Onno Omta

• Prof. dr
• Emeritus professor (Full) at Wageningen University & Research

While voluntary responsible business standards are more flexible than regulation and thus more responsive to changes in society, revising standards can have negative effects on compliance rates. We hypothesize that when non-compliance is visible to external stakeholders and participating firms receive a clear signal that their products are non-comp...

Increasing focus of African economies, including Ghana, on non-traditional agricultural exporting (NTAE) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to counter declining earnings from traditional exports fall short to expectation. This study investigates this gap by looking at unstructured data, and the drivers of NTAE SMEs that can enhance performance and...

Women entrepreneurs’ performance in connection to their contribution to family livelihood in developing countries is yet an under-researched potential for addressing poverty and its roots. Their performance can be characterised as multi-dimensional. Next to business performance (e.g. profitability and growth), women entrepreneurs aim at personal- a...

Previous Responsible Innovation (RI) research has provided valuable insights on the value conflicts inherent to societally desirable innovation. By observing the responses of firms to these conflicts, Value-sensitive Absorptive Capacity (VAC) captures the organizational capabilities to become sensitive to these value conflicts and thus, innovate mo...

The present study intends to contribute to the debate on whether and how the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) theory explains business performance by exploring its efficacy when applied to a constrained context such as a developing country. This debate revolves around the understanding of the nature of EO within a specific context and the degree to...

This paper analyses how the technical and managerial support of buyers affects the performance and investment capacity of Brazilian pig farmers. The paper also analyses the influence of the farmers’ investment capacity on their own performance and how that performance in turn influences the investment requirements demanded by buyers. We developed a...

The majority of studies on absorptive capacity (AC) underscore the importance of absorbing technological knowledge from other firms to create economic value. However, to preserve moral legitimacy and create social value, firms must also discern and adapt to (shifts in) societal values. A comparative case study of eight firms in the food industry re...

We analyse the business performance of women entrepreneurs in a developing country through the social capital theory perspective. We aim at extending the Granovetter's (1973) argument of the strength of weak ties to an entrepreneurial context. Multiple regression models on data collected on 292 women entrepreneurs engaged in handicraft businesses i...

We analyse the business performance of women entrepreneurs in a developing country through the social capital theory perspective. We aim at testing the Granovetter's (1973) arguments of the strength of weak ties and the weakness of strong ties to an entrepreneurial and constrained context. Multiple regression models on data collected on 292 women e...

Women's contribution to family livelihood seems to be necessary in developing countries. This study analyses how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of women entrepreneurs can leverage their business performance so that they can enhance their family livelihood in a constrained context. In particular, antecedents of EO, determinants of business perform...

Climate-smart agricultural technological innovations have the potential to reduce climate change impacts on agriculture. Due to several barriers, their current rate of adoption and diffusion is low. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have the potential to facilitate technology development and dissemination to smallholder farmers. The aim of this pa...

Attention for business resilience research in the academic world has increased considerably, despite fragmented literature on definitions, measurements, and of variables influencing the concept. Therefore, there is a need to take stock of current knowledge on the areas and structure them to lay the foundation in this field. We also give due attenti...

The present study seeks to offer new insights into the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and performance of women entrepreneurs in a constrained environment. In particular, it analyses the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and the business and social environment on business performance of women entrepreneurs engaged in th...

Academic spin-off facilitators support high-tech academic spin-offs and help them to navigate various barriers and critical junctures during their growth stages. In this article we draw on stage-gate models, the path-dependency, and resource based view to identify start-ups' resource needs as perceived by both facilitators and by entrepreneurs. Usi...

The transition towards a biobased economy requires innovations. In addition to the usual challenges of innovation trajectories, the characteristics of biobased innovations cause extra difficulties. To lower the failure rate of innovation trajectories in general, companies tend to form R&D collaborations. Choices made during the formation of such R&...

Resource-based theory posits the deployment of resources by entrepreneurs to achieve performance without questioning the possibility of deploying these resources. The question, however, remains how resources are deployed in developing countries that constrain the choice in the deployment of resources. To answer this, we analyse the factors determin...

Despite the increasing interest on multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) as novel organizational forms addressing grand challenges surrounding agri-food systems, the literature on how MSPs influence farmers' innovation remains scattered across sub-disciplines and geographies and, overall, of limited help for informing managerial and policy action and...

This chapter aims at investigating which are the persisting challenges faced by youth when playing a role in shaping a more sustainable food system. To do so, it presents evidence from a case study set in Ugandan coffee multi-statakeholder platforms (MSPs), which offers a local, contextualized perspective to this global issue. Building upon the not...

