Cooperative Marketing Research Articles

Business to Business Marketing in Bhutan: A Case Study from Balam Gewog under Mongar Dzongkhag

The Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Programme (CARLEP) and the Regional Agricultural and Marketing Cooperative (RAMCO) piloted the business to business (B2B) marketing model in 2018 to address smallholder farmers’ marketing issues in Eastern Bhutan. As the B2B pilot model is currently not functional, it is vital to understand the B2B model’s challenges to successfully replicate the interventions in other communities. The lack of follow-up studies on the B2B marketing model motivated the authors to investigate the model’s challenges for implementation in the country. This case study was based on six vegetable groups in Balam Gewog, Mongar, Bhutan. Primary data were collected through focus group discussions with six vegetable groups and in-depth interviews with key informants. Secondary data were collected from Gewog, CARLEP, and RAMCO. The results showed that the B2B marketing model adopted in Balam Gewog was a primary B2B marketing model – a linkage only for selling produce. Four critical issues with the B2B marketing model adopted in Balam Gewog were noted: (1) mismatch between vegetable production and collection schedule, (2) lack of quantity and quality specification of vegetables in the contract between vegetable farmers’ groups and the buyer, (3) inadequate support services, and (4) lack of monitoring by facilitating organisations after contract signing between vegetable farmers’ groups and the buyer. Accordingly, we recommend adjusting the collection schedule as per the production season, specifying contract clauses like quantity and quality of produce, improving support services, and monitoring business by relevant authorities.

A Contrastive Study on Travel Costs of Car-Sharing and Taxis Based on GPS Trajectory Data.

The emergence and development of car-sharing has not only satisfied people’s diverse travel needs, but also brought new solutions for improving urban traffic conditions and achieving low-carbon and green sustainable development. In recent years, car-sharing has had competition with other ways of getting around, as the acceptance of car-sharing has grown, notably taxis. Therefore, it is particularly important to explore car-sharing travel costs advantages from the perspective of consumers and discover the competitive and complementary spaces between car-sharing and other modes. Therefore, taking Beijing as an example, this paper uses GPS trajectory data based on car-sharing orders to design a travel cost framework of car-sharing and taxis. We calculate and compare the travel cost difference between these two modes under different travel characteristics. The results indicate that car-sharing is a more economical way for consumers to travel for short or medium lengths of time, while people are more inclined to take taxis for distances of long duration. Compared with on workdays, at the weekend, the cost advantage of car-sharing is greater for long-distance trips. Moreover, the cost advantage of car-sharing increases gradually with the increase in travel distance. In addition, the travel costs of car-sharing and taxis are also affected by peak and off-peak traffic periods. Compared with off-peak periods, it is more cost-effective for travelers to take taxis during peak traffic periods for various travel distances. From the perspective of the travel cost, it is of great theoretical significance to discuss the substitution (market competition) and complementary relationship (market cooperation) between car-sharing and taxis in a detailed and systematic way. It provides methods and ideas for the comparative cost calculation of car-sharing and other travel modes. This paper also provides enlightenment and guidance for the development of car-sharing. Enterprises should implement differentiated pricing, designing different charging methods for different traffic periods, travel miles, and rental times, and set up additional stations in the surrounding areas of the city. Relevant government departments should also strictly manage the market access of car-sharing, and add or open car-sharing parking lots in centralized areas and for specific periods.

Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica: Comparing Open and Restricted Markets at Tlaxcallan, Mexico, and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, “restricted markets” formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and “open markets,” where buyers and sellers from across social sectors and diverse communities could engage in exchange as economic equals within marketplaces. In this article, we compare market development at the Late Postclassic sites of Chetumal, Belize, and Tlaxcallan, Mexico. We identified a restricted market at Chetumal, using the distribution of exotic goods, particularly militarily and ritually charged obsidian projectile points; in contrast, an open market was built at Tlaxcallan. Collective action theory provides a useful framework to understand these differences in market development. We argue that Tlaxcaltecan political architects adopted more collective strategies, in which open markets figured, to encourage cooperation among an ethnically diverse population.

