Food System Dynamics (E-Journals)
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Fostering entrepreneurial education in Agribusiness through experiential learning
Get PDFThis work examines the relationship between experiential learning and entrepreneurial education in the Agribusiness field.After having outlined the challenges that higher education has to meet business and students’ needs, the work outlines emerging insights from research that contributse to underline how effective could be an academic approach focused on experience. An overview of the latest development in the methodological field is presented; the paper, finally introduces the measures and initiative undertaken at the European level for promoting entrepreneurial education and initiatives by implementing experiential learning methods
Systematic Heterogeneity: How to combine Smartphone related Apps with FIspace
Get PDFFIspace represents an Internet based B2B collaboration platform that can be used by actors along the supply chain, and specifically the agri-food chain, facilitating the design and usage of inter-organisational workflows. The FIspace platform was developed by using FIWARE, a European initiative to develop technologies for a Future Internet. At the same time, the requirements of actors from an agri-food related B2B environment were analysed. One of the key requirements was the demand for smartphone-based apps that can be easily used by any actor at any time in the scope of a B2B relationship of different organisations. However, realising inter-organisational workflows with a combination of smartphones and a platform for B2B collaboration raises business related requirements that are specifically in relation to interoperability and security. Therefore, the architectural principles of FIspace supported ecosystems are presented and the concept of developing FIspace software applications is detailed. The latter provides domain specific features and enables a systematic usage of heterogeneous components in business related ecosystems. Furthermore, different development strategies for smartphone apps are analysed to discuss the related implications with respect to effort, costs and interoperability when aiming at a combination with a FIspace supported ecosystem. This is compared with the general principles to develop features within a FIspace ecosystem to systematically identify the implications when integrating heterogeneous software and hardware solutions. The purpose of this paper is to present those design principles that shall help to systematically analyse end-user requirements, which need to be taken into account when developing or designing changes and extensions of a FIspace supported business ecosystem with the help of smartphone apps. Therefore, the paper addresses specifically software developers intending to use FIspace as well as business architects intending to change or design an ICT supported collaborative ecosystem
Financial Instruments and Conflicts of Interest: Application to French Agricultural Co-operatives
Get PDFTo finance their growth and value creation, agricultural co-operatives have at their disposal several financial instruments: equity, quasi-equity or debt. Many of these instruments are particularly innovative and have been designed specifically for co-operatives. In France, only recently have some co-operatives expanded their types of financing to include external funders through the issue of OTC- or publicly-traded securities.Agricultural co-operatives' governance and economic projects are often misunderstood by external financial investors. The risk of conflicts of interest plays a role in these misunderstandings in the way retained earnings, returns to agricultural products brought by co-op member and returns to equity capital. Such risks are identified and answers are proposed
Drivers of innovation in the European Food Industry: Evidences from the Community Innovation Survey
Get PDFCooperation is particularly important for innovation in the food industry. as it has traditionally been considered as a “low tech” sector. This paper analyses how different forms of cooperation affect innovation activities in the EU’s food industry. To this purpose, we analysed data at the country level drawn from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). A random effect linear model is formulated and estimated to analyse the panel data obtained from five CIS waves. The model indicates that cooperation with universities positively affects innovative activity whereas, surprisingly, government financial support has not been an effective instrument to foster innovation
What is the benefit of organically-reared dairy cattle? Societal perception towards conventional and organic dairy farming
Get PDFDuring the last years, current systems in agriculture and food production have been topic in public discussions. Especially modern animal husbandry seems not to match consumers’ or societal needs any longer. This paper concentrates on the society’s perspective regarding dairy farming in general and diverting perceptions and expectations with respect to dairy cattle either reared organically or reared conventionally. It aims to give orientation to farmers as well as policymakers about the societal point of view of dairy farming.Six focus groups were carried out in three German cities to capture the scope of opinions and expectations among the population. Three of those groups consisted of participants buying mainly organic food while the other three comprised citizens buying mainly conventional food.With respect to society’s perception of today’s dairy farming results showed that participants put emphasis on the following topics: the space for each cow was considered as insufficient and not species-appropriate, assumed application of medications as too high, and in particular the prophylactic use of antibiotics as problematic.Asked about perceived differences between organic versus conventional farming it became obvious that organic in contrast to the conventional farming was perceived as more species-appropriate. More or less, all previously criticized aspects seem to be regarded as irrelevant in organic farming. Some participants showed a very romantic view of organic dairy farming. The most critical point was an assumed high rate of rogue traders among organic farmers
