IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i10p3983-d357463.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency and Sustainability in Farm Diversification Initiatives in Northern Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Beatriz García-Cornejo

    (Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain)

  • José A. Pérez-Méndez

    (Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain)

  • David Roibás

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain)

  • Alan Wall

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain)

Abstract

The value-added diversification strategy provides an option for guaranteeing the sustainability of small farms. This study examines how factors related to managerial strategy and socio-environmental sustainability influence the efficiency of diversification initiatives. For this purpose, we use a novel and unique database of value-added ventures implemented by 49 dairy farms located in northern Spain. We construct a production frontier using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to estimate technical efficiency. The mean technical efficiency of the initiatives was 0.56 and 0.59 for the constant and variable returns specifications, respectively. Determinants of efficiency are analyzed with a two-step procedure with a double bootstrap. We find that the elaborations of more complex products other than fresh milk are negatively associated with efficiency. However, specialization in one product with different variants and direct sales both have a positive association with efficiency. In terms of socio-environmental variables, there is a positive association between efficiency and the use of quality schemes such as ‘protected designation of origin’ (PDO), the use of organic labelling and the farmer having university education, and a negative association with the percentage of family labor. Our findings support the idea that value-added diversification contributes to more resilient pathways of development and underlines the importance of good quality management of marketing and operational factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Beatriz García-Cornejo & José A. Pérez-Méndez & David Roibás & Alan Wall, 2020. "Efficiency and Sustainability in Farm Diversification Initiatives in Northern Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:3983-:d:357463
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/3983/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/3983/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Govindasamy, Ramu & Hossain, Ferdaus & Adelaja, Adesoji, 1999. "Income of Farmers Who Use Direct Marketing," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 76-83, April.
    2. Maria Luz Loureiro & Jill J. McCluskey, 2000. "Assessing consumer response to protected geographical identification labeling," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 309-320.
    3. Philip Brown, 2019. "Gender, Educational Attainment, and Farm Outcomes in New Zealand," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Chien-Ming Chen & Magali A. Delmas & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2015. "Production frontier methodologies and efficiency as a performance measure in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 19-36, January.
    5. Galdeano-Gómez, E. & Aznar-Sánchez, J.A. & Pérez-Mesa, J.C. & Piedra-Muñoz, L., 2017. "Exploring Synergies Among Agricultural Sustainability Dimensions: An Empirical Study on Farming System in Almería (Southeast Spain)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 99-109.
    6. Carmen De-Pablos-Heredero & Jose Luis Montes-Botella & Antón García-Martínez, 2018. "Sustainability in Smart Farms: Its Impact on Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, May.
    7. Aditya R. Khanal & Ashok K. Mishra, 2014. "Agritourism and off-farm work: survival strategies for small farms," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(S1), pages 65-76, November.
    8. Lockheed, Marlaine E & Jamison, Dean T & Lau, Lawrence J, 1980. "Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 37-76, October.
    9. Bauman, Allison & Thilmany McFadden, Dawn & Jablonski, Becca B. R., 2018. "The Financial Performance Implications of Differential Marketing Strategies: Exploring Farms that Pursue Local Markets as a Core Competitive Advantage," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 477-504, December.
    10. Oleg Badunenko & Harald Tauchmann, 2019. "Simar and Wilson two-stage efficiency analysis for Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 19(4), pages 950-988, December.
    11. Ani L. Katchova, 2005. "The Farm Diversification Discount," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 984-994.
    12. Bok Baik & Joon Chae & Sunhwa Choi & David B. Farber, 2013. "Changes in Operational Efficiency and Firm Performance: A Frontier Analysis Approach," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 996-1026, September.