KOPERASI PASAR SEBAGAI SARANA MEMINIMALISIR “CANDU” TERHADAP BANK TITHIL

loan shark services being commonly seen in traditional markets. The offer of loan shark financial services in the form of easy loans has made many traders easily tempted to take express loans without thinking about the impact. This impact starts from high loan interest, which causes the borrower to have difficulty repaying loan funds. The purpose of this study is to find out more about the formation of cooperatives and the strategy of managing market cooperatives in reducing dependence on traders in traditional markets using loan shark services. The research approach uses qualitative narrative by describing the history of the formation of market cooperatives to the cooperative manager's strategy in attracting traders who for years have used loan shark services to cover all funding needs. The results showed that the formation of a market cooperative was due to the demands of the Probolinggo district government where every market was required to have a cooperative. With courage, honesty and strong determination, cooperative managers believe they can develop cooperatives to eliminate moneylender transactions among traders. Meanwhile, the strategy used is in the form of a familial approach with trust capital among the Bayeman Market traders who are members of the market association organization. Research suggestions for the Probolinggo Regency government through the information on the results of this study can provide real support for policies to develop market cooperatives such as those that have been formed according to the initial commitment.Keywords: : market cooperatives; minimize bank tithil

Implementation of the cooperative marketing paradigm in the farming activity

The globalisation of Ukrainian economy, the distribution of land resources, the diversity of commodity producers and the radical breakdown of property relations have significantly affected the agricultural sector and production volumes. The development of farming in such conditions is accompanied by a set of financial, economic, material, technical, and social problems. This implies the need to introduce a qualitatively new conceptual paradigm of its development. The purpose of the study is to prove the relevance and feasibility of the application of the cooperative marketing paradigm complementary with marketing tools in the in the context off meeting the business interests of farmers. The objectives of the study are: identification of the main directions and trends in the development of farm business; implementation of the service cooperation concept in their activities in combination with marketing tools as well as the substantiation of the prospects of using cooperative marketing for farmers. In the course of the study, the following methods were used: abstract-logical and statisticaleconomic, analysis and synthesis. The undeniably important role of farms in agricultural production has been identified. It is emphasised that they have a number of competitive advantages, however, currently, they cannot fully use their own potential. Instead, the agricultural service cooperatives will contribute to the establishment of long-term and effective coordinated interaction in the rural society. The application of the radically new management approaches is proposed, the basis of which is the cooperative ideas with the marketing tools. The methodological understanding of the use of cooperative marketing in rural areas is presented and its prospects are proved. It is argued that the concept of cooperative marketing implementation to the agricultural business environment will contribute not only to the emergence of economically strong, competitive business units and the establishment of the favourable business climate, but an increase in the welfare of the rural population

Access Economy for Storage in Energy Communities

We address the market design issue for a local energy community, comprising prosumers, consumers, photovoltaic, and energy storage systems, all connected as a community to a distribution grid. Our work explores different market design options based on cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic models that enable an economic access to the benefits of energy storage for prosumers without a direct ownership of a storage system. We compare market outcomes in terms of the community cost as well as the individual cost. We pay special attention to potential uncertainties, and investigate financial instruments that allow storage systems to be utilized by multiple prosumers. In particular, we explore a case where a prosumer that owns a storage system provides rights, either physical or financial, rather than participating in the local market as an arbitrageur. Moreover, we consider a cooperative market design where energy community members agree on the Shapley value or the nucleolus as a community cost allocation rule. Our results show that an access economy for energy storage systems enhances energy communities by reducing the cost volatility for most prosumers, while the expected operational cost of the community as a whole remains unchanged.

Effect of agribusiness support services on choice of dairy cooperative market channel in Kenya

Kenya is witnessing an immense increase in number of smallholder dairy agripreneurs sourcing income from the dairy sub-sector. Smallholder dairy agripreneurs who dominate the production sector are forced to sell milk to informal buyers such as middlemen/women, who exploit them by paying less than the market price. As a result of this, the Kenyan Government has made significant efforts to upgrade dairy cooperatives to link the dairy agripreneurs with consumers. In spite of this, milk marketing is still dominated by traditional informal outlets. This study sought to determine the effect of provision of agribusiness support services on choice of dairy cooperative market channel. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of 682 respondents from Muranga County in Kenya, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results revealed that provision of business plan training, group marketing, pregnancy diagnosis and deworming support services had significant and positive effects on the choice of cooperative market channel. In contrast, access to vaccination services and supply of feeds had negative effectson the choice of cooperative market channel. This study recommends strong coordination among the agribusiness support service providers and the dairy cooperatives in order to increase adoption of the cooperative marketing channel. In addition, dairy cooperatives need to redesign their business models to ensure that their members not only receive agribusiness support services, but also get better prices and prompt payments to increase supply of milk to cooperatives by dairy agripreneurs.

