Input Market Research Articles

Face or Relational Benefits? Research on the Influencing Mechanism on Repurchase Intention for Agricultural Inputs

Drawing insights from interpersonal relationship theory and relationship marketing theory, this study investigates the impacts of “face” and relational benefits on farmers’ repurchase intentions for agricultural inputs, and the moderating effect of relational benefits on the relationship between face and repurchase intention. A survey method was employed to test the hypotheses and data were collected from a sample of 578 farmers in rural China. The findings obtained through hierarchical regression analysis indicated that face and relational benefits (including social benefits and special-treatment benefits) exert positive effects on farmers’ repurchase intentions. However, relational benefits negatively moderate the relationship between face intentions and repurchase intention. This research sheds light on the dilemmas faced by farmers when choosing between maintaining face and seeking actual benefits while making repurchase decisions related to agricultural inputs. Moreover, the results contribute to the existing literature on the marketing of agricultural inputs and offer valuable practical implications for agricultural retailers.

Value Chain Analysis of Banana in Dhanusa

Banana is one of the most commercial fruits of tropics distributed in terai to mid hills of Nepal and has been expanding in commercial scale with good potentiality of job creation, income generation and development of several enterprises in its forward and backward linkages. It has ample scope of import substitution from as Nepal imports huge amount of banana in recent years from India. This study has aimed to accomplish the objectives of assessing comprehensive value chain analysis, value chain alliance and financing of banana sub-sector in line with the PAF’s future strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to collect and analysis primary and secondary data pertaining to the study from different sources using FGD, desk review, KII and field observation. The major strengths for this sub-sector are good potentiality for scale up to meet excess domestic demand which has been limiting by some weakness like lower productivity, smaller volume of production, heterogeneous quality of the produce, Lack of collective marketing, poor bargaining power and haphazard use of pesticides. It was estimated that banana sub-sector can generate annual income of about NRs. 95.8 millions in national level from PAF intervention areas, contributed from NRs. 31.9 million initial investments. Insurance premium cost required to bear by the farmers after getting subsidy from government was estimated about NRs. 0.4 million. Additionally, banana producers require loan fund of about NRs. 11 million to operate the business besides their own PAF CO fund of about NRs. 21.3 million. These estimates were made from the viewpoint of generating about one thousand plus employment in the production of this commodity in PAF area. The estimated volume of physical product was about 1526 MT which can sustain 2 SMEs with the full time employment of 21 persons. Return to investment was estimated at 196.3%, which is sufficiently large to reflect the financial feasibility of banana production. Market share of banana production from 5005 benefited households in the PAF area will account 0.6% of total national market with B: C ratio of 3. The balance fund available for funding in studied PAF based CO is NRs. 1.5 million and is lending operational loan in different productive purpose including banana production to its member at 12% rate of interest. It was estimated that farmers can absorb loan size of up to NRs.100000 per year per farmer based on their risk bearing potential. The COs operating in Dhanusa district have planned to form a district level cooperative coordinating all 17 community organizations in the district for the purpose of enhancing loanable fund. None of the farmers have adopted the insurance scheme and deprived sector loan facility in the study area. But, banana growers are now gradually thinking about the adoption of such insurance scheme and loan facility to expand area under banana plantation. Key gaps in the inputs and services provision level of value chain are lacking supply of timely and quality inputs, little or no monitoring of market, lacking bare foot agro-vets and small volume of investment. Similar gaps for production stage are lack of business and technical management skills, saplings and Small volume of credit. Whereas, collectors are facing the problem of heterogeneous quality of the product producing at scattered geographical region, collecting the product with-out completing pesticides waiting period and daily price fluctuation. Consumers at end market are facing the problem of high price, unhygienic market environment, high residue of pesticides, lacking label and branding of the product. The study has identified some suggestions in terms intervention areas from its findings. Possible intervention for value chain, marketing level are to train leader commercial farmers in marketing of inputs and outputs, dissemination of marketing information from electronic media likes mobile based apps, develop loan product for market related activities, introduction of collective marketing, establishment of linkage with big markets and star hotels and establishment of quality standard for PAF branding. Value chain financing at the level of processing industries, intermediaries, collectors and traders can be intervened through training and education to traders operating in different stages of value chain, establishment of warehouse, introduce loan product appropriate for intermediaries, lobbying with financial institutions to release loan for processing industry, foster collaborations with line ministries and allied departments and introduce technology and digital platform to promote market linkage. To the sum up, different value chain activities of banana sub-sector are potential for scaling up with possible adoption of different suggestions on technical, financial, alliance and administrative aspects in joint efforts of different stakeholders working in this sub-sector.

