Mixed Enterprises Research Articles

Integrating animals, pasture, and crops within AusFarm for modelling mixed farming

Mixed enterprise farming systems that integrate more than one production system are important in agricultural production world-wide. Understanding and improving them can be made easier by modelling them with software tools. Modelling mixed enterprise farming systems can be a complex task as the interaction between the enterprises will introduce many dependencies. There are many software tools available that can model single enterprise systems, while there are few with the ability to model the biophysical systems in mixed farming. AusFarm has been designed and used to model mixed enterprise farming systems, integrating livestock, pasture, and crop models in one software tool and allowing flexible management of the whole farm. This paper demonstrates some key techniques that have been used for building and simulating mixed enterprise Australian farm systems in AusFarm. Examples of how to structure a cropping system and a livestock system are given. Key livestock and crop management tasks are implemented using flexible management rules.

The impact of repayment obligations arising as a by‐product of input use on partial inefficiency: Evidence from Western Australian farm businesses

AbstractFarm businesses often use debt to finance the purchase inputs and meet operational costs. Selected studies have investigated the impact of debt use on farm performance as measured using technical efficiency. However, no prior studies in agriculture have considered treating the debt repayment obligation created as a by‐product of production when benchmarking farm performance. This study employs nonparametric directional distance function models to quantify the impact of debt repayment as a by‐product of input use purchased on credit on farm‐level partial inefficiency using a panel data of 54 mixed enterprise broadacre farms in Western Australia from 2002 to 2011. The study finds that omitting repayment obligations created in the production process in analysis results in underestimating partial inefficiency scores. Farm size, production diversification and rainfall zone are significant drivers of partial inefficiency. The implication of the study's findings is that failure to account for repayment obligations created in the production process may result in erroneous policy suggestions that undermine the efforts of farm businesses to minimise or avoid financial stress.

Identifying high-value tactical livestock decisions on a mixed enterprise farm in a variable environment

Context Australia is renowned for its climate variation, featuring years with drought and years with floods, which result in significant production and profit variability. Accordingly, to maximise profitability, dryland farming systems need to be dynamically managed in response to unfolding weather conditions. Aims The aim of this study is to identify and quantify optimal tactical livestock management for different weather-years. Methods This study employed a whole-farm optimisation model to analyse a representative mixed enterprise farm located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Using this model, we investigated the economic significance of five key livestock management tactics. These included timing of sheep sales, pasture-area adjustments, rotational grazing, crop grazing and sheep nutrition adjustments. Key results The results showed that, on the modelled dryland mixed-enterprise farm in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, short-term adjustments to the overall farm strategy in response to unfolding weather conditions increased expected profit by approximately 16%. Each tactic boosted profit by between A$7704 and A$53,171. However, we outline several complexities that farmers must consider when implementing tactics. Conclusions The financial gains from short-term tactical management highlighted their importance and farmers’ need to develop and apply those skills. The tactical skills promote business resilience and adaptability in the face of climate uncertainties. Implications The study highlighted the economic value of dynamic livestock management in response to climate variations, offering farmers in the Great Southern region the means to underpin profitable and sustainable farm practices.

How can the participation of private enterprises promote the high-quality development of state-owned mixed enterprises?

The participation of private capital in the mixed ownership reform of SOEs is an important measure to maintain and increase the value of state-owned assets. From the theoretical perspective of sharing economy, this paper uses Chinese data to study the impact of private enterprise participation on the high quality of state-owned mixed enterprises. This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) The participation of private enterprises can significantly improve the development quality of state-owned mixed enterprises, and this conclusion is also valid after dealing with the endogenous problem of the model. (2) The empirical results of profit-sharing heterogeneity show that when SOEs are willing to share their profits with private enterprises, private enterprises may show high vitality, which has a more obvious effect on improving the development quality of state-owned mixed enterprises. Therefore, in the process of reform, SOEs should be encouraged to transfer part of their profits to private enterprises, and at the same time, efforts should be made to create a good environment for the development of private enterprises, so that private entrepreneurs can fully stimulate their own entrepreneurial spirit.