Reflections on New Trends in the Oil Market and China-Saudi Arabia Energy Cooperation

President Xi Jinping defined energy cooperation as the ‘core of cooperation’ between China and Arab states, as he addressed the opening ceremony of China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) Ministerial Meeting in 2014. 1 China and Saudi Arabia, respectively the world’s most important oil importer and exporter, recognise the pivotal status of energy cooperation in bilateral ties. In 2018, Saudi Arabia exported 61.2 million ton of oil (crude oil and oil products) to China, representing the second largest source of supply of China and 11.2% of China’s total oil imports, while China represented the largest oil export market, absorbing 14.4% of Saudi oil export of 2018. The bilateral investment has also started. Saudi Arabia has already constructed and is planning to construct five major petrochemical projects while China and Saudi Arabia have jointly constructed a refinery in Saudi Arabia. New trends are occurring in the global oil market. On the one hand, a tendency of long-term over-supply and low prices has emerged; on the other hand, the competition of oil supply is shifting to Asia. However, these market changes would not weaken China-Saudi energy cooperation. On the contrary, they give more reasons for both sides to strengthen cooperation, so as to address common challenges, especially to promote peace and stability of the Middle East, rationalisation of oil prices, diversification of oil trade denominated currencies, mutual investment in energy field and joint development of renewables. These trends have also indicated the direction for bilateral cooperation to address the challenges. It would be advisable for both countries to open up new prospects in energy cooperation based on the new concept of a community of energy security.

An Economic Analysis of Marketing of Eggs in Anand District of Gujarat

The present investigation was undertaken to study patterns and practices of marketing, price spread, and constraints faced by egg growers in Anand District of Gujarat. The data were the principal and dominant Channel of marketing for egg. The Producer's share in consumer's price was the highest in Channel-III (85.29 percent) followed by Channel-II (78.00 percent), Channel-I (76.63 percent). Marketing efficiency was highest in Channel-III (5.80) as compared to Channel-I (3.28) and Channel-II (3.55). The most crucial marketing constraints of selected poultry farmers were high price fluctuation, the low wholesale price of an egg, lack of grading, and lack of co-operative market facilities. An effective co-operative system can be introduced in the marketing of eggs, which would increase the Producer's share in collected from 80 poultry farms during 2018-19. The three marketing channels were identified in the movement of eggs The total number of marketed eggs was about 73 crore. Out of total marketed eggs, 90.18, 9.26 and . 0.56 percent of eggs were marketed through Channel-I, II, and III, respectively. Thus, producers to distant wholesalers to retailers to consumers were the consumer's price.

Why farmers hesitate to join agricultural marketing co-operative societies? Evidence from Indian farmers

The biggest problem for Indian farmers, which is the root cause of every other problem, is middlemen. Middlemen pay very less amount to farmers for their produce and sell it to customers for a high price. Agricultural marketing cooperative societies, which allow a group of farmers to join together and perform all the activities concerned with moving the produce from the producers to the consumers, are the ultimate tool to uplift farmers. Indian farmers hesitate to join Agricultural marketing cooperative societies despite they prefer to be exploited by the middlemen. This research work is therefore aims to find out the roots for this kind of thinking so that the policy makers/government can know exactly what is needed in order to make agricultural marketing cooperatives popular and successful among farmers, so that the conditions of farmers can be improved. In this research work with the help of multistage sampling technique Bidaraka village, from Iglas tehsil of Aligarh district, Uttar Pradesh has been selected and the data has been collected from 311 farmers in that village. This sample size was determined using appropriate formula. Furthermore, with the help of focused interview technique this study identify six variables which influence farmer’s decision to join/form agricultural marketing cooperative societies and with the help of multi linear regression model the study analysed these variables in order to find out the extent to which these identified variables are the predictors of the farmers’ willingness to join /form agricultural marketing cooperatives. Findings indicate that general and procedural knowledge, cooperation and coordination and willingness to try something new are the major factors that influence farmers’ willingness to join/form agricultural Marketing cooperatives followed by family influence, benefits in being a member and freedom in being a member.