Efficiency Analysis of the Food and Beverage Industry in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis

Purpose: This study examined the performance of food and beverage industries in Tanzania in terms of productive and technical efficiency. The specific objectives of the study were to evaluate the productive efficiency performance of food and beverage industries in Tanzania, to determine the level and trend of efficiency of food and beverage of food and beverage industry in Tanzania, and to assess the levels of productive efficiency performance in the food and beverage subsectors in Tanzania
 Methodology: The study used secondary data to achieve its objectives. The study employed a Panel data analysis technique using 40 companies in the manufacturing sector over a period of three years, 2018-2020. A stochastic frontier production model was applied using a linearized Translog production function to determine the performance elasticity coefficients of inputs and technical efficiency. The study used production theory advanced by Koutsoyiannis (1979) to explain the relatonship between input and output factors.
 Findings: One of the key findings was that the level and trend of efficiency in food and beverage industry demonstrated an upward trend for the period between 2018 and 2020 as evidenced by the changes in average in both food and beverage sub-sector which grew from 0.776 in 2018 to 0.7557 in 2019 and finally to 0.7746 in 2020. Another finding of the study was that, the individual productive efficiency distribution between food and beverage sub-sector revealed that beverage sub-sector performs much better than food sub-sectors, with an average technical efficiency of 77.85% and 81.36% for both food and beverage sub-sectors, respectively.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study’s unique contributions to theory include its assessment of efficiency levels, analysis of efficiency trends, and exploration of sector-specific variations. Its practical contributions encompass policy recommendations, guidance on modernization and technology adoption, and the importance of skills development and export promotion. These insights have direct implications for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and practitioners in Tanzania's food and beverage sector, aiding in the formulation of effective strategies to enhance efficiency and competitiveness.
 The study recommends that the government and other stakeholders comes up with policy reforms to address the underlying factors contributing to the underutilization of each firm’s production capacity. This includes reforming the input market in the manufacturing sector in order to increase the level of efficiency to 100%. There should be establishment of an efficient marketing mechanism that reduces the involvement of many parties in the supply chain and hence high transaction costs.

The Effect of Farm Accessibility and Market Proximity on Farmer Efficiency in Oyo State, Nigeria

The effect of farm accessibility and market proximity on the farmer’s food production capacity remains unclear. The main concern is how farmers' productive ability is influenced by market-farms accessibility and proximity. Optimal food production is contingent on the ease of accessibility to purchase farming inputs and an enabling environment for farmers to maximize their benefits. As important as the accessibility vis-à-vis facilitating farmers’ movement from farm to market in the agricultural production process, the required attention is lacking in the scheme to reposition agriculture and promote food self-sufficiency. Previous studies examined the market location outside the present study area and they did not examine farmers’ technical efficiency and its determinant. This paper used remote sensing and GIS technique and a parametric model to first examine the location pattern of the agricultural input market and estimated farmers’ technical efficiency and its determinants. The Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI) of 2.15 and a z score of 5.41 revealed a proximity differential in the location of agricultural input markets indicating that the markets are dispersed and not equidistant from the farmlands. In addition, the efficiency estimation did not return labour as a significant variable, however, herbicide, fertilizer, and the size of farmland cultivated were significant in reducing farmers' inefficiency. It emerged age and access to credit significantly reduced the inefficiency of the farmer's production process. The outcome of the study suggests more use of GIS and RS to solve agricultural challenges; improving accessibility by tarring more roads; intensely training farmers before loan disbursement and paying attention to variables promoting inefficiency among farmers to ensure the optimal deployment/allocation of their resources to achieve optimal production and efficiency in the study area.

