This study examines the role of entrepreneurship in enhancing resource-based performance among rural farmers and traders operating in dynamic agribusiness environments. It introduces a conceptual framework rooted in resource orchestration, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), and contingency theory. To evaluate this framework, multi-tier data from 708 farmers and 639 fruit and vegetable traders in Zambia were analyzed using structural equation modeling, incorporating mediation and moderation analyses. Findings indicate that financial, physical, and social resources positively impact EO in both farmers and traders, which, in turn, mediates their business performance outcomes. Moderation analyses reveal that these effects fluctuate based on dominant business contingencies, leading to entrepreneurial mismatches across different tiers of the agricultural value chain. Specifically, farmers’ entrepreneurial success is shaped by power asymmetry, market competition, and supplier–buyer dynamics, while traders’ entrepreneurial capability is influenced by organizational trust, market competition, and supplier–buyer relationships. The study provides empirical insights into how small-scale farmers and traders manage their resources to develop entrepreneurial capacity, which ultimately improves their business outcomes in uncertain economic conditions. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, the research offers valuable theoretical, practical, and policy implications for strengthening rural entrepreneurship in developing economies.
Tag: agribusiness
Innovation Systems to Adapt to Climate Change: Lessons from the Kenyan Coffee and Dairy Sectors
Climate change is one of the most widespread anthropogenic challenges affecting agriculture and agricultural production, where its impacts on economic growth in general are still issues in debate. An adjustment to the actual or expected changes in the agricultural sector using different innovative adaptation strategies has to be among priorities in policy decisions. Research on sectoral systems of innovation, however, has paid little attention to adaptation to climate change, notably in agricultural trade and agribusiness. This chapter, therefore, explores the role of systems of innovation in adapting to climate change, which have methodological, conceptual, and policy implications. It focuses on two case studies in Kenyan agriculture, i.e., the coffee and dairy sectors, which differ in terms of stakeholder and institutional setups. In the coffee sector, the actors’ system is highly centralized, and the systems of innovation is oriented toward technology development. In contrast, the dairy sector consists of a diversity of actors, and its systems of innovation is based on institutional building and marketing. The capacity to innovate and adapt, therefore, depends on institutional arrangements in addition to technology development, suggesting that the dairy sector in Kenya could be an example for the coffee sector.
Inclusive business for rural development: New typology and differentiated value creation in the agri-food sector
Inclusive businesses (IBs) resonate with policymakers seeking to leverage private capital in support of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. In the agri-food sector, which represents the largest segment of the base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) market and a key source of livelihood for the rural poor, there is limited evidence on their diversity and social value creation mechanisms. This prevents practitioners from identifying impactful IB types and design features. A statistical analysis of 46 cases in Tanzania and Ghana identified four IB types: (1) self-reliant agribusinesses, (2) domestic plantation companies, (3) social enterprises, and (4) locally-embedded Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our findings suggest that socially-driven and localized IBs hold high impact potential but require significant external support, while more self-sufficient IBs adopt less socially innovative designs. This study demonstrates the utility of a data-driven approach to capture the complexity of real-world IBs, which yielded practical insights for more effective poverty alleviation through business means.
Smallholder value creation in agrifood chains: Value network approach
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.
To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable to inform policy and practice. This partly stems from excessive reliance on instrumental and lead firm-centric perspectives on value creation that fail to recognize the complex organizational networks required to include, empower, and upgrade smallholders. To improve the explanatory capacity of existing theories and approaches, this article reconceptualizes how smallholders and other chain and non-chain actors derive value from participating in agrifood chains. Our ‘value networks’ inspired approach helps scholars and evaluators investigate and causally attribute how different types of value are created and captured through different types of private institutional innovations. We furthermore demonstrate how the approach can be used to generate the knowledge needed to advance business practice, development policy, and global value chain, global production network, and household theories.