Representing weather‐year variation in whole‐farm optimisation models: Four‐stage single‐sequence vs eight‐stage multi‐sequence

AbstractThe trade‐off between accuracy and complexity is a common issue faced in farm systems analysis. To provide insights into the importance of representing weather‐year sequence in farm modelling, two whole‐farm optimisation models are constructed and applied to a mixed enterprise farming system in a subregion of Western Australia. The frameworks are (i) four‐stage single‐sequence stochastic programming with recourse (4‐SPR) to capture weather‐year variation and management tactics tailored to each weather‐year and (ii) eight‐stage multi‐sequence stochastic programming with recourse (8‐SPR) to outline weather‐year sequences and management tactics tailored to particular weather‐year sequences. Results show that single‐year stochastic programming generates similar expected profit and strategic management as multi‐year stochastic programming. However, optimal tactical farm management is affected by the outcome of the previous year. Tactical decision‐making in response to the outcome of the preceding weather‐year increases profitability by 14%. Technology changes over the last decade, particularly the increase in computer speed and computational power, increase the ease of construction and application of the 4‐SPR and 8‐SPR frameworks. Nonetheless, choosing which framework is best to apply to a particular issue or opportunity remains a challenge.

Central Bank of Nigeria, policy incentives and utilization of developmental interventions

The paper examined development finance policy incentives of the Central Bank of Nigeria and their effect on utilization of the programmes. Using a broad-based review of policy guidelines to identify the incentives, cross-sectional data, general-to-specific modeling approach and ordinary least squares estimation to determine utilization, findings suggested that size of enterprises targeted had a positive effect on utilization, with larger enterprises having greater utilization compared to smaller enterprises. Moreover, interventions with plurality of participating financial institutions (PFIs) by licence, had lower utilization relative to those with single category PFIs. Impliedly, the expressed objective of meeting the financing needs of the relatively smaller enterprises would be best met with each intervention focusing on enterprises of specific size (intervention segmentation by enterprise size) to eliminate the possibility of crowding out of smaller by the larger enterprises in mixed enterprise size interventions; and each intervention should have a dedicated PFI or PFIs with the same type of licence, to promote specialization and ownership.

Comprehensive Benefit Evaluation and Regional Difference Research of State-owned Mixed-ownership Enterprises.

Scientific and accurate assessment of the comprehensive benefits and regional differences of state-owned mixed-owned enterprises is an important link in promoting the steady progress of mixed-ownership reform of state-owned enterprises and achieving high-quality development of the state-owned economy. Using factor analysis method and GA-BP neural network model to evaluate the comprehensive benefits of listed state-owned mixed enterprises, the results show that, first, the main factors affecting the comprehensive benefits of state-owned mixed enterprises are profitability factor, sustainability factor and solvency factor, and the effect is as follows: profitability factor>sustainability factor>solvency factor; second, factor analysis effectively improves the evaluation performance of the GA-BP neural network model. Further analysis of regional differences, it is found that the average comprehensive benefit of regional state-owned mixed enterprises is: eastern region > central region > western region. Among them, the profitability factor and solvency factor are as follows: eastern region>central region>western region, and the size of sustainability factor is: eastern region>western region>central region. Therefore, we can start from deepening the classification reform of state-owned enterprises, increasing investment in innovation, reducing financial leverage, and improving regional linkages, so as to improve the profitability, solvency and sustainability of enterprises, narrow regional differences, and achieve coordinated development between regions.

