All issues
Volume 51, Issue 1
Displaying 1-10 of 10 articles from this issue
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|
Research Article
-
Miki Shibuya, Masaki Kanaoka, Takao Hosoyama2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 1-12
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLRice production is facing a price slump. It is important to increase the added-value of rice through direct marketing from producers to consumers and businesses as part of income generation measures in individual rice production management, especially at large-scale farms. However, even such direct marketing practices are faced with severe price competition. This situation necessitates a business model that creates customer values and generates profit in a series of activities from production to sales. This paper looks at an example of a large-scale cooperative corporation A in Hokkaido that practices direct marketing of rice as a staple food in order to study their business strategy of direct marketing based on a business model theory. The study found that important points for business strategies include: 1) designing a series of value creating activities from procurement of production materials, sales, marketing, and service as a value chain that is consistent with a certain segment of customers, which is the customers here; 2) selling to these customers at premium prices; at the same 3) adding value creating activities that are consistent with another segment of customers, which is the businesses based on the value chain; and 4) providing the products at lower prices to meet the reservation price estimated by the customers.View full abstractDownload PDF (862K) Full view HTML
Short Papers
-
Toshihide Yamauchi, Masaya Nakatsuka, Mieko Fuse2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 13-19
Published: 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLAmid the increasing demand for self-governing organizations in Japan’s hilly and mountainous areas, the government has implemented the community support staff system, in which local governments are responsible for supporting self-governing organizations. This comparative case study on three local governments in Hyogo prefecture shows that community support staff are highly committed to their assignments without regard to payment. We also find significant relationships between the community support system’s design and staff activities. The study employs two axes (task-orientation and volunteer-orientation) to characterize the system’s design, revealing that community support staff do not always find their activities rewarding and consider their management system to be poorly organized, indicating that further efforts are needed to communicate the importance of the system.View full abstractDownload PDF (657K) Full view HTML -
Nahoko Kihara2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 20-25
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLPurchasing management is critical for increasing profitability in the agricultural sector. However, the requirements for negotiation during the purchasing process are largely unknown. This study examines farmers’ purchasing management and the requirements of purchasing negotiations. The results of a questionnaire survey and interviews conducted with 23 Japanese farmers show that three components—1) size of business, 2) operating cash flow, and 3) chance of negotiation—are important to supply chains and the value of an agribusiness.View full abstractDownload PDF (498K) Full view HTML -
Kenetsu Ueda, Seiki Kiyono2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 26-31
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLThis study examined the off-the-job training (off-JT) provided by the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) Group to reveal the main issues concerning human resources development for the marketing of fruits and vegetables. This study examined the nationwide off-JT provided by the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-Zenchu) and the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-ZenNoh) as well as the prefectural off-JT provided by the Prefectural Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-Kenchu) and the JA-ZenNoh Prefectural Headquarters. Many of these training programs focus on teaching the skills needed to improve responses to production divisions in internal marketing. Few programs teach trainees the skills necessary for external marketing. Off-JT programs must be expanded to link internal with external marketing activities. Moreover, on-the-job training programs must be institutionalized within the JA Group to develop human resources for marketing.View full abstractDownload PDF (993K) Full view HTML -
Sayaka Takiguchi, Seiki Kiyono2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 32-37
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLThis study analyzes the value of grocery purchases made through net supermarkets. The results indicate that such purchases carry specific meanings and that consumers who purchase groceries using net supermarkets can be classified into three categories. The first comprises consumers whose use of net supermarkets is restricted to purchases of vegetables at weights unavailable through other channels. The second comprises consumers attracted to the unique cachet of buying through a net supermarket. The third category comprises consumers who feel that their lifestyles make using net supermarkets a necessity.View full abstractDownload PDF (865K) Full view HTML -
Hitomi Omae, Hideo Furutsuka2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 38-43
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLThis study creates a CSR accounting table for farmers in three steps. First, the study describes the characteristics of general CSR accounting. Then, production data are used to create a CSR accounting table. Finally, the table is employed to demonstrate the CSR analysis method. These three steps produced three main results. (1) Most CSR accounting tables are found to reveal forms of added value at high rates of reliability. (2) This enables the creation of CSR accounting table showing forms of added value for agricultural management and (3) the introduction of an analysis method for CSR accounting tables using values such as “pass-on amount for area”, and “average of pass-on for area.”View full abstractDownload PDF (513K) Full view HTML -
Yukiko Nakama, Kazuyoshi Uchida2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 44-49
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLFor the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), the aims of the extension services for home living improvement included improving living conditions of farmers and spreading democracy in rural villages. It adopted a policy of cultivating home living improvement groups on the model of women’s common-interest associations as the organizational agents of the service. This study discusses how local authorities in the Tohoku region responded to the basic policies of the MAF’s extension services for home living improvement, with a focus on Aomori prefecture. The study demonstrates that, although Aomori attempted to accept the MAF’s basic policy, it was initially forced to implement the improvements through existing men’s organizations—an unavoidable response given the social realities of the farming villages. As improvement activities began in earnest, however, women gradually took over as their primary movers.View full abstractDownload PDF (438K) Full view HTML -
Tadasu Tsuruta, Yuya Fujiwara2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 50-55
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLThis paper examines the sociological factors in the in-situ conservation of traditional varieties of sorghum in the Yamato Highlands, Nara prefecture. In village A, red sorghum is still grown to color red bean rice, an auspicious food used in celebrations. A village enterprise dedicated to food processing plays a key role in red sorghum production. Elderly females grow this crop to dye other products bright red, the color favored by fellow villagers. In the adjacent village B, which has no enterprises, the same red sorghum is grown by some households but strictly for domestic consumption. In both cases, social relations based on reciprocity within the neighborhood and family are important factors in maintaining this kind of traditional food and crop.View full abstractDownload PDF (453K) Full view HTML -
Ikuo Okuda2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 56-61
Published: June 25, 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLThis paper analyzes sustainable forest management in terms of the southeastern Alaskan timber production of the Alaska Native Corporations (founded under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: ANCSA) conducted in the 1980s. The study offers the findings below: Village corporations owned small areas of forestland (e.g., the Huna Totem Corporation owned 23,040 acres). Compensation, which was distributed under the provisions of the ANCSA, was insufficient for initial investments in timber production. Thus, Huna Totem had to borrow, using its land as collateral. On the other hand, the Sealaska regional corporation had extensive forestland (267,250 acres) and was highly compensated (at 93 million dollars), enabling Sealaska to foresee its sustainable forest management. In the 1980s, 12 Alaskan regional corporations suffered about 1.5 billion dollars in net operating losses (NOLs), mostly in timber production. However, the corporations also achieved a total of 426 million dollars in NOLs sales, allowing them to make up for the losses.View full abstractDownload PDF (395K) Full view HTML
Reply to Book Review
-
[in Japanese]2015 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 62-63
Published: 2015
Released on J-STAGE: July 04, 2015
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTMLDownload PDF (252K) Full view HTML
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|