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The emergence of agricultural e‐commerce can solve the challenges of agricultural marketing especially in developing countries such as Iran. The aim of this study was to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) through adding the variables social influence and facilitating conditions to understand farmers’ behavioral intention towards using agricultural e-commerce. This descriptive-correlational research was conducted through a cross-sectional survey. The statistical population of the study was Jahrom citrus growers, Iran, (N=3566). The stratified random sampling method was used and 360 respondents selected in the survey. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire, who’s the research instrument was a structured questionnaire, whose face, convergent, and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were confirmed. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were obtained using SPSS24 and AMOS24 software, respectively to examine the reliability of research tool (0.75< α< 0.85). The results showed that the extended form of TAM constructs was significant in explaining farmers’ behavioral intention. This means that attitude, perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions, social influence and perceived ease of use explained 50.3% of the variance in behavioral intention. The hypotheses of the extended TAM constructs showed that social influence and facilitating conditions have a positive and significant effect on intention towards using agricultural e-commerce. In this context, the government and agricultural e-commerce planners need to raise the awareness of all social influence groups about the benefits of using agricultural e-commerce through all media. In addition, providing technical and educational e-commerce facilities for farmers is recommended.

Using the 2016 Canada EU Trade Agreement as context, we develop a systems dynamics model to assess changes in the cost of production from a production system oriented toward the North American market where growth enhancing products are allowed, to a European market where these production practices are banned. We outline four different compliance scenarios and use data from western Canadian institutions to estimate how the cost of production for cow-calf producers changes in the different compliance scenarios. We find that compliance costs ranged from $2.13 per head for those firms who already had forgone growth enhancing products and were maintaining detailed records to $34.78 per head for farms who were least compliant with EU standards., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 11, No 3 (2020)

Presentation ID 16491

Successful firms are able to meet changing consumer needs through adopting new products, services and unique marketing mixtures. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the role of entrepreneurial and market orientation on the effectiveness of new product sales and the utilization of marketing channels among farm-based businesses in Ontario, Canada. We also investigated the relationship between perceived environmental turbulence and the use of strategic resources. Findings show that Ontario agri-businesses who are entrepreneurial and market oriented are more likely to adopt new and/or significantly improved products and services while using multiple marketing channels. Furthermore, it was shown that environmental turbulence increases the degree of entrepreneurial and market orientation in these firms., The IFAMR is published quarterly my IFAMA. For more information visit: www.ifama.org.

Research in agriculture and other industries has shown that innovativeness is a key driver of improved performance measures of small and medium-sized enterprises. The willingness to change current practice may be a function of the level of experience of the manager as well as the manager’s commitment to learning. Firms with more experience may suffer from confirmation bias and therefore may not see the performance benefits that stem from innovative activities. Using data from a survey of 285 beef producers in Illinois, this study employs cluster analysis to segment firms along experience and learning variables. Using a non-hierarchical clustering procedure, four clusters emerge. The study employs one-way ANOVA tests to examine differences in market orientation, innovativeness and satisfaction with several performance measures across clusters. Results indicate firms with a commitment to learning have a greater propensity to seek out market information, a greater willingness to accept innovations and are more satisfied with overall performance. The paper concludes with some implications for managers and policy makers.

This paper examines the strategic value of a market orientation using concepts from the resource based view of the firm. We show that a market orientation can be a strategic resource as it is heterogeneous, imperfectly mobile, and is imperfectly substitutable. Using examples from both small-scale and large-scale production agriculture, we show how a market orientation can contribute to the awareness and implementation of new processes to improve performance. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of market orientation and firm strategy, along with a discussion of managerial implications and calls for future research.

Previous research studies have suggested market oriented firms achieve superior performance relative to their peers (Narver and Slater, 1990). Furthermore, researchers have suggested that firms that can clearly define their value discipline will also benefit. Recent studies have shown that highly market oriented and innovative firms are able to define more clearly their chosen value discipline. This study extends that research by examining firm performance across value disciplines. Using a sample of Illinois beef producers, we find that levels of market orientation and performance are not equal across value disciplines. Our results show the level of market orientation is lowest for firms with an operational excellence value discipline and highest for a customer intimacy/product leadership value discipline. Furthermore, our findings show that firms with high market orientation scores outperform firms with low market orientation scores regardless of degree of value discipline clarity.

