Domenico Dentoni, Associate Professor in Agribusiness Management, Wageningen University and Research. What agri-entrepreneurship is; when farmers are more entrepreneurial; how rural youth become (or fail to become) entrepreneurial; and why it matters for policy, managers and resilience. Empirical examples from research in the rural Philippines, Albania, Uganda, and Ghana. Keynote presentation at the 2nd ICOALS conference 2018.

1. Farmer Entrepreneurship & their Social Context
Evidence from Emerging Economies
Dr. Domenico Dentoni, Associate Professor in Agribusiness Management
Business Management & Organization Group, Wageningen University
Photo credit: Global Forum on Ag Research (GFAR) 2017.
2nd International Conference of Agriculture and Life Sciences | Tirana, Albania, May 7-8, 2018

2. Key assumptions in current policy and agribusiness debate:
FARMER OR AG-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
(i.e. agricultural/rural entrepreneurship) as a key solution for:
ECONOMIC GROWTH; SOCIAL EQUITY; CLIMATE RESILIENCE
Challenging assumptions on Ag-entrepreneurship
Still open questions that we address here:
1 à WHAT exactly is AG-ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
2 à WHEN are farmers more likely to be entrepreneurial?
3 à HOW do rural YOUTH become entrepreneurial?
4 à WHY studying ag-entrepreneurship has implications?

3. What is ag-entrepreneurship in emerging
economies?
Photo credit: La Linea Verde (2017).

4. What is ag-entrepreneurship in emerging
economies?

5. What is ag-entrepreneurship in emerging
economies?

6. What is Agri-entrepreneurship vs. Innovation?
Starting a NEW
BUSINESS
Developing a NEW
PRODUCT; Using a
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Building a NEW
MARKET
CHANNEL
ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION, LEARNING
AND PROCESSES WITH EXISTING (= not new)
BUSINESSES, MARKETS, TECHNOLOGIES
Entrepreneurship (Shane & Venkataraman 2000) =
recombining resources innovatively to seize opportunities for
value creation.
…NOT ONLY IN-
FARM, BUT ALSO
AROUND AND
COMPLEMENTARY
TO FARMING!

7. What is Agri-entrepreneurship vs. Innovation?
INNOVATION
More visible & easier to
measure:
Starting a NEW BUSINESS;
Developing a NEW
PRODUCT; Using a NEW
TECHNOLOGY; Building a
NEW MARKET CHANNEL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
More latent & more difficult to
measure:
ENTREPRENEURIAL
ORIENTATION, LEARNING
AND PROCESSES WITH
EXISTING BUSINESSES,
MARKETS, TECHNOLOGIES

8. What is ag-entrepreneurship outside the West?
Authors: Lai, Dentoni, Chan, Neyra (published in 2017)
Data: survey with 386 youth taking ag-entrepreneurship training in The Philippines (2013-2014).
Analysis: Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
Photo credit: Dr. Cynthia Lai (2016).

9. Innovativeness
Proactivity or
Autonomy
Farmers’
Entrepreneurial
Orientation
Risk-taking
+
+
+
What is ag-entrepreneurship outside the West?
Authors: Lai, Dentoni, Chan, Neyra (published in 2017)
Data: survey with 386 youth taking ag-entrepreneurship training in The Philippines (2013-2014).
Analysis: Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
Key Finding: differently from Western ag-entrepreneurs,
need for achievement does not reflect entrepreneurial
orientation in rural Philippines à ag-entrepreneurship
reflects different mindsets in different social contexts.
Need for
achievement
Farmers’
Entrepreneurial
Orientation
+
Proactivity or
Autonomy
Risk-taking
Innovativeness
+
+
+
Western-based
measurement
model
RMSEA = 0,082
Locally adapted
measurement
model
RMSEA = 0,033

10. Authors: Barzola, Dentoni, Mordini, Isubikalu et al. (published in 2018)
Data: survey with 152 coffee and honey farmers in Uganda (2016)
Analysis: Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Multiple Linear Regressions.
What is ag-entrepreneurship vs. Innovation?

11. Innovativeness
Proactivity or
Autonomy
Farmers’
Entrepreneurial
OrientationFarm size
Farmers’
Market
Innovation
Risk-taking
Education
Farmers’
Product
Innovation
Farmers’
Process
Innovation
+
+
+
+***
+***
What is ag-entrepreneurship vs. Innovation?
+**
+*
Authors: Barzola, Dentoni, Mordini, Isubikalu et al. (published in 2018)
Data: survey with 152 coffee and honey farmers in Uganda (2016)
Analysis: Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Multiple Linear Regressions.
Key Findings: 1) Innovative farmers with small
farm size & 2) proactive farmers with large farm
size are most likely to innovate.
Access to
resources
Farmers’
Innovation
+**
+ +
+
+**
+**
-**

12. When people are more likely to be(come)
ag-entrepreneurial?

13. When are farmers entrepreneurial?
Authors: Xhoxhi, Imami, Skreli, Dentoni (working paper)
Data: survey with 200+ citrus farmers in Albania (2017).
Analysis: Structural Equation Modelling
Photo credit: AgroWeb (2017).

14. Innovativeness
Proactivity or
Autonomy
Farmers’
Entrepreneurial
Orientation
Access to
unused
arable land
Reciprocity
Risk-taking
Reputation
Trust
Age
+
+
+
+***
+**
+*
When are farmers entrepreneurial?
+***
+**
-***
Authors: Xhoxhi, Imami, Skreli, Dentoni (working paper)
Data: survey with 200+ citrus farmers in Albania (2017).
Analysis: Structural Equation Modelling
Key Findings: 1) youth have more
entrepreneurial orientation; 2) but age
builds trust; 3) and trust fosters
entrepreneurial orientation.

