Efficiency, subsidies, and environmental adaptation of animal farming under CAP

The purpose of this article is to model the interaction between the targets of the current Comman Agriculture Politic (CAP): environmental adaptation, subsidies, and efficiency of animal farming. To this end we first have to identify the production frontier and relative efficiency level for each animal‐oriented farm in the sample. The production frontier and efficiency index for each type of farm (assuming no specific production functions) are identified using Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) techniques. We then address the relationship between relative efficiency, farm size, and environmentally friendly behavior by carrying out a nonparametric regression of efficiency, on economic size, a proxy for the degree of environmental appropriateness, and regional dummies. Calculations of the efficiency of the farms including direct subsidies are compared with the counterfactual exercise in the case in which direct subsidies are not considered. Finally, we look for relations between subsidies and factors such as farm size, efficiency, and environmentally friendly behavior. One key result shows that, on average direct payments generally tend to increase efficiency. However, in most of the cases the mean efficiency decreases as the percentage of direct payments rises. Direct payments are found to be positively related to environmentally friendly production, at least in Germany. However, in general, the direct payment system is not sufficient to offset the fact that the less environmentally friendly farms as well as the larger farms are more efficient.     

Golden cages for showy birds: Optimal switching costs in labor contracts

Under what circumstances do workers sign contracts with high quitting penalties? Our answer points to market transparency. When the worker's performance is privately observed by the incumbent firm, alternative employers face an adverse selection problem. As a result, efficient separations can only take place through involuntary layoffs and there is no role for quitting fees. In contrast, when performance is public, quitting fees are useful devices to appropriate the surplus from workers’ reallocation. Separations are amicable and take the form of quitting after downwardly renegotiating the fees. Qualitative features of contracts are independent of the distribution of ex-post bargaining power. The impact of switching costs on total welfare and its distribution depends on the degree of market transparency and the ex-ante distribution of market power.     

Ecosystem Service Value and Agricultural Conversion in the Amazon: Implications for Policy Intervention

We explore the welfare implications of agricultural expansion in the Brazilian Amazon by comparing spatially explicit estimates of soybean rents and the value of ecosystem services. Although these estimates are generated from different datasets, models, and estimation techniques, the values are comparable, such that the value of ecosystem services is greater than soybean rents for about 61% of the total area and 24% of the area where soybean rents are positive if protected areas are well enforced. Based on the balance between the benefits and costs of conversion, failure to value ecosystem services reduces total social welfare by 7.13 billion dollars annually relative to an optimum. Policy instruments that internalize the value of ecosystem services via protected lands, land conversion taxes, conservation subsidies, or excise taxes can avoid much of this loss. Regardless of intervention regime, policy makers should be cognizant of the diminishing net benefits of converting natural ecosystems to agriculture. Realizing the final 3.8% requires the conversion of an additional 15% natural ecosystems to soybean production.     

Social enterprises and social markets: models and new trends

Strengthening of the “disinterested” is key in the current economic situation (Bourdieu 1986). It can provide new values and ways of managing the markets and enterprise organizations; social enterprises are emerging as instruments to make this possible. This work studies the different traditions and analyzes social enterprises and social entrepreneurs, with particular attention to Spain. It also examines trends deriving from the new emerging models, first making an approximation of social markets: a market experience based on building a production, distribution, financing, and responsible consumption network that overcomes the limits of individual companies, engaging all the market’s economic agents. Finally, the risks and opportunities that these models present for a supportive and Social Economy are analyzed.     

Validity and Reliability of Satisfaction as a Mediator between Quality Constructs in Manufacturer–Supplier Relationships Through Time and Across Contexts

Purpose: The main objective is to test and assess a research model through time and across contexts in which satisfaction is a mediator between quality constructs in manufacturer–supplier relationships. Satisfaction is positioned as a mediator between trust and commitment (i.e., causes) on the one hand, and cooperation, coordination and continuity expectancy (i.e., outcomes) on the other. The objective is also to provide a substantiation and contribution through time and across contexts, to business theory of supplier-manufacturer relationships

Methodology/approach: One out of eight samples selected for additional empirical substantiation for this study comprises a total of 600 small and medium-sized Spanish enterprises from various industrial sectors. A total of 259 usable questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 43.2%. The study is positioned (and compared) in relation to seven other samples that have been tested within the same research model in Canada, Finland, Norway (twice), South Africa, Sweden, and Taiwan. The total number of useable questionnaires is 1641, the average number of useable questionnaires per study is 205 and the average response rate is 37.4% in the studies assessed of this article.

Findings: The research model tested and assessed in the eight studies meets the requirements for satisfactory convergent, discriminant and nomological validity, as well as for construct reliability. The measurement and structural metrics support validity and reliability over time and across contexts, which is rare in marketing research.

Research implications: The theoretical framework contributes, through time and across contexts, to the business theory of supplier–manufacturer relationships. The tested research model demonstrates properties of validity and reliability across countries and company sizes. Implications and suggestions for further research are provided.

Practical implications: The empirical findings indicate key factors that contribute to satisfaction in manufacturer–supplier relationships in different countries and companies.

Originality/value: The article makes a contribution to theory relating to supplier–manufacturer relationships, providing evidence that the tested, hypothesized relationships are generally applicable. The validation or falsification of empirical findings in previous research is crucial in building valid and reliable theory over time and across contexts. Otherwise, theory becomes fragmented and undermines the credibility of marketing research.     

The debt-equity financing decisions of U.S. startup firms

We examine the debt-equity decisions of startup firms using the Kauffman Firm Survey, the largest database of U.S. startups launched in 2004. To control for sample selection bias and the correlation among financing decisions, we employ a Bivariate Probit-Tobit model. Our results show that several firm characteristics such as growth prospects, firm size, tangible assets, and selling products, as well as owner characteristics such as net worth, experience, education and ethnicity explain the debt-equity decisions in the startup year. In addition, for firms that use debt, we document traits that explain the use of a particular type of business versus personal debt. Larger firms use more business debt, whereas home-based and growth firms use more personal sources of debt. Immigrants, owners who lack work experience and those who invest more time in the business tend to rely more on personal sources of debt.     

Entrepreneurs and the context of cooperative organizations: A definition of cooperative entrepreneur

We focus on the role of entrepreneurs in organizations that are structured as cooperatives. In considering the similarities and differences among various forms of entrepreneurship, a comprehensive definition of the cooperative entrepreneur is formulated. A model illustrating four variations in the manner in which cooperative entrepreneurship contributes to the creation of cooperatives is also presented. These contributions help to more clearly frame future research and lend visibility to the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the cooperative context. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Normalization of Deviant Organizational Practices: The Non-performing Loans Problem in China

Research on deviant organizational practices has demonstrated that normative and cognitive institutional forces contribute to making deviance acceptable. Data from a survey of 3,751 Chinese firms were applied to test the idea that a clearly articulated alternative identity is necessary if a firm is to resist the normalization of deviance. Widespread acceptance of delinquency in repaying loans was shown to make it more likely that a firm adopts that practice, but this normalization process is less likely for firms with a stronger anti-deviance identity.