On-farm evaluation of a predictive model for Australian beef and sheep producers’ vulnerability to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease

To explore Australian sheep and beef producer vulnerability to an emergency animal disease outbreak, Bayesian Network models have been developed, with the ultimate goal of creating risk management tool for outbreak preparedness. These models were developed using multiple stakeholder elicitation including modelling experts, epidemiologists and on-farm stakeholders, including on-farm/survey data. An evaluation of the model’s predictive capacity was conducted, using independent, blinded on-farm vulnerability assessments. Nine properties were visited, four each with sheep and beef enterprises, and one mixed enterprise. There were some discrepancies between the model predictions and on-farm assessment in the beef enterprises, with greater disparity with the sheep properties. Discrepancies between the model predictions and on-farm assessments have created opportunities for examination of the data collection process for the model development, the model itself and the on-farm assessment process. Bayesian Network approaches that allow for the inclusion of both continuous and discrete variables may improve the usefulness of these models, avoiding the loss of nuanced data by the need for discretisation of continuous variables, as will the inclusion of input from on-farm stakeholders in model development. Future work includes more data collection to improve the sensitivity of the model predictions, and a deeper, systemic exploration of the factors that may impact Australian producers’ vulnerability to an emergency animal disease outbreak.

Regulatory reforms and the efficiency and productivity growth in electricity generation in OECD countries

This paper examines how the energy sector regulatory reforms undertaken in the OECD have had an impact on efficiency and productivity growth in electricity generation during 1980–2013. A stochastic production frontier model that accommodates time-invariant heterogeneity and efficiency effects is applied to the panel data for 25 OECD countries. To ensure that the efficiency scores lie in a unit interval, the efficiency effects are specified by a probit distribution function of three regulatory reforms (vertical integration, entry liberalisation and privatisation) and two control variables. The parametric equivalent of TFP Malmquist index is decomposed into efficiency, scale, and technical changes. Empirical results reveal that vertical disintegration boosts the level of efficiency in the OECD. The fully private-owned and fully public-owned enterprises that co-exist in the OECD region are more efficient than the mixed enterprises. Over the period of study, productivity has grown by 9.69% with an average annual growth rate of 0.27%. This is facilitated by an improvement in efficiency and shift in frontier due to technological innovations.

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

Farm Type and High Tunnel Management: Connections between Farm Characteristics and High Tunnel Outcomes in Indiana

High tunnels are a low-cost technology that can strengthen local and regional food systems and have been shown to help farmers extend the growing season and increase the yield and shelf life, and improve the quality of their crops. This study addresses a need for a better understanding of farmers’ experience with integrating high tunnels into their operations, to understand the human dimensions of high tunnel management. We present an analysis of survey and interview data to examine how farm characteristics affect the outcomes of growing specialty crops in high tunnels. Our findings show that farmers managing different types of farms have taken distinct approaches to integrating and managing high tunnels on their farms, with important implications for farm-level outcomes. We identify three types of farms commonly adopting high tunnels in Indiana: 1) alternative food and agriculture enterprises (AFAEs) are consumer-oriented, small-scale farms that sell their products directly to their customers in relationship-based market networks such as farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture; 2) mixed enterprise farmers have larger operations and sell into both conventional commodity markets and direct markets; and 3) side enterprise farmers operate small-scale enterprises and their primary household income comes from off-farm employment or another business. Farm type is associated with divergent levels of time and labor investment, resulting in higher capacity use of high tunnels and greater financial return for AFAE farmers who make high tunnels central to their business, compared with mixed and side enterprise farmers who invest less time and labor into their high tunnels. We explain how farm characteristics and approaches to adopting the infrastructure shape farmers’ success and high-capacity use of high tunnels.

Economic implications of the loss of glyphosate and paraquat on Australian mixed enterprise farms

