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BACKGROUND
Over the past decade, scholars have observed changes occurring in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Felgenhauer and Labella (2008), for example observed that large “African” agro-food companies are moving beyond national geographic markets, and in the process, challenging leading global multinational corporations (MNCs) in some instances, or seeking cooperation with them in others. This phenomenon was initially identified in the early to mid-2000s through the “supermarket phenomenon”, which was described within the context of a rapid process of international expansion of supermarkets (Reardon & Gulati, 2008). In the latter part of the 2000s, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 food price crisis, the internationalisation process was identified more so, through cross-border acquisitions of large-scale farms (Anseeuw, 2012). Ducastel and Anseeuw (2014) argued that the more recent changes in the agricultural sector had been underpinned by the emergence of “new players” (such as investment funds and engineering firms – and acting as new avenues of agricultural finance and applied technology) who have contributed to increasing levels of vertical integration in commodity value chains.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the internationalisation of agribusinesses has not been readily explained by extant theory. Part of the reason is that much of the internationalisation theory has been crafted for, and adapted to suit, developed market contexts. Sub-Saharan African agro-food markets are under-developed compared to other parts of the world – and they are domicile to inadequate commercial and physical infrastructure, policy and political instability, inadequate legal frameworks and weak institutions, centrally controlled currencies, and a generally pervasive role of governments in markets. Sunje and Çivi (2015) argued that such conditions challenge the validity of existing internationalisation theory, and call for a broader conceptual framework of internationalisation in emerging markets.
Yet in its embodiment of “developing market conditions”, sub-Saharan Africa is diverse. For example, the continent consists of a combination of low- and middle-income countries, the latter of whom are an exception. A case in point is South Africa, whose agricultural market conditions are distinct from those within the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Two aspects of South Africa’s economic character are worth mentioning in this regard. First, South Africa is the only “Newly Industrialised Country” (NIC) in sub-Saharan Africa due to the country’s deeper and more advanced manufacturing and financial sectors, more developed infrastructure and greater levels of economic development (Kuepper, 2016). Secondly, South Africa is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa with a fully-fledged “futures market” for agricultural commodities. Against the backdrop of South Africa’s peculiar characteristics in sub-Saharan Africa, analysts have found evidence to suggest that South African-based agribusiness MNCs have, in recent times, begun to follow the global trend of intensified vertical integration and consolidation (African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), 2013; Ernst & Young, 2014; Hamman, 2014). As an under-current of these broader processes of internationalisation, Anseeuw and Ducastel (2012) argued that South Africa’s integration into global agro-food and financial markets has led to some degree of financial deepening in the agricultural sector.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT .
1.3 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES
1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.5 RESEARCH METHODS
1.6 OUTLINE OF STUDY
CHAPTER 2 EVIDENCE OF AGRIBUSINESS CONVERGENCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA .
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
2.3 A CASE OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY TRADING FIRMS
2.4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3 THE COVERGENCE – DIVERGENCE PARADOX: THE NOTION OF TWO EXTREMES
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 THEORETICAL FOUNDATION .
3.3 THE VARIABLES AND DATA DESCRIPTION
3.4 METHODOLOGY
3.5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
CHAPTER 4 CLUSTER CONVERGENCE AND STRATEGIC AGRIBUSINESS ALLIANCES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 REVIEW OF GAME THEORY
4.4 SAMPLE DATA AND MODEL DESCRIPTION
4.5 THE AGRIBUSINESS GAME MODE
4.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
CHAPTER 5 SIGMA CONVERGENCE: AN AGRIBUSINESS CLUSTER CASE STUDY IN ZAMBIA
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 THE BASIC MODEL
5.3 THE MODEL STRUCTURE.
5.4 SIMULATION RESULTS AND SCENARIO ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION .
REFERENCES
