Adaptation in Food Networks: Theoretical Frame Work and Empirical Evidences

The objective of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the governance of the food networks focusing on two related aspect: the integration among the agents and the adaptation in the face of emerging disturbances. The paper aims at addressing the problem on what are the role of the adaptation processes in the implementation of sustainable strategies in Food Networks. Adaptation is a central problem of economic organisations (Williamson, 1985, 1991), and its conceptualisation is integrated within complementary theoretical perspectives. Among them, the adaptation theory asks whether integration or non-integration better facilitates ‘adaptive, sequential decision making’ in the sense of Williamson (Gibbon, 2005, p. 205). According to Gibbons (2005) the adaptive, sequential decision-making is modelled in terms of contracting the ex ante allocation of critical decisions rights across firms boundaries to the party who is expected to maximize the total surplus of the relationship. After having elaborated and presented the theoretical framework, the paper illustrates and discusses six cases of governance agreement. Three cases concern with agreement arranged at the Italian National level, three cases regard regional level Food Networks. Beyond the differences in the institutional environments, the cases also differ because of the degree of integration. The field research was carried out by documents analysis and interviews. The paper contributes to the literature by corroborating the theoretical hypothesis (Gibbons, 2005; Wu, 2006) and providing empirical information about the management of Food Networks in the face of emerging disturbances in critical fields: sustainability, quality systems and innovation

Adaptation in Food Networks: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidences

The paper concerns the integration in food networks under a governance point of view. We conceptualize the integration processes in terms of the adaptation theory and focus the issues related under a transaction cost economics perspective. We conjecture that the allocation of decisions rights between the parties to a transaction is a key instrument in order to cope with the sources of basic uncertainty in food networks: technological innovation, sustainability strategies, quality and safety objectives. Six case studies are proposed which contribute to corroborate our conjecture. Managerial patters based on a joint decision approach also are documente

Adaptation in Food Networks: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidences

The paper concerns the integration in food networks under a governance point of view. We conceptualize the integration processes in terms of the adaptation theory and focus the issues related under a transaction cost economics perspective. We conjecture that the allocation of decisions rights between the parties to a transaction is a key instrument in order to cope with the sources of basic uncertainty in food networks: technological innovation, sustainability strategies, quality and safety objectives. Six case studies are proposed which contribute to corroborate our conjecture. Managerial patters based on a joint decision approach also are documente

Adaptation in Food Networks: theoretical framework and empirical evidences

The objective of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the governance of the food networks focusing on two related aspect: the integration among the agents and the adaptation in the face of emerging disturbances. Adaptation is a central problem of economic organisations (Williamson, 1985, 1991), and its conceptualisation is integrated within complementary theoretical perspectives. Arruñada, Garicano & Vàzquez (2005) posit that the assignment of decision rights in long-term relationships provides an opportunity to reduce the associated bargaining costs. Ménard (2004, 2006) offers a generalisation of the adaptation concept for the class of hybrid governance structures. Gibbon (2005) subsumes the theme of adaptation in a complex theoretical structure by framing four elemental theories of the firm. Among them, the adaptation theory asks whether integration or non-integration better facilitates ‘adaptive, sequential decision making’ in the sense of Williamson (Gibbon, 2005, p. 205). The paper aims at addressing the problem on what are the role of the adaptation processes in the implementation of sustainable strategies in Food Networks. After having elaborated and presented the theoretical framework, the paper illustrates and discusses seven cases of governance agreement. Four cases concern with agreement arranged at the Italian National level, three cases regard regional level Food Networks. Beyond the differences in the institutional environments, the cases also differ because of the degree of integration. The field research was carried out by documents analysis and interviews. The focus was on the identification of the five stages mentioned and on the classification of the decision rights the agreements allocated between the parties. The paper contributes to the literature by corroborating the theoretical hypothesis (Gibbons, 2005; Wu, 2006) and providing empirical information about the management of Food Networks in the face of emerging disturbances in critical fields: sustainability, quality systems and innovation

The CAP 2013 reform of direct payments: redistributive effects and impacts on farm income concentration in Italy

Abstract The Common Agricultural Policy has traditionally provided support to farm incomes via direct payments under the Single Payment Scheme. This article analyzes whether the reform of the SPS will decrease the concentration of direct payments and evaluates the effect of the new direct payment scheme on the redistribution of farm incomes. The decomposition of the Gini coefficient allows analysis of the evolution of farm income and direct payment distributions in Italy from 2014 to 2020, and empirical results based on the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network show that the CAP 2013 reform is expected to decrease the concentration of direct payments. However, the reform is also expected to limit the reduction in farm income inequality due to the adoption of a partial convergence model (the so-called "tunnel" model) instead of a total convergence model as well as, more generally, the increasing share of farm income that is dependent on increased market exposure, leading to higher risks of price volatility and increasing pressure on income