CONTEXTGlyphosate and paraquat are effective, affordable non-selective herbicides widely used in Australian agriculture. However, for reasons described in this study, their use is under threat and a ban on their use is a possibility. OBJECTIVEThis study describes the farm business and farming system changes resulting from a ban on use of glyphosate and paraquat in a main mixed farming region of Australia. METHODSThe bioeconomic farm model, MIDAS, is used to represent mixed enterprise farms of Western Australia. The model incorporates the suite of management strategies and tactics farmers are likely to employ in response to loss of access to the key herbicides, glyphosate and paraquat. Scenario analyses are applied to different farm types. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSLoss of these herbicides is estimated to cause increased costs of crop production and large declines in farm profit, if the herbicide ban does not similarly apply to other major grain exporters. Farming systems shift towards sheep production and away from cropping, increasing farm greenhouse gas emissions. Farm businesses that are more crop dominant experience the greatest declines in profit. However, if a global ban on glyphosate and paraquat applies, then Australian farm businesses will be advantaged as they rely far less on glyphosate-tolerant crops. SIGNIFICANCEDespite several tactics and investments that farmers might employ to combat the loss of these herbicides, none prevents a reduction in farm profit. For all farm types considered under all management scenarios, loss of these herbicides generates sizeable declines farm profit. The likelihood of such large declines in profit however should spur the invention and development of cost-effective means of weed control.

Detection and Comparison of Self-made Rapid Membrane Testing Machine for Ultrafiltration membrane and anofiltration membranes

Pure water permeability and retention as the important performance index of ultrafiltration membrane and nanofiltration membrane is the key to determine theirs quality. In view of the lack of uniform conditions, uniform standards and mixed enterprise standards, this paper studies the self-made rapid membrane testing machine for the determination of pure water permeability and retention of ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes, and compares the data with other testing institutions.

Small-sized enterprises management in the aspect of organizational culture

This paper presents the results of research based the questionnaire by Cammeron and Quinn. The research was carried out among employees of small-sized enterprises with various business profiles. The elements that make up the profile of the organizational culture in the company (management style, strategic plans, atmosphere, remuneration system, bonding mechanisms, leadership and basic assumptions in the company) were evaluated. The analysis lead to the comparision between expected state with the current state. The result of the current state is characterized by the dominant profile of organizational culture in the company, while the result of the expected state provides information on the preferences and expectations of employees in relation to the dominant profile of organizational culture desired in the company. It was faund that the present state in the small-sized manufacturing, service, trade and mixed enterprises is characterized with profile of market culture with elements of hierarchy organizational culture, while the expected state is characterized with profile of clan culture with elements of adhocracy, market and hierarchy organizational culture.

Industry and Geopolitics in the Early U.S. Empire

The imperial turn in the study of the nineteenth century has made an endangered species of scholars that deny the existence of U.S. empire. But with the closure of the old “was the United States in the nineteenth century an empire” debate has come a host of new questions and research avenues. One such line of scholarship seeks to better understand and unpack the U.S. empire’s constitutive parts, geopolitical logic, and political economy. Enter Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, whose Manufacturing Advantage persuasively argues that the stunning growth of the U.S. empire in the early nineteenth century was fueled by a dynamic and innovative political economy that fused state power to industrial development. The book charts more than a half century of federal policies that primed the pump of two industries central to the survival and expansion of the early republic: textiles and arms. At the heart of the study is the concept of “national security capitalism,” which is defined as “a mixed enterprise system in which government agents and private producers brokered solutions to the problems of international economic disparities and war” (2). National security capitalism was the creation of the executive department, which emerges as a more significant player in this study than does the legislative branch: “Congress declared war, but the executive made war” (5).

An economic analysis of sheep flock structures for mixed enterprise Australian farm businesses

A strategic question facing many mixed enterprise broadacre farm businesses in Australia is, ‘What sheep flock size and structure is most profitable to complement the farm’s cropping enterprises?' This study answers this question for a typical large mixed enterprise farm business in a key production region of Australia. Whole‐farm bioeconomic modelling, combined with broad‐ranging sensitivity analysis, is used to examine the profitability of different sheep flock structures and sizes. We find the most profitable flock structure is to run Merino ewes and turn off finished Merino or first‐cross lambs. The profitable selection of these flocks is robust to commodity price variation but does require the farmer to give more attention to sheep management. The correct choice of flock structure greatly adds to farm profit. A farm based on cropping and a self‐replacing Merino flock using surplus ewes for first‐cross, meat lamb production earns 33 per cent more profit than a similar farm that runs a traditional self‐replacing Merino flock that emphasises wool production. Of far less importance than flock structure, as a source of additional profit, is to increase flock size or adjust cropping intensity.

