The rise of Agribusiness in Europe. An innovative organisational response to the threat of price volatility in the Western European broiler chicken industry, 1945 to 1973
| Dates: | 1 February 2016 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Manchester Institute of Innovation Research |
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| Venue opening hours: | 1-2pm (coffee from 12.30pm) |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Andrew Godley |
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Agribusiness has come to mean different things to different audiences: a vehicle for technological modernization, the erosion of traditional values,
or a mechanism for avoiding transparency. This paper reports research on the diffusion of the agribusiness model of business organisation across
Western Europe in the postwar era. This paper explains why the diffusion of the agribusiness organizational model and the increase in poultry
output were so deeply entwined across Europe. With poultry being the most perishable of food products, so poultry producers were most at risk
of price volatility undermining their profitability. The agribusiness structure allowed markets to be internalized and so price volatility to be
dramatically reduced. The paper concentrates on the US, UK and Italian case studies (the leading broiler producing nations) in some detail,
and shows how the poultry sectors in each country adopted different technological solutions to the price volatility problem. In the US arms’ length
contracts remained ubiquitous. In the UK supermarkets took on an intermediating role in the supply chain, which enabled the emerging poultry
sector to invest in refrigeration technology.
In Italy modernization was retarded until a novel form of refrigeration enabled the market to grow. In contrast to such evidence of
diversity in technological trajectories, in all three countries the leading poultry producers internalized markets and adopted near identical
agribusiness organizational structures. Agribusiness appears to have been adopted by agricultural producers in Western Europe in the
postwar era because of the need to reduce price volatility in marketing perishable products rather than the need to exploit new technologies.
Because price volatility threatened profits in the poultry sector the most, so agribusiness organizational structures diffused first in that agricultural
sector.
Directions:
Due to preparation work for the MBS redevelopment project, access to the Harold Hankins building is no longer possible via the University
Precinct Centre. Please use the main entrance of MBS West (Building Number 29 on the Campus Map) and take the lifts to the left of the main
reception desk to the 6th floor. Turn left (‘access to Harold Hankins’ is signed) and go through the door at the end of the corridor and left
through a second door into the stairwell. Go down a half flight of stairs following the sign ‘access to Harold Hankins’ and through the door
into the Harold Hankins building and along the corridor until you get to the main stairwell/lift lobby. Take the lift to the tenth floor then turn
right out of the lift.
Alternatively, if you are a member of the University you can email john.ashton-2@manchester.ac.uk for access to Harold Hankins building
from the door on Booth Street West.
Speaker
Andrew Godley
Role: Director
Organisation: Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
10.05
Harold Hankins building
Oxford Road
Manchester
