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SUMMARY:Final IfM Buns Talk of this Term: Zhaohui Wu on Cultural Embeddedn
 ess in Supply Network - Zhaohui Wu
DTSTART:20140718T090000Z
DTEND:20140718T094500Z
UID:TALK53444@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Yongjiang Shi
DESCRIPTION:Agricultural cooperative (or co-ops) is a unique form of suppl
 y network that is made up of producers and sometimes downstream supply cha
 in members. One fundamental principle underlying such co-ops is that they 
 are a user-owned\, user-controlled and user-benefit business. This princip
 le distinguishes co-ops from corporations in funding\, ownership and conse
 quently decision processes. Studies and industry reports on co-ops point o
 ut that one important challenge many co-ops face is how to compete and thr
 ive in the dominant industrial food system characterized by consolidation 
 of production\, distribution and retail along the supply chains. Many co-o
 ps eventually convert to public corporations at the sacrifice of certain m
 ember groups and the founding principles. However\, we have little underst
 anding as to how agricultural co-ops make decisions when facing these chal
 lenges associated with the opportunity and pressure for growth. In this st
 udy\, we intend to answer two questions: (1) Considering agricultural co-o
 p as a supply network\, how does it function when members lack relational 
 and structural embeddedness? (2)How do co-op's governance\, founding value
 s and competing interests influence the debates and decision process under
  growth pressure?  To answer these questions\, we carried out our field re
 search at Country Natural Beef\, a beef production-marketing co-op\, for a
  period of five years between 2007 and 2012. We directly observed a sequen
 ce of four critical decisions over this period. In this manuscript\, we de
 lineate the evolution of the co-op from the peak of its business to gradua
 l stagnation. Such changes resulted from decisions made based on competing
  value logics and clashes among different interests within the co-op as me
 mbers address market and operations challenges. We found such dynamic chan
 ge ultimately led to changes in shift in the coo-op's governance\, mission
  and supply chain practices.\n\nZhaohui Wu from the College of Business at
  Oregon State University in Corvallis\, USA\, is going to share his resear
 ch and publications in the areas of agricultural supply network and organi
 sational culture as well as their interactions.  A more detailed abstract 
 is at the end of this e-mail.\n\nZhaohui is an associate professor at Oreg
 on State University. He is a recipient of The Leverhulme Trust of Visiting
  Professorship at The University of Exeter in the UK. He currently is cond
 ucting research in the areas of supply networks\, sustainability strategy 
 in natural resources management\, and supply chain management in agricultu
 ral cooperatives. Prior to his work in academe\, he worked as a buyer for 
 a US-based aerospace company\, and as a project manager for a Chinese inte
 rnational trade company\, focusing on power and utility equipment. He publ
 ished his most recent articles in the Journal of Supply Chain Management\,
  Journal of Operations Management\, and Journal of Macromarketing\, and a 
 book on sustainable food supply chain management.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 3\, IfM\, Alan Reece Building\, 17 Charles Babbage R
 oad
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