Adaptation in Food Networks: Theoretical Frame Work and Empirical Evidences

The objective of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the governance of the food networks focusing on two related aspect: the integration among the agents and the adaptation in the face of emerging disturbances. The paper aims at addressing the problem on what are the role of the adaptation processes in the implementation of sustainable strategies in Food Networks. Adaptation is a central problem of economic organisations (Williamson, 1985, 1991), and its conceptualisation is integrated within complementary theoretical perspectives. Among them, the adaptation theory asks whether integration or non-integration better facilitates ‘adaptive, sequential decision making’ in the sense of Williamson (Gibbon, 2005, p. 205). According to Gibbons (2005) the adaptive, sequential decision-making is modelled in terms of contracting the ex ante allocation of critical decisions rights across firms boundaries to the party who is expected to maximize the total surplus of the relationship. After having elaborated and presented the theoretical framework, the paper illustrates and discusses six cases of governance agreement. Three cases concern with agreement arranged at the Italian National level, three cases regard regional level Food Networks. Beyond the differences in the institutional environments, the cases also differ because of the degree of integration. The field research was carried out by documents analysis and interviews. The paper contributes to the literature by corroborating the theoretical hypothesis (Gibbons, 2005; Wu, 2006) and providing empirical information about the management of Food Networks in the face of emerging disturbances in critical fields: sustainability, quality systems and innovation

Confronting Focus Strategies in Finnish and in Italian: An Experimental Study on Object Focusing

Focus is cross-linguistically associated with a number of different strategies, such as fronting, clefting, markers, and prosody. In some cases, the choice between one strategy or another is determined by language-specific rules, while in others, two or more strategies seem to be optional, and thus, somehow “unpredictable”. In this experimental study, we investigate the syntactic strategies employed in object focusing in Finnish and in Italian by examining the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features underlying the choice of a specific Focus strategy. In particular, the present experiment is aimed to investigate two strategies employed in both languages for object Focus realization, namely, Focus in situ and fronting, in order to verify whether the choice between them is influenced by a specific type of feature, a combination of Focus-related features, the verb category involved, or the interplay between these three factors. The incidence of alternative constructions, in particular clefting in Italian and the -hAn discourse marker in Finnish, is also taken into consideration, and relevant asymmetries are analyzed in a comprehensive, comparative account

Italian Factive islands are not ‘that weak’: new evidence from the factive/bridge distinction.

Long-distance dependencies are a major property of human language, deriving from the successive application of movement operations across sentences. Nevertheless, this possibility seems to be restricted by the presence of barriers, which ‘trap’ constituents in more or less 'resistant' syntactic islands. Given this scenario, this paper paper investigates a specific type of island, namely factive complements, which are traditionally considered ‘weak’ islands. The main goal is thus to verify the status of factive islands in Italian, based on original experimental data. Moreover, since island effects have been generally tested against wh-extractions, a secondary goal of the present study is to verify whether other types of A’-movement, such as Focus fronting, can be restricted by island effects as well. The results obtained from two experimental tests, carried out with the collaboration of a total of 310 informants, provide evidence that Italian factive islands seem to lie somewhere between strong and weak islands, qualifying as a sort of ‘intermediate’ island. Indeed, direct objects appear to be less constrained than subjects, indirect objects and adjuncts. Furthermore, the extraction of a Focus constituent from a factive complement lowers the acceptability of the sentence, thus indicating that (factive) islands are indeed sensible to Focus fronting

Assessing Rural Resilience for Endogenous, Sustainable Development: An Emblematic Case

Rural communities are suffering increasing pressure due to several local and global, socio-economic, environmental and institutional changes. Despite the challenges, however, the focus on rural resilience for sustainable, endogenous development is increasing drastically. We aim to understand the factors which enable rural resilience by assessing an emblematic case of two bordering, rural areas, the capacity of which for resilience is remarkably diverse. We approached the study using a qualitative methodology, based on data collection taken from interviews and focus group with an indicator framework to assess their capacity for resilience. Factors of resilience clearly emerged from the results, and consistent qualitative evidence demonstrated the relevance of rural identity

Direct Payments to Provide Environmental Public Goods and Enhance Farm Incomes: Do Allocation Criteria Matter?

The Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 introduces a new result-oriented approach based on a new delivery model. At the core of this model lies the need to ensure a higher consistence between stated objectives and the implementation of policy tool, such a direct payment. Enhancing farm income and fostering the provision of environmental public goods represent relevant policy goals that the new basic income support for sustainability is aimed to pursue. However, the use of land-based payments has been largely criticized as ineffective and unfair. To this purpose, we use “Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network” data, in order to descriptively analyse whether and how different criteria used to allocate this payment are differently correlated with farm income distribution and the use of chemical inputs and natural resources. Findings reveal that other parameters, rather than land, may be also taken into account in order to improve the effectiveness of the basic income support for sustainability in achieving its specific goals. However, there is not a first-best solution aimed to ensure at the same time a fairer distribution of the income support, by rewarding farmers that make a lesser use of input