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Tobacco is grown on more than 4 million hectares of global agricultural land in at least 124 countries. As a member state to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) international treaty, Uganda seeks to support economically viable alternative activities as a means to tobacco control because previous efforts with tobacco control that focused on the demand side have failed to control tobacco supply. This study employed the Tradeoff Analysis-Minimum Data (TOA-MD) model to assess tradeoffs and associated economic impacts of switching from tobacco to alternative crops in smallholder cropping systems. Results revealed that switching from tobacco to alternative crops is economically feasible for most of the farms owing to the higher net economic returns. The proportion of farms that expect higher returns from alternative crops is highest for cassava (97%) followed by maize (87%), rice (83%) and the least for beans (74%). Cassava is the best alternative for both small and large farms because of the highest gains in farm net returns, per capita income and poverty reduction. The next feasible crop alternatives for large farms are maize and rice. Despite their economic feasibility, alternative crops are typical of uncertain markets with unorganised structures for production. Since these are important incentives for tobacco farmers, the study recommends development of institutions that foster value chain development for alternative crops. Supporting agro-processors is likely to guarantee markets and provide for lump-sum payments, input credit for production and a reliable extension service system as way of incentivizing a sustainable switch to alternative cropping systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the links between the technological transformation of firms and employee control over working time. We conduct EU-wide analysis at the meso-level by relating information from the European Company Survey 2019 (Eurofound and Cedefop) with the Labour Force Survey ad hoc module 2019 (Eurostat). This dataset allows analysing the technological transformation of firms as a relationship between three types of investments (in R&D, digital technologies and learning capacity of the organisation) that spur innovation outputs. We then study the consequences of the technological transformation on the spread of unfavourable working time arrangements, distinguishing between individual and organisation-oriented arrangements. Our model considers the direct effects of investments in Digital technologies adoption and use and Learning capacity of the organisation and the mediating role of firms’ innovation strategies. Results indicate that the Learning capacity of the organisation is directly associated with more individual-oriented working time flexibility, but entails higher organisation-oriented working time flexibility. The effect of Digital technologies adoption and use depends instead on firms’ innovation strategy: product innovation leads to more employee control over working time, while marketing innovation has the opposite outcome. Process and organisational innovations yield mixed consequences buffering employees from organisation-oriented working time flexibility in more time-constrained work environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate about competition concerns in the digital economy cumulated in the adoption of new legislation, Section 19a GWB in Germany and the Digital Markets Act at the EU level. At around the same time, a new term gained prevalence in the competition law discourse—the 'ecosystem'. Often, it is not quite clear, what is meant by it or what the economics behind it are. In this article, I look to the strategic management literature, whose scholars have developed a coherent ecosystem concept. I will explain the economic benefits of the ecosystem structure and the essential role governance plays in it. From the economics of the ecosystem, several insights can be won for competition law. These insights will be applied to the new legislation in the second part. It will be analysed to what extent the DMA and Section 19a GWB are based on the ecosystem concept, whether they identify the problematic actors as addressees, and whether they capture the restrictive conduct. Although both legislative responses do not build on the ecosystem concept, they do not completely fail to address the right issues. Their neglect of the concept, though, could lead to serious enforcement failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As agricultural operations are increasingly industrialized, the role of stakeholders (SHs) becomes critical to the sustainability of the farming business. Arable farms are particularly expanding their geographical scales and socioeconomic impacts on the surrounding community, which gives particular importance to stakeholder management in relation to internal and external parties. Although the majority of arable farming comprises family farms, they have been on the decline because of succession problems, while non-family farms have been increasing. Success or failure of SHM is closely related to organizational forms because the form represents primal SHs. However, little research has examined the impact of SHM on performance in arable farming. This paper empirically investigates how SHM in various organizational forms is associated with the corporate performance of Japanese paddy farms. A questionnaire survey of Japanese paddy farm corporations was conducted in 2014, and 217 questionnaires from 63 family, 64 joint-stock, and 90 community farms were used in our estimates. Our estimation examines the following hypotheses: (i) SHM is associated with the corporate performance of paddy farms, and (ii) effective SHM varies depending on the organizational forms. The results suggest that, first, effective SHM is linked to organizational