Market Orientation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Examination of the Illinois Beef Industry

This paper explores the importance of a producer’s market orientation on their subjective performance within agricultural commodity markets. Using a structural equation model of beef producers, our findings suggest that market oriented firms are highly innovative and achieve superior performance. These findings are consistent with previous research on the market orientation-performance relationship in heterogeneous product markets. The cost focus of a firm was also found to have a significant influence on innovation, but no direct effect on performance. This suggests that beef producers should follow a balanced approach utilizing both an external market and an internal productivity focus to achieve superior returns as opposed to solely focusing on internal productivity as many producers currently do.market orientation, beef production, innovation, performance, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q10, Q13, Q16,

The Impact of Alternative Market Orientation Strategies on Firm Performance: Customer versus Competitor Orientation

Research studies have differed over the importance of the relative emphasis of a customer versus competitor orientation in the development of a market orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Tajeddini, 2010). In this study, we assess whether the emphasis of one component over another of a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance within the Illinois beef industry, specifically the cow-calf sector. Using a series of OLS regressions, we examine the importance of a market orientation, relative emphasis, learning, innovativeness, and a cost focus on firm performance. Our results suggest that a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance while the relative emphasis of customer versus competitor orientation is not statistically significant, corroborating the findings of Slater and Narver (1994). Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.Agriculture, innovation, market orientation, relative emphasis, value discipline strategies, Marketing,

Positional Advantage within Small Farms: Evidence from Illinois

As the economic viability of small farms continues to be an issue facing policy makers and economists alike, a market orientation may be a valuable resource producers can develop as they compete in a marketplace dominated by larger firms. Marketing and strategy scholars have long established the importance of a market orientation in determining firm performance. More recently, scholars have studied the effect of these concepts in agriculture. Extending the literature of market orientation in agriculture, this study examines the concept of a positional advantage and its effect on performance using a sample of small farms in Illinois. Using a sample of 347 Illinois beef producers, we empirically measure and test the construct of positional advantage and test the relationship between positional advantage and subjective performance. Our results indicate that market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovation and learning are first-order indicators of positional advantage and that the positional advantage of a firm is positively related to firm performance.Agriculture, innovation, market orientation, positional advantage, Farm Management, Production Economics, L11, L25, L26,

Do Market Oriented Firms Demonstrate Clarity on Their Value Discipline? Evidence from Illinois Beef Producers

A market orientation has been shown to lead to improved firm performance in a variety of industries (Narver and Slater, 1990; Deshpande et al., 1993). In previous research, it has been argued that performance benefits are a result of a greater awareness of the sources of value the product provides to the consumer, without specifically describing how value was created. Treacy and Wiersema (1993) developed the concept of value disciplines, which are three distinctive means of value provision, namely operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. More recently, Narver et al. (1998) argued that market oriented firms have a clear understanding of how they provide value to customers, but this assertion has yet to be empirically tested. A new scale was developed and tested to measure the choice and clarity of value discipline. Using a sample of 343 Illinois beef producers, results show that organizational learning, innovativeness, and extreme levels of market orientation contribute to value discipline clarity while moderate levels of market orientation have the opposite effect.innovation, market orientation, organizational learning, value disciplines, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Q10, Q13, Q16,

Differences in Production Costs Across Compliance Scenarios for Canadian Cow-Calf Producers Accessing the EU Market

Using the 2016 Canada EU Trade Agreement as context, we develop a systems dynamics model to assess changes in the cost of production from a production system oriented toward the North American market where growth enhancing products are allowed, to a European market where these production practices are banned. We outline four different compliance scenarios and use data from western Canadian institutions to estimate how the cost of production for cow-calf producers changes in the different compliance scenarios. We find that compliance costs ranged from $2.13 per head for those firms who already had forgone growth enhancing products and were maintaining detailed records to$34.78 per head for farms who were least compliant with EU standards

Machinery Investment in Illinois: A Study Examining Existing Investment Motivations

In this study, we attempt to prove some previously held ideas of machinery investment decisions using farm level data from Illinois. Investment decisions are analyzed taking into consideration past investment decisions in the county and on the individual farm. The results show there is a correlation between county level purchases and individual farm purchases and investment levels decrease the following year after an initial investment. These results display how non-traditional drivers for investment also play an important role in the investment decision.machinery, investment, keeping up with the Jones', treadmill theory, Farm Management,

A Guatemalan Soycow Cooperative: Is the Whole Greater than the Sum of its Parts?

Teaching Notes available upon request: [email protected]; Author video:http://www.youtube.com/user/ifamr1?feature=mhum#p/u/8/FhUZu2lt6NsSoycow, cooperative, Guatemala, teaching case, Agribusiness, Q10,

Market orientation in production agriculture: measurement, relationships, and implications

Over the past several decades, the agricultural marketplace has transitioned from a completely price driven, homogeneous, commodity market towards a more differentiated and fragmented product market characterized by heterogeneous consumers, firms and value offerings. Examples of this change are seen in product differentiation strategies such as grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and organic soybeans. While the strategic landscape may have changed, many beef producers still focus their scarce managerial and capital resources solely on the improvement of production efficiency, often leading to mediocre performance. Within these new complex agricultural markets, such as the beef value chain, market oriented producers may be able to better utilize non-price signals to observe value opportunities, and thus achieve superior performance. Utilizing a sample of Illinois beef producers, this study uses existing measurement scales and a postal survey to empirically assess the level of market orientation, innovation, entrepreneurship and organizational learning among Illinois beef producers, and measures the relationship these unobservable resources have on firm performance. This research contributes to the existing literature by assessing the market orientation of single decision-maker firms managed by the owner as opposed to management teams of large organizations. Findings show that even within the context of production agriculture, a market orientation is a significant driver of firm performance. Secondly, this research shows that market oriented firms are able to clearly define how they provide value, and what impact value discipline clarity has on firm performance

Experience and learning in beef production: Results from a cluster analysis

Research in agriculture and other industries has shown that innovativeness is a key driver of improved performance measures of small and medium-sized enterprises. The willingness to change current practice may be a function of the level of experience of the manager as well as the manager’s commitment to learning. Firms with more experience may suffer from confirmation bias and therefore may not see the performance benefits that stem from innovative activities. Using data from a survey of 285 beef producers in Illinois, this study employs cluster analysis to segment firms along experience and learning variables. Using a non-hierarchical clustering procedure, four clusters emerge. The study employs one-way ANOVA tests to examine differences in market orientation, innovativeness and satisfaction with several performance measures across clusters. Results indicate firms with a commitment to learning have a greater propensity to seek out market information, a greater willingness to accept innovations and are more satisfied with overall performance. The paper concludes with some implications for managers and policy makers

Competitive strategies among Ontario farms marketing direct to consumers

Abstract This paper examines the importance of two resources, namely a market orientation and an entrepreneurial orientation, in new product development and satisfaction with firm performance among direct and alternative marketers. Using a partial least squares structural equation model and data from a 2013 survey, this paper models the effect of a market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on satisfaction with current performance and expected future performance for agricultural firms in Ontario, Canada. Our results show that a market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation are important factors in determining rates of product and marketing innovations among farm-based agribusinesses. These findings further demonstrate that a market orientation is a powerful resource as it enables firms to become aware of opportunities to provide superior value for consumers, especially when operating in non-traditional markets