Farmers may vary in their response to or anticipation of agrifood market changes, which probably depends on their entrepreneurial degree and networks. This paper aims to investigate the effects of farmers’ entrepreneurial degree and network content (i.e., business ties, technology ties, and network heterogeneity) on farm performance (i.e., innovati...

According to the literature, vertical and horizontal relationships are of key importance to farmer performance. However, most studies have examined these relationships using distinct models. This paper contributes with new insights to the supply chain management and network theories by using a single model to analyse how horizontal relationships im...

The integration of smallholders in modern value chains in sub-Saharan Africa is an important pathway for improving income and farmer livelihoods. Connected to demographic shifts, rapid urbanization, and the emergence of a middle class, there is a demand for higher product quality. In order to access these modern markets, smallholders need to enhanc...

We analyse in what ways network embeddedness may influence the business performance of women entrepreneurs working in a socially constrained context. Data were collected through a survey sent to 292 women entrepreneurs engaged in handicraft businesses in Bangladesh. Results from multiple regression models show that, next to entrepreneurial orientat...

The upcoming concept of responsible innovation seems to gain foothold in Europe and beyond, but it still remains unknown how it can be implemented in the business context. This article explores how social entrepreneurs integrate values into their de facto responsible innovations, and provides empirically informed strategies to develop, implement an...

This chapter aims to shed light on the broad debate surrounding when and why farmers adopt agricultural innovations, especially in the context of multi-stakeholder platforms (MSP) seeking to scale climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. No research has yet tested the hypothesis that farmer entrepreneurship—defined as the innovative use of agricu...

Entrepreneurship education with a focus on sustainable development primarily teaches students to develop a profit‐driven mentality. As sustainable development is a value‐oriented and normative concept, the role of individual ethical norms and values in entrepreneurial processes has been receiving increased attention. Therefore, this study addresses...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of smallholder supply chains on sustainable sourcing to answer the question how food and agribusiness multinationals can best include smallholders in their sourcing strategies and take social responsibility for large-scale sustainable and more equitable supply. A sustainable smallholder sour...

The growth of modern agrifood markets, especially in Indonesia, has stimulated entrepreneurially oriented farmers to seize business opportunities through innovation. This paper aims to investigate in a dynamic agrifood market if entrepreneurial orientation enhances innovation adoption and generation and if both of these actions enhance product inno...

Cocoa multinationals have committed themselves to source and use close to 100 percent sustainable certified cocoa beans, aiming to improve farmers' livelihoods. As their current sourcing strategy is aimed mainly at environmental sustainability, they need a different one. This study seeks to amend this by providing an inclusive sourcing indicator, r...

Foreign investment can facilitate modernization of domestic food chains in emerging economies through increased use of vertical coordination. The paper sheds lights on how beer multinational investments in African food chains affect smallholder market participation and value chain development. In particular, we examine the impact of contract farmin...

Purpose: Exploring the fit of employee roles and market dynamism, related to performance. Originality/value: In ecology the term ‘fit’ is used for the relation between organisms and their environment. Similarly, we conceptualized the relation between employee roles and markets: the employee-market connection, which may enhance SME’s strategic fit...

Various studies have shown that open innovation (OI) has become a basic requirement for the long-term survival of high-tech companies. However, also in an artisanal sector like the food industry OI has become increasingly important. To discover the extent to which innovative food and seed improvement SMEs can learn from hightech small and medium-si...

Even though returns on R&D in agriculture are high, technology transfer from academia to industry is not strong in this field. In this chapter, we study what universities can do to strengthen knowledge transfer from academia to industry, specifically in agriculture. We use Wageningen University and Research (WUR), a leading institution in technolog...

Implementing a supply chain information system (SCIS) incurs organizational and technical complexities. For managing these complexities, information system researchers have identified generic critical success factors. However, CSFs are abstract and, therefore, difficult to use in practice. To maximize the chances of successfully implementing a SCIS...

Social entrepreneurs develop important innovative solutions for complex societal challenges. This exploratory article provides a typology of different approaches by which social entrepreneurs develop such innovations. This typology is based on their engagement in anticipation, reflexivity, stakeholder inclusion and deliberation, responsiveness and...

Background: In responsible research and innovation (RRI), innovation is seen as a way in which humankind finds solutions for societal issues. However, studies on commercial innovation show that firms respond in a different manner and at a different speed to the same societal issue. This study investigates what role organizational motives play in th...

The aim of this paper is to analyse to what extent the existing eco-innovations in the German fertilizer domain might reduce the fertilizer carbon footprint without compromising on crop productivity. The continuously growing demand for agricultural products will require a further increase in agricultural production mostly achieved with additional e...

Numerous innovations have been developed in the fertilizer and plant nutrition area in recent decades. However, the adoption of many new products and techniques at farm level is still low. In this paper, based on a literature review, we explore the main drivers for innovation adoption or rejection. By splitting up the extant research landscape into...

