Knowledge Networks around the Strategic Alliances of Micro Coffee Producers (original) (raw)
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2019
The progress of the country and the welfare of the people depends on productivity, as an indicator of efficiency in the use of natural resources, capital and human talent. Ecuador is going through a deep crisis in the production of coffee where demand is much greater than supply with 1,560,000 bags of deficit, mainly of robusta coffee. In this scenario, eleven universities have formed the University Network of Coffee Research and Development (REDUCAFÉ), the cooperation agreements of the universities with the National Association of Coffee Exporters (ANECAFÉ) and the company Solubles Instantáneos C.A., collaborative agreements between companies, producer organizations, universities and the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP) are managed to build sustainable coffee production. The university proposes to implement a knowledge management and organizational innovation model based on the "Government + Company + Academy + Producers" (GEAP) alliance, with the objective of taking advantage of the present and future value of the knowledge assets of the coffee chain and increase efficiency in the production, transformation and commercialization of coffee, in order to improve the living conditions of coffee farmers and contribute to the economic growth of Ecuador.
Relational exchange and partnerships: the Ipanema Coffee Case
Organizações Rurais & Agroindustriais, v.18, p.203 - 213, 2016
The case studied, Ipanema coffee, illustrates how market demand for high quality product conducted the company to build longterm relationship with its suppliers, the farmers, in order to guarantee access to high value consumer international markets. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with the major company shareholder and also with the marketing director along with desk research for the coffee sector panorama. The long term contract appeared as a prosperous alliance strategy in the measure that a) reduces the risk related to the coffee quality attributes, b) creates a competitive advantage though the appropriability of specific assets related to the coffee growing and processing, c) permits the creation of a brand name capital. The relational exchange has been successful once it allowed the firm to export 1 million bags for 25 countries. On the other hand, as expected in partnerships, the other party, the farmers, has incentives to continue the relationship, once it permits: a) international market access, b) premium prices, c) risk minimization with hedge operation, and d) no investment in coffee processing structure.
2021
This study aims to analyze the innovation capacity and relationship quality of micro-enterprises with its stakeholders. Design/Methodology/Approach: This is an exploratory and singlecase study that uses an in-depth interview with the owner of one traditional food micro-enterprise (TFME) in Yogyakarta City (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia). Findings: The results determined that there are four types of relationships between a TFME and its stakeholders: supplier, internal, customer, and lateral partnerships. We further identify antecedents of relationship quality: opportunistic behavior, reputation, customer orientation, relationship orientation, conflicts, product quality, and knowledge and skills. The research further found that conflicts, relationship quality, product quality, knowledge and skills, and owner's age can affect the innovation capacity of a TFME. Implications/Originality/Value: Theoretically, the findings provide support for the development of relationship marketing theory. Practically, this study is valuable for TFMEs to build relationship quality with stakeholders and innovation capacity.
International Journal of Business and Management, 2014
Collaborative Networks give an opportunity to Small and Medium Enterprises to conduct the learning process, transfer knowledge and technology, and increase organizational capacity as a pre-requisite for sustainable innovation development. The aim of this study is to discover the relationships between Collaborative Networks and Innovation, between Innovation and Competitiveness, and between Collaborative Networks and Competitiveness. This study used the Structural Equation Modelling with Partial Least Square as the tool for analysis. Forty respondents were interviewed. The respondents were food-processing Small and Medium Enterprises which had innovations and were located in Bogor, Sukabumi, and Bandung District.The results of the study showed that Collaborative Networks influence innovation but do not have significant effect on sustainable competitiveness, whereas the innovations done by Small and Medium Food Processing Enterprises in West Java will increase sustainable competitiveness.
