Mark Gehlhar (Economic Research Service, USDA) Anita Regmi (Economic Research Service, USDA) Spyro Stefanou (Pennsylvania State University) Barry Zoumas (Pennsylvania State University)
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The globalization profile of US food firms is mixed. US sales from foreign direct investment is now over six times the level of exports, while US processed food trade balance has moved from +$9 billion in 1995 to -$7 billion in 2004. Competitive forces drive firms to seek new areas of growth, with either portfolio expansion or penetration and expansion in new markets. Although the forces that weigh heavily on a firm are recognized, their influence in determining a firm’s action in choosing a particular strategy is not well understood. As the nature of food manufacturing is evolving and the operational scope of a food manufacturing firm has grown from local, to regional, national, and global, is there a new role for policy? What we do know is that a firm trades with other firms and that aggregate trade patterns do not fully reflect how firms view prospects, make decisions and factor in policies as they organize themselves for trade. Addressing the potential characterizations of competitiveness for the industry and the firm followed by the conflicting influences of R&D on competitiveness, we focus on what is meant by a global food firm with the use of the experiences of three industry case studies.
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Paper provided by University of Crete, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
0714.
Length: 14 pages Date of creation: 16 Jun 2006 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in USDA & AIEA2 International Meeting, Competitiveness in Agriculture and in the Food Industry: US and EU Perspectives, Bologna, Italy (2006) Handle: RePEc:crt:wpaper:0714
Find related papers by JEL classification: L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy
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