Entrepreneurial and business skills are widely recognized as important prerequisites for successful microbusiness entrepreneurship in developing countries and, therefore, loan repayment rates of microfinance institution (MFI) debtors. In the literature, it remains, however, unclear exactly what set of skills are most important. The present paper ex...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between coordination mechanisms (CMs) and quality requirements used to support transactions in the Brazilian pork chain. Design/methodology/approach Based on the transaction cost economics theory, the paper focuses on the alignment between CMs and quality requirements. The results...

While the concept of Responsible Innovation is increasingly common among researchers and policy makers, it is still unknown what it means in a business context. This study aims to identify which aspects of Responsible Innovation are conceptually similar and dissimilar from social- and sustainable innovation. Our conceptual analysis is based on lite...

Sustainability has become an important issue in all aspects of corporate policy. This also applies to organizations operating in agrifood supply chains. Most literature on sustainability in the agrifood industry focuses on food security or prevention of food losses. However, little attention has been paid to how organizations working in agrifood su...

PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE PDF When dealing with complex value-driven problems such as sustainable development, individuals need to have values and norms that go beyond the appropriation of tangible business outcomes for themselves. This raises the question of the role played by individual moral antecedents in the entrepreneuri...

Food and agribusiness multinational enterprises are redesigning their sourcing strategies to tap into the underused food production potential of small-scale farms in a way that improve farmers’ livelihood. The problem is that current widely applied sourcing models do not include improvement of livelihood of the producers/farmers. The present articl...

PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE PDF OF THE FULL PAPER The assumption that entrepreneurship is a critical factor in expanding employment, creating wealth and contributing to poverty alleviation at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in developing countries has led to the development of many initiatives to strengthen the entrepreneurial...

PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL TO VINCENT.BLOK@WUR.nl IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE FULL PAPER Climate change threatens agricultural production and the food security of developing countries in complex ways that demand environmentally friendly innovations. Climate-smart agriculture provides a response to climate change whilst enhancing livelihood of farmers....

This paper depicts the main coordination mechanisms (CMs) included in governance structures used to support the supply of piglets in the Brazilian Pork Chain (BPC). Furthermore, it analyses how and why actors use plural forms of coordination to support similar transactions. Based on the literature and an exploratory study carried out in the BPC, we...

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing conceptual debate on responsible innovation, and provides innovation practices and processes that can help to implement responsible innovation in the business context. Based on a systematic literature review of 72 empirical scholarly articles, it was possible to identify, analyse and synthesise empirical...

Micro business entrepreneurs training and monitoring programmes are widely recognized as key to loan repayment performance of micro finance institution (MFI) loan clients in developing countries. Empirical evidence is, however, largely lacking and where present, not consistent. The present paper introduces objective data on loan repayments and exam...

We hypothesize that, in order to improve their financial performance, Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s) should invest in social empowerment or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. CSR investments create opportunities to raise savings deposits and reduce default rates among debtors. However, the 2008 credit crunch led many MFI’s to cut...

Knowledge, skills, and attitudes to manage sustainable development have become significant components of different career paths. Previous research has explored which competencies are needed for future change agents in the field of sustainable development. Sustainable entrepreneurship can be seen as a promising work context in which these competenci...

We tested three innovation network governance mechanisms for exploring and exploiting innovation opportunities. We analysed household-level panel data from agricultural innovation networks in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. We found that first-order governed networks fostered capabilities for exploitation as well as explora...

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing conceptual debate on responsible innovation, and provides innovation practices and processes that can help to implement responsible innovation in the business context. Based on a systematic literature review of 72 empirical scholarly articles, it was possible to identify, analyse and synthesise empirical...

Knowledge, skills, and attitudes to manage sustainable development have become significant components of different career paths. Previous research has explored which competencies are needed for future change agents in the field of sustainable development. Sustainable entrepreneurship can be seen as a promising work context in which these competenci...

Use of fertilizers has enabled a massive increase in crop production yields. However, this has come with severe negative externalities (e.g., greenhouse gas emission; eutrophication of non-agricultural ecosystems). Eco-innovations are one option to reduce the environmental impact of fertilizers without compromising fertilizer productivity. Although...

Our objective is to identify entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions of business women that improve their business performance in a traditional society where societal norms and values and challenging business environments seem to be hindrances for their business performance. We have collected data through a survey using a structured questionnai...

We investigate the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and team efficacy, in addition to the impact of domain-specific industry and research experience of spin-off management teams, on absorptive capacity, both potential and realised. A multiple regression analysis in 95 Dutch high-tech academic spin-offs indicates that entrepreneurial orienta...

