Agribusiness Economics and Management Section Track Sessions

Information technology allows firms greater ability to network and communication with stakeholders in their supply chain. This session analyzes industry-level and firm-level responses to information technology, with specific regards to how firms utilize information to manage risks within their supply chain. The papers in this session focus on different aspects of the supply chain including factors that influence firms use of social media, how producers are using social media to network with input suppliers, the ability of firms to effectively use social media as a marketing and/or promotional tool, and implications of firms' responses to product recall information.

The global agrifood system has seen tremendous changes in the last decade, including technological and institutional changes, globalization, consolidation, vertical coordination and the emergence of new organizational forms. In addition, commodity markets have become increasingly volatile leading to higher levels of uncertainty. At the same time, population growth and rising incomes primarily in developing countries and changing food habits in the developed world suggest a wide array of opportunities for growth. Agrifood system participants that successfully adapt to these changes are able to survive and benefit from these emerging opportunities. This section will discuss structural changes occurring at the farm level and in upstream and downstream stages of the agrifood value chain. Presenters will also analyze the effects and implications of these changes to farmer-owned cooperatives and how they are adapting to a more global and uncertain environment.

The establishment of a successful research agenda is paramount to any individual wishing to succeed in academia. Given the variety of techniques and concepts, survey methodology as a form of primary data collection often intimidates researchers. This session will discuss how individuals can use surveys as a tool to help establish a successful research agenda. Topics discussed will include basic survey concepts, use of design and incentives to influence responses and response rates, and effectiveness of survey modes. Researchers will also discuss their effective use of surveys with groups at different stages in the supply chain, as well as tips and pitfalls of the survey process.

Legitimacy and reputation, both are intangible assets that influence the economic viability of organizations. Indeed these two assets are bestowed upon firms by society as an indication of their approval of what an organization is doing. Firms gain or lose in their reputation for social and/or environmental performance, by respectively leading or lagging behind in the evolution of societal expectations concerning various issues of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Moreover, if society feels that a firm falls too far behind or is to forward in their response to CSR issues they are likely to lose organizational legitimacy. Consequently, the papers in this track session examine the issues of legitimacy and reputation on firms that operate in the global agri-food and fiber supply chain.

Alliances--defined as collaborative, interdependent efforts between two or more firms--are a mainstay of the agricultural economy. Historically, farmers have hedged risk and enhanced market access with farmer-owned cooperatives and landlord-tenant sharecropping alliances. Nowadays, small farms engaged in the local food movement use alliances to facilitate information and resource exchange, while seed-developing biotechnology firms use alliances to foster innovation and appropriate its returns. But what determines alliance formation and performance? What makes one alliance successful, resulting in risk sharing, information exchange, and greater returns to scale, while another alliance results in a clash over intellectual property rights, as illustrated by Monsanto vs. Dupont? This session draws together strands from the literature on alliances among publicly listed firms with innovative research on small, privately-held farms to answer these questions and illustrate the uniqueness and similarities of alliances across industries and firm size. This session examines the impact of alliances at three focal lengths: 1) the ultimate outcome, firm survival, 2) the persistence of above-average profits among surviving firms, and 3) mechanisms persistently profitable firms use to facilitate information exchange and innovation while decreasing the threat of information expropriation. These perspectives combine to provide unique insight into the organization of firms along the food supply chain, from biotech firms to farms to agribusiness.