organization with social norms, values and expectations (Oliver: 1996).Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Media Analysis on Volatile Markets’ Dynamics and Adaptive Behavior for the Agri-Food System

The volatility of agricultural markets has increased remarkably in recent years. In spite of this, the way in which supply chain actors perceive market volatility has only rarely been analyzed. This paper seeks to close this research gap by presenting empirical findings about how the volatility of agricultural markets is perceived, how increasing market volatilities are being explained, and what adaptations to the volatile external environments are being suggested. Based on a large-scale media analysis, we have identified perceptions, which vary greatly over time, especially with regard to the perception of the threats and opportunities volatility creates for farms and firms and the most frequently identified reasons for volatile pricesagriculture, media analysis, public discourse, shared assumptions, volatility, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty,

Strategies and challenges of internationalisation in BRIC-countries: Empirical results from the German agribusiness

The objective of this paper is to identify the strategies and instruments that agribusiness companies currently use to cope with the globalisation of agricultural markets. This aim is achieved by means of presenting the empirical results of an online and telephone survey that was undertaken between April and August 2010 with the participation of 113 German agribusiness firms. The majority of respondents expect that the importance of the markets in the BRIC countries will increase remarkably in the future. For developing international business activities, comparatively simple strategies such as direct and indirect exports via domestic and international traders are most widely used. This may be the result of challenges the agribusiness companies are facing in the context of handling international markets, especially in BRIC countries

Internationalization and Firm Performance in Agribusiness: Empirical Evidence from European Cooperatives

 The ongoing internationalization of markets has become a major issue also for companies of the agribusiness. Nevertheless, neither the degree of internationalization of agribusiness firms nor the internationalization-performance relationship in the agribusiness sector have been analyzed thoroughly so far. To help fill this void, we use panel data compiled from annual reports and balance sheets to investigate the internationalization as well as the internationalization-performance relationship of 21 leading European cooperatives in the dairy and meat sectors. Our results indicate that internationalization has a significant positive impact on firm performance

Sustainability Management in Agribusiness: Challenges, Concepts, Responsibilities and Performance

The idea of sustainable management has recently gained growing attention in the agribusiness sector. This is mainly due to a widespread discontent with the industrialization of agricultural production and food processing and growing public pressure on agribusiness firms to implement more sustainable management practices. In this paper we present the results of an explorative empirical study of sustainability management in German agribusiness firms. The study shows that agribusiness firms have developed a broad understanding of sustainability management and perceive a multi-facetted spectrum of societal demands they have to meet. The most important arguments for implementing more sustainable management practices are that companies have to make sure that they are trusted by society in the long run and that the perception of a company by external stakeholders has become more and more important. The companies surveyed know quite a number of sustainability programmes and standards, but the number of companies that actually participate in these initiatives is much smaller. Nonetheless, the majority of the respondents feels that their company is more successful with regard to sustainability management than industry average

Sustainability Management in Agribusiness: Challenges, Concepts, Responsibilities and Performance

The idea of sustainable management has recently gained growing attention in the agribusiness sector. This is mainly due to a widespread discontent with the industrialization of agricultural production and food processing and growing public pressure on agribusiness firms to implement more sustainable management practices. In this paper we present the results of an explorative empirical study of sustainability management in German agribusiness firms. The study shows that agribusiness firms have developed a broad understanding of sustainability management and perceive a multi-facetted spectrum of societal demands they have to meet. The most important arguments for implementing more sustainable management practices are that companies have to make sure that they are trusted by society in the long run and that the perception of a company by external stakeholders has become more and more important. The companies surveyed know quite a number of sustainability programmes and standards, but the number of companies that actually participate in these initiatives is much smaller. Nonetheless, the majority of the respondents feels that their company is more successful with regard to sustainability management than industry average

Media Analysis on Volatile Markets' Dynamics and Adaptive Behavior for the Agri-Food System

 The volatility of agricultural markets has increased remarkably in recent years. In spite of this, the way in which supply chain actors perceive market volatility has only rarely been analyzed. This paper seeks to close this research gap by presenting empirical findings about how the volatility of agricultural markets is perceived, how increasing market volatilities are being explained, and what adaptations to the volatile external environments are being suggested. Based on a large-scale media analysis, we have identified perceptions, which vary greatly over time, especially with regard to the perception of the threats and opportunities volatility creates for farms and firms and the most frequently identified reasons for volatile prices