Union negotiations, product market cooperation, and profits

AbstractWithin the context of a unionized duopoly with decentralized Right‐to‐Manage wage negotiations, this paper investigates how different measures of product market cooperation impact firms' profitability. In the presence of exogenous production costs, a classical result in industrial economics is that conjectural derivatives (CD) and conjectural elasticities (CE) lead to similar results, and CE reproduce exactly the same output decision level (and, therefore, profits) of the coefficient of cooperation (CC). These results show that wage bargaining alters those relations; in particular, the equivalence of the CE and CC no longer holds true.

The Mobilization of Noncooperative Spaces: Reflections from Rohingya Refugee Camps

AbstractIn this essay, I challenge key assumptions in the mainstream entrepreneurship literature that individuals have the capability to change their fate through entrepreneurial activities wherever in the world they may be. I advance the concept of a coordinated and regulative cooperative market to argue that the rebalancing of power between marginalized actors such as refugees and ordinary locals, and powerful agents of what I term the ‘uncooperative sociostructure’ is essential in order to improve the wellbeing of refugees. Without a cooperative sociostructural intervention, capitalistic market mechanisms such as bottom of the pyramid (BoP) and microfinance as means to individual freedom simply imprison refugees further.

Review on Constraints, Opportunities Traditional Coping Mechanism of Milk Marketing Participation in Ethiopia

The major species used for milk production in Ethiopia are cattle, camel and cows which produce 83% of the total milk and 97 % of the cow milk comes from indigenous cattle breeds. The key development issues in dairy are low average milk productivity complicated by widespread food insecurity, growing gap between supply and demand in urban areas. Federal Cooperatives Commission of Ethiopia was created to organize and promote cooperatives at the national level and it ambitious five year development plan (2005-2010) to increasing the share of the cooperative input marketing and increasing the share in cooperative output marketing. Small-scale milk producers face many hidden costs that make it difficult for them to gain access to markets and productive assets. The relatively high marketing costs for milk in Ethiopia, the scattered nature milk markets and the risk attached to marketing of perishables in the tropics suggest that transaction costs play a central role in dairy production and marketing. Transaction costs are also the embodiment barriers to market participation by resource-poor small-holders. Milk groups allows them to share information, encourage one another in the business, build trust with the producers, reduce the transaction costs of monitoring, and can easily be reached by the regulators. They sometimes share contracts with sellers and buyers when there is more demand or supply. DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/69-01 Publication date: July 31 st 2020

ANALISIS PENGHAPUSAN HUTANG ATAS PEMBIAYAAN SYARIAH DI KOPERASI SIMPAN PINJAM PEMBIAYAAN SYARIAH (KSPPS) BMT AL-FALAH BERKAH SEJAHTERA CIREBON

