Research on retail channel decisions considering consumer’s fairness concern

Online retailing provides alternative shopping channels, where the retail platform can either let manufacturers directly sell to consumers or open a self-operated channel, or even both. Regardless of sales channels, consumers often pay attention to the income gap between themselves and enterprises (named consumer's fairness concern). In this work, we explore how consumers’ fairness concerns affect the optimal decisions of both manufacturer and retail platform under different retail channel modes (single-channel mode and mixed-channel mode). The results show that consumer’s fairness concern has a negative impact on the retail price under low production cost in single-channel mode, while the retail prices in mix-channel mode are jointly determined by consumer’s fairness concern and revenue sharing ratio. Besides, if the market channel mode has not yet formed, the retail platform can choose either a self-operated channel or manufacturer consignment channel, depending on the consumer’s fairness concern level and revenue sharing ratio. By contrast, if the market channel mode has already been formed, the retail platform should make effort to reduce consumer’s fairness concern if only the self-operated channel exists, while maintain consumer’s fairness concern and revenue sharing ratio at a moderate level if there exist mixed channels.

International Liquidity Channel and Performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria

This study examined the effect of international liquidity channels on the profitability of quoted commercial banks in Nigeria. The objective was to examine the direction which international liquidity channel affects commercial banks profitability. Return on equity was used as dependent variable while Monetary policy channels proxy by percentage of net foreign assets, financial market channel proxy by percentage of net foreign portfolio investment, international trade channel proxy by percentage of Nigeria terms of trade, capital mobility channel proxy by net foreign direct investment and currency channel proxy by variation of Nigeria naira to US dollar. Panel data of return on equity were sourced from financial reports of the commercial banks while international liquidity variables were sourced from Central banks of Nigeria statistical bulletin. Ordinary least square methods were used as data analysis methods. The study found that 50.3 percent of the variation in return on equity of the commercial banks is explained by the variables in the equation. Monetary policy channel, international trade channel and currency have negative effect on return on equity while financial market channel and capital mobility channel has positive and no significant effect on return on equity of the commercial banks. The study recommends that Central Bank of Nigeria should adopt an appropriate macro prudential framework to enable Nigeria banks become internationally active in terms of liquidity and solvency. The depreciating naira exchange rate should be integrated to the monetary and the macroeconomic policies to avert its negative effect on the economy and the banking industry. The regulatory authorities and the bank management should formulate policies to manage international monetary shocks, the international financial environment and global financial crises to enhance Nigerian banking system soundness.

Analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vegetable market supply in Northwestern Ethiopia

PurposeDue to global trade and transportation, the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly reached all corners of the world; it has most impacted the poor communities and rural areas with limited or no access to recovery. This paper aims to understand the pandemic's impact on the market supply of vegetables (agrifood) in Ethiopia and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and to implement scientifically based recommendations that can improve the challenges caused by the pandemic and improve the livelihoods of vegetable producers.Design/methodology/approachThis study assessed the major incidents that follow the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia with the factors that significantly influence onion market supply in the Mecha district of Northwestern Ethiopia using linear multiple regression.FindingsThe study revealed that producers, processors, local collectors, cooperatives, wholesalers, retailers and consumers are the main actors. The most important difference that happened on the onion market channel after the outbreak of coronavirus was brokers were removed from the market channel after the pandemic and this saved the cost producers pay as a commission. The pandemic disrupted input distribution, extension and cooperative services and created labor scarcity. Access to market, postharvest value addition, price and marketing contract were significant factors that influence the market supply of onion. The study identified the need for policy interventions by the government to overcome the postpandemic challenges and ensure the sustainable development of onion production and marketing in the Mecha district.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the study are primarily related to the methodology as data are collected at a single moment in time. However, the study observes that those changes after the pandemic are better understood if we collect data at different time. Therefore, the future study needs to provide longitudinal data to examine stability of response and to observe performance of the market that occur over time.Originality/valueThis original research is the first to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northwestern Ethiopia. The data used in the analysis are primary.

The Feasibility of Farmer-Led Cooperatives for Southwest Florida Farm to School Procurement

Florida’s K–12 schools provide a potential opportunity to increase market channel options for small- and mid-sized diversified farms, but processing, storage, and distribution resources are extremely limited for smaller producers. This 9-page document serves as a model and case study with steps for producers and other stakeholders to conduct a feasibility study before forming a cooperative to sell local fruits and vegetables to schools and other institutional food-service outlets. Written by Jonathan Adam Watson, Danielle D. Treadwell, Catherine Campbell, and Ray Bucklin, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, March 2021.

Determinants of Market Outlet Choices by Smallholder Chickpea Farmers in Estie District Amhara Region, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, chickpea is an important plus crop, particularly in Estie district. It is a source of food and provides cash income for majority of smallholder farmers. To commercialize chickpea producers, selecting an appropriate market channel is mandatory. However, selecting an appropriate market channel is not an easy task because there are different factors that affect market outlet choices in the district. Hence, this study aimed to identify factors that affecting chickpea market outlet choices. Both primary & secondary sources of data were used. A two-stage random sampling procedure was used and a total of 122 smallholder farmers were randomly and proportionally selected to collect primary data. Multivariate probit model was employed to identify factors affecting chickpea market outlet choices. The result shows that five major chickpea marketing channels were identified and among them wholesalers and retailers purchased about (61.84%) and (18.2%) respectively. The estimation result of multivariate probit model showed that the likelihood of sampled households to select collectors, consumers, retailers and wholesalers were 25.3%, 35.4%, 30.5% and 36%, respectively. The joint probability of success and failure to select all market outlets was 0.01537% and 13.4% respectively. It also indicated that sex of household, education status, family size, off-farm income, access to credit; lagged price and distance to market significantly affected the market channel choice decision of producers. Based on the findings, Government and concerned stakeholders need to focus more on enhancing accessibility of infrastructures facilities, strengthening credit access and improving yield through extension service to accelerate selecting appropriate market channel.

