Based on the combined view of Resource Based Theory (RBT) and Supply Chain Management Theory (SCMT), this study aims to investigate the impact of Port Authorities' (PAs') SCM strategies on Port focused Supply Chains' (PSCs) SCM strategies, PSCs' resources, and PSCs' Supply Chain Performance (SCP). Considering the different roles of PAs and private players in ports, the concept 'Port focused Supply Chain' (PSC), including container terminals, inland transport companies and depots, is adopted for the current study. After a literature review and exploratory factor analysis, twelve specific variables, i.e. PAs' 'concessions', 'using IT', 'marketing', 'support for hinterland and FTZ', PSCs' 'vertical integration', 'relationship orientation', 'skills', 'physical 'resources', and PSCs' 'reliability', 'flexibility', 'costs', and 'service effectiveness' were chosen for the PLS (Partial Least Squares) analysis. The questionnaire survey was distributed to 1,208 surveyees, i.e. experts in headquarters, branches, agents of the shipping liner companies and freight forwarders using Korean and Chinese ports. From 12th March to 3rd May 2007,124 responses were collected. It is shown that PAs' 'using IT' strategy can positively affect PSCs' SCP through 'PSCs' relationship orientation', and 'skills'. Among the variables of PSCs' SCM, 'relationship orientation' makes a stronger impact on PSCs' resources than 'vertical integration'. 'Skills' is more powerful in determining PSCs' SCP than 'physical resources'. While 'physical resources' has a significant relationship with two variables (cost and service effectiveness), 'Skills' has positive influences on all the four variables of PSCs' SCP. Singapore's SCP exceeded the SCP scores of other rivals, i.e. Hong Kong, Busan, Shanghai, and Gwangyang port. Except Shanghai port, the container cargo volumes of the other four ports were consistent with their SCP. In conclusion, the implication for PAs can be that PSCs' performance can be improved by utilizing coherent SCM strategies. Further research investigating the impacts of PAs' SCM strategies is recommended.

This thesis investigates market integration and agrarian transformations in the uplands of the Lao PDR through the lens of the rubber ’boom’. The study addresses the processes and consequences of rubber expansion on upland spaces and populations. The thesis draws on fieldwork undertaken in four upland communities in Luang Namtha province in the north-western Lao PDR. The chosen study settlements are different in the levels of market and spatial integration as well as in the form that rubber investment takes. Through employing a mixed-method approach (household surveys and in-depth interviews), the study shows how various actors (market forces and market actors, the transnational and domestic states, state personnel, and uplanders themselves) and conditions (the histories of village settlement and agricultural land access, levels of market and geographical connections, and relations between uplanders and the state and state personnel) have influenced the ways in which rubber has expanded into these upland communities. The study, while recording some particularities of agrarian transformations among the four settlements, also highlights some commonalities. These similarities include: i) changes to the upland economy and land use from semi-subsistence to market-oriented production, ii) transformation of land rights and control from collective to private and quasi-private systems, and iii) increasing risks to the sustainability of upland livelihoods, especially for those who were formerly highly reliant on shifting agriculture. The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature and debates about agrarian transformations in Southeast Asia, the nature of global land grabs, the roles of different actors in shaping agrarian processes, and the evolving place of the state in a time of globalisation. Taken together, the thesis provides a better understanding on the processes of market integration in the frontiers of the ‘reforming’ Lao PDR.

This thesis is an examination of the impact of the 1992 MacSharry Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms on one region of the European Union (ED), namely Grampian Region in Scotland. The period of analysis is 1991-95, covering the year prior to reform up to the final year of the transitional period. The MacSharry reforms were deemed the most radical of all CAP reforms in its 30-year history. Named after Ray MacSharry, then Agricultural Commissioner, these reforms went further than any previously proposed. The reforms occurred as a result of years of internal domestic problems associated with high budgetary costs and surplus products together with international pressures resulting from the Uruguay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. The reforms were innovative in that they shifted farm support away from high guaranteed prices for farm produce towards direct income payments to farmers. This thesis examines the MacSharry reforms in depth and attempts to determine their impact upon both Grampian agriculture and agriculture-related industries as any changes to agriculture affect upstream and downstream sectors. In addition the thesis examines agricultural industry change in the region as farmers are found to be increasingly moving towards diversification and alternative farming methods in an attempt to generate additional farm income. In determining the impact of the reforms, the thesis thereby ascertains whether the implementation of the reforms was successful or not in the region. Analysis of this impact is made through the use of both primary and secondary data collection methods. The conclusion drawn from this methodology is that the reforms were successful regarding agriculture per se. As MacSharry had intended, production in arable and livestock sectors were reduced, farmers' incomes increased and those benefiting most appeared to be the smaller producers. However, contrary to predictions, the research on agriculture-related industries in the region suggested that the reforms had not adversely affected local businesses. Furthermore, the examination of farm diversification indicated that although diversification in the region was becoming increasingly popular this did not appear to be as a result of CAP reform. Although there is an overall lack of literature on whether the MacSharry reforms were successful or not when implemented in the EU, this example of one Scottish region illustrates how the reforms worked out in practice, demonstrating varying degrees of success across different sectors.