Forecasting methodologies for development of foreign markets of agricultural and food products of the Republic of Belarus

The strengthening of external factors and emerging crises of 2020–2022 related to the global epidemiological situation of COVID-19 and trade barriers, had a significant impact on the timely execution of foreign trade contracts, the efficiency of supply chains, environment of the global food market and the market for inputs for production agricultural products and food. At the same time, the unprecedented sanctions policy against the Republic of Belarus required a more sustainable agri-food system and the development of fundamentally new scientifically substantiated directions for diversifying export supplies. Step-by-step methodology has been developed for forecasting the development of foreign markets for agri-food products, which is a set of goals, objectives, an algorithm for conducting and an analytical product based on Microsoft Excel analysis tools, based on a set of factors impacting the trading process. In addition, a system of economic indicators for assessing the functioning of food markets and mechanisms for product access, including customs-tariff and non-tariff measures, has been substantiated. The methodology was tested based on example of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as the main trading partners of the Republic of Belarus, as well as the countries of Asia (Vietnam, Iran, China, Singapore) and Africa (Algeria, Egypt). The scientific novelty of the development lies in using a step-by-step algorithm for assessing the market situation of a particular country when making rational management decisions on the effective use of the existing potential and resources of agro-industrial complex organizations in order to enter existing and new markets (segments). These developments can be used by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus, the “Belgospischeprom” concern and other subjects of the agricultural business in preparation of analytical reviews of the country’s market environments for agricultural and food products.

Competitive agricultural input markets in Ethiopia: Theoretical promises versus reality

AbstractUsing the agency theory framework to develop conceptual frameworks, this study investigates the main challenges to and potential determinants of competitive agricultural input markets by comparing intervention and control districts. Specifically, this study examines the impact of the Agriculture One‐Stop Shop Project on the competitiveness of agricultural input markets in Ethiopia. The paper uses data collected from farmers and project stakeholders through interviews and focus group discussions and compiles recorded price and quantity sold for each agricultural input for four years. The study employs a content analysis, concentration ratio, market margin, and pooled panel regression models to analyze the set of data. The finding shows the existence of weak innovative system functions that is the mirror of unsatisfactory project outcomes in some intervention areas. Overall, the findings indicate that the project has increased competition by reducing market margins and relative prices, delivering a high quantity of high‐quality agricultural inputs, and providing new services and a range of input choices. An input market's level of competitiveness is determined by contractual arrangements, capital, background, and risk management. An agricultural input market's function system is influenced by the structural composition of the public–private partnership network, coordination, and cooperation. The one‐stop‐shop approach, operationalized through institutional arrangements, has the potential to facilitate and coordinate the functions necessary to change competitiveness in the agricultural input market. This study's panel model results show that the project has had statistically significant effects on the competitiveness of the agricultural input markets. The government should replicate this new approach throughout the country going forward.

Spatial price discrimination in a mixed duopoly input market

We uniquely examine an upstream mixed duopoly engaging in spatial price discrimination across a continuum of downstream markets. The monopoly firms in those markets face elastic final demand creating double marginalization. The upstream public firm faces a cost disadvantage relative to its private rival that declines as it is partially privatized. We show that the fully public firm improves social welfare relative to a private duopoly when it is not overly inefficient and when differentiation is sufficiently large. We also show that whenever this is the case, there exists an optimal degree of partial privatization that better aligns the trade-off between production costs and pricing distortions.

Customer Value Proposition for Precision Farming

A company's value proposition is established by the distinctive benefits and values it offers to its clients. Site-specific crop management (SSCM) and precision agriculture (PA) are farming management techniques that use technology to monitor and evaluate certain areas and crops. Between 2023 and 2030, the market for precision agriculture is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 12.6%, reaching $15.6 billion. Precision farm planning, field maps, crop scouting, yield maps, and the estimation of input quantities are driving factors in this growth, along with the Internet of Things and advanced analytics. A company's commitment to influencing the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of its target market is stated in its value proposition. The goal of the study was to address agricultural issues and increase productivity and profitability for banana farmers in the Anand and Umreth Talukas. Educate stakeholders, decision-makers, and service providers on how to support precision farming techniques. The study, conducted in Anand and Umreth Taluka, Gujarat, involved 50 banana growers with over 2 ha of land, using a descriptive design and semi-structured survey. Formulating a customer value proposition for identifying the problems faced by banana growers will help in understanding the current issues and areas of improvement within the agricultural sector. The findings of this research were contributing to the knowledge and understanding of precision farming in Anand and Umreth Talukas. Customers place a premium on product quality, the accessibility of the sales staff, and price, while farmers must deal with issues including disease, weather, nutrition, insect pests, and irrigation. Irrigation was viewed as less significant than weather and illness, which were found the major problems in the study area. Decision-making in agriculture depends heavily on weather forecasts and practices. A substantial effort was needed to improve agricultural practices because of the influence of climate change, input market accessibility, and remote farm access.

