Nurul Aisyah Binti Mohd Suhaimi, Yann de Mey and Alfons Oude Lansink
The purpose of this paper is to measure the technical inefficiency of dairy farms and subsequently investigate the factors affecting technical inefficiency in the Malaysian dairy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to measure the technical inefficiency of dairy farms and subsequently investigate the factors affecting technical inefficiency in the Malaysian dairy industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses multi-directional efficiency analysis to measure the technical inefficiency scores on a sample of 200 farm observations and single-bootstrap truncated regression model to define factors affecting technical inefficiency.
Findings
Managerial and program inefficiency scores are presented for intensive and semi-intensive production systems. The results reveal marked differences in the inefficiency scores across inputs and between production systems.
Practical implications
Intensive systems generally have lowest managerial and program inefficiency scores in the Malaysian dairy farming sector. Policy makers could use this information to advise dairy farmers to convert their farming system to the intensive system.
Social implications
The results suggest that the Malaysian Government should redefine its policy for providing farm finance and should target young farmers when designing training and extension programs in order to improve the performance of the dairy sector.
Originality/value
The existing literature on Southeast Asian dairy farming has neither focused on investigating input-specific efficiency nor on comparing managerial and program efficiency. This paper aims to fill this gap.
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Miranda P.M. Meuwissen, Yann de Mey and Marcel van Asseldonk
Erwin Wauters, Yann de Mey, Frankwin van Winsen, Steven Van Passel, Mark Vancauteren and Ludwig Lauwers
Building on the risk balancing theory and on recent discussions the appropriateness of using farm income maximization as behavioural assumption, this paper extends the risk…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the risk balancing theory and on recent discussions the appropriateness of using farm income maximization as behavioural assumption, this paper extends the risk balancing framework by accounting for business-household interactions. The purpose of this paper is to theoretically introduce the concept of farm household risk balancing, a theoretical framework in which the farm household sets a constraint on the total household-level risk and balances farm-level and off-farm-level risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper argues that the risk behaviour of farmers is better understood by considering risk at the household level. Using an analytical framework, equations are derived linking the farm activities, off-farm activities, consumption and business and private liquidity.
Findings
The framework shows that a farm household that wants to minimize the risk that total household cash flow falls below consumption needs, may exhibit a wide variety of behavioural responses to changes in the policy and economic environment.
Social implications
The framework suggests multiple ways for policy makers and individual farmers to support risk management.
Originality/value
Risk management is at the core of the agricultural policy and it is of paramount importance to be able to understand behavioural responses to market and policy instruments. This paper contributes to that by suggesting that the focus of current risk analysis and management studies may be too narrowly focused at the farm level.
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Yann de Mey, Frankwin van Winsen, Erwin Wauters, Mark Vancauteren, Ludwig Lauwers and Steven Van Passel
The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence of risk balancing behavior by European farmers. More specifically, the authors investigate strategic adjustments in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence of risk balancing behavior by European farmers. More specifically, the authors investigate strategic adjustments in the level of financial risk (FR) in response to changes in the level of business risk (BR).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a correlation relationship analysis and run several linear fixed effects regression models using the European Union (EU)-15 FADN panel data set for the period 1995-2008.
Findings
Overall, the paper finds EU evidence of risk balancing. The correlation relationship analysis suggests that just over half of the farm observations are risk balancers whereas the other (smaller) half are not. The coefficient in our fixed effects regression suggests that a 1 percent increase in BR reduces FR by 0.043 percent and has a standard error so low that the existence of non-risk balancers is doubtful. The results reject evidence of strong-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR keeping total risk (TR) constant – but cannot reject weak-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR with some observed changes in TR. Furthermore, the extent of risk balancing behavior is found to differ between different European countries and across farm typologies.
Practical implications
This study provides European policy makers a first insight into risk balancing behavior of EU farmers. When risk balancing occurs, BR-reducing agricultural policies induce strategic upwards leverage adjustments that unintentionally reestablish or even increase total farm-level risk.
Originality/value
Making use of the large and unique FADN database, to the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first that provides European (EU-15) evidence on risk balancing behavior, is conducted at an unprecedented large scale, and presents the first risk balancing evidence across countries and farming systems.
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Yann Mey Yee, Cheng Ling Tan and Ramayah Thurasamy
This paper aims to discuss the necessity of building a knowledge management system in today’s knowledge economy by focusing on human capital management, choice of tools, and how…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the necessity of building a knowledge management system in today’s knowledge economy by focusing on human capital management, choice of tools, and how knowledge processes affect an organization’s strategic capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
Analyzing several theoretical models in the area of knowledge management and explaining how motivation and choice of tools can improve utilization of knowledge management system.
Findings
Building a knowledge management system is recommended for transitioning into data analytics to capture business trends in the knowledge economy. Motivation and choice of tools are important to determine the utilization of a knowledge management system.
Practical implications
This paper presents practical issues and provides insights into building and using a knowledge management system in today’s organizations.
Originality/value
This paper justifies the need of knowledge management system and presents the issues and solutions to integrate knowledge management system into an organization.