The Role of Inter‐Organisational Relations and Networks in Agribusiness: The Case for the Polish Fruit and Vegetable Industry

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussions on the benefits of inter‐organisational networks (IONs) in agribusiness. It is based on the field of inter‐organisational relations (IORs) and network approaches that are applied in the framework of the Activities‐Resources‐Actors (ARA) model. The aim of this paper is to recognise and evaluate the distinguishing features of network relationships, which lead to better defined networks in agribusiness. Polish fruit and vegetable producers, processors and traders were investigated in this study. The study reveals that the main objectives of network relationships are to increase profits, this is linked to the optimisation of supplies and provisions, the building of communities and relationships and sustainable development. The outcomes of network relationships have been recognised as the non‐transactional exchange of knowledge and information, mutual adaptations, adjustments and standardisations. They are led by strong transactional relationships in the supply chain, which are based on pricing conditions, terms of payments, formal contracts and cooperation. This study distinguishes five categories of inter‐organisational network relationships they are: very strong operational, strong sustainable, moderate social, weak innovative and very weak shared resources. The paper concludes that the studied networks are characterised by strong activity and actor ties and weak resources bonds. Specifically the lack of shared resources might negatively influence the networks innovation and sustainability in the future

Global study of social odor awareness

Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or hedonic preferences across the globe, the aspects of a given culture as well as culturally universal individual differences affecting odor awareness in human social life remain unknown. Here, we conducted a large-scale analysis of data collected from 10,794 participants from 52 study sites from 44 countries all over the world. The aim of our research was to explore the potential individual and country-level correlates of odor awareness in the social context. The results show that the individual characteristics were more strongly related than country-level factors to self-reported odor awareness in different social contexts. A model including individual-level predictors (gender, age, material situation, education and preferred social distance) provided a relatively good fit to the data, but adding country-level predictors (Human Development Index, population density and average temperature) did not improve model parameters. Although there were some cross-cultural differences in social odor awareness, the main differentiating role was played by the individual differences. This suggests that people living in different cultures and different climate conditions may still share some similar patterns of odor awareness if they share other individual-level characteristics

Preferred interpersonal distances: a global comparison

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of sustainable resource ties in the agrifood industry: the case for the Polish fruit and vegetable industry

This paper contributes to the overall discussion on the relational resources then, in particular, attempts to recognize inter-firm investments in the agrifood industry. It is essentially grounded in an integrative approach which combines relational and resource-based views. Our goal in this paper is to find out if and how relational investment contributes to a sustainable relational advantage of business relationships in the agrifood industry. Producers, processors and traders who undertake investments in conjunction with their contractors were queried. The main areas of these investment activities and the potential of a sustainable relational advantage are explored. On this basis, a model of resource-based sustainable relational advantage in agrifood business relationships was executed. It was found that relational investments aimed at optimization of supply and provision as well as food safety and social responsibility create and sustain a relational advantage. Those aimed at technology and ecology implicate an unexploited relational advantage. Subsequent human, financial and real capital investments implicate a temporary relational advantage. The added value of this study lies in the implementation of an integrative approach to investigating the development potential of sustainable resource ties in the agrifood industry

The Features and Categorization of Agribusiness Networks on the Example of the Polish Fruit and Vegetable Industry Enterprises

This paper contributes to the foregoing discussion on networks in agribusiness. It is grounded in business network approach. The aim of the paper is to recognise and evaluate distinguishing features of agribusiness networks. The eighteen Polish fruit and vegetable producers, processors and traders were investigated. Their network activities have been recognised as non-transactional exchange of knowledge and information, mutual adaptations, adjustments and standardizations. They are preceded by strong transactional relationships in the supply chain which are based on pricing conditions and terms of payments, cooperation as well as formal contracts. The network activities are reinforced by common aims, reciprocal trust and commitment, mutual benefits and stability. The main aim of networking is to increase profits and it is correlated with optimization of supplies and provisions, building of community and relationships and sustainable development. The study classifies five categories of agribusiness networks in the queried sample. They are: very strong operational, strong sustainable, moderate social, weak innovative and very weak shared resource. The paper concludes that the studied networks are characterized by strong actor and activity ties and weak resource bonds. Principally, non-appearance of shared resources may influence the weak innovative ability of networks in the fruit and vegetable industry

