This paper investigates the flexibility of the Polish farming sector during a transition period. Flexibility is considered to be a farm’s ability to change output by sustaining average costs. We argue that flexibility is a crucial factor in farmers’ competitive advantage, especially under...

This paper deals with the estimation of a random coefficient model. The virtue of this approach is that it considers firm heterogeneity, which conventional SFA models do not. Applying the model to Polish farms, the results indicate that the conventional random and fixed effect models...

This study deals with horizontal product differentiation in the Polish pig meat market. Hypothesis among firms behaviour are derived from an illustrative model and tested in an empirical analysis using data from 1991-1998. The empirical analysis suggest that product differentiation is a relevant...

This paper deals with the estimation of a random coefficient model. The virtue of this approach is that it considers firm heterogeneity, which conventional SFA models do not. Applying the model to Polish farms, the results indicate that the conventional random and fixed effect models...

We construct a model to identify determinants of the diffusion rate of standards in a food chain. We argue that adoption decisions in the food chain are determined by farmers and processors economic considerations. Factors such as pricing behavior, compliance costs and market structure, all of...

During recent years, the number of farms able to generate satisfactory income from agricultural production has continuously decreased in advanced economies. The main reasons are the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy of 1992 and the increasing capitalization of the primary sector....

This paper investigates various modes of vertical coordination, with the focus on small farm integration in the Romanian dairy chain. It draws on results from a World Bank study based on semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2009. The findings indicate that large and prosperous dairy...

This paper investigates the different types of vertical coordination mechanism and the spread institutional arrangements (i.e. contracting) as well as identifies opportunities to expand innovative solutions that help to create and maintain the linkages among the famers and downstream businesses...

Abstract: The means by which fruit and vegetables growers are linked with the upstream partners in the supermarket supply chain are investigated in 15 semi-structured interviews with inter alia the managers of Croatia’s five major supermarket chains. Contrasting to existing literature we find...

The most striking consequence of recent food scares was that food quality is no longer the concern of a single firm, but instead the whole food chain has to work together in order to deliver the new quality. For the agri-food business there is evidence that the majority of these more highly...