Traditionally, the Common Agricultural Policy has used minimum intervention prices and coupled payments to support farmers in Europe.  These highly trade-distorting instruments have received much criticism.  Following the Uruguay Round, a major reform process started in the EU.  In 2003, the EU decoupled farm support by introducing Single Farm Payments.  However, economic theory has shown that such payments may lead to increases in farm output because of the existence of market imperfections or risk.  This thesis explores the issue of farm support for the case of crops farm households in France.  It develops and applies a stochastic dynamic farm household model for a representative crops farm household.  The farm household faces occasionally binding debt constraints and investment adjustment costs.  The model is specified and parameterized to a sample of French crops farms using Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data observed between 1996 and 2003.  Simulations with various policy scenarios show the extent to which farm support and especially decoupled payments affect the farm household’s decisions.  First, the thesis examines the impact of CAP reforms on farm behaviour.  Then, the thesis compares the impacts of different farm payments, i.e. Single Farm Payments, farm payments coupled to production and Counter-cyclical Payments, to explore the link between investment and farm payment.  Further, the thesis highlights that the degree of decoupling of farm payments depends on the farm household’s access to credit.  Although Single Farm Payments may potentially affect output decisions, given the relatively low impacts found in the thesis, it is reasonable to consider that the Single Farm Payment is effectively decoupled in this French FADN sample of arable crops farms.  The introduction of decoupled direct payments in the EU appears to be an efficient step towards reducing trade distortions.

Originating from occupational experience, this research offers timely and unique insight into the critically important agri-food sector. Within recent years there has been an increased political focus, highlighting the importance of the agri-food supply network. For example, at national level, The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, launched a Food 2030 strategy, which focuses on investing in long-term economic growth and sustainable food chain strategies within the sector. At regional level, The Agri-Food Strategy Board, in conjunction with Executive Ministers for The Department for Agriculture and Rural Development and The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, developed the ‘Going for Growth’ report in May 2012. Further to this, there is increased recognition for further research in the agri-food sector, which is evident by an investment of twenty-three million by the Technology Strategy Board specifically targeting the agri-food industry. Despite the importance of the agri-food sector, the beef supply network in particular has faced multiple challenges in recent years. Factors such as the horsemeat scandal, changing consumer behaviour, increased pressure for provenance of product and a changing retail landscape have significantly impacted the core players within the red meat industry. The sector reflects a changing consumer mid-set, which demands increased transparency and closer relationships between producer, processor and retailer. This research is in response to the growing need for closer collaboration between the producer, processor and retailer, in order to overcome current challenges in the agri-food supply chain. Theoretically, this research is justified by the call for new methods of adding value in the agri-food sector (Bonney et al., 2007; Hingley and Sodano, 2010). In light of the gap in the literature, the overall aim of this study is to explore and advance understanding of the agri-food supply network, from a relational perspective. Three research objectives formed the focus of this study. Firstly, to apply network pictures as a tool to analyse multiple perspectives of the agri-food supply network. Secondly, to explore the agri-food supply network from a relational perspective and finally development of a framework to optimise agri-food supply network best practice. In order to capture the dynamic nature of the agri-food sector a case study design was adopted, providing in-depth insight into the beef supply network of four leading grocery retailers, in a major region of the UK. The key findings, recommendations and best practice of this study have policy, industry and theoretical implications for future research and practice.

This thesis is about the relation between participation and empowerment in two different contexts of the agricultural sector in Bolivia. It analyses the effects of a specific participatory method implemented along with technology innovation projects and depicts changes produced after a 2 year period among participating and non-participating farmers. The culture and history of the two contrasting sites - North Potosí and the Chaco regions - are analysed to evaluate their association with outcomes of the participatory implementation and changes in the sense of empowerment and asset-based components. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to identify changes in the sense of empowerment experienced by farmers, as well as changes in structure and agency evaluated through a series of asset-based components and cultural practices. Results from the study show that participatory processes were not empowering for project participants. Farmers who participated in the innovation projects with the participatory component had different perceptions of empowerment, and experienced different changes in structure and agency variables, in comparison to farmers who did not participate. Perceptions of empowerment and changes in structure and agency also varied when agriculture and market issues are analysed separately. Different types of power were manifested in different ways through agency, structure, history and culture in each study site. Cultural and historic background acted as an overarching framework affecting both participating and non-participating farmers in their sense of empowerment and the changes experienced in agency and structure. The nature and dynamics of the observed changes are used to introduce a new approach that explains how participatory processes create a 'need' or a gap of dissatisfaction when economic, social and political structures restrict participation in decision making. Based on this theory, further avenues of research are explored and new research questions posed to foster deeper understanding of the dynamics of participation, empowerment and development.