Urban agriculture business models and value propositions: Mixed methods approach based on evidence from Polish and Italian case studies

Nowadays, trends related to alternative promotion options for small farmers in changing agri-food supply chains stand out. Urban Agriculture (UA) is a multifaceted system ranging from traditional production, processing, distribution, and consumption to a collection of new and less imagined goods and services. UA generally differs from conventional food chains in the origins, the place of production, and the production conditions. This paper focuses on an aspect less addressed by previous research: the analysis of strategic business models adopted by urban farm (UF) practitioners. The work uses a meta-model called Business Model Canvas (BMC), expanding on it with Value Proposition Canvas (VPC) model to explore how they communicate value to target customers and different market segments. Accordingly, in-depth interviews and participant observation were conducted from February 2020 – to February 2021 to gather extensive qualitative information. We selected two European economies in Eastern and Western Europe, Poland and Italy, with different UA relevance and functionality, to better identify potential UF business models. We identified three UF business strategies: service-oriented, product-oriented and land-use-oriented. UFs are gaining traction by impacting beyond financial and economic significance. The new value proposition is a powerful way to create a broader customer base and develop innovative product and service solutions to deliver unique value. It is a development path for UFs and urban agglomerations’ sustainable development. This study led to the conceptualization of the cross-cultural business meta-model of UF. It recognizes UFs as distinct entities with diverse functions and value propositions and informs the emergent UA theory and practical applications in UFs

Urban agriculture business models and value propositions: Mixed methods approach based on evidence from Polish and Italian case studies

Nowadays, trends related to alternative promotion options for small farmers in changing agri-food supply chains stand out. Urban Agriculture (UA) is a multifaceted system ranging from traditional production, processing, distribution, and consumption to a collection of new and less imagined goods and services. UA generally differs from conventional food chains in the origins, the place of production, and the production conditions. This paper focuses on an aspect less addressed by previous research: the analysis of strategic business models adopted by urban farm (UF) practitioners. The work uses a meta-model called Business Model Canvas (BMC), expanding on it with Value Proposition Canvas (VPC) model to explore how they communicate value to target customers and different market segments. Accordingly, in-depth interviews and participant observation were conducted from February 2020 - to February 2021 to gather extensive qualitative information. We selected two European economies in Eastern and Western Europe, Poland and Italy, with different UA relevance and functionality, to better identify potential UF business models. We identified three UF business strategies: service-oriented, product-oriented and land-use-oriented. UFs are gaining traction by impacting beyond financial and economic significance. The new value proposition is a powerful way to create a broader customer base and develop innovative product and service solutions to deliver unique value. It is a development path for UFs and urban agglomerations' sustainable development. This study led to the conceptualization of the cross-cultural business meta-model of UF. It recognizes UFs as distinct entities with diverse functions and value propositions and informs the emergent UA theory and practical applications in UFs

Composting and anaerobic digestion technologies as methods for reduction of virus transmission in the environment

Survival of bovine enterovirus was studied in animal by-products subjected to sanitization processes. Composting technology and anaerobic digestion under mesophilic (37 °C) and thermophilic (55 °C) conditions were tested in terms of their effectiveness. Viruses were introduced into the biomass in the course of waste treatment processes and virus titres were determined at appropriate time intervals. Technology which allowed the most effective virus elimination, after 2 h, was thermophilic fermentation. During composting, bovine enterovirus survival ranged from 12 to 17 days, whereas the survival time for mesophilic fermentation was 28 days