Determinants of adoption of multiple sustainable agriculture practices among mandarin producing farmers in Salyan District of Karnali Province, Nepal

Sustainable agriculture practices (SAPs) are eco-friendly farming techniques, which ensure the agricultural production and environmental protection simultaneously. The aim of this study was to identify the potential SAPs being adopted by farmers, their adoptability, and to assess the determinant factors for multiple SAPs adoption. For this, face-to-face interview with 120 mandarin producing farmers, six focus groups, and 11 key informants was conducted in Salyan District of Karnali Province, Nepal. Farms were categorized into four categories on the basis of sustainability score and required inferences on quantitative and qualitative data were made by descriptive statistics and probit regression. Results revealed that majority of the mandarin farms were categorized as fairly low and fairly high categories. Factors such as age, gender, and schooling of household head, access to the Internet, distance of market for farm inputs, and availability of human labor had significantly increased the probability of multiple SAPs adoption at varied level of significance. Farm level policies regarding dissemination of integrated nutrient and pest management tactics, subsidization on eco-friendly farm inputs via cooperatives, trainings, demonstration, and field workshops should be formulated and implemented effectively.

Digital marketing of agriculture inputs- An institutional success story

This study highlights the institutional success achieved through the digital marketing of liquid biofertilizers, produced by RARS, Anakapalle, affiliated with Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India, using the Amazon e-marketing platform. The strategic choice of Amazon was driven by its positive reputation, extensive customer reach, and efficient product delivery system. Five biofertilizer variants were made available through dedicated Amazon seller links, catering to farmers, NGOs, research stations, and extension centers. Customer feedback emphasized the time-saving aspect, year-round availability, convenience of purchase, prompt delivery, affordability, high-quality packaging, and inclusion of scientific information. These results underline the need for widespread promotion of online marketing channels, as they offer significant benefits such as time efficiency, 24/7 availability, home delivery, diverse product choices, and cost-effectiveness. Overall, digital marketing of agriculture inputs emerges as a highly valuable and useful approach for farmers, enhancing their access to essential resources.

An Analysis of Agricultural and Horticultural Marketing in Jharkhand

Agriculture marketing system in developing countries including India can be understood to arrange of two most important sub–systems such as product marketing and input marketing. Jharkhand is one of the most important producers of vegetable in India. About 3.2% of the gross cropped area of the state is under vegetable crops. The most important vegetable crops grown in the state in order of area covered by them are potato, tomato, lady finger, peas, cauliflower, brinjal and cabbage. The purpose of the study the paper to study of the present situations of the agricultural and horticultural marketing in Jharkhand and the agriculture and horticulture marketing channels in Jharkhand.

Farmers Producer Organization (FPO): How it is changing farming scenario

Farmer producer organization (FPOs) is egalitarian farming association that is registered as an institution under various legal act like Company Act, Co-operative Society Act, Trust act etc. The aggregation of marginal, small and landless farmers as FPOs has helped increase market linkages to improve farmers’ income and economic strength. It provides end-to-end services and support to the small farmers and covers marketing, technical services, processing, marketing and other aspects of cultivation inputs. The aim of the FPOs is to increase the income for the producers through an organisation of their own. As farmers confront a variety of difficulties such as limited access to land and water, impassable roads, a lack of adequate financial services, the adoption of new technology and chain of intermediaries in agricultural marketing often works non-transparently, leading to a situation where the producer receives only a small portion of the value that the ultimate consumer pays. The FPOs will help to eliminate the chain of intermediaries in agricultural marketing.

Low-Quality Seeds, Labor Supply and Economic Returns: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Abstract Low productivity in agriculture is a major cause of poverty and food insecurity in Africa. One explanation for low productivity is the widespread presence of low-quality inputs on local markets (“lemon technologies”), which causes uncertainty among farmers and erodes incentives for adoption. We report the results from a field experiment in Tanzania to study the impact of improved maize seeds in a context where we exogenously vary seed quality and uncertainty about seed type. The analysis is at the level of experimental plots owned and managed by farmers (not the entire farm). While improved seed positively affects harvests and reduces the probability of crop failure among fully-informed farmers, these benefits are attenuated significantly when farmers are uncertain about the seed type they receive. The main channel linking uncertainty to lower harvest levels is the re-allocation of labor—a complementary input. The presence of lemon inputs on the market for modern inputs impedes learning about the profitability of these inputs and increases the yield gap by slowing down adoption in subsequent periods.

