Regulatory Restrictions Across U.S. Protein Supply Chains

Food regulations protect consumer health, mitigate environmental concerns, and promote animal welfare, but they can also hinder innovation, limit entrepreneurship, and generate higher consumer prices. This study examines the number of federal and state regulatory restrictions affecting the beef, pork, poultry, sheep, goat, and seafood industries, including processing, wholesale distribution, and retail sales. We also examine state regulatory heterogeneity associated with animal protein products. Our results suggest that protein supply chains have become subject to tens of thousands of regulatory constraints over the past half-century. We also find substantial heterogeneity in the number of state restrictions associated with animal production, indicative of large differences in the amount of administrative law across states. Results highlight that the patchwork approach of U.S. food policy creates overlapping, cumbersome guidelines for manufacturers, and given the interconnectivity of modern food supply chains, the framework can create additional hurdles for interstate commerce.

COVID-19 and Organized Crime: Strategies employed by criminal groups to increase their profits and power in the first months of the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new opportunities for organized criminal groups and confronted them with new challenges. Analysis of how these groups have reacted to the pandemic yields better understanding of how they work and enables the devising of more effective counter-strategies. To this end, we identified illustrative cases regarding the provision of illegal governance and infiltration of the legal economy by conducting a systematic content analysis of international media articles and institutional reports published during the first eight months after the outbreak of the pandemic (January to August 2020). These cases were further analyzed in order to cluster the behavior of criminal groups in response to the COVID-19 emergency, and the means by which they tried to exploit the pandemic to strengthen their political and economic power. We found that different governance-type criminal groups proposed themselves as institutions able to mitigate the burdens imposed by the pandemic by providing support to people in need and enforcing social-distancing measures. Further, identified cases did not provide evidence of groups devoted to the provision of illicit services and goods assuming any governance role. In this respect, the available evidence supports previous knowledge about organized crime. Cases of misappropriation of public funds and organized crime infiltration of the legal economy seem less common, at least in the first phase of the pandemic. The wholesale distribution of pharmaceuticals and medicines has been the sector targeted the most.

Implementing Regulation in an Emerging Industry: A Multi-Province Perspective

The decriminalization of cannabis in Canada has required a host of regulatory changes at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. Provinces have operationalized the development of legal markets in very different ways, offering an opportunity to perform comparative analysis of business responses. This article outlines and delineates the various regulatory frameworks that have been employed at the provincial level, discusses how they have impacted the development of the legal cannabis market, and considers how they have resulted in some further regulatory changes. After reviewing coevolution as a conceptual framework, the implementation of legalization of recreational cannabis is discussed, followed by an exploration of different provincial approaches at a general level. The effects of that framework on the first phase of legal market operations are explored, with a focus on issues emanating from regulatory choices through discussions of five regions: British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick; each section exemplifying different priorities in the regulatory choices. Several themes emerge in the discussion. First, provincial approaches to retail licence approval have created severe bottlenecks, affecting consumer access to legal recreational cannabis. Additionally, the regulatory framework for those licences has resulted in a chilling effect on many potential entrepreneurs. Second, a reduction in black market sales has not yet occurred, largely due to the failure of some provinces to adequately provide retail licences and support legal distribution channels, or to operationalize the retail sales network. Third, many provinces struggled with operationalizing wholesale distribution to the retail stores, initially leading to administrative restrictions on store licences. Finally, issues of fairness and equity, effective displacement of the illegal market, government’s role as a market regulator and participant, and other issues that emerge from the critical comparison of the provincial markets are addressed.

Ways to Increase the Competitiveness of Agricultural Consumer Cooperatives in Modern Conditions

This paper explores the problem of developing agricultural consumer cooperation enterprises and increasing their competitiveness. According to the authors, the development of agricultural cooperation can give an impetus to increasing the potential of rural areas, will solve the food security problem of the Russian Federation, and stimulate the development of national agriculture. The study identifies the main problems that hinder the development of agricultural cooperation in Russia, including the low competitiveness of these enterprises, insufficient knowledge and poor motivation of the population to create a cooperative movement, the lack of effective state support for agricultural producers from the regional and federal authorities, as well as policies pursued by large retailers, which are mainly aimed at increasing imports of agricultural products. The authors propose a comprehensive approach to solve these problems by highlighting several key priority areas. At the same time, the priority task is to increase the competitiveness of consumer cooperation enterprises and their products. The paper analyses the activities of agricultural consumer cooperation enterprises in the Republic of Tatarstan and offers recommendations to improve the competitiveness of consumer societies, in particular, by creating a wholesale distribution and logistics link for cooperation, reducing costs, and optimizing the assortment.

