POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS FOR SHARED-SERVICES COOPERATIVES IN NORTH DAKOTA

The principal goal of shared-services cooperatives is to capture savings through lower administrative costs, quantity purchasing discounts, sharing fixed costs, and assured levels of business with vendors and suppliers. Although the idea of cooperation is not new in North Dakota, the question raised here is whether there is potential applications for non-agricultural shared-services cooperatives that provide services that are absent or inadequate in rural communities in the state. It is concluded that there is potential application for shared-services cooperatives in both public and private sectors in North Dakota based on opportunities to share fixed costs and to capitalize on pecuniary economies of size.shared-services cooperatives, non-agricultural cooperatives, North Dakota, Agribusiness,

AN ANALYSIS OF CONSUMERS' AWARENESS AND WILLINGNESS TOWARD ON-LINE FOOD SHOPPING IN AN URBAN AREA

Consumer/Household Economics,

IMPACT OF VERTICAL MERGERS ON FOOD INDUSTRY PROFITABILITY: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION

Vertical integration is an important business strategy among firms in the U.S. food industries. Our objective is to test one of the perceived benefits of vertical integration - improved profitability of the integrated firm. Findings show that increased vertical mergers in food industries would lower profits.vertical integration, mergers, market performance, industry profitability, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

What Determines Vertical Mergers in U.S. Food Manufacturing Industries?

Vertical mergers have become an important business strategy among food manufacturers because it allows them to manage and customize their production according to consumer needs. Economic theories have shown that vertical mergers may be induced by transaction costs, demand variability, and other factors. Using an input-output methodology, a measure of vertical merger is developed for U.S. food manufacturing industries and the transaction cost hypotheses tested in an attempt to examine the factors that motivate vertical mergers in the food manufacturing industries. The results are consistent with previous studies that confirm the role of transaction cost factors, such as lock-in effects in terms of asset specificity and managerial diseconomies.Agribusiness,