Pub Date : 2022-02-08DOI: 10.1177/09763996211070332
Manuel Gonzalo
With an average GDP growth rate of more than 6% India was one of the most dynamic economies in the twenty-first century. The conventional narrative stresses on the success of the New Economic Policy (NEP) implementation since 1990s as a process of liberalization and global insertion of Indian economy that caused growth. Introducing some nuance on this conceptualization, the main objective of this article is to discuss on the drivers of the Indian GDP growth between 1990 and 2015 from a Brazilian demand-led approach, paying main attention on the role of autonomous expenditures. Particularly, after clustering some Indian growth interpretations and data, the Brazilian debate between Furtado and Tavares is used to discuss the Indian growth acceleration. This blend of Brazilian and Indian authors and conceptual contributions is original in nature. Without ignoring the export contribution, we point out the relevance of upper class/cast ‘autonomous’ consumption (fueled by credit boom and real wage smooth increase), residential and government gross domestic capital formation (GDCF) and anticyclical fiscal policies.
{"title":"The Indian Growth Acceleration: A Brazilian Demand-led Insight","authors":"Manuel Gonzalo","doi":"10.1177/09763996211070332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211070332","url":null,"abstract":"With an average GDP growth rate of more than 6% India was one of the most dynamic economies in the twenty-first century. The conventional narrative stresses on the success of the New Economic Policy (NEP) implementation since 1990s as a process of liberalization and global insertion of Indian economy that caused growth. Introducing some nuance on this conceptualization, the main objective of this article is to discuss on the drivers of the Indian GDP growth between 1990 and 2015 from a Brazilian demand-led approach, paying main attention on the role of autonomous expenditures. Particularly, after clustering some Indian growth interpretations and data, the Brazilian debate between Furtado and Tavares is used to discuss the Indian growth acceleration. This blend of Brazilian and Indian authors and conceptual contributions is original in nature. Without ignoring the export contribution, we point out the relevance of upper class/cast ‘autonomous’ consumption (fueled by credit boom and real wage smooth increase), residential and government gross domestic capital formation (GDCF) and anticyclical fiscal policies.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42940576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Existing studies on household expenditure on education in India largely focus on the elementary and tertiary levels of education. Until recently, researchers have paid little consideration to examining the issue of household investment at the secondary level of education, especially in the sub-national context. Using a recent primary survey encompassing quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines the levels, patterns and determinants of parental allocation of financial resources for secondary education in Haryana, India. We find that households spend 7.22% of their annual family income per student per annum in secondary education—with stark differences between government (2.26%) and private schools (10.68%). Besides, the complex interplay of socio-economic and cultural factors in the state leads to systematic patterns in the said expenditures, intensifying pro-male gender disparities and deepening the hegemony of the privileged sections (i.e., in terms of a household’s caste, class and educational capital), particularly at the urban and intermediate levels. The study emphasizes the role of policies and practices of the state in pragmatically aiming at the removal of the aforesaid inequalities, inter-alia, by regulating the commercialization of school education in the non-state sector.
{"title":"Household Expenditure on Secondary Education in Haryana (India): Levels, Patterns and Determinants","authors":"Harvinder Singh, Angrej Singh Gill, Pradeep Kumar Choudhury","doi":"10.1177/09763996211073230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211073230","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Existing studies on household expenditure on education in India largely focus on the elementary and tertiary levels of education. Until recently, researchers have paid little consideration to examining the issue of household investment at the secondary level of education, especially in the sub-national context. Using a recent primary survey encompassing quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines the levels, patterns and determinants of parental allocation of financial resources for secondary education in Haryana, India. We find that households spend 7.22% of their annual family income per student per annum in secondary education—with stark differences between government (2.26%) and private schools (10.68%). Besides, the complex interplay of socio-economic and cultural factors in the state leads to systematic patterns in the said expenditures, intensifying pro-male gender disparities and deepening the hegemony of the privileged sections (i.e., in terms of a household’s caste, class and educational capital), particularly at the urban and intermediate levels. The study emphasizes the role of policies and practices of the state in pragmatically aiming at the removal of the aforesaid inequalities, <i>inter-alia</i>, by regulating the commercialization of school education in the non-state sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"84 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138513233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-06DOI: 10.1177/09763996211073949
Aruna Jha, Madhavi Kapoor, Nidhi
This study aims to investigate the relationship among the various institutional pressures, corporate social responsibility, legitimacy, and reputation in the context of Indian corporates. It also provides an in-depth industry-wise analysis for the said relationship. BSE 500 listed companies form the population for this pan-India primary research. PLS-SEM is the statistical technique adopted to examine the relationship between research constructs. The overall industry analysis established a positive association between all six institutional pressures and CSR activities, but the comprehensive multigroup industrial analysis revealed that kind of institutional pressures that are important to corporates vary across industries. Multi-group analysis points out that—local communities, peers, and media are statistically significant for high as well as low impact industries. But government and NGOs are not statistically significant pressure groups for low impact industries. However, industry associations are not important as a pressure group for both high impact as well as low impact industries. Furthermore, legitimacy is seen to fully mediate the relationship between CSR and reputation for the national level survey.
