Table IV Findings on the level of... | Emerald Publishing

Table IV

Findings on the level of vertical coordination and link on firm performance

Question	Firm code	Excerpts of data on vertical coordination
What is the level of your integration in making an inter-firm transaction?	Firm 1	The processors and retailers have to go out and be part of the primary supplier and recognise that the producers are an integral component of the chain as they are. Say I am a beef producer from down the road, and I started growing all the right things about my beef, they don’t care, they just want the cheapest beef in the window, what they can sell quickly. They do not care whether we talk about cattle nice, whether we care our cattle, whether we feed healthy organic material for our cattle (Producer)
	Firm 4	We have contracted growers for fruits and vegetables but in the meat division, we have, a lot of wholesalers out there, they come directly to our stores (Wholesaler/retailer)
	Firm 5	A lot of companies are understanding the importance that there has to be a greater level of integration between the processors and farmers […] the processors can set earlier working terms with the farmers to reduce the cost of feed and grain or any issue like that. That will help the farmers sustain the business (Processor)
	Firm 7	When we are dealing with a smaller amount of products, it is very hard for us to deal with very small or smaller farming operations, so some of these agents or brokers we might call them, they bring together a whole group of like twenty different small growers, and they are able to supply the chain that way, which is a benefit to us because when we are rolling out we don’t need to deal them (Processor)
	Firm 8	Our basis is the grower base, on top of that we got our central market, and brokers on top of that because if a grower does not have enough for some reasons or things go wrong, we need to have a backup plan, from where we can source it […] if the grower base does not produce what we need then we go to others, we don’t close any door anywhere (Supermarket retailer)

Question	Firm code	Excerpts of data on vertical coordination
What is the level of your integration in making an inter-firm transaction?	Firm 1	The processors and retailers have to go out and be part of the primary supplier and recognise that the producers are an integral component of the chain as they are. Say I am a beef producer from down the road, and I started growing all the right things about my beef, they don’t care, they just want the cheapest beef in the window, what they can sell quickly. They do not care whether we talk about cattle nice, whether we care our cattle, whether we feed healthy organic material for our cattle (Producer)
	Firm 4	We have contracted growers for fruits and vegetables but in the meat division, we have, a lot of wholesalers out there, they come directly to our stores (Wholesaler/retailer)
	Firm 5	A lot of companies are understanding the importance that there has to be a greater level of integration between the processors and farmers […] the processors can set earlier working terms with the farmers to reduce the cost of feed and grain or any issue like that. That will help the farmers sustain the business (Processor)
	Firm 7	When we are dealing with a smaller amount of products, it is very hard for us to deal with very small or smaller farming operations, so some of these agents or brokers we might call them, they bring together a whole group of like twenty different small growers, and they are able to supply the chain that way, which is a benefit to us because when we are rolling out we don’t need to deal them (Processor)
	Firm 8	Our basis is the grower base, on top of that we got our central market, and brokers on top of that because if a grower does not have enough for some reasons or things go wrong, we need to have a backup plan, from where we can source it […] if the grower base does not produce what we need then we go to others, we don’t close any door anywhere (Supermarket retailer)