Evaluating management practices in horizontal cooperation SMEs networks: the Ecuadorian context
Gestão & Produção, 2019
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economic growth of a country and of a sector. They seek to be incorporated into permanent productivity and competitiveness dynamics through a cooperation strategy. This article evaluated the application of management practices to horizontal SMEs networks of the dairy sector in Ecuador by following the constructivist methodology. The literature review and exploratory research indicated an understanding of cooperative work in the networks or Milk Collection Centers (MCCs) and identified the need to evaluate performance when applying management practices as an unavoidable element to enhance their operation and development. The construction phase took as reference a model for the evaluation of management practices in cooperation networks and contextualized it to the Ecuadorian environment. In the evaluation phase, three networks were evaluated, from which results and conclusions were obtained. The developed model i...
2006
TERMS 2.1 Knowledge management 2.2 Communication 2.3 Learning 3. VALUE CHAINS 4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION AND LEARNING IN VALUE CHAINS PART II: CASE STUDY 5. DESCRIPTION OF THE COFFEEGROWERS' ORGANIZATION AND IT'S VALUE CHAIN 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Development of FAPECAFES 5.3 The coffee value chain and its dynamics 5.4 Communication and knowledge management emerging 6. ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN FAPECAFES 6.1 Information and knowledge needs 6.2 Information and knowledge assets 6.3 Flow of information and knowledge 6.3.1 Internal information and knowledge flows 6.3.2 External information and knowledge flows 6.4 Transaction and opportunity costs analysis 6.4.1 Geographical distances 6.4.2 Transaction and opportunity costs 6.4.3 Costs of the media and communication team 6.4.4 Costs of a quality and price differentiation 6.4.5 Perceptions of the benefits of medias used and quality and price differentiation 7. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION AND LEARNING IN FAPECAFES 7.1 Constraints of knowledge management, communication and learning in FAPECAFES 7.2 Unexplored opportunities 7.3 Governance and impact of knowledge management PART III: INSTRUMENTS AND TOOLS 8. ANALYSIS TOOLS 8.1 The knowledge landscape 8.2 Assessment of information and knowledge flows Content 8.3 Assessment of information and knowledge needs 8.4 Assessment of transaction and opportunity costs 9. ACTION ORIENTED TOOLS 9.1 Development of incentives through quality and price differentiation 9.2 Design and use of media 9.3 Capacity building of local leaders 9.4 Regional coffee growers' forum
Horizontal and Vertical Networks for Innovation in the Traditional Food Sector
The locus of innovation is not the individual firm anymore but increasingly the network in which the firm is embedded. Hence, in this paper innovation is investigated in the broader context of networks and applied to the traditional food sector. Networking refers to a process of identifying and acting on complementary interests with or without formal means of cooperation and plays an important role for the diffusion and adoption of innovations, because they increase the flow of information. Two main types of networks exist. Vertical networks relate to cooperation of partners belonging to the same chain. Meanwhile, horizontal networks refer to cooperation among firms which are primarily competitors. Data were collected during focus groups and in-depth interviews in three European countries: Belgium, Hungary, and Italy. In each country, data are collected from retailers/wholesalers, food manufacturers and suppliers in the beer, hard and half hard cheese, ham, sausage, or white paprika chain. In the investigated countries both vertical and horizontal networks exist. However, the intensity of using the network differs. On the one hand vertical networks are well developed based on quality assurance schemes and traceability, though these networks often face difficulties due to high lack of trust. On the other hand, horizontal networks are well developed when a producer consortium is involved. However, these networks can be inhibited through strong competition. The partners in traditional food networks focus mainly on innovation related to product characteristics such as new size, form and packaging without changing the traditional character of the product. The main barriers for innovation in the traditional food networks are the lack of understanding the benefits of networking activities for innovation, the lack of trust, the lack of knowledge of appropriate methods and skills, and the lack of financial and physical resources. Our study points out that successful SMEs use their networks to overcome lacks of knowledge and information and to create possibilities of joint use of resources.