15. When are farmers entrepreneurial?
Authors: Barzola, Dentoni, Van der Slikke, Isubikalu et al. (under review)
Data: Semi-structured interviews with 36 coffee farmers and informants in Uganda (2016).
Analysis: Value Network Analysis; Cluster Analysis.

16. When are farmers entrepreneurial?
Authors: Barzola, Dentoni, Van der Slikke, Isubikalu et al. (under review)
Data: Semi-structured interviews with 36 coffee farmers and informants in Uganda (2016).
Analysis: Value Network Analysis; Cluster Analysis.
Cluster 1: Young
male farmers
Cluster 2: Elder female
farmers
Cluster 3: Middle-age male
farmers
34 years avg. 66 years avg. 52 years avg.
Mostly highlands Mostly midlands Mostly lowlands
<0,5 acres 0,5 < acres < 2,5 2,5 < acres
Low resource
diversification
High resource
reciprocity
(through cooperatives)
Low resource reciprocity; high
resource diversification
Constraints in finance,
market info &
knowledge.
Constraints in finance
and ag inputs.
Rapid growth: increased
access to banks, urban and
niche export markets.
Key Findings: geographic location, farm size and
resource diversification plays a critical role in
entrepreneurial outcomes.

17. How rural youth become more ag-
entrepreneurial?

18. How do rural youth become entrepreneurial?
Authors: Ochago, Dentoni, Lans, Trienekens (on-going research)
Data: Survey and interviews with 200+ coffee farmers in Uganda (2018).
Analysis: Structural Equation Modelling; Content analysis
Ag-
Entrepreneurial
Experience
Ag-
Entrepreneurial
Knowledge
Experimenting
Sense-making
Family resource
endowments
Dominant
community logics
Collectivism
Land stewardship
Land ownership
Family education
Social capital
Value networks
+/-
+
Key Hypotheses: 1) Family resource
endowments may trigger youth
entrepreneurial learning; 2) yet
dominant community logics,
depending on circumstances, may
hamper or support learning.

19. How do rural youth become entrepreneurial?
Authors: Afari-Kwarteng, Dentoni, Lubberink, Lans (working paper)
Data: Interviews with 47 rural community members in Ghana (2017).
Analysis: Qualitative Analysis of Critical Incidents.

20. How do rural youth become entrepreneurial?
Authors: Afari-Kwarteng, Dentoni, Lubberink, Lans (working paper)
Data: Interviews with 47 rural community members in Ghana (2017).
Analysis: Qualitative Analysis of Critical Incidents.
Entrepreneurial
processes:
-Idea generation
-Idea incubation
-Idea championing
-Idea implementation
Community
organization:
-Social capital (trust
and social networks)
-Governance
structures (knowledge-
sharing, decision-
making, enforcement)
External poverty
reduction
initiatives
Influencing through resource access & peer pressure
Developing new routines & giving new examples
Key Findings: 1) Community
organization and youth
individual entrepreneurial
processes challenged each
other; 2) External poverty
reduction initiatives
strengthened community yet
hampered individual
entrepreneurship.

21. Why this ag-entrepreneurship research has implications?
Photo credit: United Nations Albania 2018.

22. Why ag-entrepreneurship research has implications?
Ag-entrepreneurship in emerging economies may:
• Fuel product, process and market innovation.
• Support adaptation and resilience in turbulent contexts.
• Empower youth and marginalized actors in communities.
Yet, ag-entrepreneurship can create serious misunderstandings among
donors, policy-makers and managers :
• Meaning of ag-entrepreneurship differs across social contexts;
Donors, policy-makers and managers need to:
Ø Understand the different meanings that stakeholders give to
ag-entrepreneurship BEFORE new interventions.
Ø Collectively create a common understanding of ag-
entrepreneurship in DURING new interventions.

23. High risk of making powerful actors more powerful:
● Actors with larger farms and access to unused land;
● Actors with richer family endowments (education, finance, value networks);
● Elderly in relation to trust and social networks in communities;
● Actors embracing leading dominant community logics.
Donors, policy-makers and managers need to:
Ø Agree (or agree to disagree) on which specific rural actors will take
advantage through ag-entrepreneurship and which effects they generate.
Ø Systematically understand these power structures BEFORE interventions.
Why ag-entrepreneurship research has implications?

24. We invite you to engage on global debate on the
what, when, how and why of ag-entrepreneurship
§ Track on “Entrepreneurship &
Innovation in Emerging Economies”.
§ Conference Wageningen International
Chains & NEtworks Management
(WICANEM).
§ Ancona, Italy, July 2nd-3rd, 2018.
§ Organized every two years by
Wageningen University.

25. We invite you to engage on global debate on the
what, when, how and why of ag-entrepreneurship
§ Special issue on ”Entrepreneurship
and Innovation in Emerging
Economies”.
§ Sustainability journal (MDPI publisher)
§ Impact factor: 1,79.
§ Call for papers soon online.
§ Deadline January 2019.

26. We invite you to engage on global debate on the
what, when, how and why of ag-entrepreneurship
§ Special issue on ”New organizational
forms in emerging economies”.
§ Journal of Agribusiness in Developing
and Emerging Economies
§ Clarivate emerging citation index
§ 10 co-guest editors worldwide.
§ Call for papers soon online.
§ Deadline December 2018.

27. Faleminderit! Questions?
Happy to engage further in person or feel free to contact:
Dr. Domenico Dentoni, Business Management & Organization Group, Wageningen University
domenico.dentoni@wur.nl