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- Agricultural EntrepreneurshipPublication . Dias, Cláudia Sofia Lourenço; Rodrigues, Ricardo José de Ascensão Gouveia; Ferreira, João José de MatosThe context is determinant in studying entrepreneurship, but specific contexts have received limited attention by researchers, like the agricultural sector. This sector is heterogeneous, with different subsectors and their specificities, besides performance is strongly dependent on the natural conditions of each region. Hence, this thesis aims to analyse the entrepreneurial behaviour of small farmers, their forms of entrepreneurial entry, diversification strategies and the way as they enhance environmental and financial performance. In Chapter 2, a Systematic Literature Review is presented, based on bibliometric analysis, comprising articles about agricultural entrepreneurship published on two distinct periods: 1969-2012 and 2013-2017. The literature has focused on specific topics as entrepreneurial skills and resources of farmers, as well as strategies to increase farm income attending to market and environmental challenges, but several issues require further investigation. Researchers state that it is needed to attract more entrants to the agricultural sector, although there is still unclear the way the different types of capital influence the forms of entrepreneurial entry. Entrepreneurial strategies to increase farm income are highlighted in the literature, but the various typologies of farm diversification had limited a more comprehensive analysis of this strategy. To face the increasing liberalization of agricultural markets in the last decades, researchers refer that is essential to farmers developing adequate capabilities, namely those related to new technologies and marketing. However, the role of resources and capabilities of farmers on environmental and financial performance needs further research. Hence, based on a questionnaire administered through 160 personal interviews, Chapters 3, 4 and 5 deal with three empirical studies, where those research gaps are addressed, and a quantitative methodology is applied. Although succession is the most common mean of entry into the agricultural sector, there is a growing number of agricultural entrepreneurs from other sectors. Thus, in Chapter 3, the entrepreneurial entry process of new entrants and farm successors is analysed through two hierarchical logistic regressions, attending to the role of farm capital and age. This study found that younger farmers with previous entrepreneurial experience, but without beneficiating from one of the most important Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures (the business start-up scheme directed to younger farmers), are likely to be a new entrant. On the other hand, the results show that younger and higher educated farmers with their land but without previous entrepreneurial experience are likely to be a farm successor. Contrary to previous studies that associate the agricultural sector with older farms and a low level of human capital, this study found that different levels of human capital influence different forms of entrepreneurial entry, like the human capital theory suggests. The findings may support the design of public policies to attract more entrants into the agricultural sector, especially the younger ones and with stronger human capital. Farm businesses are complex, with many of them not corresponding to different legal entities and others owned by household members. Hence, in Chapter 4, different profiles of farm diversification businesses are discriminated and compared through the respective farm, owner-manager and household characteristics. Based on a Latent Class Analysis of conventional and unconventional diversification strategies, three classes of entrepreneurs were found: Pioneers, Traditionalists and Diversifiers. Pioneers use unconventional agricultural practices; Diversifiers are focused on the diversification of market channels and non-agricultural activities; while Traditionalists prefer a more conventional approach to increase farm income. Furthermore, the findings suggest that all familiar ties in the household are essential to enhance portfolio entrepreneurship, essentially in the Pioneers class. This study provides an original framework that operationalises the concept in conventional and unconventional terms, attending at the lack of a clear operationalization of the concept of farm diversification. It also contributes to a better understanding of how portfolio entrepreneurship is developed in the family farm context. The results suggest that more training programmes on entrepreneurship and marketing must be promoted since farmers became more open to implementing new practices, activities and marketing channels with training. Farms face financial constraints and increasing environmental pressures from institutions and consumers, which affects their performance. Nevertheless, the way as the resources and capabilities of entrepreneurs influence performance in the agricultural sector requires further analysis. In Chapter 5, applying a partial-least square, structural equation model (PLS-SEM), it is analysed how farms enhance environmental and financial performance through the relationship between Dynamic Capabilities (DCs), Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), and Environmental Sustainability Commitment (ESC). This study concludes that EO and ESC influence environmental and financial performance positively. Hence, farms can achieve competitive advantage through mitigating their profound impacts on the environment as proposed by the Natural Resource-Based-View (NRBV). Farms are also developing DCs to reconfigure farm businesses, but farmers respond to the higher environmental requirements of agricultural markets primarily through R&D Capabilities and not through Marketing Capabilities. Having as theoretical supports the NRBV and the DCs, this study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which entrepreneurs enhance financial and environmental performance in sectors with high environmental impacts like agriculture. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship training projects may enable farmers to approach food security as a market opportunity and not only as rules they must follow.
- What's new in the research on agricultural entrepreneurship?Publication . Dias, Cláudia S. L.; Rodrigues, Ricardo; Ferreira, João José de MatosDespite the mainstream entrepreneurship research had neglected the agricultural sector, this scenario seems to have changed in the last years with the study of new and diverse phenomena in several countries around the world. This study aims to analyse the state-of-the-art on agricultural entrepreneurship through a systematic literature review and applying the co-words bibliometric technique. The articles reviewed were obtained from the Scopus database, covering journals from all subject areas. The results allowed to identify three main approaches: i) Entrepreneurial Skills and Behaviour, ii) Entrepreneurial Strategies, and iii) Community and Entrepreneurial Activity. Based on this classification, the study shows that the Entrepreneurial Skills and Behaviour are examined essentially in developing countries, focusing on the assessment of entrepreneurship programmes, oriented not only to agricultural students in higher education institutes but also to women and young farmers. Entrepreneurial Strategies of farmers are analysed mainly in developed countries, although it can be based in the diversification of agricultural and non-agricultural businesses, innovation or market channels, depending considerably on factors such as country, type of product and size. Finally, the Community and Entrepreneurial Activity focuses essentially on the impacts of food production in communities of developed countries, highlighting the social entrepreneurship initiatives at urban agriculture.