The purpose of this paper to provide added insight into clustering as it pertains to the United States organic sector. I identify clusters of United States certified organic operations by showing how a formal definition of spatial clusters can emerge from an estimated model that accounts for...

Due to differences in ownership structure between cooperative and non-cooperative firms (NCFs), it has been hypothesized that co-ops may be less efficient than their non-cooperative counterparts. Illiquidity of owners’ investment and democratic governance may lead to underinvestment and...

We study the impact of public quality standards on industry structure and trade when firms may be able to develop their own private standard with a higher quality than the public standard. To reach our goal, we introduce vertical differentiation in an international trade model based on...

A great deal of effort is devoted to the exploration of agribusiness firm behavior through survey instruments. Mainly in an attempt to understand the needs and desires of firms, such studies can improve the information available to marketers and other decision makers within an industry. The...

Enabled by the Bayh-Dole Act (1980), universities license access to innovations protected by US patents. Despite the growing importance of license revenue to cash- strapped land-grant universities that generate a large share of agricultural innovations, there has been no formal attempt to...

Students studying “fringe” agribusiness sectors (e.g,, supermarkets, textile manufacturers, paper mills, wholesale nurseries etc.) need more business training. Attempts to serve these sectors by broadening courses would probably add some topics and reduce others. The result could be less...

Recent food safety events have raised concerns about adoption of traceability systems. The paper studies the question of when and why a supply chain should invest in an upstream traceability system that allows identifying which supplier is responsible for quality defects due to insufficient...

A central theme of international trade research has been the impact of trade liberalization on productivity. Early literature on this theme points out that trade liberalization brings resource/organizational adjustment across industries and this adjustment enhances productivity. A traditional...