Influence Strategies in South African Wine Value Chains
Get PDFIn development studies, the concept of a value chain is neatly connected with the process of upgrading i.e. firms are enabled to not only to act as bulk suppliers but instead to sell branded goods to (international) markets. However, the notion of upgrading has been challenged by several authors. For instance, with regard to the South African wine industry Ponte and Ewert (2009) show that a better outcome or ‘deal’ does not necessarily follow in the wake of higher value added.Drawing on a number of detailed case studies, in this paper we investigate this conclusion in more depth. By doing so, we try to explain which paths South African producer cellars have or have not chosen, and why. As global value chain theory posits that the governance structure of value chains are of crucial importance, we will pay particular interest to the design of the chains as a success factor
The Balanced Scorecard as a Management Tool for Arable Farming
Get PDFManagement requirements for crop farming are high and will rise in the future. Arable farms are challenged by volatile markets, growing administrative burdens, increasing operating costs and growing competition for land. Management skills have become much more important for farmers in recent years and this trend will continue in the future. There are numerous instruments like accounting software or crop field cards integrated in daily management practice, but there is a deficiency of a fully integrated management system to give an overview of all areas of the farming business. This gap can be closed by the management tool Balanced Scorecard (BSC) that provides an overview of all production and management activities on a farm. Therefore, with the aim to transfer the BSC concept to crop farming, German farmers and agricultural advisors were surveyed to get insights into the success factors and key performance indicators in the four BSC perspectives they consider most relevant for the operational success of arable farms. By the use of a cluster analysis, three different farm types were identified according to their visions and strategies. For the three farm types the key performance indicators that the respondents considered most relevant for farm performance were figured out. Implementation of the BSC to crop farming can result in a big benefit for management practice. The BSC focuses vision and long-term strategy with the main goal to ensure consistency of the farm and increase farm performance
Drivers, effects and peculiarities of innovation activities in the food industry: a comparison across EU Member States using CIS data
Get PDFInnovation is a clear target of the Europe 2020 growth strategy. It has been widely postulated that cooperation is especially important for innovation in the food industry because it has traditionally been regarded as a “low tech” sector. This paper analyses how different forms of cooperation affect innovation activities in the EU’s food industry. In particular, the study addresses the question of how cooperation between companies and key chain agents influences innovative activity. To do so, we analysed data at the country level drawn from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The aggregated data allowed us to investigate national system-level processes that must be considered the outcomes of micro-level decisions and policies. A random effect linear model is formulated and estimated to analyse the panel data obtained from five CIS waves. The model indicates that cooperation with universities positively affects innovative activity and, surprisingly, that government financial support has not been an effective instrument to foster innovation by food companies
BiodieselFAO: An Integrated Decision Support System for Investment Analysis in the Biodiesel Production Chain
Get PDFIn the short and medium terms, biofuels are the most viable alternative to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels. The recent controversy over the competition between biofuels and food production increases the complexity of investment decisions in the biodiesel production chain. In this context, decision support tools are highly relevant. The purpose of this article is to describe the BiodieselFAO using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). An integrated analysis considering both agricultural and industrial sectors was identified as a key requirement to the system. Therefore, farmers and industry are the main actors in the use case diagram. As the raw material represents around 70% of the industrial cost of biodiesel production, the price negotiation of raw material (oilseeds) is the central use case. Configuration, agriculture, industry, results and scenarios are the modules, which encompass the functionalities derived from the UML diagrams. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has made the BiodieselFAO available, free of charge, to around 180 professionals from 17 Latin American countries. Additionally, the developing team has supported the usage of the BiodieselFAO in several biodiesel investment analyses throughout Latin America. The system was also useful in the design and analysis of policy related to biodiesel industry in Brazil