Monopsony Power and Coordination in the Broiler Industry

The production of broilers is a well-known example of integration of food processors with growers. Tournament contracts are the norm in the industry, where processors provide chicks, feed, and veterinary supplies to the growers. The industry has come under antitrust scrutiny on several cases where processors have allegedly colluded to exercise market power both in the input and in the output markets and unilaterally exercised monopsony power. This article discusses the possible role that the integration model of contracting with growers may have on the monopsony power and collusion in the input market. In the case of confirmed collusion at the input market, damage compensation may be due. We present formulae that may be used to calculate damages in a buyer cartel.

Does empowerment influence women’s willingness to pay for integrated pest management practices? A case study of mango growers in Zambia

Mango is an important fruit crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Zambia, due to its nutritional value and contribution to food security. However, the invasive and mango-infesting fruit fly is a significant constraint in mango production. Therefore, icipe and partners developed and disseminated the integrated pest management package to curb this menace. The current study uses household-level data from 325 smallholder mango-growing households from selected regions in Zambia to evaluate how empowerment affects women's willingness to pay (WTP) for an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) package for the suppression of mango-infesting fruit flies. We used a double-bounded contingent valuation model to determine the association between Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), other social-economics factors, and WTP. The results show that women’s empowerment status positively and significantly increased the likelihood of considering a higher bid for the IPM package. Other factors affecting women’s WTP for the IPM package were women's education level, access to extension services, non-farm occupation, and household income from mangoes, with a positive and significant influence on their WTP. However, distance to the input market, perception of the effectiveness of current fruit fly management methods, and level of mango loss due to fruit flies negatively influenced WTP for the IPM package. Empowering women, especially increasing their access to extension services, and providing livelihood alternatives would increase their uptake of pest management technologies. Efforts to lower women’s domestic workloads, boost their finances, and sensitize others in the community to promote women’s freedom of movement would be vital to empowering women hence increasing their uptake of new agricultural innovations.

Road expansion, allocative efficiency, and pro-competitive effect of transport infrastructure: Evidence from China

This paper exploits the rapid expansion of China’s road infrastructure in the 2000s to empirically investigate the pro-competitive effect of transport infrastructure via the allocative efficiency channel. Dispersion of firm markups is used to gauge allocative efficiency of resources. We address the endogenous provincial road length by instrumenting road using a least-cost path route, and deal with the endogenous timing of road construction by using a network theory algorithm to predict road construction time. Our results show the mass construction of new road infrastructure, by lowering domestic trade costs, can significantly reduce markup dispersion of industries with high reliance on transportation. The baseline estimation indicates that the road expansion in China during 1998–2007 has induced at least 28.8% reduction in markup dispersion. Further analysis by disentangling price and marginal cost indicates that the reduced markup dispersion is primarily caused by the price drop of high-markup firms in the product market instead of cost reduction in the input market. This finding validates the presence of pro-competitive effect of road infrastructure. The heterogeneous analyses show several scenarios in which market competition is strengthened and the pro-competitive effect is more clearly manifested.

Regulating coopetition in an EV charging market

This paper explores the coopetitive relationship between a private firm and a utility when the utility simultaneously competes with the firm in the output (EV charging-station) market and potentially cooperates in the input (electricity) market through its choice of a mark-up rate on the price of electricity supplied to the firm’s charging stations. In the absence of regulation, we find the utility chooses to self-regulate itself (i.e., cooperate with the firm) in the input market in order to continue earning revenue from the sale of electricity to the firm’s charging stations. We uncover the condition under which the utility chooses not to decrease its mark-up rate in response to an increase in market demand for EV charging. We similarly uncover the condition under which a regulator chooses a lower mark-up rate than the utility. Numerical analysis illustrates these findings. • Theoretical framework explores coopetition in an EV charging market between a private firm and utility. • In absence of regulation, utility self-regulates the wholesale mark-up rate it charges for electricity. • Conditions are derived under which a regulator chooses to lower utility’s mark-up rate. • Numerical analysis illustrates these findings for different types of market demand.