{"title":"Can One Size Fit All: A Multi-group Analysis of Indian Corporates","authors":"Aruna Jha, Madhavi Kapoor, Nidhi","doi":"10.1177/09763996211073949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211073949","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to investigate the relationship among the various institutional pressures, corporate social responsibility, legitimacy, and reputation in the context of Indian corporates. It also provides an in-depth industry-wise analysis for the said relationship. BSE 500 listed companies form the population for this pan-India primary research. PLS-SEM is the statistical technique adopted to examine the relationship between research constructs. The overall industry analysis established a positive association between all six institutional pressures and CSR activities, but the comprehensive multigroup industrial analysis revealed that kind of institutional pressures that are important to corporates vary across industries. Multi-group analysis points out that—local communities, peers, and media are statistically significant for high as well as low impact industries. But government and NGOs are not statistically significant pressure groups for low impact industries. However, industry associations are not important as a pressure group for both high impact as well as low impact industries. Furthermore, legitimacy is seen to fully mediate the relationship between CSR and reputation for the national level survey.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46126316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-24DOI: 10.1177/09763996211065139
Tae-Seok Jang, Sehwan Oh
This study examines major challenges for the Korean economy since East Asia has undergone significant transitions with the emergence of China in the 2000s. Because the transition has created uncertainties in the economy, South Korea has been exposed to a high degree of international competition in the turbulence of regional integration. We first employed structural vector autoregression to provide the impulse response of investment to various economic shocks, revealing the effects of structural changes and competition on industry. Furthermore, we identified the reasons behind low investment in South Korea over the past two decades. Second, as a proxy for structural change in the economy, we addressed the effects of extraneous shocks on the Korean economy by considering industry competitiveness. The results indicate that heightened uncertainty and export demands have shaped the dynamics of the Korean economy. In particular, the overall competitiveness of South Korea’s merchant trade in major products such as mobile phones, automobiles, ships and optics has weakened due to intensifying competition and increasing overseas production. These changes suggest that South Korea needs to revise its economic development strategy, which has been largely driven by exports. To address the diverse challenges faced by the Korean economy, we highlighted the importance of indigenous dynamism for sustainable growth.
{"title":"Transition to Sustainable Growth in South Korea: Investment and Trade under Uncertainty","authors":"Tae-Seok Jang, Sehwan Oh","doi":"10.1177/09763996211065139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211065139","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines major challenges for the Korean economy since East Asia has undergone significant transitions with the emergence of China in the 2000s. Because the transition has created uncertainties in the economy, South Korea has been exposed to a high degree of international competition in the turbulence of regional integration. We first employed structural vector autoregression to provide the impulse response of investment to various economic shocks, revealing the effects of structural changes and competition on industry. Furthermore, we identified the reasons behind low investment in South Korea over the past two decades. Second, as a proxy for structural change in the economy, we addressed the effects of extraneous shocks on the Korean economy by considering industry competitiveness. The results indicate that heightened uncertainty and export demands have shaped the dynamics of the Korean economy. In particular, the overall competitiveness of South Korea’s merchant trade in major products such as mobile phones, automobiles, ships and optics has weakened due to intensifying competition and increasing overseas production. These changes suggest that South Korea needs to revise its economic development strategy, which has been largely driven by exports. To address the diverse challenges faced by the Korean economy, we highlighted the importance of indigenous dynamism for sustainable growth.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"14 1","pages":"360 - 378"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46180354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-24DOI: 10.1177/09763996211065565
Leonard Fong, Litt Lam, S. Law, W. Azman-Saini, Normaz Wana
This article analyses the importance of high-technology trade as a channel of economic growth to ease Malaysia out of the middle-income trap. This study also wonders upon the missing absorptive capabilities that validate the likelihoods of dismal gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the 1990s. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimator as robustness checks, this study identifies the determinants of high-technology trade and the appropriate absorptive capability in enhancing economic growth. The empirical results from quarterly data from 1990 to 2015 proved that foreign direct investment, financial development and infrastructure are vital to develop a successful high-technology trade. Another important finding is that it validates the presence of trade openness (as absorptive capability) in order to magnify the benefits of research and development (R&D). This explains why, despite spending on R&D, these spending do not project to economic growth.
