The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the family control exerts a significant influence on profitability in agri-food companies that have been vertically integrated. This assumption is based on the idea that family-owned firms better overcome the internal conflict that arises in a company by reducing transaction costs. We have analysed the determinants of the profitability and its annual increase, considering the kind of company and its sector
The current market situation has led the production sector to focus on developing new products that satisfy consumer demands and improve firms’ competitive positions. This study seeks to analyze the role played by the consumers’ innovative tendency in the acceptance of new food products. This was done through the use of means-end chain theory in an application for coffee in Spain
The aim of this study is try to assess the potential of a hybrid approach to unravel consumer behaviour in agri-food markets. Concretely, the hybridization of the attitudinal approach, by means of the classical-utility theory, is explored, which represents a novelty in the literature where those attempts are truly scarce for foodstuffs.
While a number of works question the alterity of alternative food chains, little has been said about the social processes under which new economic models are, or may be, developed within the broader movement around ‘short food supply chains’ (SFCs) in Europe. Considering SFCs as economic organisations, we propose an analytical framework based on New Economic Sociology and Convention Theory, enriched by Social and Solidarity Economics, to capture the social construction of new economic models in such chains.
Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is based on the decentralization of selection in farmers’ fields and their involvement in decision-making at all steps of the breeding scheme. Despite the evidence of its benefits to develop population varieties adapted to diversified and local practices and conditions, such as organic farming, PPB is still not widely used. There is a need to share more broadly how the different programs have overcome scientific, practical, and organizational issues and produced a large number of positive outcomes.
This data article contains annotation data characterizing Multi Criteria Assessment (MCA) Methods proposed in the agri-food sector by researchers from INRA, Europe's largest agricultural research institute (INRA, https://institut.inra.fr/en). MCA can be used to assess and compare agricultural and food systems, and support multi-actor decision making and design of innovative systems for crop production, animal production and processing of agricultural products.
The purpose of the TATA-BOX project was to develop a toolbox to support local stakeholders in the design of an agroecological transition at local level. A participatory process based on existing conceptual and methodological frameworks was developed for the design of new configurations of stakeholders and resource systems in the farming systems, supply-chains and natural resources management that were to form a new agroecological territorial system. This process, presented here, was adapted and tested on two adjacent territories in south-western France.
This book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues. The multidisciplinary and multi-organisation research team steered a four-year action-research process in two territories of France.
This book presents:
For farmers, the transition towards agroecology implies redesigning both their production system and their commercialisation system. To engage in this type of transition, they need to develop new knowledge on practices adapted to local conditions, which will involve new actors in their network. This chapter explores the role of actors’ networks in the agroecological transition of farmers, with a particular focus on farming practices and modes of commercialisation.
Agricultural machinery manufacturers historically referred to the intermediate players for selling, maintenance, customer service and/or training of equipment appear to interact with farmers and end-users. Intermediate players have therefore faced the burden to master the technology, in constant evolution, and the associated training needs at the interface between sophisticated equipment and the end-user and its sociological characteristics (age, education, background, etc.).