ENSURING FOOD SECURITY IN KAZAKHSTAN

The purpose of the study is to study and substantiate the criteria and indicators for ensuring the country's food security - one of the multifaceted problems of international and national character, affecting many social groups of the population. Food security characterizes the state of agro-industrial complex, in which, regardless of external and internal conditions, decrease in the State food reserve, the needs of residents for products are satisfied in accordance with physiological norms, in volumes sufficient for active and healthy life. The article considers FAO's methodological approaches to assessing food supply based on the availability of grain reserves and its per capita production, which are necessary for economic security at the interstate level. The problems associated with macroeconomic situation, production efficiency and the level of profitability of the population of the republic are considered. Data on development of agricultural production, income and quality of food is provided. It is shown that Kazakhstan is moving to a new stage of ensuring food security and price control by creating a national distribution network - a complex of wholesale distribution centers (WDC). A similar system operates in France, Spain and other economically developed countries. This project will be implemented in three stages until 2022, it is planned to build 24 WDC, which will act as a warehouse and manage product flows at retail outlets, distributing it among them.

Modelling wholesale distribution operations: an artificial intelligence framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an artificial intelligence-based framework to support decision making in wholesale distribution, with the aim to limit wholesaler out-of-stocks (OOSs) by jointly formulating price policies and forecasting retailer’s demand. Design/methodology/approach The framework is based on the cascade implementation of two artificial neural networks (ANNs) connected in series. The first ANN is used to derive the selling price of the products offered by the wholesaler. This represents one of the inputs of the second ANN that is used to anticipate the retailer’s demand. Both the ANNs make use of several other input parameters and are trained and tested on a real wholesale supply chain. Findings The application of the ANN framework to a real wholesale supply chain shows that the proposed methodology has the potential to decrease economic loss due to OOS occurrence by more than 56 percent. Originality/value The combined use of ANNs is a novelty in supply chain operation management. Moreover, this approach provides wholesalers with an effective tool to issue purchase orders according to more dependable demand forecasts.

Does innovation propensity influence wineries’ distribution channel decisions?

Purpose The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between distribution strategies and the level of innovation propensity in the winemaking industry. It intends to identify the existence of patterns around the way wineries innovate and the way distribution channels are used. These determinants can support or constrain wineries’ behaviors in their strategic choices related to distribution channels. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprised 191 Italian small- to medium-sized enterprises in the wine industry. First, a two-step cluster analysis was used to identify patterns in the level of innovation propensity and differences in distribution channel strategies. Second, the research question was tested using multinomial logit regression. Findings Five clusters of innovation propensity were identified, varying from “no propensity to innovate” to “propensity for radical innovation”, and three clusters of distribution channel strategies were found. A significant negative relationship between innovation propensity and distribution channel strategies was revealed. This means that the greater the propensity to innovate, the smaller the need for a wholesale distribution option. Research limitations/implications As with most research, there are limitations to this study. First, the sample is from only one country. A second limitation is the sample size (191 Italian firms). A sample including large firms can be used to further validate the findings. Linked to the sample, another possible limitation is that all respondents were small- and medium-sized enterprises from a single industry. Practical implications This study contributes to the current innovation research by showing the existence of a negative relationship between innovation propensity and the choice of distribution channel in the wine industry. This knowledge is precious to entrepreneurs and managers in the wine sector, allowing them to better consider not only the type of strategies related to distribution channels but also the importance of building the firm’s propensity to innovate into the strategic decision-making process. Furthermore, the paper provides an opportunity for practitioners to reflect upon the fact that changing the distribution channel is more than just changing the outlet for their product; it might also require a revision in their innovation propensity to better facilitate the process. Social implications There are also social implications, in particular providing an advantage for consumers. The major advantage is based on the fact that consumers are now aware that the level of innovation propensity in a wine industry is directly linked to the type of distribution channel adopted. Therefore, wines with low-innovation propensity are most likely found to adopt wholesale distribution strategy, while the more innovative wineries adopt the wine expert and direct distribution channels. Originality/value For the first time, a cluster analysis approach was used to review different typologies of Italian wineries based on their propensity toward to innovation and subsequent distribution strategies. This study further explains the direct relationship between innovation propensity and the strategic choice toward between long or short distribution channels.