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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between coordination mechanisms (CMs) and quality requirements used to support transactions in the Brazilian pork chain.

Based on the transaction cost economics theory, the paper focuses on the alignment between CMs and quality requirements. The results were obtained by means of interviews (n=41) with public and private actors, including the main companies and other stakeholders in the Brazilian pork sector. The research addresses regulations, requirements of customers and supporting CMs used in different transaction contexts.

In the Brazilian pork sector, five transaction contexts can be distinguished: spot market, mini integration, singular cooperative, central cooperative and investor-owned firm. The chain actors apply different CMs to support a set of quality requirements which presents little diversity. The main quality requirements are driven by baseline public regulations. Besides, there are, in particular international, customers with more specific requirements. To support transactions, chain actors use different contracts in terms of resource allocation and price incentives.

Literature assumes alignment between governance structures (GSs) and quality standards. This paper further investigates this assumption by analyzing the relationships between CMs (underlying GSs) and quality requirements (underlying quality standards). The research findings show that similar quality requirements may well be supported by different CMs. It further gives indications on why different CMs are used to support a homogeneous set of requirements.

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of quality standards on contract arrangements in food supply chains.

A qualitative double case study was conducted on the dairy and citrus sectors in Uruguay. A transaction cost theoretical framework was used. All current public and private quality standards applied by processors were studied in relation to contract arrangements between processors and upstream producers as well as downstream buyers for each sector.

Quality standards complement contract arrangements for upstream transactions, leading to hierarchy-type contract arrangements. Quality standards substitute contract arrangements for downstream transactions, leading to market- or hybrid-type contract arrangements.

Longitudinal studies that measure changes in contract arrangements over time are recommended.

Supply chain actors can reduce transaction costs by aligning quality standards with appropriate contract arrangements – further supported by public instruments.

Quality standards have differential influence on underlying transaction characteristics, and therefore on contract arrangements, depending on the location of the transaction in the supply chain.

This paper aims to make an empirical contribution by investigating the enforcement mechanisms and governance structures required to protect and govern a regional food product when public certification fails. As one of the recent additions to South Africa’s repertoire of products with a designated origin, Karoo Lamb made for an interesting case study.

A conjoint analysis was conducted to elicit the farmers’ preferred enforcement mechanisms to protect the authenticity of the Karoo Lamb product. The investigation, furthermore, draws on survey data collected among 73 farmers, five abattoirs, two processors/packers and five retail outlets to evaluate the governance structures of the Karoo Lamb supply chain.

The results indicate that due to failed public certification that is governed by market-like structures, Karoo Lamb is better off being governed by hierarchical structures. These structures are expected to allow for a stronger focus on stricter enforcement mechanisms.

At the farm level, the Karoo Lamb supply chain requires better enforcement mechanisms to protect the unique attributes of origin and taste to ensure the authenticity of Karoo Lamb. This change towards stricter enforcement requires more hierarchical structures to allow for private or mutual enforcement mechanisms.

This paper contributes empirically to the governance structure knowledge base by analysing the enforcement mechanisms and governance structures needed to enforce and protect, the quality and origin standards of a region of origin product, Karoo Lamb, in South Africa.

This paper aims to investigate the entrepreneurial behaviours exhibited by commercial smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe, focusing on their socio-economic characteristics, and considers their implication for outcomes of livelihood resilience in a resource-constrained and turbulent rural context.

The study used survey data collected from 430 smallholder farmers in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. Using a two-step cluster analysis, the study constructed a typology of farmers based on their entrepreneurial behaviour and socio-economic characteristics.

The results revealed that commercial smallholder farmers are heterogeneous in terms of their entrepreneurial behaviours. Four clusters were identified: non-entrepreneurial, goal-driven, means-driven and ambidextrous. Beyond their entrepreneurial behaviours, these clusters significantly differ in the socio-economic characterises (gender, age, education levels, farm size, proximity to the market and social connection) and farm performance (seasonal sales per hectare and farm income per hectare).

The typology framework relating farmers’ entrepreneurial behaviours to their socio-economic characteristics and business performance is important to tailor and therefore improve the effectiveness of farmer entrepreneurship programmes and policies. In particular, tailoring farmer entrepreneurship education is crucial to distribute land, finance and market resources in purposive ways to promote a combination of smallholder farmers’ effectual and causal behaviours at an early stage of their farm ventures.

Researchers still know little about which farmers’ behaviours are entrepreneurial and how these behaviours manifest in action during their commercial farm activities. This research leverages effectuation and causation theory to unveil previously overlooked distinctions on farmers’ entrepreneurial behaviours, thereby enhancing a more grounded understanding of farmer entrepreneurship in a resource-constrained context.

Much has been written on the effect of fast-moving business environments on organizational and supply chain (SC) management. Yet, empirical findings on the effect of changing external and internal contingencies on today’s globalized agrifood SC networks and performance are still fragmented into different organizational instruments, with some conflicting results remaining unexplained. This study aims to address these deficiencies by providing a comprehensive research framework to investigate how SC external and internal contingencies jointly influence organizational SC network structures and agrifood performance across mutually dependent tiers.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the so-called “contingency–netchain–performance” framework, based on contingent resource-based theory and the netchain approach, was empirically tested on data obtained from a standardized survey of 405 artisanal producers and 238 processors in the Nigerian shrimp sector.

