With ongoing globalization, farmers in developing and transition countries are increasingly challenged by the complex organizational structure of international food supply chains. This study seeks to identify how the interplay of supply chain network relationships, which are determined by situational factors affecting farms and their business environment, influences farmers' performance. A theoretical framework is developed and empirically applied to data obtained from a standardized survey of 81 Chilean raspberry producers, 80 Chilean avocado producers and 80 Chilean table grape producers using partial least squares analysis. The results of the comparative analysis of the three producer groups reveal that supply chain network relationships in the Chilean raspberry, avocado and table grape sectors highly predict each other's and the farmers' performance. Thereby, the results do not differ greatly among the three supply chains. The results provide interesting implications, indicating that Chilean small and medium-sized farms but also large farmers can increase farm performance by connecting more closely with trading partners. Furthermore, the findings give governmental offices the opportunity to increase their support for farmers.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, research concepts and empirical evidence are needed to upgrade smallholder activities within local value chains (LVCs) of many developing countries. Yet, comprehensive gender-sensitive investigations of the evolution and multiplicity of governance in whole food systems with parallel functioning of local and modern value chains (MVCs) are greatly underrepresented in the scientific literature. This study aims to uncover LVCs' (a) value systems, (b) governance themes and gender roles for value addition and (c) smallholder upgrading strategies in developing countries' dualistic sectors. The global value chain framework serves as the conceptual basis for the study and is extended towards the gendered value web approach. Empirical data obtained through three focus group discussions, three Net-maps and 21 interviews from the Nigerian shrimp sub-sector represent the basis for the qualitative analysis. The results identified two lead actors-traders and women processors-who are crucial for the functioning of the complex value system. Further findings showed that fishermen and women processors are mutually reliant and are organized along their gendered comparative advantage. Based on these results, manifold managerial and policy implications, that are also applicable to other developing countries and cases, are derived to upgrade and develop smallholders' gendered activities and products along the LVC.gender, global value chain framework, governance themes, Nigerian fishing sector, smallholder upgrading strategies, value web approach | INTRODUCTIONThe last decade has witnessed huge transformations in the food value chains of developing countries, such as rapidly increasing globalization, regionalization, modernization and technologization. These transformations are often associated with distributional effects that counteract the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Dürr, 2015;WTO, 2019). Smallholders respond to these changing situations by switching their marketing channels or interorganizational relationships (Lie, Rich, Kurwijila, & Jervell, 2012;Schipmann & Qaim, 2010). This intensifies the formation of dualistic systems in which both local value chains (LVCs) and modern value chains (MVCs) coexist. Differentiating by actors' size, level of formalization and target markets (Dürr, 2015), LVC is defined, in this study,

Cash crops such as specialty rice and other high‐value varieties produced for domestic and international markets are considered an increasing source of income for smallholder farmers in many Asian countries. The present study focuses on the factors affecting Vietnamese specialty rice farmers' choice of marketing channel and how their choice influences farm performance. The analysis has been conducted using multinomial logit and linear regression models on quantitative data collected from 280 specialty rice farmers in the Red River Delta, one of the main rice production regions in Vietnam. Results reveal that even though local collectors and wholesalers are still the most common recipients of farmers' goods in rural areas, reduction in transaction costs with regard to uncertainty influences farmers to choose modern marketing channels through collective action (via specialty rice farmer associations). This collective marketing channel helps farmers increase average prices received by US$0.028 per kg of paddy. Based on the results, manifold political implications are derived.

Superfoods, former traditional foods that in some cases are now regarded as new healthy luxury food products (NHLFP), have been growing in popularity in high- and middle-income societies. Despite a growing interest in superfoods, a precise definition of NHLFP, which appears to mark a subcategory of superfoods, together with a comprehensive analysis of NHLFP consumer segments does not yet exist. This is of particular relevance to managers as profound knowledge of different consumer groups is a prerequisite for the use of marketing approaches such as social media marketing. Therefore, this research proposes and validates an NHLFP definition and investigates whether promising NHLFP consumer groups can be identified based on selected psychographic and sociodemographic consumer characteristics and whether these groups are also accessible through social media marketing. A data set of 697 fruit consumers in Germany was retrieved in the time period of May to June 2020 and analyzed through exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Eleven factors and four consumer groups were identified, two of which represented favorable superfood consumer groups—one group consumed for intrinsic, health-related reasons rather than for luxury-driven motives, while the other showed tendencies to purchase superfoods for luxury reasons, thus emerging as a promising NHLFP target group. This group is relatively younger, well-educated, and highly receptive of online marketing.

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It is widely recognized that participation in producer groups is advantageous for smallholders who must deal with complex production and marketing constraints and dynamic business environments. However, available data on this process are scarce in the fishery sector, while existing evidence is limited by smallholders’ potential self-selection into producer groups. This study, therefore, examined the selectivity-corrected role of fisher groups in improving shrimpers’ technological and technical efficiency. Using the latest primary data from artisan shrimpers in Nigeria, we applied propensity score matching and Greene’s selectivity stochastic production frontier model to control for selection bias from both observable and unobservable factors. Empirical results from our metafrontier approach show that technical efficiency scores for members tend to be overestimated if selectivity is not properly controlled. However, the technical efficiencies and productivities of members were significantly higher regardless of how biases were corrected, implying that participation in fisher groups is positively related to increases in shrimpers’ capture and technical efficiency. Further findings suggest that current artisanal fisher groups are “production-oriented” as they ensure that members access vital shrimping inputs at lower costs. With declining returns to scale for members, the study concludes that without public and private support for collective action in the fishery sector, membership in artisanal fisher groups may not lead to significant improvement in shrimpers’ productivity. The study discusses several recommendations on how collective action can be further encouraged and developed among artisan fishers.