The organisation of urban agriculture in Cape Town,South Africa: A social capital perspective

This article explores urban agriculture in Cape Town and its organisational forms. Based on a literature review of peer-reviewed articles and grey literature, it examines the state of linkages among urban farmers and various supporting organisations of urban agriculture. Moreover, it examines the coordination of activities among key supporting organisations. By analysing the roles of state and non-state actors and linkages, the article discusses implications for the development of urban agriculture. This article suggests that a lack of effective coordination of initiatives among supporting actors presents a significant pitfall in the development of urban agriculture. Furthermore, the failure of farmers to self-organise is identified as equally detrimental. Therefore, it calls for improved synergies between state and non-state actors involved to ensure that the gains of urban agriculture are enhanced.     

Ecological self-image and behaviours for children living on the streets of Harare

ABSTRACT

The present study sought to explore the relationship between street childhood and adolescent ecological self-image. The research objectives were to investigate the nature of ecological self-image for street children and to determine the ecological behaviours for street children in Harare. A psycho-ethnographic research design was employed. The participants were 16 street-living adolescent children aged between 12 and 18 years and six key informants, all in Harare, Zimbabwe. A total of 22 participants took part in this study. Snowballing was used to recruit key informant interviewees, while purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for focus group discussions, in-depth interview, and participant and non-participant observations. Thematic content analysis was used for analysing the data. Data analysis revealed that the adolescent street children's ecological self-image is largely negative. These street children seemed to have estranged from their biological families to identify with the streets.     

Modelling the impact of the ‘fast track’ land reform policy on Zimbabwe's maize sector

Zimbabwe has recently gone through a widely criticised land reform process that is argued to be the cause of subdued agricultural production. This paper attempts to present a counterfactual picture of the maize market in Zimbabwe had land reform been managed appropriately. The counterfactual is developed through a partial equilibrium framework in order to quantify the impact of the land reform programme. This, to our knowledge, is the first attempt at applying a partial equilibrium framework to an analysis of the impact of land reform. The results of the post-2000 land reform policy simulation showed that actual total maize output was lower than what could have been produced if it was under a pre-2000 land reform system. The study validates the assertion that land reforms contributed to the contraction of output. These results suggest the need for a well planned and executed land reform process, which can still play an important role in output growth and food security.     

Export Stages and Export Barriers: Revisiting Traditional Export Development

This study revisits the stage model dialogue by testing seven hypotheses on the relationship between stages of export development and the influence of export barriers. Empirical data are based on a sample of 145 New Zealand firms, and the analysis combines a six‐stage framework with an illustrative list of barriers, while going a step further than previous research by examining the effect of covariates. Empirical results demonstrate that resource constraints, marketing barriers, knowledge and experience barriers, and export‐procedure barriers are “export stage dependent.” However, regarding export‐stage‐dependent barriers, differences exist only when we compare the early to the very advanced stages of development. These results also refute the grand hypothesis, which suggests an inverse relationship between export stages and the influence of export barriers. While the stage model typology still provides a practicable basis for need‐based segmentation, it does not capture completely the heterogeneity associated with the middle stages. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Five decades of research on export barriers: Review and future directions

Although research on export barriers spans five decades, no single prior study has systematically reviewed findings in this field. This study enriches the discourse on internationalization through a systematic review of the factors associated with export barriers, the theories underpinning this, and the exact nature of the relationships. Findings indicate the bulk of empirical studies focus on drivers of export barriers. The study identifies thirty-six such variables, falling in the categories of firm demographics, export venture characteristics, managerial factors, environmental and operational factors, and international trading environment. Smaller sub-streams of research investigate export barriers as predictors, mediators, and moderators. A vote counting approach dissects the associations (i.e. positive, negative, and weak) between the various factors and export barriers. Moreover, the study identifies four explicit (i.e. resource-based view, incremental internationalization, network, and institutional theories) and two implicit (i.e. attribution and rationalization) theories underlying the associations. Concerning research design and methodology, the study highlights the underrepresentation of emerging markets, longitudinal studies, cross-national comparisons, and advanced multivariate analytical tools. Finally, the study draws key implications for managers, policymakers, and educators, before setting an agenda for future research.     

Export barriers and path to internationalization: A comparison of conventional enterprises and international new ventures

Twenty years after the seminal work on rapid and early internationalization, export barrier research remains detached from this path of internationalization. Thus far, export research has largely disregarded the relationship between path to internationalization and the influence of export constraints. This paper opens a new thoroughfare of inquiry by distinguishing international new ventures from conventional enterprises on the basis of the export barrier construct. Using a sample of 129 small multinational enterprises, our logistic regression model separates international new ventures from conventional enterprises, with accuracy approaching 80 % on the basis of eight underlying export barrier factors. Our results convey two dynamic implications: In the realm of export research, we demonstrate that export barriers can indeed predict the path to internationalization. Thus, gradual internationalization is induced by skill and knowledge shortages, while rapid internationalization ensues from positive managerial orientation and lack of confidence in the host market. From a policymaking perspective, this study provides a basis for predicting the international new venture-to-conventional enterprise ratio within the population as well as an instructive basis for needs-based targeting of incentives.     

Analysis of Snack Food Purchasing and Consumption Behavior

This exploratory research examines the purchasing and consumption behavior of snack food consumers. A structured questionnaire and intercept interviews were used to collect quantitative data from respondents inside supermarket stores. For marketers, a key contribution of this study is the importance of the price attribute and certain product claims. Sugar and total fat were found to be the most important nutritional factors that consumers consider when making a purchase decision, but it was also found that only around one half of all consumers actually read product labels when purchasing snack foods. Matters of particular concern that are highlighted by this study are that one third of consumers do not consider their snacking behavior to be healthy, and one quarter of consumers choose to snack in secret. This study addressed a number of gaps in current knowledge by identifying the snack food products that are most frequently consumed, the reasons for consuming snacks, whether consumers read snack food product labels, the importance of various attributes and product claims, whether consumers regard their snacking behavior to be healthy, and whether they snack in secret.