The results provide statistical evidence that supports the path dependency of firm performance from the interplay of vertical, horizontal and lateral relationships and, primordially, from both external and internal contingencies. The findings show that the contingency paradigm of fit among small-scale food producers and processors cuts across tiers and uncover a tendency to adopt relational governance and tighter network structures that result in an organic organization as the best-fitting structure.

The paper presents a new research framework that offers comprehensive empirical explanations for the joint influence of SC external and internal contingencies on organizational SC network structures and performance across mutually dependent agrifood tiers. This study’s conceptual, practical and policy implications for SC management provide a nascent and flexible basis on which to identify the best-fitting organizational strategies that maximize firm performance across agrifood SC tiers characterized by changing business environments.

Following a guanxi value – buyer‐seller relationship quality – marketing behaviour scheme, this paper aims to explore how traditional guanxi supports small vegetable farmers in modern markets in China.

Fieldwork was performed in Jiangsu Province, PR China. A stratified random sample of 167 vegetable farmers provided data for empirical testing with partial least squares analysis.

The findings suggested that the value of guanxi networks is an antecedent to buyer‐seller relationship quality and marketing behaviour in China. Guanxi networks improve the quality of buyer‐seller relationships in terms of interpersonal trust and satisfaction. Buyer‐seller relationships influence smallholders' transaction relationships, their participation in modern markets and choice for formal contracts. Guanxi networks not only support Chinese small‐scale vegetable farmers to get access to modern high‐value markets (e.g. supermarkets and international markets), but also encourage informal transactions in the vegetable business.

Guanxi networks play a critical role in the modern marketing environment in China. Marketing strategies based on personal relationships should be further enhanced in order to increase participation of smallholders in modern markets.

Quantitative evaluation of the effects of the Chinese cultural embedded concept of guanxi in the Chinese agrifood sector fills in an important research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of network strength, transaction‐specific investments and inter‐personal trust on business relationship satisfaction for small‐and‐medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in agri‐food processing and exporting in China.

Survey data collected from 80 agri‐food SMEs in Jiangsu Province were used for empirical testing. The authors applied an ordered logit regression approach for model estimation.

The results demonstrate that strong guanxi networks, high level of transaction‐specific investments and inter‐personal trust significantly contribute to a high level of relationship satisfaction for agri‐food SMEs in China. In addition, inter‐personal trust shows a moderating effect on the relationship between transaction‐specific investments and relationship satisfaction.

Business relationships play a critical role in the modern market environment. Relational arrangements (based on guanxi and inter‐personal trust) should be further enhanced in order to yield satisfied business relationships for SMEs in China.

The paper extends our understanding of relationship (guanxi) marketing, as well as marketing practices for agri‐food SMEs in China.

The aim of this paper is to extend the understanding of the configuration of inter-organizational information exchange (IOIE) and the role of each aspect of IOIE in realizing potential communication benefits.

A conceptual framework on the configuration of IOIE was developed by examining the relationships between companies in the poultry supply chain in China. A sample of 165 buying companies and a sample of 96 sellers were analyzed by partial least square modeling.

Communication willingness plays a critical role in improving communication quality and realizing potential communication benefits. Modern media remain as a huge potential opportunity for improving performance. Meanwhile, the power of face-to-face communication should never be neglected, even in the coming Information Age. Higher communication frequency contributes to better understanding of companies' changing requirements and expectations. Taking use of senior managers and staff from different functions helps sellers grasp better changing markets. Communication quality is found as a multi-dimensional concept and plays a critical mediating role in realizing communication benefits.

The proposition of the model of configuration of inter-organizational information exchange and the quantitative empirical examination of the model fills an important research gap.

This paper aims to bridge the concepts of innovation and performance and to develop a framework to assess innovation and performance in food chains.

Based on an extensive literature search the paper identifies critical success factors (CSFs) and related indicators for innovation in food chains, on the one hand, and performance in food chains, on the other. Main CSF categories for innovation are: product, process, market and organization. Main CSF categories for performance are: efficiency, responsiveness, quality and flexibility. A chain process model is developed that enables one to identify main chain processes that impact on innovation and performance. A trade‐off matrix is constructed in which effects of innovations on performance and vice versa in typical chain processes can be identified.

This article reviewed available supply‐chain innovation and performance indicators and models and methods used to assess performance and innovation within fruit supply chains. Based on the existing literature a conceptual framework for assessing innovation and performance of companies in the European fruit supply chain has been developed. The framework consists of a supply chain process model and an innovation‐performance matrix which have been successfully applied to several cases along the apple chain in The Netherlands.

The chain process model and matrix are applied in an integrated way to the Dutch fruit chain. An apple grower case and a fruit cooperative case are worked out. Managers in food chains can use the framework to assess their company's innovations and performances.

The paper aims to bridge the concepts of innovation and performance. Literature and research on this subject are minimal.