    13. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    14. Sebastian Lakner & Stefan Kirchweger & Daniel Hoop & Bernhard Brümmer & Jochen Kantelhardt, 2018. "The Effects of Diversification Activities on the Technical Efficiency of Organic Farms in Switzerland, Austria, and Southern Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    15. Laura Piedra-Muñoz & Emilio Galdeano-Gómez & Juan C. Pérez-Mesa, 2016. "Is Sustainability Compatible with Profitability? An Empirical Analysis on Family Farming Activity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    16. Wilson, Paul & Hadley, David & Asby, Carol, 2001. "The influence of management characteristics on the technical efficiency of wheat farmers in eastern England," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 329-338, March.
    17. Balogh, Péter & Békési, Dániel & Gorton, Matthew & Popp, József & Lengyel, Péter, 2016. "Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 176-184.
    18. Rafat Soboh & Alfons Oude Lansink & Gert Van Dijk, 2012. "Efficiency of Cooperatives and Investor Owned Firms Revisited," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 142-157, February.
    19. Pindado, Emilio & Sánchez, Mercedes & Verstegen, Jos A.A.M. & Lans, Thomas, 2018. "Searching for the entrepreneurs among new entrants in European Agriculture: the role of human and social capital," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 19-30.
    20. repec:taf:entreg:v:23:y:2011:i:3-4:p:89-111 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    22. Wade D. Cook & Joe Zhu, 2007. "Data Irregularities And Structural Complexities In Dea," Springer Books, in: Joe Zhu & Wade D. Cook (ed.), Modeling Data Irregularities and Structural Complexities in Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 1-11, Springer.
    23. Uematsu, Hiroki & Mishra, Ashok K., 2011. "Use of Direct Marketing Strategies by Farmers and Their Impact on Farm Business Income," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-19, April.
    24. Domenico Carlucci & Antonio Stasi & Gianluca Nardone & Antonio Seccia, 2013. "Explaining Price Variability in the Italian Yogurt Market: A Hedonic Analysis," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 194-206, March.
    25. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    26. Adam Kleofas Berbeć & Beata Feledyn-Szewczyk & Christian Thalmann & Rebekka Wyss & Jan Grenz & Jerzy Kopiński & Jarosław Stalenga & Paweł Radzikowski, 2018. "Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic and Low-Input Conventional Farms from Eastern Poland with the RISE Indicator System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, May.
    27. Joshua D. Detre & Tyler B. Mark & Ashok K. Mishra & Arun Adhikari, 2011. "Linkage between direct marketing and farm income: a double‐hurdle approach," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 19-33, Winter.
    28. Wade D. Cook & Joe Zhu, 2007. "Rank Order Data In Dea," Springer Books, in: Joe Zhu & Wade D. Cook (ed.), Modeling Data Irregularities and Structural Complexities in Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 13-34, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luca Romagnoli & Vincenzo Giaccio & Luigi Mastronardi & Maria Bonaventura Forleo, 2021. "Highlighting the Drivers of Italian Diversified Farms Efficiency: A Two-Stage DEA-Panel Tobit Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Abele Kuipers & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & Aldona Stalgienė & Anita Ule & Marija Klopčič, 2021. "European Dairy Farmers’ Perceptions and Responses towards Development Strategies in Years of Turbulent Market and Policy Changes," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Amer Ait Sidhoum, 2023. "Assessing the contribution of farmers’ working conditions to productive efficiency in the presence of uncertainty, a nonparametric approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 8601-8622, August.
    4. Štefan Bojnec & Kristina Knific, 2021. "Farm Household Income Diversification as a Survival Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Javier García-Gudiño & Elena Angón & Isabel Blanco-Penedo & Florence Garcia-Launay & José Perea, 2022. "Targeting Environmental and Technical Parameters through Eco-Efficiency Criteria for Iberian Pig Farms in the dehesa Ecosystem," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos & Georgios Kleftodimos & George Vlontzos & Panos M. Pardalos, 2023. "A systematic literature review of data envelopment analysis implementation in agriculture under the prism of sustainability," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-38, March.
