Assessing fertilizer buying behavior of emerging farmers in a South African grain producing area
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Received October 19, 2016;Accepted January 19, 2017;Published September 6, 2017
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Author(s)Ronald Lotriet ,Link to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6845-7355
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(2-2).2017.14
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Article InfoVolume 15 2017, Issue #2 (cont. 2), pp. 456-467
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Fertilizer not only plays a major role in the profitability of the farmer’s business, but also represents an expensive farm input. The emerging farmer market segment is expanding and holds a great deal of potential for fertilizer companies to supply the growing need for fertilizer in this market. Almost all fertilizer marketing strategies of South African companies have been designed to cater for the commercial farming sector; however, if fertilizer suppliers want to focus on the emerging farmer market segment, they need to understand buying behavior of emerging farmers, as well as their needs when developing strategies to utilize opportunities in this developing market. This study aims to identify factors playing an important role in the buying behavior of emerging farmers in the Free State when purchasing fertilizer. The results show that service, brand, product, and learning or psychological factors highly influence emerging farmers’ fertilizer purchase decision. The study also finally draws recommendations and conclusions for managerial perusal.
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)Q13
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References37
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Tables3
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Figures5
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- Figure 1. The provincial distribution of the maize crop in SA
- Figure 2. The agricultural sector categories in SA
- Figure 3. The three main farm inputs in SA
- Figure 4. The stimulus response model
- Figure 5. Mean values of all categories
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- Table 1. Differences between commercial and emerging grain farmer industry
- Table 2. Reliability of the data
- Table 3. Correlation analysis
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Victoria Margaret Hodgon , Muhammad Ehsanul Hoque doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(1-1).2017.12Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 15, 2017 Issue #1 (cont.) pp. 248-259 Views: 2852 Downloads: 3140 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯGiven the rapid and sustained growth of Aspen over the past decade, the main aim of this study is to identify and analyze the growth strategies, adopted by Aspen over the period from 2004 to 2014. The research method used was a descriptive study through a single case study of Aspen by analyzing secondary data in the form of publicly available company reports and presentations, as well as financial results, issued between 2004 and 2014. The study finds that, guided by strategic and visionary leadership, Aspen adopted a number of growth strategies including (i) organic growth, as a key factor in creating incremental value for Aspen and its stakeholders, (ii) inorganic growth, in the form of carefully planned and well executed acquisitions, aligned to the Group strategy, (iii) extending territorial coverage through global expansion, particularly into emerging pharmaceutical countries, and (iv) ongoing investment in production capabilities as a means of achieving a strategic advantage. Despite the challenges of intense competition, restrictive legislation, pressure on medicine prices, currency volatility and market specific risks, Aspen has delivered double-digit earnings growth to its shareholders for 16 consecutive years.
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Using the dominant agency theory framework, the purpose of this study is to establish and examine the relationship between firm performance and executive pay. In addition, it intends to assess the characteristic of model specifications commonly adopted. To this aim, a quantitative analysis consisting of three complementary methods was performed on panel data from South African listed companies. The results of the main unrestricted first difference model indicate a strong non-linear relationship where the impact of current and previous firm performance on executive pay can be observed over 2 to 4-year period providing support to the optimal contracting theoretical perspective in the South African business context. In addition, CEO pay is more sensitive to firm performance as compared to Director pay. Lastly, although it affects executive pay levels, company size is not found to improve the pay-performance relationship. -
Antecedents of attitudes towards and usage behavior of mobile banking amongst Generation Y students
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