{"title":"High Technology Trade and the Roles of Absorptive Capabilities in Malaysia","authors":"Leonard Fong, Litt Lam, S. Law, W. Azman-Saini, Normaz Wana","doi":"10.1177/09763996211065565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211065565","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the importance of high-technology trade as a channel of economic growth to ease Malaysia out of the middle-income trap. This study also wonders upon the missing absorptive capabilities that validate the likelihoods of dismal gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the 1990s. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimator as robustness checks, this study identifies the determinants of high-technology trade and the appropriate absorptive capability in enhancing economic growth. The empirical results from quarterly data from 1990 to 2015 proved that foreign direct investment, financial development and infrastructure are vital to develop a successful high-technology trade. Another important finding is that it validates the presence of trade openness (as absorptive capability) in order to magnify the benefits of research and development (R&D). This explains why, despite spending on R&D, these spending do not project to economic growth.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"14 1","pages":"315 - 340"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44422655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-03DOI: 10.1177/09763996211054615
Muralitharan Paramasua, E. Devadason, Pardis Moslemzadeh Tehrani
This article investigates policy constraints for the environmental goods sector in Malaysia based on the dimensions of market-based (including regulatory) instruments and trade policies. In-depth structured interviews with the government and key industry players are conducted, and six overarching themes constraining the efficacy of the instruments and policies were identified. The findings suggest that incentives and loans for this sector are skewed to manufacturers and low-risk projects, respectively. The major policy gaps in this sector are mostly related to procedural issues, namely non-transparent information, non-uniformity of requirements and complex documentation for certification, licensing and permits.
{"title":"Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Market-based Instruments and Trade Policies for Environmental Goods: Evidence from Malaysia","authors":"Muralitharan Paramasua, E. Devadason, Pardis Moslemzadeh Tehrani","doi":"10.1177/09763996211054615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211054615","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates policy constraints for the environmental goods sector in Malaysia based on the dimensions of market-based (including regulatory) instruments and trade policies. In-depth structured interviews with the government and key industry players are conducted, and six overarching themes constraining the efficacy of the instruments and policies were identified. The findings suggest that incentives and loans for this sector are skewed to manufacturers and low-risk projects, respectively. The major policy gaps in this sector are mostly related to procedural issues, namely non-transparent information, non-uniformity of requirements and complex documentation for certification, licensing and permits.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48965512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-26DOI: 10.1177/09763996211063600
L. Singh, B. Shergill
The farmers’ protest at the outskirts of Delhi has completed one year and still continuing. It was triggered after the Government of India enacted three farm Acts in September 2020 (now repealed) that strive to initiate sweeping reforms in agricultural produce selling, procurement, and storage and public distribution of essential commodities. In this context, an attempt has been made in this article to examine the claim of both the government and the farmers’ unions leading the protest movement. The contribution of this study is manifold: in terms of tracing the evolution of the current farmers’ protest movement, farmer unions’ negotiations with the government, loss of human lives, and outcomes. It is found that farm Acts are structurally flawed and risk the food security of the country besides preparing ground for eviction of smallholders from agriculture altogether. The analysis of the field survey based on characteristics of 460 deceased farmers during the participation in the protest reveals that they belonged to the lowest rung of the farmers. The support to the family members left behind has come from various quarters but is inadequate. The article argues that the state autonomy to take policy decisions regarding farm Acts should be protected. The union government should develop institutional mechanism to take along all stakeholders for resolving the international and inter-state issues concerning agriculture sector.
