Value Chain Activities Research Articles

Corporate social responsibility and comparative capitalism frameworks: Evidence from the United States, Poland, and Italy

AbstractUsing the varieties of capitalism perspective and institutional theory as frameworks, we analyze cross‐cultural differences between firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches. We investigate three countries with different institutional settings: the United States, representing a liberal market economy; Italy, representing a coordinated market economy; and Poland, an example of a dependent market economy. We examine the differences in their CSR stances, operationalized through Porter and Kramer's concept of the four CSR categories: good citizenship, mitigating harm from the value chain, transforming value chain activities, and strategic philanthropy, based on data from 269 questionnaires administered to managers attending executive seminars at the authors' universities. Focusing on stakeholder engagement activities (SEAs) across the three economies, we show that companies in all three countries engage in the four categories of CSR activities. However, using a series of tests and rankings on means and standard deviations, followed by the subsequent analysis of variance, we argue that SEAs are emphasized more in American than in Polish and Italian companies, with the latter two countries showing more subtle differences despite some institutional similarities. Our results shed light on how different capitalistic models are associated with different CSR approaches, allowing policy‐makers and practitioners to better tackle CSR objectives in different countries.

SI/IT STRATEGIC PLANNING USING WARD AND PEPPARD METHODS (CASE STUDY: PT. XY)

The role of information systems in the company is an important part to assist in business processes. However, there are still obstacles in the company's business processes that are not appropriate with the vision and mission as well as the goals of the company. So, good and appropriate IS/IT strategic planning is needed to be able to help companies compete. The purpose of this research is to analyze the strategic planning of the business information system of PT. XY so that it is expected to solve the problem. This study uses a qualitative method conducted by conducting interviews with one of the employees and literature studies which are then analyzed using the Ward and Peppard method which includes Value Chain Activity analysis, Five Competitive Forces analysis, SWOT analysis, Application Portfolio using McFarlan Strategic Grid and proposal analysis information systems. The final result of this research is a portfolio of information system applications such as a Website-based Inventory Management System. In addition, there is an implementation plan for the proposed information system which is expected to help business processes become more efficient and effective

Alliance Motives among Manufacturing SMES: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

This study was designed to investigate the effect of environmental-based motives on firm performance. The study targeted manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises based in Kenya whose performance has been negatively affected by high industry competition, low technology uptake, and industry regulation. The study was geared towards establishing the environmental-based motives pushing and pulling manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises toward strategic alliance formation. To this end, the study was set to investigate whether compliance with government regulation, the need to grow market share, and the need to increase customer base motivates manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya to form strategic alliances. The target population for the study consisted of 74 SMEs and the study adopted descriptive and explanatory research designs and collected data from company CEOs or senior managers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the survey data. The study findings indicated that environmental-based motives have a positive and significant effect on the performance of manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya (Adj R2 = 0.484). Based on these findings, the study concluded that environmental-based motives of compliance with the government regulation, market share, and customer base motivate manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises to form strategic alliances and that these motives have a positive and significant effect on firm performance. The study contributed to the general body of knowledge by bridging the contextual and empirical gaps identified after the literature review. The study recommends that top management teams in the manufacturing industry should map environmental-based motives and align such motives to specific aspects of their value chain activities.

Does servicification of manufacturing increase the GVC activities of firms? Case of India

AbstractDoes greater use of services’ inputs in manufacturing increase the global value chain (GVC) activities of the firms? In this study, we analyse the effects of servicification on the GVC activities of manufacturing firms in India. Using panel data of 4608 Indian manufacturing firms from 2001 to 2018, we examine the effects of servicification of manufacturing firms on their decision to participate in GVCs. The study examines the overall service inputs in manufacturing activities and its impact on GVC activities of firms. The results indicate that servicification of manufacturing tends to have a positive impact on GVC activities of firms. We also observe positive impact on Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the GVC through the servicification of manufacturing. Further, the results also indicate the differential impact of servicification between high‐ and low‐technology industries.