    7. Cristian Adasme-Berríos & Rodrigo Valdes & Lisandro Roco & David Gómez & Emilia Carvajal & Camila Herrera & Joaquín Espinoza & Karla Rivera, 2022. "Segmentation of Consumer Preferences for Vegetables Produced in Areas Depressed by Drought," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-13, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murilo Wohlgemuth & Carlos Ernani Fries & Ângelo Márcio Oliveira Sant’Anna & Ricardo Giglio & Diego Castro Fettermann, 2020. "Assessment of the technical efficiency of Brazilian logistic operators using data envelopment analysis and one inflated beta regression," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 286(1), pages 703-717, March.
    2. Zaman, Mohammad Shahid & Valiyattoor, Vipin & Bhandari, Anup Kumar, 2022. "Dynamics of total factor productivity growth: An empirical analysis of Indian commercial banks," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    3. Matthias Staessens & Pieter Jan Kerstens & Johan Bruneel & Laurens Cherchye, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Social Enterprises: Analysing Performance, Strategic Orientation and Mission Drift," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 325-341, October.
    4. Dorota Ciołek & Anna Golejewska, 2022. "Efficiency Determinants of Regional Innovation Systems in Polish Subregions," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 24-45.
    5. Brian Lee & Jhih‐Yun Liu & Hung‐Hao Chang, 2020. "The choice of marketing channel and farm profitability: Empirical evidence from small farmers," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 402-421, June.
    6. Karanki, Fecri & Lim, Siew Hoon, 2020. "The effects of use agreements on airport efficiency," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Núñez, F. & Arcos-Vargas, A. & Villa, G., 2020. "Efficiency benchmarking and remuneration of Spanish electricity distribution companies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2022. "Is innovation in ICT valuable for the efficiency of Italian museums?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(9), pages 1695-1716, September.
    9. Uribe-Bohorquez, María-Victoria & Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, 2018. "Board independence and firm performance: The moderating effect of institutional context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 28-43.
    10. Rita Bastião & Nuno de Sousa Pereira, 2020. "Performance in the Delivery of Primary Health Care Services: A Longitudinal Analysis," CEF.UP Working Papers 2002, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    11. Jianhui Xie & Xiaoxuan Zhu & Liang Liang, 2020. "A multiplicative method for estimating the potential gains from two-stage production system mergers," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(1), pages 475-493, May.
    12. Cayir Ervural, Beyzanur & Zaim, Selim & Delen, Dursun, 2018. "A two-stage analytical approach to assess sustainable energy efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 822-836.
    13. Asimakopoulos, Grigorios & Whalley, Jason, 2017. "Market leadership, technological progress and relative performance in the mobile telecommunications industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 57-67.
    14. María-Celia López-Penabad & José Manuel Maside-Sanfiz & Juan Torrelles Manent & Ana Iglesias-Casal, 2020. "Application of the DEA Double Bootstrap to Analyze Efficiency in Galician Sheltered Workshops," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-21, August.
    15. Sala-Garrido, Ramon & Mocholi-Arce, Manuel & Maziotis, Alexandros & Molinos-Senante, María, 2023. "The carbon and production performance of water utilities: Evidence from the English and Welsh water industry," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 292-300.
    16. Lee, Boon L. & Wilson, Clevo & Simshauser, Paul & Majiwa, Eucabeth, 2021. "Deregulation, efficiency and policy determination: An analysis of Australia's electricity distribution sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    17. Mohammad Shahid Zaman & Anup Kumar Bhandari, 2020. "Financial deregulation, competition and cost efficiency of Indian commercial banks: is there any convergence?," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 283-312, December.
    18. Cordero, José Manuel & Alonso-Morán, Edurne & Nuño-Solinis, Roberto & Orueta, Juan F. & Arce, Regina Sauto, 2015. "Efficiency assessment of primary care providers: A conditional nonparametric approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 235-244.
    19. Banker, Rajiv & Park, Han-Up & Sahoo, Biresh, 2022. "A statistical foundation for the measurement of managerial ability," MPRA Paper 111832, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. da Silva, Aline Veronese & Costa, Marcelo Azevedo & Ahn, Heinz & Lopes, Ana Lúcia Miranda, 2019. "Performance benchmarking models for electricity transmission regulation: Caveats concerning the Brazilian case," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:3983-:d:357463. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.