forms. In other words, the choice of form can offset the impact of SHs. Second, excessive emphasis on listening to opinions from the surrounding community may harm their performance, particularly at joint-stock farms, which expand in scale. Third, at family farms, attracting younger employees is crucial for running the business. Last, harmonious relations with the community are most important at community farms compared with other types of farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic value chains (DVCs) led by retailers within the global South often overlap with global value chains (GVCs) as well as domestic arm's length markets. DVCs incorporate some private governance, but we know little about the role of public governance. Based on analysis of Kenyan fresh fruit and vegetables, we ask: How is the power (or ability) of lead firms to govern producers being reshaped by the increased complexity of polycentric trade in the Kenyan horticultural sector? We reveal constraints to lead firms' ability to directly exercise bargaining power; and shifts towards institutional power in a context of polycentric trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation in its transition to production of electric vehicles. This paper seeks to examine the main transformations taking place in global value chains in the automotive industry as a result of this transition. The analysis follows a multiple case study methodology based on a theoretical approach that seeks to address the research question and purpose.The main findings of this research focus on three dimensions of GVCs. First, this transition increases competition among assembly plants at the intra-group level for the awarding of new models. Second, it continues to reconfigure supply chains, threatening the viability of certain traditional providers of components and giving rise to new players – battery manufacturers – that may challenge the chain hierarchy. Third, the transition to electric vehicles has led to a reduction in employment volume in the chain as a whole. Because the transition is ongoing, it will continue to pose significant challenges for multiple actors involved in the automotive industry.

AbstractOrganizational and managerial structure plays an important role in the productivity difference among firms. However, studies that assessed the quality of firm management and its link with their performance are still scanty. This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between managerial practices and firm performance using survey data collected over 577 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Burkina Faso. Three dimensions of management practices that are monitoring, targets setting, and incentives are used to calculate a management score. The empirical regression with fixed effect is estimated and the results show a positive and significant association between managerial practices and firms’ performance. Furthermore, the incentive and monitoring dimensions of management present a strong relationship with the levels of profit sale and value added of SMEs. The estimation by firms’ size also provides evidence that the linkage between management score and performance is particularly stronger for larger firms. SMEs development policies in developing countries should then provide strong incentives and enabling environment for business owners to build their managerial abilities.

The goal of supply chain management is to enhance output levels through the integration and collaboration of supply chain members. As such, identifying high-quality cooperative members is critical. However, many decision-making models for supply chain management neglect the consideration of growth expectations for these members, resulting in an unstable decision-making process. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate growth expectations into the decision-making process. To reduce ambiguity, we propose using cloud theory to quantify growth expectations and establish a cloud model of growth expectations. Our study underscores the importance of considering growth expectations when selecting supply chain cooperative members. By utilizing the cloud model of growth expectations, we provide a more comprehensive decision-making approach that enables decision-makers to assess the suitability of potential cooperative members and select the best member based on a multi-attribute decision-making process. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through case studies, which ensures its practicality and usability in real-world applications. Ultimately, our method offers a more efficient means of selecting cooperative members, which is expected to enhance output levels and increase supply chain efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While business users face difficulties accessing and porting data on platforms, the Digital Markets Act has been hailed as the legislative tool enabling business users access and transfer the data they have generated on platforms controlled by gatekeepers. The tool provided by the Digital Markets Act is discussed in this article and the author argue that business users should have a more elaborated right to first access the data they produce on platforms and in ecosystems, and secondly transfer such data from platform to platform, cloud to cloud, thing to thing or in-house. A right to access and transfer data could have several benefits; it benefits dissemination of data, creativity and innovation in connected markets and it promotes competition between platforms, clouds and ecosystem providers. Creativity will be enhanced because necessary data—being the raw material for new innovations—will be more broadly disbursed. It will also benefit consumers having a disbursed and disseminated data commons for the development of ideas, innovations, and the exchange of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]