The Varying Returns to Diversification Along the Value Chain

This study examines whether the benefits of diversification vary across different value chain activities. The returns to diversification in product development and distribution activities are analyzed using a framework grounded in the intraindustry diversification literature and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. The study uses data from cocreation arrangements in the motion picture industry in which value chain activities are nearly decomposable—that is, split across producers and distributors—as a natural field study. Results based on 779 movies linked to 57 different production studios and distributed via 30 unaffiliated distributors or vertically integrated distribution branches show that greater focus in film production has a positive effect on profitability, whereas the level of focus/diversification in distribution is unrelated to profitability. This result holds regardless of whether the two functions are carried out within an integrated organization or across independent firms. Moreover, there is significant heterogeneity in the extent to which production studios benefit from increased focus which is tied to the composition of their product portfolios. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2022.0171 .

Climate change and within-country inequality: New evidence from a global perspective

This paper investigates the impact of climate change on within-country income inequality for more than 150 nations over the period 2003–2017. Specifically, we control for a large number of determinants of income disparities detected by extant literature and focus on agriculture as one of the most crucial channels in the climate change-inequality nexus. We find that temperature increases and precipitation anomalies have significant adverse effects on within-country inequality, especially in the presence of larger shares of population in rural areas and of workers in agriculture. We also provide evidence on the lower distributional impact of climate change in economies that are more diversified across value chain activities.

Nutrient composition and microbial food safety of a locally-processed fish product in Cambodia

AbstractPrahoc is a traditional, fermented fish product in Cambodian diets. Fermented products like Prahoc may play a range of beneficial roles nutritionally, culturally, and financially. However, the use of freshwater fish and long-term storage may also pose food safety risks of parasites and microorganisms. We conducted a mixed-methods study of Prahoc to describe the complex risks and benefits of this food that included semi-structured interviews (prahoc-producing households, n = 22; small and medium enterprises n = 6), production observation, sample collection and analysis of nutrient composition and food safety parameters. Nutrient composition analysis showed that while Prahoc contributes small amounts of zinc, iron, and other key minerals to the diet, it is also very high in sodium (∼101,621 mg kg-1). Food safety analyses showed that while further tests are needed to resolve Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Vibrio risks, all samples were in compliance with the Cambodia Standards for Prahoc, and there was no evidence of parasites. Participants described Prahoc as playing an essential dietary and cultural role, and also making important contributions to household welfare, particularly within households and businesses that sold Prahoc. Despite the potential risks of microbial food safety and high sodium intake, Prahoc production offers benefits by adding value to fresh fish, reducing loss and waste, and preserving the harvest. However, Prahoc production depends on fish availability and is limited by declining access and high prices. Thus, freshwater fisheries management should take into account Prahoc production activities, an important value chain activity that contributes to the livelihoods of rural Cambodian communities.

An Empirical Study of Information Technology Capabilities to Enable Value Chain Activities and Interfaces

An Empirical Study of Information Technology Capabilities to Enable Value Chain Activities and Interfaces

Designing Value Chains for Industry 4.0 and a Circular Economy: A Review of the Literature

The growth of emerging digital technologies has led to premature and inconsistent conclusions about the relationship between circular economy and value chain activities. A structured, systematic review approach was used to examine the titles and abstracts of 912 papers from the circular economy and digital transformation, strategic management, and operations management literature. We looked at a relevant selection of 79 articles to develop a research agenda. The literature review helped identify strategic initiatives impacting the firm value chain’s redesign involving logistics capabilities, marketing, sales, and service. Outcomes of this study make significant contributions to the field. First, firms must reorganize their business models that align with their value chain activities. Second, the literature review in this study adds to a growing understanding of the field of research by showing that engaging with Industry 4.0 and the circular economy is desirable and necessary for internalizing knowledge flows across different value chain actors. Third, this study is a first step in the right direction in developing and understanding the critical role of value chains and evolving business models in a global economy with calls for more sustainable development.