Capital is the first element in supporting business improvement. For micro small businesses (SMEs), limited capital is the main obstacle. The ease of getting capital from financial institutions is the desire of SMEs. SMEs need a source of financing that is easy, fast, cheap and flexible. BMT as a microfinance institution is demanded to provide optimal services. Not all cooperative members who get financing or loans can return it according to the agreement. The factors that cause cooperative members to get funding cannot repay their debts because members' knowledge and skills in managing the business are very lacking and still using traditional patterns of not using modern business management, then also members do not really understand about the conditions Macroeconomics which tends to experience sluggishness which has an impact on the weakening of the economic sector, especially the low purchasing power of the people. The factors mentioned above are one of the reasons why there is a delay in returning its obligations to cooperatives and even to the point of congestion. Then other causes delays and even congestion in returning members to finance is the weakness of assistance provided by cooperative marketing employees who are not intensive in assisting financing members, so members who are supposed to pay when the payment date arrives because they are not reminded later the funds are used for other purposes. These two factors are the reason for the high problematic financing occurring in Islamic cooperative institutions such as BMT BMT as a cooperative institution whose contracts are based on Islamic sharia certainly does not take shortcuts to settle problem financing for its members. The process of solving problematic financing is certainly based on DSN norms and fatwas that are referred to, so BMT puts forward the best deliberation process to resolve the debts of its members. it is pursued by identifying any problematic financing of its members, among others, for members who are mentored by members of the marketing force members who are truly bankrupt in their business caused by factors lacking knowledge about the business there is a debt relief process and for members indicated there is intentional due to character factors which is not good, then there is a process to solve it by extending the payment period until selling the guarantee to repay the debt. Keywords: Write Off; Debt, Financing; Sharia; Fiqh Muamalah Civil Code ABSTRAK Modal merupakan unsur pertama dalam mendukung peningkatan usaha. Bagi usaha kecil mikro (UKM) keterbatasan modal sebagai kendala utama. Kemudahan mendapatkan modal dari lembaga keuangan menjadi dambaan UKM. UKM membutuhkan sumber pembiayaan yang mudah, cepat, murah dan fleksibel. BMT sebagai lembaga keuangan mikro dituntut memberikan pelayanan yang optimal. Tidak semua anggota koperasi yang mendapatkan pembiayaan atau pinjaman dapat mengembalikannya sesuai dengan perjanjian. Faktor-faktor yang menjadi sebab anggota-anggota koperasi yang mendapatkan pembiayaan tidak dapat mengembalikan hutangnya dikarenakan pengetahuan dan kecakapan anggota dalam mengelola usaha sangat kurang dan masih menggunakan pola-pola tradisonal tidak mengunakan manajemen pengelolaan usaha yang modern, kemudian juga anggota tidak memahami betul tentang kondisi ekonomi makro yang cenderung sedang mengalami kelesuan yang berdampak pada melemahanya sektor ekonomi terutama daya beli masyarakat yang rendah. Faktor-faktor tersebut diatas tadi yang menjadi salah satu sebab kenapa terjadi keterlambatan dalam mengembalikan kewajibannya kepada koperasi dan bahkan sampai terjadi kemacetan. Kemudian penyebab lain terjadinya keterlambatan dan bahkan kemacetan anggota untuk mengembalikan pembiayaanya adalah pada kelemahan pendampingan yang dilakukan oleh karyawan bagian pemasaran koperasi yang tidak intensif mendampingi anggota pembiayaan, sehingga anggota yang seharusnya bayar pada saat tanggal pembayarannya tiba karena tidak diingatkan kemudian dananya tersebut dipakai untuk keperluan lainnya. Dua faktor inilah yang mejadi sebab tingginya pembiayaan bermasalah terjadi di lembaga koperasi syariah seperti BMT. BMT sebagai lembaga koperasi yang akad-akadnya berdasarkan syariah Islam tentunya tidak mengambil jalan pintas untuk menyelesaikan pembiayaan bermasalah pada anggotanya.Proses penyelesaian pembiayaan bermasalah tentunya didasarkan pada norma dan fatwa DSN yang menjadi rujukannya, sehingga BMT mengedepankan proses musyawarah terbaik untuk menyelesaikan hutang anggotanya. Proses itu ditempuh dengan cara mengidentifikasi setiap pembiayaan bermasalah anggotanya diantaranya bagi anggota yang dari hasil pendampingan tenaga pemasaran terindikasi anggota yang benar-benar pailit usahanya yang disebabkan oleh faktor-faktor kekurangan pengetahuan tentang usaha ada proses penghapusan hutang dan bagi anggota yang terindikasi ada kesengajaan karena factor karakter yang tidak baik maka ada proses untuk menyelesaikannya dengan memperpanjang masa pembayarannya sampai dengan menjualkan jaminannya utk melunasi hutangnya. Kata Kunci: Penghapusan Hutang ; Pembiayaan Syariah ; Fiqh Muamalah ; Perdata

The effects of chairmen's social network heterogeneity on cooperative marketing innovation: evidence from Sichuan province in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper, based on first-hand data from 255 chairmen of planting cooperatives in Sichuan province, is threefold: to understand their social network heterogeneity; to understand the significance for members of marketing innovation in farmers' cooperatives and to understand the effects of chairmen's social network heterogeneity on cooperative marketing innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe research employs an empirical survey of the chairmen of planting cooperatives in rural Sichuan province. The researchers use the ordinary least squares method to conduct regression on the data and the generalized linear model to process the data and avoid errors in the model setting. In the study, the following two hypotheses are examined: (1) The heterogeneity of chairmen's social networks has positive effects on cooperative marketing innovation; (2) The effects of heterogeneous external and internal social networks on cooperative marketing innovation are different.FindingsThe results show that both external and internal social network heterogeneity has positive effects on cooperative marketing innovation, and the effects of internal heterogeneity are greater than that of external heterogeneity.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to improving the income of farmers, the innovation of farmers' cooperatives and the development of agriculture in China. It provides a new way of managing and serving members to enable the long-term sustainable development of farmers' cooperatives.