Attainment of organizational competitive advantage and the persistent enhancement of sustainable organizational performance is the central focus of many organizations. Although, there is still debate on the application of strategic innovation as a practice in the performance of organizations in many researches, positive effect of using strategic innovation as a tool to achieve sustainable and competitive advantage cannot be ignored. The objective of the study was to establish the influence of strategic innovation on performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyanza region. The study was grounded on resource based theory. The research was guided by positivistic research design. The target population was the top management personnel in both coffee cooperatives and ministry of cooperatives. Nasiuma (2000) formula was used to select a sample of 394 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data. A pilot study was carried on randomly selected individuals in different coffee cooperative societies in Bungoma County. Both descriptive statistics (percentages, mean, standard deviation and variance) and inferential statistics (Multiple regressions and Pearson’s correlation) were used to analyze data. The findings showed that strategic innovation had a positive and significant relationship with performance of cooperative societies in Nyanza region. The study concludes that strategic innovation enhanced performance of coffee cooperative societies. The study recommended that management of cooperatives societies should a.llocate enough funds for research and development. In addition, the management needs to understand and come up with best strategy to be innovative and creative, and come up with new products
Knowledge Inertia in the Innovation of Coffee Production
The South East Asian Journal of Management, 2018
Research Aims-This paper aims at discussing the existence of knowledge inertia and its influence to the product innovation, with particular analysis given to the coffee production during the preharvest and post-harvest periods. Design/methodology/approach-The study uses quantitative methodology, and operates multiple and partial regression analysis between variables of the study to measure the impact of knowledge inertia to the innovation of coffee production. To put the findings in detail, the study separates the innovation of coffee product in two sequences, named [a] pre-harvest period and, [b] post-harvest period. Data and information were collected based on cross-sectional cohort data. Samples were 125 members of one coffee cooperative in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Research Findings-It is found in the study that during the pre-harvest period, learning inertia and procedural inertia brought no significant influence to the innovation of coffee production whilst experience inertia significantly influences the innovation of coffee production during this period. In the post-harvest period, learning inertia significantly influences the innovation of coffee production. Meanwhile, procedural inertia and experience inertia have no significant influence to the innovation of coffee product during the post-harvest period of coffee production. Theoretical Contribution/Originality-The originality and value of this study lie to its design and findings which focuses on the dimension of knowledge inertia in detail, in which a specific product with the sequence of its production was used as the focus. Managerial Implication in the South East Asian context-Findings and discussion of this study contribute to the direction of how the management can be structured to respond to the challenge that is related to the willingness to acquire knowledge for innovation in a bigger degree depends on the willingness of people to acquire new knowledges. Therefore, the management field should be able to deliver a new method and a new insight about how to increase the willingness of people to learn and to get new experience and knowledge as the major basis for innovation. Research limitation & implications-This study only discussed one particular context (a cooperative in West Sumatra, Indonesia), so it would be worth to expand the topics into a more broaden context which involves more samples, broader spatial coverage and more commodities. This will give us more understanding and generalization regarding the topic of this study.
The major challenge of European Union’s agricultural industry is to ensure sustainable supply of quality food that meets the demands of a rapidly growing population, changing dietary patterns, increased competition for land use, and environmental concerns. Investments in research and innovation, which facilitate integration of external knowledge in food chain operations, are crucial to undertaking such challenges. This paper addresses how SMEs successfully innovate within collaborative networks with the assistance of innovation intermediaries. In particular, we explore the roles of innovation intermediaries in knowledge acquisition, knowledge assimilation, knowledge, transformation, and knowledge exploitation in open innovation initiatives from the wine industry through the theoretical lens of absorptive capacity. Based on two case studies from the wine industry, we identified seven key activities performed by innovation intermediaries that complement SMEs’ ability to successfully leverage external sources of knowledge for innovation purposes. These activities are articulation of knowledge needs and innovation capabilities, facilitation of social interactions, establishment of complementary links, implementation of governance structures, conflict management, enhancement of transparency, and mediation of communication. Our in-depth qualitative study of two innovation intermediaries in the wine industry has several important implications that contribute to research and practice.