Motivation: While it appears the modern economy demands ever increasing amounts of differentiation, opportunities for grain producers to create and capture significant new sources of value remains elusive. Opportunities appear to loom large to help remove risk and improve quality in the grain...

A principal-agent approach is used to address issues of environmental risk sharing within a firm. The principal (top management), fearing penalties for environmental damages, wants to avoid environmental harm and induce the agent (employee manipulating hazardous materials) to take appropriate...

There are four recent trends in agriculture that affect the research and strategy environment: the industrialization of the sector, the privatization of data, the decline of government's role in the sector, and the increase in industrial partners in research. In light of the changes in the...

Recent instances of significant food safety breeches in both meat and biotechnology challenge traditional safety efforts. A formal model utilizing agency theory is used to explore the power relationships between the regulator and the firm. Fundamental issues effecting firms' supply of safety are...

Soybeans are one of the most valuable crops in the world and are characterized by their multi-purpose uses: food, feed, fuel and other industrial usages such as paint, inks, and plastics. Out of 183.9 million tons of world supply/demand of soybeans in 2001-03 year, about 10% of them were...

An industry's legitimacy depends on stakeholders' perceptions and assessments of the appropriateness of its behavior across a wide array of settings. While products and services may be highly valued, and in some cases essential, business externalities serve as a powerful counterforce undermining...

Firms within the food supply chain must decide what information to provide and how to provide it. This applies to collecting information from upstream suppliers as well as to supplying information to downstream customers. Components of this vertical information situation include farmer supplier...