The Impact of Green Practices in Value Chain on Firm Performance in the Context of a Developing Country

Background: Companies need to go green to remain relevant. Previous studies have confirmed that going green leads to superior performance for companies. However, research of green practices in a value chain requires further attention, especially in identifying the green value chain activities that lead to superior performance. A value chain analysis focuses on identifying competitive advantages of firms through five primary and four support activities. Methods: This study extends from Ong et al. (2019), who developed and validated the instrument for the nine green value chain activities, to also examine their effect on firm performance. The 207 valid responses in this study are collected through a questionnaire survey of the sampling frame consisting of companies in Bursa Malaysia and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Directory. Results: The findings reveal that the companies’ green practices in primary value chain activities are higher than in the supporting value chain activities. Technological development is the activity with the lowest green attention among the nine value chain activities. Our multiple regression analysis shows that 25% of the variation in firm performance can be significantly explained by the nine green value chain activities. In terms of the individual green value chain activities, green technology development is the only activity that can positively and significantly explain firm performance. Conclusions: The findings of the study suggest that companies intending to build their green core competence need to engage in green technology development. Companies that go green for the purpose of complying to regulations and fulfilling minimum customers’ demands can still embed green practices into their green value chain without compromising their performance.

The Impact of Green Practices in Value Chain on Firm Performance in the Context of a Developing Country

Background: Companies need to go green to remain relevant. Previous studies have confirmed that going green leads to superior performance for companies. However, research of green practices in a value chain requires further attention, especially in identifying the green value chain activities that lead to superior performance. A value chain analysis focuses on identifying competitive advantages of firms through five primary and four support activities. Methods: This study extends from Ong et al. (2019), who developed and validated the instrument for the nine green value chain activities, to also examine their effect on firm performance. The 207 valid responses in this study are collected through a questionnaire survey of the sampling frame consisting of companies in Bursa Malaysia and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Directory. Results: The findings reveal that the companies’ green practices in primary value chain activities are higher than in the supporting value chain activities. Technological development is the activity with the lowest green attention among the nine value chain activities. Our multiple regression analysis shows that 25% of the variation in firm performance can be significantly explained by the nine green value chain activities. In terms of the individual green value chain activities, green technology development is the only activity that can positively and significantly explain firm performance. Conclusions: The findings of the study suggest that companies intending to build their green core competence need to engage in green technology development. Companies that go green for the purpose of complying to regulations and fulfilling minimum customers’ demands can still embed green practices into their green value chain without compromising their performance.

The Environmental Patents, Changing Investment, Trade Landscape, and Factors Contributing to Sustainable GVCs Participation: Evidence from Emerging Market Countries

Over the last two decades, the global investment and trade landscape has been transformed to include emerging economies. Theoretical studies have shown that countries can benefit from various channels to participate/integrate into global value chains. However, little is known empirically about the factors that determine the country-level and bilateral participation of emerging market countries in global value chains. We apply the generalized method of moments and fixed-effects approaches to the Eora-MRIO global value chains database to fill this research gap for twenty-three emerging market countries from 1995 to 2018. Key findings indicate that the most important determinants of country-level participation in global value chains are the country’s environmental patents and its level of economic development. Other indicators are positively associated with global value chain participation, if not determinative. The results of a gravity model for bilateral global value chains participation show that geographic proximity and policy and environmental measures are positively associated with value-added trade. These results provide insights and lessons for investors and emerging economies in creating or joining sustainable value chain activities.

How do emerging market suppliers reshape the governance of global value chains? Evidence from China

AbstractThe growth in the number of emerging market firms with a global presence highlights the need to better understand how suppliers influence the governance in global value chains (GVCs). However, existing frameworks do not sufficiently elaborate this phenomenon's standing at firm level. Using a multi‐case study of six suppliers in China, this research explains how suppliers can reshape the governance structure with capability development, and thus change the power balance in GVCs. This study highlights governance changes from a supplier‐centric perspective: external governance with decentralized control and internal governance with control integration. More specifically, through the underlying mechanism from a value‐based perspective, suppliers can take greater control of specific value chain activities and move from being a value creator to becoming a value innovator.

