Determinants of Food Industry Performance: Survey Data and Regressions for Denmark |
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Authors: | W H Furtan J Sauer |
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Institution: | Prof. W. H. Furtan is at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. Dr J. Sauer is at the Kent Business School, Imperial College London, Wye Campus, Kent, UK as well as affiliated Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. E‐mail: for correspondence. The authors thank Derek Baker for the use of the data and comments on the paper. |
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Abstract: | This paper investigates empirically the determinants of firms’ performance in the agri‐food sector by using recent survey data for Denmark. Treating sales per employee as a proxy for value added, we estimate several bootstrapped regression models to draw conclusions on the marginal effects of potential performance determinants such as the form and nature of ownership, stage of the food chain and commodity sector, new product development, staff quality, firms’ competitive stance, and elements of firms’ strategy. To draw robust inferences we apply, besides the ordinary heteroscedasticity‐corrected Tobit maximum likelihood estimator, a non‐parametric least absolute deviations estimator (LAD/CLAD) based on a quantile regression procedure. The results indicate that we cannot reject the hypothesis of no influence of dominant orientation on value added. Rather, firms’ focus on human capital, stage and commodity sector better explains their value addition. We reject the hypothesis that regional networks have no influence on value added. Location in Århus, emphasis on human capital and the negative influence of outsourcing on value added all provide supporting evidence. We reject the hypothesis of no influence of foreign direct investment (FDI), and moreover propose that FDI has targeted the Danish domestic market as a source of value added. |
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Keywords: | innovation organisational type value added Q13 O31 O33 |
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