Over the past several decades, the agricultural marketplace has transitioned from a completely price driven, homogeneous, commodity market towards a more differentiated and fragmented product market characterized by heterogeneous consumers, firms and value offerings. Examples of this change are...

Research studies have differed over the importance of the relative emphasis of a customer versus competitor orientation in the development of a market orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Tajeddini, 2010). In this study, we assess whether the emphasis of one component over another of a market...

As the economic viability of small farms continues to be an issue facing policy makers and economists alike, a market orientation may be a valuable resource producers can develop as they compete in a marketplace dominated by larger firms. Marketing and strategy scholars have long established the...

This paper explores the importance of a producer’s market orientation on their subjective performance within agricultural commodity markets. Using a structural equation model of beef producers, our findings suggest that market oriented firms are highly innovative and achieve superior...

A market orientation has been shown to lead to improved firm performance in a variety of industries (Narver and Slater, 1990; Deshpande et al., 1993). In previous research, it has been argued that performance benefits are a result of a greater awareness of the sources of value the product provides...

Continued value creation is paramount for the survival of firms competing in today's high velocity global business environment. This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding how firms can create and capture value within a highly volatile and uncertain business environment by...

The ownership of agricultural land by foreign nationals is currently an extremely sensitive political issue in many of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as they move towards European Union accession. During the past decade economic reforms in CEE have resulted in substantial...

Structural change in US agriculture has disrupted the traditional organization of the supply chain. Not only does the scale increase of firms common during the industrial period (1970-1995) continue, but also with the rise of a knowledge-based economy, new organizational forms and supply chain...

Successful value creation requires not only exploiting productivity gaps but also pursuing the opportunity gaps that technological innovation and changing customer preferences provide. However, the pursuit of opportunity gaps requires firms to refocus their energies toward developing new,...

This paper discusses a process of supplier relationship development and evolution within the agri-food chain of Central and Eastern Europe during transition. We use the case of Belgian multinational brewing company Interbrew to suggest that independent facilitators holding sufficient private...