Customer relationship management (CRM) and passenger loyalty in delivering high quality service at Air Namibia: A structural equations approach.

Air Namibia, like any other airline, faces challenges as it operates in the global economy. Extreme scrutiny and debate about Air Namibia's viability has highlighted some of the airline's major issues of strategic, operational inefficiency and inability to create customer value. The study's aim was to establish the impact of passenger loyalty on customer relationship management (CRM) in delivering high quality service to passengers and value creation. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze survey data collected from 181 international, regional and domestic passengers using Air Namibia for passengers travelling through the Hosea Kutako International and Eros Airports. The study further identified the primary factors affecting passenger satisfaction with Air Namibia's value chain activities, these factors included: customer orientation, operational specialties, domain expertise, and service recovery and information technology. While factors contributing to passenger retention and loyalty towards Air Namibia's products and services included Marketing and Promotional Activities, Loyalty aspects, Value for Money and Comfort Issues. In exploring the relationship between customer relationship management (CRM) and passenger loyalty, the study found that interpersonal relationships between staff and the customers are crucial to CRM initiatives as they result in a better understanding of customer needs, which in turn leads to passenger loyalty.

Factors Affecting Women Labor Utilization in Staple Crops Value Chains Activities in Southeast Nigeria

This paper identified socioeconomic, institutional and technological factors affecting women labor utilization in an on-farm and less rewarding staple crop value chain activities such as clearing, cultivation, planting and weeding compared to more rewarding off-farm post-harvest activities that facilitate input and output market such as threshing, shelling, processing, storage and marketing using data collected from 400 randomly selected women farmers in southeast Nigeria during 2019/20 crop year. Multinomial-logit results show that complementary input such as the use of credit, hired labor, fertilizers, agrochemicals, more land, adult men/women and extension services had a negative relationship with women’s engagement in less rewarding farm operations. The constraint militating against women’s labor utilization in staple crop value chain activities were lack of storage facilities, lack of credit, lack of improved input, poor road network and land tenure problems. The paper recommends institutional framework through extension education, technology-supply industries, financial institutions, improved road network to enhance women’s labor engagement in more beneficial value chains activities such as post-harvest operations since women farmer selling to the market are more rewarding than engagement in clearing, cultivation, planting and weeding so that more women will participate in the market.

Conditions for participation of marginalized households in shrimp value chains of the coastal region of Bangladesh

Although shrimp aquaculture generates considerable employment opportunities at different levels, marginalized households are not necessarily able to participate in shrimp value chains due to lack of land and access to other required resources. This study aims to investigate the conditions and determinants of marginalized households' participation in shrimp value chain using both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 270 households in South-western coastal Bangladesh. We find that marginalized households are engaged in shrimp value chains mostly as labourers. Both the participant and non-participant marginalized households show their keen interest to become shrimp farmers. The study shows that financing, leasing land, attending training for technical knowledge, self-initiative and mental strength are the major conditions for becoming shrimp farmers. The results confirm some previous findings that household income, gender, larger family size with better access to market and required capital are the determinants of participation in shrimp value chain activities. Those who participate in shrimp value chain as respective actors have higher monthly household income than those who do not participate. They are mostly male and they have larger family size than non-participants.

Emerging Challenges for Sustainability of Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs) and the Implicative Strategies

The concept of Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) has been embraced to solve the problems faced by majority of small and marginal farmers of the country, through collectivizing themselves as business performing organizations across various stages of agriculture related supply and value chain activities. From 2002 onwards, such organizations were promoted by various development departments, by making them to register under Companies Act. Through a research study, the best practices of such FPOs were documented during 2016-2020. These FPOs started serving the broadbased needs of their producer members such as input supply, output procurement, custom hiring facilitation and overall technological backstopping. But performance of many of these organizations were not so successful on a long run due to many emerging challenges. Through focus group discussions and telephonic survey with the offi ce bearers of the FPOs, some of the emerging challenges of the FPOs were delineated such as failure to strike business partnership with input companies, failure to initiate market tie-up with big companies, managing operational costs during the initial years, non-adoption of innovative marketing strategies, lack of experience in branding and profi t making business process, lack of adequate technical manpower, failure to arrange credit and crop insurance facilities for the producer members etc. This paper discusses about such emerging challenges and derive implicative strategies to be recommended for practicing towards eff ective management of FPOs.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON INDONESIAN AEROSPACE (IAE) BUSINESS PROCESS

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the value chain in the IAe business process. The Covid-19 pandemic encourages IAe to preserve and improve its business processes. Identifying issues along the value chain could provide information about the effects of Covid-19 on the IAe business process. IAe should overview the condition of the value chain affected by the Covid-19 pandemic to evaluate its business process and utilize it as a basis for future improvements. According to the study's findings, the Covid-19 pandemic has a negative impact on the value chain activities, both primary and supporting activities, throughout the IAe business process. The organization must make continuous improvements to leverage post-pandemic opportunities by designing strategies based on the recovery plan.

Characterizing Risk Behaviour of Maize Farmers using the Experimental Gambling Approach: An Empirical Study in Ghana

<p>Along the maize value chain in Ghana are a wide range of risks that confront actors; the risk chain actors' face include production and marketing risks. Accordingly, risk management, which has become an integral part of maize value chain activities, is challenged with several factors, some of which are economic, institutional, social and behavioral factors. This study posits that risk preferences/behavior of farm decision-makers in the maize value chain have empirical importance for economic and policy analysis. Thus, an experimental gambling approach was used to elicit the risk aversion behavior of respondents (farmers). Here, the respondents' risk aversion behavior over varying game levels was investigated. The multinomial logit model was used to investigate endogenous and exogenous factors explaining the risk behavior. The data were obtained by interviewing 220 maize farmers who were sampled with a two-stage sampling procedure. This study revealed that most of the farmers in the study area exhibited risk aversion behavior. About 33% of farmers showed extreme risk aversion behavior at the games’ lowest level and increased to 45% as the game level rose. It was also found that sex, age, level of formal education, access to credit, access to the storage facility, household size, farm size and the number of extension visits to the farm significantly explained the risk aversion behavior the maize farmers exhibited. Because farmers are risk-averse and become more risk-averse as stakes become high, any farm innovations to be introduced to them must be implemented gradually, especially with the low-income farmers. It is also critical to make risk mitigation 'handles' available to farmers so that they can rely on them during times of risk.</p>

The Impact of Green Practices in Value Chain on Firm Performance in the Context of a Developing Country.

Background: Companies need to go green to remain relevant. Previous studies have confirmed that going green leads to superior performance for companies. However, research of green practices in a value chain requires further attention, especially in identifying the green value chain activities that lead to superior performance. A value chain analysis focuses on identifying competitive advantages of firms through five primary and four support activities. Methods: This study extends from Ong et al. (2019), who developed and validated the instrument for the nine green value chain activities, to also examine their effect on firm performance. The 207 valid responses in this study are collected through a questionnaire survey of the sampling frame consisting of companies in Bursa Malaysia and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Directory. Results: The findings reveal that the companies' green practices in primary value chain activities are higher than in the supporting value chain activities. Technological development is the activity with the lowest green attention among the nine value chain activities. Our multiple regression analysis shows that 25% of the variation in firm performance can be significantly explained by the nine green value chain activities. In terms of the individual green value chain activities, green technology development is the only activity that can positively and significantly explain firm performance. Conclusions: The findings of the study suggest that companies intending to build their green core competence need to engage in green technology development. Companies that go green for the purpose of complying to regulations and fulfilling minimum customers' demands can still embed green practices into their green value chain without compromising their performance.