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Abstract
This paper investigates empirically the determinants of firms’ performance in the agrifood
sector by using recent survey data for Denmark. Treating sales per employee as a proxy for
value added we estimate several bootstrapped regression models to draw conclusions on the
marginal effects of potential performance determinants such as the form and nature of ownership,
stage of the food chain and commodity sector, new product development, staff quality, firms’
competitive stance, and elements of firms’ strategy. To draw robust inferences we apply, besides
the ordinary heteroscedasticity corrected Tobit ML-estimator, a nonparametric least absolute
deviations estimator (LAD/CLAD) based on a quantile regression procedure. The results indicate
that we cannot reject the hypothesis of no influence of dominant orientation on value added.
Rather, firms’ focus on human capital, stage and commodity sector better explains their value
addition. We reject the hypothesis that regional networks have no influence on value added.
Location in Århus, emphasis on human capital and the negative influence of outsourcing on value
added all provide supporting evidence. We reject the hypothesis of no influence of FDI, and
moreover propose that FDI has targeted the domestic Danish market as a source of value added.