Studies on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) typically relate innovation synergies to either context characteristics or post-M&A integration. There is little research on how to tune the relevant practices to the benefit of realising specific innovation synergies. It is the purpose of this paper to develop a conceptual framework on innovation synergy r...

Improving the introduction of new potato varieties requires aligning the preferences of all supply chain actors. In Ethiopia, the majority of ware potato growers source their seed from the informal supply system. Using a case study on specialised seed growers and a survey among ware potato growers and downstream chain actors, we explore the quality...

Access to up-to-date information on market prices and quality requirements remains a key issue for smallholder farmers’ access to high income markets. The aim of this chapter is to explore the problem of information asymmetry between farmers and buyers in the pineapple supply chain in Benin, and to assess strategies using mobile phones to overcome...

Bio-based businesses are often considered to be sustainable. However, they are also linked to sustainability challenges such as deforestation and soil erosion. Encouraged to exploit innovative solutions and enhance sustainability, organizations engaged in bio-based activities extensively explore collaboration possibilities with external partners. T...

メキシコ産アボカドのグローバルSCM〈海外論文〉 メキシコではアボカドの輸出量が急増している。「パッカー」と呼ばれる中間流通会社が、 生産者と海外の小売業の間に入って需給調整機能を果たし、収穫から納品に至るグローバルロ ジスティクスを管理している。メキシコ政府の政策も、アボカドのサプライチェーンにおける 取引費用の削減に一役買っている。

This paper explores the impact of the household network on the start-up decision by identifying domestic drivers of and barriers to entrepreneurship. We use a work-family conflict approach and discriminate between three different family life cycle stages. Interviews were conducted with 45 young Scandinavian start-up entrepreneurs. The findings in t...

Food and Agribusiness Multinational Enterprises (F&A MNEs) increasingly wish to source from smallholders to secure and stabilize the supply of agricultural commodities in high value-adding supply chains, while contributing positively to smallholder livelihood. In the literature we found that many F&A MNEs have been involved in supporting smallholde...

Convergence processes are based on the activity of distinct industry sectors showing crossindustry collaborations. The aim of this paper is to analyze cross-industry collaborations between the food and pharmaceutical sectors in the convergence area of functional foods. Selected companies from food (Nestlé/Danone) and pharmaceutical (Martek/Bayer He...

Bio-based businesses are often considered to be sustainable. However, they are also linked to sustainability challenges such as deforestation and soil erosion. Encouraged to exploit innovative solutions and enhance sustainability, organizations engaged in bio-based activities extensively explore collaboration possibilities with external partners. T...

Our objective is to identify entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions of businesswomen that improve their business performance in the Bangladesh context where challenging business environments and women’s societal position seem to be hindrances for women’s business performance. We have collected data through a survey using a structured questionn...

The present paper aims to extend the discussion in the governance literature about whether structural and relational governance mechanisms complement or substitute each other in innovation alliances. Where structural governance mechanisms refer to the division of tasks within the alliance and to upfront contractual and non-contractual input, output...

The aim of this paper is to advance the research on innovation at the pharma-nutrition interface by analysing the three steps of science, technology and market convergence in the area of probiotics using a life cycle perspective. Results from a bibliometric analysis drawing upon 8245 scientific publications, 2082 patents and 1357 news reports focus...

The Sub-Saharan African smallholder agricultural sector faces multiple and usually complex challenges, which can potentially be overcome by collective action. Smallholder farmers and other value chain stakeholders can tackle temporal, structural and contextual challenges by joining multi-level innovation networks to benefit collectively from shared...

In a number of studies, the Dutch vegetable breeding industry has been described as a highly innovative sector, but the root causes for its innovativeness have not yet been analysed systematically. In order to understand the factors that affect innovation and business performance, the Sectoral Innovation System (SIS) framework was used to analyse t...

Bridging ties are important for obtaining new information. However, when entrepreneurs try to bridge between two networks, they may face problems due to the variety of knowledge among individuals in both networks. In this paper, we argue that specific human capital is essential for interpreting new information and coordinating action when bridging...

Appropriate use of fertilizer in crop production to limit the environmental impact is essential for sustainable agriculture. While much is known about the environmental impact of fertilizer production only a limited amount of data is available covering the whole fertilizer supply chain. Up to now no comparison was done on the environmental impact o...

An important challenge for facility management is to integrate the complex and comprehensive construct of different service processes and physical elements of the service facility into a meaningful and functional facility design. The difficulty of this task is clearly indicated by the present study that shows that different employee categories for...

The article aims to find predictors of study success from a teacher’s perspective that relate to the built environment. The research is based on a national online survey among 1752 teachers at 18 Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences. Multivariate data analyses were used to test the hypothesis that the quality of spatial and functional aspects at...