Estimation of feed costs and feed efficiency in typical dairy Farms of Bangladeshduring Coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency: implications toward feed support policy

Feed cost is the highest cost item to the total costs of dairy farming all over the world including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Reducing feed costs and increasing feed efficiency-are two promising ways to decrease the cost of milk production and increase the competitiveness nationally and internationally(Hemme et al. 2014). Feed price in Bangladesh dairy farm is 51%higher than global feed price which has increased further due to the sudden infection of Coronavirus (Covid-19) (IDRN, 2020).Therefore, the objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of pandemic novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) prevalence on feed costs and feed efficiency in order to find a suitable feed supporting policy to the dairy farmers. The International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) Feed Simulation Approach and Technology Impact Policy Impact Calculations (TIPICAL) model was used for estimating feed costs and feed efficiency of the dairy farm with and without Corona situation (This model is highly relevant to this study due to the fact that this model can produce result seven with the scarcity of the data and it is highly scientific and produce the results that are simultaneously used both Academia(University and Research organization) and Industry (for business strategic decisions). The Integrated Dairy Research Network (IDRN) dairy sector and dairy farm database (January2019 to March 2020) was used where 2019 is considered as without Corona (WOC) and March 2020 is considered as with Corona(WC). Two typical farms:2cow farm (BD-2) which is representative of 42% household farm (Household Farm (HF) is defined as one the income source for livelihoods, mainly consumed at household level and sells the surplus milk. The average size of the household farm (1-3 cows/farm) as per the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) methodology) and fourteen cow (BD-14) which is representative of 48% family farms in Bangladesh were selected. The share of feed cost to the total costs of milk production is increased by 9.5% and 8.9% for BD-2/19-WC and BD-14/20-WC,respectively. The purchased feed costs before corona was 22.1USD/100 kg milk for BD-2/19-WOC and 32.2 USD/100 kg milk forBD-14/19-WOC which is increased to 23.8 USD/100 kg and 35.0USD/100 kg for BD-2/20-WC and BD-14/20-WC, respectively(Author’s own results). The purchased feed costs increased by7.6% and 8.7% for BD-2/20-WC and BD-14/20-WC, respectively while for the homegrown feed, it is increased even higher which is 14.1% and 9.7%, respectively. The results revealed that decreasing milk price and increasing feed price has direct impact on increasing feed costs of 8.6% and decreasing margin over compound feed costs by 4.5% due to Coronavirus. As a result, an increase in feed cost, decrease in the margin over total feed cost and the feed efficiency (total, energy, and protein efficiency)was observed due to coronavirus (Covid-19) infection. The finding of this study revealed that for short-term and medium-term, farmers might need feed incentives either in the form of reduced feed price or liberalized concentrate feed input market. The outcome of this study is expected to be beneficial for policymakers, feed suppliers and farmers in Bangladesh and similar other countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Disequilibrium propagation of quantity constraints: application to the COVID lockdowns

AbstractThis paper develops a network economy model to study the propagation of the COVID lockdown shock. Firms are related to each other through buyer–seller relations in the market for intermediate inputs. Firms choose production levels and input combinations using prices that emerge from local interactions. Nothing forbids trade at out-of-equilibrium prices. In such a setting, disequilibrium spills over from one market to another due to the interconnections between markets. These disequilibrium dynamics are capable of generating unemployment when workers released by contracting firms are not frictionlessly absorbed by expanding firms. We calibrate the model to the US economy using a data set with more than 200,000 buyer–seller relations between about 70,000 firms. Computational experiments on the calibrated economy suggest that the COVID lockdown generates a sizeable decline in GDP. The endogenously generated unemployment dynamics is a primary determinant of the cost of the lockdown.

Key Driver of Repurchase Intention in the Poultry Farming Input Market in Indonesia

Regulatory changes increase the competitiveness of agribusiness input market, thus requiring input supply companies to improve service quality to maintain customer loyalty. This study aims to determine the role of customer comfort, salesperson expertise, and salesperson affection to influence customer satisfaction and delight and the effects on repurchase intention in poultry agribusiness context. Respondents were selected through judgmental sampling method who were the farmers who buy certain brand of poultry input for farm production process. Data were collected through survey using self-reported of questionnaire. The data obtained were tested for validity and reliability and examined by path analysis with Partial Least Square software. The results showed that customer comfort and customer affection influenced customer satisfaction and customer delight. However, salesperson expertise did not influence customer satisfaction and delight. Furthermore, repurchase intention in poultry farming input market was affected by customer satisfaction but not by customer delight. Therefore, it can be concluded that salesperson affection was found as the most important factor and followed by customer comfort to influence repurchase intention behavior through customer satisfaction.