Integrated Economic Efficiency and Vulnerability of Chu-Mango Value Chain in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The main purpose of this study is to identify the allocation of cost, revenue, and net profit of stakeholders in marketing channels, identify vulnerable actors, and suggest policies for the sustainability of the Chu-mango value chain. This study employed value chain analysis to analyze the integrated economic efficiency of the Chu-mango value chain in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A total of 404 observations were collected from farmers, cooperatives, collectors, wholesalers, local retailers, export enterprises, processing firms, and supermarkets/fruit shops. The integrated economic efficiency of the Chu-mango value chain amounts to a revenue of USD 530.4 million and a net profit of USD 54.3 million. The export channels provide a revenue of USD 135.1 million and a net profit of USD 14.1 million while the domestic channels provide a revenue of USD 395.3 million and a net profit of USD 40.2 million. The findings show that farmers are the most vulnerable actors in the chain in terms of small-scale and low mango quality. This study suggests three policy initiatives: quality improvement, technological progress, and benefit re-distribution. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on value chain analysis for other tropical fruits and vegetables, and confirm the role of the value chain approach in policymaking

Simulator Development - Annual Report Year 3

This document describes the progress of the simulator development with in the third year of the CATNETS project. The refinement of the simulator as well as a detailed guide to conducting simulations is presented. --Grid Computing

Agri-Food Value Chain Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study of Chu-mango Business Linkages in Dong Thap, Vietnam

This study aims to identify important factors that directly influence value chain performance (quality, responsiveness, flexibility and efficiency), which are explained by value chain integration (collaboration, commitment, coordination and joint decision-making) in the case of unexpected risk (the COVID-19 pandemic). This study contributes to maintaining the business linkage model among farmers – cooperatives – enterprises in the caseof the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for data analysis following an iterative process based on theoretical and empirical analyses toobtain a structural model fit and test the research hypothesis. The findings indicate that the VCI positively influenced the VCP of Chu-mango business linkages at the 1% significance level through coordination (Beta = 0.345;construct reliability (CR) = 3.272), collaboration (Beta = 0.289; CR = 3.128), and joint decision-making (Beta = 0.324; CR = 3.245). This study provides empirical data on the relationship between VCI and VCP through the Chu -mango value chain in Dong Thap Province during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise awareness from stakeholders and encourage value chain thinking to improve performance. This result may pave the way for relevant policymakers to look for policies and strategies for better inclusiveness of stakeholders to show the importance of the VCI in improving the performance. Moreover, the study is an empirical case contributing to the agribusiness value chain in a developing country; it applies the agribusiness value chain of the tropical fruit domain and can be used for otheragricultural products in other cases of unexpected risks

E-Learning community integration with Web Services

Abstract: Economies of scale achieved with E-Learning content reusability and cost advantages for online education make up for resource intensive up-front investments for E-Learning content and technical infrastructures. Virtual E-Learning communities reduce tutoring and mentoring costs, increase learner satisfaction, and enable social and mutual learner support. Unfortunately, due to the early stage of several online university projects at least in Germany, relatively small numbers of subscribed students limit size and value of the virtual E-Learning communities and hence reduce E-Learning tutoring and mentoring cost advantages. The versatile Impuls EC portal applications facilitate the integration of different E-Learning communities from different online universities around identical or similar E-Learning courses. 1 Web Services enable the seamless integration of communication and collaboration application provided by Impuls EC and applied by different online universities to trigger and form sustainable E-Learning communities. Potential benefits are increasing learner self support and more efficient tutoring and mentoring to reduce education costs. Keywords:E-Learning, E-Learning community learner self-support, integration

Management of Portal Evolution - Introducing Evolution Management for the Corporate Financial Portal

Software evolution is an essential concept underlying the engineering of corporate portals. Due to the complexity of such systems, it requires great effort and is not advisable to design and implement a feature-complete corporate solution. The concept of evolutionary portal development helps portal engineers to cope with design complexity. While the technical perspective on component based software development and evolution is widely discussed, little work addresses the actual management of software evolution, let alone in the portal engineering context. In this paper we focus on the management of portal evolution. On the basis of a portal engineering process model we discuss methods and practices that facilitate the management of portal evolution cycles. We further outline the evolution management procedure and tools that we have established for the corporate financial portal at Bayer and point out key lessons we have learned so far.