Determinants of Market Outlet Choices by Smallholder Chickpea Farmers in Estie District Amhara Region, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, chickpea is an important plus crop, particularly in Estie district. It is a source of food and provides cash income for majority of smallholder farmers. To commercialize chickpea producers, selecting an appropriate market channel is mandatory. However, selecting an appropriate market channel is not an easy task because there are different factors that affect market outlet choices in the district. Hence, this study aimed to identify factors that affecting chickpea market outlet choices. Both primary & secondary sources of data were used. A two-stage random sampling procedure was used and a total of 122 smallholder farmers were randomly and proportionally selected to collect primary data. Multivariate probit model was employed to identify factors affecting chickpea market outlet choices. The result shows that five major chickpea marketing channels were identified and among them wholesalers and retailers purchased about (61.84%) and (18.2%) respectively. The estimation result of multivariate probit model showed that the likelihood of sampled households to select collectors, consumers, retailers and wholesalers were 25.3%, 35.4%, 30.5% and 36%, respectively. The joint probability of success and failure to select all market outlets was 0.01537% and 13.4% respectively. It also indicated that sex of household, education status, family size, off-farm income, access to credit; lagged price and distance to market significantly affected the market channel choice decision of producers. Based on the findings, Government and concerned stakeholders need to focus more on enhancing accessibility of infrastructures facilities, strengthening credit access and improving yield through extension service to accelerate selecting appropriate market channel.

Island Economies

This chapter reviews the material foundations of island life in agriculture, commerce, fishing, and foraging, amid the perils of offshore isolation. Island economies were predominantly maritime, yet every island featured farming, either for subsistence or for the market. Channel Islanders grew apples for cider and experimented with tobacco. On Scilly they were lucky to grow oats and run sheep. Inter-island trade linked the Irish Sea to the Channel, with extensions across northern Europe and the Atlantic. Among the goods traded were stockings knitted in Jersey and Guernsey, mainly from English wool. Piracy and smuggling were economic enterprises too, with volatile profits and high degrees of hazard. So too was the harvest of maritime wrecks, which provided windfall enrichment to coastal residents and island officials.

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.

Factors influencing marketing channel choices for improved indigenous chicken farmers: insights from Baringo, Kenya

PurposeImproved indigenous chicken is considered a sustainable agricultural practice with social, economic and environmental indicators. Therefore, the analysis of the choice of market channels is of considerable importance to farmers with reference to improved livelihoods and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence market channel choices among improved indigenous chicken farmers in Baringo County and to rank the determinants according to their level of importance in influencing farmer's choice of marketing channels.Design/methodology/approachA multistage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 209 households for the study conducted between April and July 2019, out of which, 198 useful responses were obtained. Multinomial logit regression and neural network models were used to analyze the factors influencing market channel choice based on socioeconomic, demographic and farm characteristics.FindingsIt was established that group membership, education, market distance, transport costs, farm size, cost of information and bargain costs were statistically significant in the choice of market channels (wholesaler, brokers, processors and supermarkets). With the direct consumer as the base market choice. The cost of transport had the highest normalized importance in the prediction of a farmer's selection of market channels for both radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks. However, flock attributes and age of household head had the least normalized importance in MLP and RBF, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the insufficiency of resources and time, this study only focused on a small part of the country (Baringo County). However, improved indigenous chicken farming is widely practiced in Kenya. Further studies can be carried out in other counties to validate the results of this study.Practical implicationsThe outcome can be used in policy implementation involving improved indigenous chicken production in Kenya.Originality/valueThis study suggests the methods aimed at enhancing poultry sector in other counties in Kenya as well as other developing countries.

The Market Channel Preference Among Smallholder Cocoyam Farmers in South Africa: A Food Security Perspective

Market channel choice makes important contributions to the incomes and other livelihood attributes among smallholder farmers in developing countries. Often considered from a number of perspectives, the dominant view articulated suggests an advantageous integration into formal market channels. This position is questioned as it has implications for smallholder farmers’ food security and rural incomes. Using a mixed methods approach, the study collected primary data from 174 smallholder farmers and applied both a descriptive and multinomial logit regression model to analyze factors contributing to cocoyam production and market channel choices among respondents in the study area. Findings indicate that financial returns and available markets were key factors in cocoyam production, while amount received was a driver of market channel choice among 89% of respondents who sold directly at farm-gate. Farmers’ age (p=0.044), household size (p=0.043), distance to market (p=0.021), additional income (p=0.017) and amount received (p=0.014) were significant variables (p<.05) in the determinants of market channel choice. The study recommended improving market information provision and strengthening farmer associations which will enable smallholder farmers in rural communities to make informed choices with respect to produce price, access other markets and consolidate their collective market bargaining position.