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI MOTIVASI KERJA KARYAWAN KOPERASI PASAR KUMBASARI BADUNG

This study aims to determine the factors that influence employee motivation. The research was conducted at Kumbasari Badung Market Cooperative with a sample study of 122 people. The data analysis technique used is the analysis of the factors that are operated through Statistical Program Social Scence (SPSS) for windows 24.0. The results showed that there are two factors that influence employee motivation in the Kumbasari Badung Market Cooperatives, the Internal Motivation Factors and External Motivation Factors

Assessing the Value of Cooperative Membership: A Case of Dairy Marketing in the United States

The existence of cooperative organizations in today’s business environment, particularly in agriculture, signals their continued ability to provide value to their member owners. However, due largely to data limitations, we know very little about the monetary value of cooperative ownership held by members and how that value may change across members of differing characteristics. Through a discrete choice experiment with more than 200 dairy farmers in the United States we examine this issue explicitly for dairy marketing cooperatives that purchase their members’ milk and process it into finished dairy products. Results suggest that dairy farmers, on aggregate, are willing to accept lower per hundredweight compensation, 2.3% of the average milk price, to be cooperative members relative to selling to independent handlers. Estimated partworth utilities also suggest dairy farmers actively consider the industry wide impacts within pricing offers on preferences for other milk pricing attributes. Finally, the inclusion of demographic covariates in our modeling highlights trends important to understanding heterogeneous member interests across U.S. dairy farmers and informing improved cooperative governance strategies and decision making to address them.

Equilibrium and the Adjustment Process in the Number and Scope of Co-operatives in Morocco

The paper discusses the government policy that encourages the emergence of co-operatives and analyzes the co-operatives in light of their growth in number. It establishes a static equilibrium and highlights the co-operatives’ adjustment process (dynamic equilibrium).The methodology/approach consists of the development of a theoretical model, using the Nash equilibrium for the co-operative market, and the determination of a static equilibrium. It presents the data which includes variable measurements for the adjustment process for agricultural, artisanal, and fishery co-operatives in order to analyze the stochastic process of entry-and-exit flow of co-operatives. Accordingly, the paper estimates the co-operatives’ growth index speed of adjustment (SOA) as a function of the mean-reversion Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process.The theoretical results indicate that co-operatives’ earnings depend on the number of co-operatives, market-demand, and the capacity constraint. They also show that the margin for new entrants is a dynamic gap that especially depends on demand, capacity constraint and the profits. The empirical results indicate that co-operatives growth-index process is significantly mean reverting for all sectors, and the speed of adjustment for artisanal co-operatives is significantly higher than for those in agriculture and the fisheries.

How important is alignment of social media use and R&D–Marketing cooperation for innovation success?

Efforts to use social media as a network tool for open innovations have not met expectations, or utilized its potential adequately. Recent research on identifying firms’ social media skill has not addressed the complex underlying mechanisms and calibration of social media capabilities. We explore how, why, and which resources an organization should integrate. Social media in NPD should be accompanied by carefully aligned R&D – marketing cooperation. Alignment results in efficient knowledge integration, but dis-alignment fails to tap enough ideas, or can lack information processing capacity. The alignment and disalignment hypotheses are tested using survey data of a sample of 101 innovative SMEs. In a second, configurational study we extend findings from Study 1 to determine micro level social media capabilities required. Results show that social media can be used for both radical and incremental innovation, but are more useful for service than for product innovation.

The Global Value Chains and the Evolution of Chinese Economic Model

According to the Word Bank in the first 38 years of China Economic Reform took 700 million people out poverty line in China at same time benefiting the Global South economy due to the integration of the Transnational Enterprises Global Value Chains with China. Chinese government understood the economic rational of Global Value Chains, Flying Geese Model and Foreign Direct Investment Theories and introduced policies to attract foreign capital, technology, production, and foreign buyers, placing China as the final stage of the production networks in Asia and also transforming China in the biggest buying market of many resources and energy suppliers from less developed countries in Asia, Africa and South America. But a new model of Chinese economic development even more interconnected and interdependent with the world is now on move. Even quite before the world acknowledge the protectionist mindset of the US in Trump era, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013 a very ambitious initiative under the name of “One Road One Belt the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” to enhance a new stage of world globalization, which together with two complimentary initiatives the “International Production Cooperation” and “Third-country Market Cooperation” and in complementarity with the “Made in China 2025” and “Internet Plus” plans will lead China to develop Global Value Chains leaded by Chinese companies and integrating countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.