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This thesis is based on fieldwork carried out in 1986-1988 in Sera, a village in south Gujarat, India. The research considers women's work and focuses on differentiation; that is, which women carry out which tasks. This is a rural area which has recently undergone substantial agricultural change with a shift from cotton to sugar cane production. It is characterised by high in-migration of seasonal labourers and out-migration of women at the time of marriage and of upper caste members migrating abroad. In order to examine women's work and position within this context, a framework has been constructed which distinguishes between forms of work and between women from different socio-economic positions. This theoretical classification, utilised empirically, is based on distinctions between women and between tasks. As far as tasks are concerned, divisions are made between those which are paid and unpaid and those which are agricultural and domestic. In addition, differences are made between women from households of different caste and class position, the organisation and structure of their household and life-cycle changes of individual women. Women from the Patidar landholding caste are seen to face very different experiences from those of the predominantly landless Halpati caste. Beyond the study of these two polarised groups, the thesis further considers class distinctions within each caste in order to understand the rationale behind household strategies in their allocation of labour. Furthermore, the work that women are required to perform and their relationship with other members of their household are also seen as partly determined by the stage in a woman's life-cycle and the composition of her household. When looking at the kinds of work undertaken by different categories of women, a variety of forms of control emerge. Thus, the nature of individual women's involvement in work activities condition and are conditioned by their position within their households and outside the home. The sources of their oppression and the extent to which women have control over their own lives is examined through their work activities. The theoretical framework and empiricial data presented in this thesis are brought together to show how the different conditions of subordination experienced by Patidar and Halpati women are constructed and what implications they have on their present and future position.

This thesis analyzes the nature of State intervention in agricultural commodity markets in the Indian province of Kerala in the period 1960-80. Attributing the lack of dynamism in the agrarian sector to market imperfections, the Government of Kerala has intervened both directly through departmentally run institutions and indirectly through public sector corporations. The failure of both these institutional devices encouraged the government to adopt marketing co-operatives as the preferred instruments of market intervention. Co-operatives with their decentralised, democratic structures are, in theory, capable of combining autonomous decision-making capacity with accountability to farmer members. The Government of Kerala believed that this institutional mechanism would aggregate the interests of peasants and thereby transform them into powerful market agents. We, however, argue that the nature of the interest group process, both within the organisation and in the larger polity, significantly, distorts policy outcomes. First, the nature of the intervention - the deployment of massive financial resources, the top-down approach with its commitment to the achievement of quantitative targets and the capital intensity of many of the projects-afford opportunities to powerful groups such as professional politicians and State bureaucrats to maximise their own interests. Second, groups within the organisation such as farmer-politicians with their proximity to decision-makers and trade unions with their links to political leaders are able to divert an increasing share of the organisation's resources to themselves. In the process, farmers, in whose name these policies are initiated, experience negative consequences. The above hypothesis is tested by analysing the implementation of Operation Flood-India's dairy development programme. Operation Flood (OF) was launched by the Government of India with the avowed aim of increasing farm incomes through an institutional framework( the Anand Pattern Co-operative of Gujarat) in which farmers would have control over their own resources. This research, however, finds that owing to interest group processes, the programme has produced sub-optimal results in Kerala. Producer prices have remained stagnant, while production costs have soared. Farmers have responded by restricting supplies, which has led to massive shortages in the market. Meanwhile the fiscal foundations of the organisations have been undermined, as powerful groups appropriated an increasing share of the organisations' resources. An intervention intended to optimise benefits for farmers, in fact, resulted in the dominant interest groups within the polity maximising their benefits.

There has been a tendency in research on common property to neglect the influence that national and international developments might have in resource conservation. The environmental literature, on the other hand, suggests that the creation of extractive reserves in Brazilian Amazonia in 1990 and thus the recognition of the rubber tappers' common property rights to their forests have been influenced by such developments. Extractive reserves have also been considered one of the most important initiatives of the Brazilian government to address the problem of deforestation in Amazonia. Attempts at examining their capacity to ensure resource conservation through the theory on common property have been, however, relatively scarce. This thesis thus examines extractive reserves using the theory of common property as a theoretical framework and includes in the analysis a wider range of factors than those usually considered in the existing literature on common property regimes. The thesis reviews the evolution of national and international developments in relation to Amazonia during the 1980s and, against this background, it examines the process that led to the establishment of extractive reserves. The thesis then proceeds to explore the property rights institutions of the Chico Mendes drawing on the evidence collected through semi-structured interviews with the reserve inhabitants. The research conducted identifies local, national and international factors which have influenced the capacity of the rubber tappers to ensure the sustainable use of their resources before and after the creation of extractive reserves. The evidence and analysis presented suggests that the capacity of the Chico Mendes Reserve to promote the sustainable use of the forest is limited. There are indications, however, that the reserve inhabitants could develop mechanisms to conserve their resources if external support continues but, at the same time, does not hinder their autonomy and interest in managing the forest. The thesis concludes by suggesting that developments in the national and international arenas can play a crucial role in relation to common property institutions.