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Agri-food organizations that are capable of “sensing the market” – that is,capable of searching,processing and using market information,are usually also market oriented,innovative, entrepreneurial and successful. But how can a small farm with limited resources develop market sensing capabilities? This research explores when public Research & Development (R&D) has an impact on small farms’ market sensing capabilities. The literature on the impact of public R&D on small farms’ market orientation is limited despite the importance of the topic for regional competitiveness and economic development. This research follows an inductive “grounded theory” approach of investigation. Qualitative and quantitative data is collected from five cases of public-private R&D projects funded by the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). One “typical” in-depth case study of an R&D project in the oyster sector provide empirical evidence for cross-case comparison and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings highlight the provision of R&D market information on estimated prices and quantities,end users’ lower initial capabilities and higher discipline clarity,and the absence of industry associations undertaking marketing roles for farmers to enhance the impact of public R&D on small farmers’ market sensing., The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review is the published by IFAMA. www.ifama.org

A large number of empirical studies have recently explored the processes and the conditions under agri-food companies acquire and develop market orientation (e.g. Martin et al. 2009), entrepreneurship (e.g. Holster 2008) and innovation (e.g. Verhees 2005), which have been proven to have a positive relationship with their performance (e.g. Micheels and Gow 2008). A much smaller number of studies focused on how agri-food firms can acquire the capabilities that are necessary to become market-oriented and innovative (e.g. Anderson & Narus 2007), specifically market sensing and customer linking (Day 1994). As a number of public-private partnership projects are attempting to enhance agri-food companies' market orientation and innovation, it is useful to identify which research and dissemination methods effectively develop these capabilities and under which conditions. To attempt to start filling this gap, this study analyses under which conditions public-private projects based on research and dissemination manage to foster market-sensing and customer-linking capabilities of small agri-food firms. Fostering these capabilities in small firms is particularly challenging, as they have limited resources to absorb the new information, learn and apply strategic changes as a result of the learning process. The case of five knowledge-building Seafood Cooperative Research Centre projects based on supply chain mapping and benchmarking methods with the oyster, wild prawn, farmed prawn and finfish industries provides the instrumental cases to the study. We collected data both quantitatively and qualitatively to gain more insight on the cause-effect relationship among variables (Eisenhardt 1989). Then, we analysed data with a structural equation model, whose multivariate statistic approach allows a rigorous analysis of the relationships between latent variables such as market-sensing and customer-linking capabilities and attitudes. Preliminary results can be summarized as follows. First, an estimation of profit margins that different customers make along the chain and an assessment of customers' needs, when customers' concentration and rivalry along the chain is low, are crucial to foster small farms' capabilities. Second, informal networks play a key role for fostering these capabilities from few small firms to the majority of the target.

Recent agricultural economics literature has largely analyzed consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for many credence attributes, including place of origin, organic, locally grown, environment friendly, fair trade, and animal welfare. In this study, we instead attempt to analyze why consumers value “locally grown,” which is a credence attribute receiving increasing attention in the market. Specifically, we propose a distinction between the direct effect and the indirect effect of “locally grown” on consumers’ attitudes towards agri-food products to explain consumers’ preferences for locally grown products. We collect data from an experiment with university students and analyze the data with a structural equation modeling methodology.

In this paper we investigate values and transaction conditions in consumer participation in alternative food networks (AFNs). We use and combine a collective action perspective with elements of ethical consumption (individual values) and transaction cost economics as a theoretical background to conceptualise this participation. Our research is motivated by the evidence that the role and interplay between values and transaction conditions is still under-investigated in the socio-economic literature when it comes to understanding participation in AFNs. We use a case study in which we focus on an AFN located in Palermo, a metropolitan area in southern Italy. We collected data related to 303 individuals: 103 participants in the AFN and 200 non-participants. From a methodological perspective we used a propensity score matching approach. We were thus able to build a subsample consisting of only those individuals who were sharing a similar likelihood of participating in an AFN. Individuals with the same propensity score show a substantial equivalence in terms of covariates as if they were randomly selected to join an AFN. Our results indicate a statistically significant difference in some transactional conditions for AFN participants. Namely, when it comes to transactional conditions associated to food purchasing strategies, participants in AFNs are characterised by a higher level of (perceived) information uncertainty (e.g. price uncertainty and product information), negotiation uncertainty (e.g. relevance of the speed of sourcing, transportation hazards, and bargaining), and monitoring hazards (e.g. quality uncertainty), when compared to non-participants. These results are used to account for the heterogeneity of participants in SPGs in particular, and AFNs in general.