Does collaboration pay in agricultural supply chain? An empirical approach

This paper examines the effect of different types of collaboration on the level of Postharvest Food Losses (PHFL) and the proportion of low-quality peaches produced using a unique data-set of Greek peach producers. Quantile regression techniques are adopted to estimate the effects at different points of the conditional distribution of our variables of interest. The findings of this study suggest that high levels of collaboration between producers and cooperatives are associated with both low levels of PHFL and a low proportion of low-quality peaches. We also find that specific types of collaboration, such as ‘goal congruence’, can play a significant role in reducing PHFL and improving the quality of peach production at the extremes of the distribution. Important policy implications regarding collaborative practices and systems that can be implemented to reduce PHFL and boost a producer’s performance together with sustainability credentials are drawn from this study

Producers Responding to Environmental Turbulence in the Greek Agricultural Supply Chain:Does Buyer Type Matter?

There are many changes in the EU Agricultural Supply Chain (ASC). These changes cause environmental turbulence for supply chain entities operating in this sector. In the Greek ASC, there is a significant decline in its performance in particular at producers’ level. Based on the Contingency Theory this paper aims to identify the relevant environmental turbulence factors in Greek ASC context from the producers’ perspective and ascertain their impact on producers based on their choice of buyer type i.e. collaboration type. Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Greek ASC producers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. The findings suggest the existence of six major environmental turbulence factors at producers’ level which are: regulatory, market, competitive, weather, economic and political turbulence factors. Producers selling their products to cooperatives were found to be significantly impacted by the different environmental turbulence factors. Future research directions as well as managerial and policy implications are identified

β-lactam functionalized poly(isoprene-b-ethylene oxide) amphiphilic block copolymer micelles as a new nanocarrier system for curcumin

Curcumin is a natural compound with biological activities and potent anticancer effects that has the drawback of poor water solubility which leads to low bioavailability. In this work curcumin was formulated in new physicochemically characterized micellar carriers composed of new synthetic block copolymers. The study of the in vitro release rate of curcumin from the formulas, as well as the in vitro activity of free curcumin and of curcumin-loaded into micelles, against a panel of colorectal cancer cell lines was also part of this study. New β -lactam functionalized poly(isoprene-b-ethylene oxide) amphiphilic block copolymers, were synthesized by the combination of anionic polymerization and selective postpolymerization functionalization of the polyisoprene block with chlorosulfonylisocyanate. Micelles composed of the synthetic copolymers were formulated in order to incorporate curcumin. As the results revealed, increase in the percentage of the lipophilic block of micelles, led to higher encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity while the size was found to be smaller and the in vitro release rate slower. In vitro cytotoxicity results showed similar or slightly higher activity for curcuminloaded into micelles than free curcumin, a fact that could be attributed to the similar in vitro cellular uptake profiles of curcumin and of curcumin-loaded into micelles. © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd