Financial Risk Management for Sustainable Agricultural Development Based on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Interests of Food Security

This paper focuses on the problem of the high financial risks of agricultural entrepreneurship, which hinder the sustainable development of agriculture and do not provide food security. This problem is especially topical in the conditions of the COVID-19 crisis when financial risks are urgent. The research basis is the theory of financial risks of entrepreneurship. This paper’s RQ is as follows: how should financial risks for the sustainable development of agriculture be managed for the provision of food security? The purpose of this paper is to find ways of managing the financial risks of agricultural entrepreneurship based on its corporate social responsibility for sustainable development and the provision of food security. The contribution to the literature is that the authors offer a solution to the problem of the financial risks of agricultural entrepreneurship. The originality of this paper is that the solution is corporate social responsibility. The universal character of the paper is due to the description of the international experience of corporate social responsibility and proving the contribution of this responsibility for the sustainable development of agriculture and food security as well as its demonstration—based on the case experience of modern Russia of specific, effective, and perspective practices of corporate social responsibility that make a significant contribution to the sustainable development of agriculture and food security. The results are very important for decision making in managing the financial risks of agricultural entrepreneurship.

Cognitive Antecedents of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Intentions of Indian University Students

The purpose of this chapter is to extend the research on determinants of entrepreneurial intentions in the agricultural industry by using the theoretical framework of determinants of entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial event model. By employing the DEI and EEM, the researchers evaluate how perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, individual background, and triggering events can influence the attitude of an individual and in turn how entrepreneurial attitude can control entrepreneurial intentions. To achieve the objective, a questionnaire survey was held using the sample of 335 PhD, master, and bachelor students in commerce, business, and economics from an Indian central university. The data was analysed using a linear regression model. The findings advocate that perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, individual background, and triggering events are positively related to entrepreneurial attitude, and the entrepreneurial attitude positively and significantly influences entrepreneurial intentions in the agricultural sector.

Drivers of Agricultural Entrepreneurship in Factor-Driven Economies

This piece of research aims to explain the drivers of early-stage entrepreneurship in factor-driven economies and how these are affected by several cognitive factors. This study covers literature on several driving factors of entrepreneurial activity, trying to formulate a framework of determinants of early-stage agricultural entrepreneurial activity. For this purpose, the adult population survey (APS) data of factor-driven economies published by GEM has been used. The selected respondents (848) include those individuals who, alone or with other individuals, presently involved in venture creation, including any self-employment in the agricultural sector. The impact of cognitive and social capital factors on early-stage entrepreneurial activity is measured using logistic regression. The findings suggest that its opportunity perception and self-efficacy, which are the major motivators of early-stage entrepreneurship in developing nations. Also, there are gender biases and age-related negativity with respect to new agri-business creation in developing countries.

Marketing of Start-ups and Innovations in Agricultural Entrepreneurship

Agricultural development is a determining factor in ensuring food security. The intensification and innovation of agriculture is a prerequisite for meeting the food needs of the world’s population. Any innovative activity is Entrepreneurial and is based on the search for new ideas and their assessment; finding the necessary resources; Enterprise creation and management; receiving cash income, and personal satisfaction with the achieved result. The specificity of innovation is its riskiness, so often, investors simply ignore insufficiently substantiated projects. Currently, the due diligence procedure is gaining popularity, during which an investment study is carried out to establish the risks of a proposed capital transaction and develop a competent mayor to manage them. In the article, the authors considered the features and difficulties of marketing for startups and innovations in agricultural entrepreneurship and proposed a due diligence procedure to improve it. Due diligence is actions aimed at obtaining an objective picture of the object of financing. Due diligence is necessary both before investing, merging or buying a company and before starting any kind of cooperation with startups and innovations. The authors considered introducing the due diligence procedure and alternative ways of acquiring a business, indicated and analyzed the main stages of the financial due diligence procedure, and gave an example of the report of the diligence procedure for an agricultural startup.

Understanding the process of agricultural entrepreneurship: perspective from strategic movements and entrepreneurial families

PurposeThis study analyses the sequence of actions carried out by successful enterprises in the agricultural sector and aims to understand the logic followed with such actions and the differences related to the types of families that develop them.Design/methodology/approachThrough a multiple case study approach, the business and family trajectories of 14 successful agricultural enterprises in Mexico were analysed. The actions carried out by enterprises are conceptualized as strategic movements and are classified into seven categories: (1) growth and intensification, (2) reconversion, (3) diversification, (4) integration, (5) differentiation, (6) outsourcing and (7) digitization. Depending on their relationship with agriculture, entrepreneurial families are classified into three categories: (1) continuing families, (2) returning families and (3) incoming families.FindingsThe entrepreneurship logic follows three stages: evaluation, expansion and consolidation, through which different activities are tested, then the one that produces the best results is expanded and adopted as the main activity, and finally the expansion of the main activity and its evaluation are combined by comparing and complementing it with other agricultural activities. The difference is that continuing families adhere more to the traditional productivist model based on growth in scale and improved productivity of primary production. On the other hand, actions that imply a distinction in the quality of production such as integration and differentiation and that require links with other organizations such as outsourcing are more frequently carried out by returning and incoming families.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings obtained through case studies cannot be statistically generalized to a specific population, however, our perspective can be transferred to other cases to obtain analogous findings.Originality/valueThe study is a unique piece in terms of the analysis of how families with different degrees of proximity to agriculture develop successful enterprises.

Exploring agricultural entrepreneurship and new technologies: academic and practitioners' views

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between agricultural entrepreneurship (AE) and new technologies using academic and practitioners' perspectives to understand how new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented reality can promote agri-businesses.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a content and thematic analysis of 325 academic sources extracted from the Scopus database and 683 patents retrieved from the European Patent Office (EPO) dataset. Additionally, the research applies the Kruskal–Wallis test as a non-parametric test for evaluating differences in the main concepts discussed in the two sources.FindingsThe academic and practitioners' debate highlights a trading zone among the two streams. patents' analysis from the EPO reveals four main common themes as a new business that benefits from AI in weather predictions, new smart and intelligent ways to monitor crops, new businesses that use clouds to control plant's humidity. The analysis of Scopus's sources demonstrates theoretical approaches related to the technology acceptance model (TAM) and practical strategies in terms of entrepreneurial skills to support the agricultural sector. However, barriers among the two streams of sources exist in innovation management and scale-up entrepreneurial initiatives.Research limitations/implicationsRegarding implications, the authors aim to connect academic and practitioners' views by understanding the new potential innovation applications and the connected new research avenues. Limitations might arise from the sources used to develop our analysis.Originality/valueThe paper is novel because it investigates the issues arising from the relationship between AE and new technologies by examining original validated patents released by practitioners and approved by the EPO, rather than reviewing blogs or the financial press. This leads to a holistic understanding of the impact of tangible practices among agricultural entrepreneurs. The results support the view that new trading zones and case studies are needed to highlight and show the positive impact of technologies in this field. The authors argue that practitioners require scholars to reduce the ambiguity between AE and its expected results, leading to investments to boost new agricultural business ideas.

The role of entrepreneurship in reducing poverty in agricultural communities

Purpose Entrepreneurship has increasingly become a subject of interest for scholars and policymakers in an attempt to reduce poverty in agricultural communities across the world, especially in Africa. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurship in reducing poverty in agricultural communities of Lower Gweru, Zimbabwe. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory research design informed the data collection and analysis in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 owners of agribusinesses from various socio-economic backgrounds. The collected data from the field were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings The results revealed that entrepreneurship plays a catalytic role in poverty reduction in agricultural communities through food security, skill transfer, employment creation, income generation and a decrease in food costs. Research limitations/implications This study focused on four agricultural communities in Lower Gweru which can limit the generalizability of the results to other contexts. Furthermore, this inquiry is a cross-sectional study that did not capture the longitudinal factors that can affect entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in agricultural communities. Practical implications The research outcomes have some practical implications for the Zimbabwean government and microfinance institutions in designing policies and programs to reduce poverty in marginalized agricultural communities. The findings are also useful for non-governmental organizations in designing, monitoring and evaluating poverty reduction programs in agricultural communities. Originality/value This study advances, contextualizes and enriches the body of knowledge concerning agricultural entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in the under-researched setting of agricultural communities. Notably, this study captures the African flavor in the agricultural entrepreneurship and poverty reduction discourse by focusing on the unique Zimbabwean context.

Characteristics of agricultural entrepreneurs and their agribusinesses in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Benin.

Entrepreneurship in the sub-Saharan African agricultural sector has been growing in recent years because of increasing unemployment and underemployment. In Benin, policies and programs are encouraging individuals to start their own agribusinesses. To further sharpen these policies and programs to improve agricultural entrepreneurship's contribution to the economy, it is essential to avail information on the entrepreneurs, their businesses, and the typologies of agribusinesses. Such information is limited, which reduces the ability to develop evidence-informed policies and programs. This research aims to fill the gaps by describing the features of agricultural entrepreneurs in Benin. A random sample of 819 agricultural entrepreneurs was used, and data were collected on entrepreneurs and their businesses. Descriptive analysis and hierarchical clustering of principal components were performed. The study found that women’s participation in agricultural entrepreneurship in terms of new business formation is still low. Also, the agricultural entrepreneurs are more driven by necessity than opportunity, although they have a highly positive personality, mainly in terms of optimism and risk. At the enterprise level, most agribusinesses have been in operation for more than three years, but only one out of ten entrepreneurs felt that their business was at a mature phase. The research also evidenced that informality in the agribusiness sector is high because almost half of the agribusinesses were not registered with any formal governmental entity, and only three out of ten complied with tax regulations. Agricultural entrepreneurs were active in knowledge networks to expand their activities and improve their performance. Three categories of agribusiness were defined with the cluster analysis: ‘informal agribusinesses’ essentially built for profit, not registered, and owned by not highly educated adult entrepreneurs; ‘professional new agribusinesses’ were mainly operated by young entrepreneurs with a university education and agricultural professional training; and ‘mature agribusinesses’ were mostly formally registered and owned by highly educated entrepreneurs. This research will be instrumental for policymakers and practitioners to better understand agricultural entrepreneurship and improve its economic outcomes. It provides a strong evidence base to support the ongoing motivation of policymakers to provide solutions to unemployment and underemployment through agricultural entrepreneurship.

Towards an agricultural entrepreneurship development model: an empirical investigation in Namibia’s agricultural communities

Purpose Entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as a vehicle for bringing about the development of different economic sectors in various geographical regions, and it is believed to result in greater productivity and entrepreneurial performance in agriculture. To date, there are no empirically verified holistic models focussing on the development of agricultural entrepreneurship in an African context. This study aims to fill this gap by developing an agricultural entrepreneurial development model (AEDM) that provides a basis for enhancing entrepreneurial performance in the agriculture sector. Design/methodology/approach First, a holistic conceptual AEDM was built from the extant literature with a focus on the African context and encompassing dimension of the enabling environment, entrepreneurial performance and its outcomes. Then, the model was tested empirically by conducting a survey with 477 farmers in Namibia who benefit from Namibia’s National Resettlement Programme and the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme. The model was tested statistically using partial least square-structural equation modelling. Findings The results reveal that a supportive environment, entrepreneurial orientation and agricultural sustainability exert a positive impact on entrepreneurial performance in agriculture, which, in turn, leads to greater agricultural productivity and increased income for farmers. Originality/value The study theoretically develops and empirically tests a holistic model of agricultural entrepreneurship development. The value of the model lies in its consideration of a plethora of enabling-environment antecedents of entrepreneurial performance in agriculture, as well as some specific organisational- and individual-level outcomes thereof. Therefore, it offers policymakers and practitioners a blueprint for developing agricultural entrepreneurship in an African context.