Estudios internacionales sobre el rendimiento de los estudiantes en Ciencias

To ensure the robustness of results, the study included a number of control variables. The control variables include farm characteristics which relate to the tangible assets owned by the supplier. These can have a significant effect on performance. They were treated as controls, because the study looked specifically at relationship and human resources and their effect on supplier performance. Other control variables included governance mechanisms, including contract supply and supplier vertical integration through owning shares in the processor. The farm characteristics include farm financial resources, climate, farm type, farm size, location, management role, farmer age and education. External environmental uncertainty was also treated as a control. These are variables that are not part of the theoretical model that need controlling as they have an impact on the model.

4.6.1

External: Environmental uncertainty

The external environment refers to contexts and situations that occur outside the firm. This includes significant factors outside the organisation that can affect its performance including market conditions, and economic and political issues. Environmental uncertainty refers to the rate of change and the degree of instability in the environment (Wang, Yeung, & Zhang, 2011; Yeung, Lee, Yeung, & Cheng, 2013). An important part of environmental uncertainty is the extent to which market demand changes rapidly (Geyskens et al., 1998). As well as this within an agricultural context the variability of production also effects the uncertainty of the external environment. Therefore, scale items were developed for both market uncertainty (Table 4-25) and production uncertainty (Table 4-26). The scale items for environment uncertainty were adapted from Wang et al. (2011), Ganesan (1994), Villena et al. (2011) and Nooteboom, De Jong, et al. (2000)

Table 4-25: Scale items for environmental uncertainty – market uncertainty

Dimension Code Description

Competition UncertMkt1_Comp The nature of competition in the international market for [product] is intense (Villena et al., 2011).

Consumer needs UncertMkt2_Cust There are rapid changes in consumer needs and preferences for _{[product] is (Wang et al., 2011).} Price UncertMkt3_Price The market price for New Zealand [product] on the international _{market is highly volatile (Villena et al., 2011).} These items were measured using a 6 point Likert scale ranging from: Strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Table 4-26: Scale items for environmental uncertainty - production uncertainty How Much certainty is there in:

UncertProd1_8mthR Reverse of The numbers and weight of the animals you can supply to [processor] 8 months ahead? (De Jong & Nooteboom, 2000).

UncertProd2_Cost3yR Reverse of Your production costs over 3 years (De Jong & Nooteboom, 2000). These items were measured using a 6 point Likert scale ranging from: extremely uncertain to fairly certain.

4.6.2

Farm financial risk

Farm debt is an important control variable as it affects the supplier’s ability to take risks and relates to the financial resources of the supplier. This was controlled for as a lack of financial resources may limit a supplier’s ability to meet supplier performance criteria. Three items were used debt servicing as percentage of total farm income, the proportion of non-farm income relative to total gross income, and total farm debt as a percentage of total farm assets (Table 4-27).

Table 4-27: Farm debt and off-farm income items

Code Description

RiskDbtAsset Total farm debt as percentage of total farm assets (%). RiskDbtServ Debt servicing as a percentage of total farm income (%).

RiskOffFarmInc Proportion of non-farm income as percentage of your total gross income (farm and non-farm) (%).

4.6.3

Climate

Climate has a significant effect on the ease with which suppliers can meet high product specifications and maintain consistent delivery schedules. Suppliers that have dry summer climate or cold winters and spring will find it more difficult to deliver consistent quality and numbers of stock (Table 4-28). Climate is also part of the farm physical (tangible) resources and, as these are not included in the theoretical model, they were included in the control variables. Three measures for climate were developed that focus on measuring the

favourability of these three seasons. For spring and winter, temperature was most important whereas, in summer, the degree of dryness was most significant.

Table 4-28: Climate index

Code Description

Clim_SPRG Spring temperature of your [product] is unit. Clim_SUM Summer climate of your [product] is unit. Clim_WINT Winter temperature of [product] is unit.

These items were measured using a 6 point Likert scales that ranged from: Spring – Extremely cold to

warm, Summer – Extremely summer dry to summer moist and winter – Extremely cold to warm.

4.6.4

Supplier decision making influence

The level of the supplier’s influence on strategic and operational decision is likely to affect the perception of the relationship with the processor. A supplier with low levels of decision

making influence may have little choice of the processor and/or the level of supplier

performance (Table 4-29). For this reason it was included as a control variable to ensure this factor was accounted for in the results.

Table 4-29: Scale items for decision making influence

Code Description

Infl1_Strat How much influence do you have in the decision making on the farm? - for long term, strategic decisions.

Infl2_Tact How much influence do you have in the decision making on the farm? - for day to day (tactical) management decisions.

These items were measured using a 7 point scale the ranged from: All to none.

4.6.5

Descriptive farm and farmer characteristics

A number of other variables were included in the survey (see section 5.4.1) to support the analysis of the data. These were included to provide descriptive information about the farm and the supplier. These included such things as ownership structure, region, type of farm, supplier, age, education and experience, farm size, and years supplying the processor (Table 4-30).

Table 4-30: Farmer and farm business characteristics

Code Description

Ownership Which best describes the ownership arrangement of your farm? Region What region is your farm located?

Role What role best describes you?

SuppYrs_Product How many years have you supplied your current [product] to your [processor]? Type Farm What type of operation is your farm?

Yrs_Age Age in years?

Yrs_CFarm Experience? Total years on your current farm? Yrs_Farm Total years farming? Years.

LabourUnits Full time labour units are working on your farm (including yourself)? LocationIsland Farm location (North Island/South Island).

LStockBuyer Livestock buyer an employee of your [processor] or are they an independent livestock buyer?

FarmSize_TotUnit Total farm size per unit.

FarmSize_Prod Farm Size [product] Effective Area (Hectares). FarmSize_Total Farm Effective Area (Hectares).

4.6.6

Governance mechanism: Contracts and shareholding

Contracts and shareholding are an important governance mechanisms that can affect the relationship between the supplier and buyer. It was necessary, therefore, to control for the impact of these on supplier relationship quality and performance. The items covered whether they supplied product on contract as well as the percentage that was supplied on contract. Ownership of shares by the supplier and length of time owning shares were also taken into account (Table 4-31).

Table 4-31: Contracted supply measurements

Code Description

Contract_Y_N In the last year have you supplied [product] on contract (with quality/and/or delivery specifications) to your [processor].

ContractPct What % of your [product] sales were supplied on contract?

Shares_Yes_No Is your farm business a shareholder in your current [product] [processor]? SharesYrs How many years has your farm business been a shareholder of your/[processor]?

4.6.7

Communication from processor

Communication from the processor is likely to affect the quality of the supplier relationship with the processor. As the study only looked at supplier factors this was included as a control variable. The frequency of both face-to-face communication and communication by phone, email or text were measured (Table 4-32).

Table 4-32: Processor communication measurements

Code Description

CommFace How often would you have face to face contact with someone from [processor]?

CommPhone How often would you have contact with someone from [processor] (by phone, email or text)?

Chapter 5:

Research design and methods