Land use change in Australian mixed crop-livestock systems as a transformative climate change adaptation

Mixed crop-livestock farming systems provide food for over half of the global population. However, some important food exporting countries, like Australia, are predicted to be vulnerable to climate change and may require transformative adaptations if they are to continue their role in food exportation. This paper assesses the potential impacts of projected climate change by 2030 (0.4–1.6° increase in mean temperature) on Australian mixed crop-livestock systems and examines the consequences of shifts in land allocations to cropping and grazing, in these systems, as an adaptation option. Farm bio-economic simulation models were developed for these mixed enterprise systems in several regions of Australia. These models were based on biophysically coupled crop, pasture, and livestock simulation models that in turn drew on site-based downscaled climate projection datasets. The farm models calculated farm profitability and risk measures. A range of land use changes was investigated. At drier locations facing adverse climate change, results showed a transition towards a greater emphasis on livestock production could be beneficial when assessed against multiple criteria of farm profit, downside financial risk, and environmental damage. We highlight some industry and government actions and policies that could facilitate these preferred adaptation strategies at such locations.

Trade and Economic Interaction between the CMEA Member Countries and African Developing Countries in the 1960s and 1970s

The article is devoted to the main aspects of the initial period of trade and economic interaction of the CMEA member countries with developing countries, primarily in Africa. It is based on new evidences from the Russian State Archive of Economics.The article is a case-study of the working material of the meeting of the heads of foreign trade organizations on the issues of CMEA technical assistance to developing countries held in April 1971. The article covers such issues as the new forms of cooperation, namely, mixed commissions on economic, scientific and technical cooperation between the CMEA member countries and developing countries; development of intergovernmental agreements on economic, scientific and technical cooperation with developing countries; creation of mixed enterprises; development of economic and technical ties with developing countries through the creation of engineering consulting offices.

THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE FOR COMPANY'S INNOVATION STRATEGY

The resource-based view recognizes present organizational culture as a key component to its success or failure. It has a direct impact on the innovation strategy of organizations and therefore should be treated as a determinant of the organisation's future. Presently companies should naturally strive to make efforts aiming at the creation of such organizational cultures which would affirm knowledge – cultures characteristic for organisations based on knowledge, that foster engagement of employees, building trust and sharing knowledge. They are most often convergent and mutually complementary and described as: lean culture, learning organization culture, information culture, group-development culture. One type of the organizational cultures indicated as optimal for operating in knowledge-based economy is the quality culture. Concentration on quality is currently a sine qua non-condition for the survival and development of modern organization and at the same time, one of the main tasks of managers. Because of the fact that that instruments are in place but still there is a lack of quality culture in the practical aspects and also common point of view that there is a gap to be filled in the development of appropriate culture for quality, the study provides an initial comparative verification of which stage of evolution towards quality culture is represented by companies from different sectors in Poland. The paper has theoretical-empirical ladder. Its aims are to review existing literature dedicated to organisational quality culture essence, elements, determinants and dimensions. Investigation of the topic in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence: TQM implementation → Organizational culture → Quality culture → Organizational Quality Culture. The purpose of this paper is to describe components of organisational quality cultures in polish enterprises from different sectors. The methodological tool of the research methods was survey questionnaire, included 20 closed-ended questions – most of them multiple choice. It was decided to research, in the context of quality culture, all enterprises: those operating in production, in services and also mixed enterprises. Based on exploration of empirical data, the condition of quality culture in companies operating in Poland is diagnosed. Paper proves that verified organisations are on their way in the direction to the phase of permanent organisational quality culture creation. The results of the research can be useful for developing the complex model of organizational quality culture constitution. They can also provide managers with valuable suggestions on building stable organizational quality culture.

我国港航业混合所有制企业公司治理存在的问题及对策研究

我国港航业混合所有制企业公司治理存在的问题及对策研究