Farmers’ Satisfaction and Intention to Continue as Members of Agricultural Marketing Co-operatives: A Test of the Neoclassical and Transaction Costs Theories

Agricultural marketing co-operatives are one among a myriad of options that farmers have to market their products, making survival of the co-operative formula to depend on its capability to compete for the farmers’ satisfaction and membership. This research uses Neoclassical Theory and Transaction Costs Theory to propose a number of antecedents of the farmers’ satisfaction with the co-operative and their intention to remain members in the long term. With data obtained from a sample of 320 producers of fruits and vegetables, members of agricultural marketing cooperatives operating in the fresh fruit and vegetable chain, the results obtained show that 1) the liquidation price is more important to predict the farmers’ satisfaction with the co-operatives than their intention to remain members; 2) transaction costs are important to explain satisfaction and to a larger degree the intention to continue the relationship with the co-operatives; and 3) that liquidation price is more effective upon satisfaction and continuity if transaction costs are lower.Agricultural co-operatives, Transaction Costs Theory, Neoclassical Theory of the firm, satisfaction, continuity, liquidation price, safeguards, adaptation, performance evaluation., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Performance measurement : challenges for tomorrow

This paper demonstrates that the context within which performance measurement is used is changing. The key questions posed are: Is performance measurement ready for the emerging context? What are the gaps in our knowledge? and Which lines of enquiry do we need to pursue? A literature synthesis conducted by a team of multidisciplinary researchers charts the evolution of the performance-measurement literature and identifies that the literature largely follows the emerging business and global trends. The ensuing discussion introduces the currently emerging and predicted future trends and explores how current knowledge on performance measurement may deal with the emerging context. This results in identification of specific challenges for performance measurement within a holistic systems-based framework. The principle limitation of the paper is that it covers a broad literature base without in-depth analysis of a particular aspect of performance measurement. However, this weakness is also the strength of the paper. What is perhaps most significant is that there is a need for rethinking how we research the field of performance measurement by taking a holistic systems-based approach, recognizing the integrated and concurrent nature of challenges that the practitioners, and consequently the field, face

Does incremental and radical innovation performance depend on different types of knowledge accumulation capabilities and organizational size?

While prior studies recognize the importance of knowledge accumulation capabilities in innovation performance, current research has still failed to empirically identify its role with regard to different types of innovation performance. The objective of this paper is to address this knowledge gap and to explore the relationships between internal knowledge creation and absorptive capabilities, and incremental and radical innovation performance. The study also contributes to analyzing the complex effect that organizational size has in the whole innovation process, influencing its antecedents (internal knowledge creation capability and absorptive capability) as well as its outputs (incremental and radical innovation performance), as the literature has produced inconsistent results and the issue is subject to continuing debate. This study demonstrates that incremental innovation performance is positively affected by both knowledge accumulation capabilities and size. However, results show that only absorptive capability has a positive direct effect on radical innovation performance, whereas size has a negative non-significant effect on it. The effect of size on knowledge accumulation capabilities also turns out to be mixed. It appears to increase internal knowledge creation capability, but it does not affect the absorption of new external knowledge.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Plan for R&D of Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ref. ECO2009-12522)

COmportamiento del cosumidor espanol de productos hortofruticolas

La creciente competencia a la que se enfrentan las empresas hortofruticolas en el mercado, agravada por el enorme poder de negociacion de la gran distribucion y la tendencia a sustituir las frutas y hortalizas por el consumo de otros productos, hace la viabilidad de estas empresas este condicionada por la aceptacion que tienen sus productos entre los consumidores. En este contecto, el objectivo de este trabajo es analizar el comportamiento que el consumidor adopta con relacion a la compra y uso de los productos hortofruticolas, asi como las variables que lo condicionan. El conocimiento de este comportamiento es de gran utilidad paraa que las empresad hortofruticolas adopten las estrategias comerciales que les permitan incrementar la demanda de sis productos y mejorar su competitividad. Entre estas estrategias destaca la innovacion dirigida a dotar a las frutas y hortalizas de las caracteristicas que demanda el consumidor y que les permitan diferenciarles de los competidores. Para lograr esta diferenciacion no basta con innovar, ademas, las empresas deben dar a conocer los atributos diferenciales de su oferta al consumidor, para lo que resulta imprescindible desarrollar una autentica politica de marca y acciones de comunicacion. para implantar estas acciones las empresas hortofruticolas debreran dotarse de recursos humanos bien formados e incrementar su tamano mediante acciones de integracion con otras empresas...Firms commercialising fruits and vegetables are facing increasing levels of competitive rivalry in their markets, situation that is aggravated by the power of negotiation exhibited by the large retailing chains, along with he consumers' tendency to substitute the consumption of fruits and vegetable with other products. This leads to the conclusion that the future of these firms is conditioned by the level of consumers' acceptance of their products. In this context, this article's purpose is to analyse the behaviors that consumers adopt when they buy and consume fruits and vegetables, along with the variables that affect them. The knowledge of this is important for the firms to design and implement strategies to increase the market demand of these products and, finally, to improve their productivity. Among other strategies, innovation must be of critical importance. It must be directed to endow fruits and vegetables with the characteristics the consumers do prefer all attributes that must allow to differentiate a firm's offer from competition. Moreover, and along with innovation, the firms must also communicate their offers to the consumers, what will impose them the necessity of developing authentic policies of branding and communication. To implement these actions the companies must access to human resources well-trained and experienced and to increase their size through integration with other firms

Farmers’ Satisfaction and Intention to Continue as Members of Agricultural Marketing Co-operatives: A Test of the Neoclassical and Transaction Costs Theories

Agricultural marketing co-operatives are one among a myriad of options that farmers have to market their products, making survival of the co-operative formula to depend on its capability to compete for the farmers’ satisfaction and membership. This research uses Neoclassical Theory and Transaction Costs Theory to propose a number of antecedents of the farmers’ satisfaction with the co-operative and their intention to remain members in the long term. With data obtained from a sample of 320 producers of fruits and vegetables, members of agricultural marketing cooperatives operating in the fresh fruit and vegetable chain, the results obtained show that 1) the liquidation price is more important to predict the farmers’ satisfaction with the co-operatives than their intention to remain members; 2) transaction costs are important to explain satisfaction and to a larger degree the intention to continue the relationship with the co-operatives; and 3) that liquidation price is more effective upon satisfaction and continuity if transaction costs are lower