The introduction of soycow systems into the developing world is not a new strategy in the fight against malnutrition. Soycows have been placed in diverse locations including VietNam, India, South Africa, Honduras, and Guatemala. The success of these projects is not guaranteed, and often the soycows are not used after the initial supply of soybeans is exhausted. One of the main issues impeding long-term success of the soycow projects is that recipients may possess technical knowledge enabling them to operate the soycow, but generally lack the intangible, human resources that could provide the requisite marketing know-how needed for these projects to survive long-term. This case was developed to foster case-based teaching methods for course instruction while providing a unique context for the examination of managerial decision making., Teaching Notes available upon request: ifamr@ifama.org; Author video:http://www.youtube.com/user/ifamr1?feature=mhum#p/u/8/FhUZu2lt6Ns

Research studies have differed over the importance of the relative emphasis of a customer versus competitor orientation in the development of a market orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Tajeddini, 2010). In this study, we assess whether the emphasis of one component over another of a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance within the Illinois beef industry, specifically the cow-calf sector. Using a series of OLS regressions, we examine the importance of a market orientation, relative emphasis, learning, innovativeness, and a cost focus on firm performance. Our results suggest that a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance while the relative emphasis of customer versus competitor orientation is not statistically significant, corroborating the findings of Slater and Narver (1994). Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

As the economic viability of small farms continues to be an issue facing policy makers and economists alike, a market orientation may be a valuable resource producers can develop as they compete in a marketplace dominated by larger firms. Marketing and strategy scholars have long established the importance of a market orientation in determining firm performance. More recently, scholars have studied the effect of these concepts in agriculture. Extending the literature of market orientation in agriculture, this study examines the concept of a positional advantage and its effect on performance using a sample of small farms in Illinois. Using a sample of 347 Illinois beef producers, we empirically measure and test the construct of positional advantage and test the relationship between positional advantage and subjective performance. Our results indicate that market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovation and learning are first-order indicators of positional advantage and that the positional advantage of a firm is positively related to firm performance.

A market orientation has been shown to lead to improved firm performance in a variety of industries (Narver and Slater, 1990; Deshpande et al., 1993). In previous research, it has been argued that performance benefits are a result of a greater awareness of the sources of value the product provides to the consumer, without specifically describing how value was created. Treacy and Wiersema (1993) developed the concept of value disciplines, which are three distinctive means of value provision, namely operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. More recently, Narver et al. (1998) argued that market oriented firms have a clear understanding of how they provide value to customers, but this assertion has yet to be empirically tested. A new scale was developed and tested to measure the choice and clarity of value discipline. Using a sample of 343 Illinois beef producers, results show that organizational learning, innovativeness, and extreme levels of market orientation contribute to value discipline clarity while moderate levels of market orientation have the opposite effect.

This paper explores the importance of a producer’s market orientation on their subjective performance within agricultural commodity markets. Using a structural equation model of beef producers, our findings suggest that market oriented firms are highly innovative and achieve superior performance. These findings are consistent with previous research on the market orientation-performance relationship in heterogeneous product markets. The cost focus of a firm was also found to have a significant influence on innovation, but no direct effect on performance. This suggests that beef producers should follow a balanced approach utilizing both an external market and an internal productivity focus to achieve superior returns as opposed to solely focusing on internal productivity as many producers currently do.

The dramatically changing marketing structure for agricultural products is forcing agricultural producers to become more entrepreneurial, but what does this mean? How do agricultural producers produce sustainable competitive advantage within a commodity market characterised by homogeneous producers? The convergence of two academic literatures - Market orientation from market strategy and Resource Based View from strategic management – provide a number of insights. In this paper we lay the foundation for research into the market orientation–performance link in terms of production agriculture. Building on the previous market orientation literature, we examine its ability to create a sustainable competitive advantage using a resource based view (RBV). Focusing primarily on the U.S. beef industry, we examine these two distinct literatures in tandem and show that the concept of a market orientation meets all the necessary conditions laid out in the RBV literature to create a sustainable competitive advantage, even in a commodity marketplace such as agriculture. This convergence between these two literatures has important implications and direction for future research as we attempt to analyze and evaluate the heterogeneous responses of firm the new global agri-food business environment.

In this study, we attempt to prove some previously held ideas of machinery investment decisions using farm level data from Illinois. Investment decisions are analyzed taking into consideration past investment decisions in the county and on the individual farm. The results show there is a correlation between county level purchases and individual farm purchases and investment levels decrease the following year after an initial investment. These results display how non-traditional drivers for investment also play an important role in the investment decision.