{"title":"Separating Wheat from the Chaff: Farm Acts, Farmers’ Protest and Outcomes","authors":"L. Singh, B. Shergill","doi":"10.1177/09763996211063600","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211063600","url":null,"abstract":"The farmers’ protest at the outskirts of Delhi has completed one year and still continuing. It was triggered after the Government of India enacted three farm Acts in September 2020 (now repealed) that strive to initiate sweeping reforms in agricultural produce selling, procurement, and storage and public distribution of essential commodities. In this context, an attempt has been made in this article to examine the claim of both the government and the farmers’ unions leading the protest movement. The contribution of this study is manifold: in terms of tracing the evolution of the current farmers’ protest movement, farmer unions’ negotiations with the government, loss of human lives, and outcomes. It is found that farm Acts are structurally flawed and risk the food security of the country besides preparing ground for eviction of smallholders from agriculture altogether. The analysis of the field survey based on characteristics of 460 deceased farmers during the participation in the protest reveals that they belonged to the lowest rung of the farmers. The support to the family members left behind has come from various quarters but is inadequate. The article argues that the state autonomy to take policy decisions regarding farm Acts should be protected. The union government should develop institutional mechanism to take along all stakeholders for resolving the international and inter-state issues concerning agriculture sector.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"12 1","pages":"390 - 410"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43206596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-25DOI: 10.1177/09763996211059964
K. Harilal
Agriculture in Asia is being pushed into a new policy regime that uncritically promotes free trade and laissez faire policies. The World Trade Organization agreement on agriculture, regional preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) and neoliberal policies pursued by the individual nations are the central features of the new regime. The new regime is built disregarding the existing knowledge on agricultural commodities that they are prone to market failures, which are unlikely to be corrected if left unregulated. In this article, we portray the new regime in terms of two defining processes that are at work, viz. globalization of agriculture and atomization of farming. Globalization happens on account of integration of the agricultural markets at provincial, national and global levels. Atomization of farming occurs due to fragmentation of holdings on the one hand and weakening of ‘collective action’ on the other. In the farming end of the value chains, millions of small farms, who lack any market power whatsoever, compete among themselves. The post-harvesting nodes have fewer and larger firms. As we have argued at length, the large firms inhabiting the postharvest nodes of the commodity chains are capable of extracting profit out of volatilities in the market. The non-farm nodes are characterized by economies of scale and possible accumulation of market power. Such profiteering will be at the expense of the atomized farms as well as the final consumers of the commodities. The policy has become suddenly very active in abetting competition upstream and limiting it downstream. The regime legitimizes entry barriers downstream and intervenes directly to promote entry, augment supply/competition upstream. The policymakers do not want to intervene in the market to save producers from commodity problems; instead favour players profiteering out of such possible instances of market failure.
{"title":"Globalization of Agriculture and Atomization of Farming: Small Farms Crisis in Asia","authors":"K. Harilal","doi":"10.1177/09763996211059964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211059964","url":null,"abstract":"Agriculture in Asia is being pushed into a new policy regime that uncritically promotes free trade and laissez faire policies. The World Trade Organization agreement on agriculture, regional preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) and neoliberal policies pursued by the individual nations are the central features of the new regime. The new regime is built disregarding the existing knowledge on agricultural commodities that they are prone to market failures, which are unlikely to be corrected if left unregulated. In this article, we portray the new regime in terms of two defining processes that are at work, viz. globalization of agriculture and atomization of farming. Globalization happens on account of integration of the agricultural markets at provincial, national and global levels. Atomization of farming occurs due to fragmentation of holdings on the one hand and weakening of ‘collective action’ on the other. In the farming end of the value chains, millions of small farms, who lack any market power whatsoever, compete among themselves. The post-harvesting nodes have fewer and larger firms. As we have argued at length, the large firms inhabiting the postharvest nodes of the commodity chains are capable of extracting profit out of volatilities in the market. The non-farm nodes are characterized by economies of scale and possible accumulation of market power. Such profiteering will be at the expense of the atomized farms as well as the final consumers of the commodities. The policy has become suddenly very active in abetting competition upstream and limiting it downstream. The regime legitimizes entry barriers downstream and intervenes directly to promote entry, augment supply/competition upstream. The policymakers do not want to intervene in the market to save producers from commodity problems; instead favour players profiteering out of such possible instances of market failure.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"12 1","pages":"298 - 315"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41763698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-25DOI: 10.1177/09763996211060772
H. S. R. Rosairo, M. Esham
Farmer companies (FCs) were a form of farmer-owned firms established in Sri Lanka during the mid-1990s. These have been facilitated by state institutions. Maximization of returns through commercial agriculture has been the main objective of FCs. However, no FCs were operating by the year 2010. This article explains that the institutional facilitation is a strong ingredient in the establishment of FCs in Sri Lanka. This article explainfs how the institutional and governance arrangements of FCs were influenced by the facilitating institutions during the institutional facilitation. It also suggests that institutional facilitation affected the performance of FCs. Six failed FCs were studied. Strategic facilitation was responsible for the performance and sustainability of FCs while operative facilitation provided the basis for direction and operations. Results indicate that poor performance and failure of FCs were due to institutional facilitation that has introduced weak institutional and governance arrangements. There was non-shareholder influence on the Boards of Directors; geographically restricted shareholding; democratic voting rights; and shareholder rights not linked to equity or patronage. Governance problems included voting by the raise of hand; managers not reporting to the Boards directly; shareholders did not elect all the directors. Institutional facilitation of FCs in Sri Lanka has been done by the state facilitating institutions. They have been excessively authoritative on their respective FCs. Therefore, changing the label from cooperatives to companies would not result in better performance. Some recommendations are that facilitating institutions empower FCs through capacity-building; participatory approach in facilitation; remove the geographical restriction in shareholding; install variable shareholding; build capacity of managerial staff; use secret ballots at voting, and practice proportional voting. Understanding the role of facilitating institutions and the dynamics of facilitation would be useful to promote farmer collectives in smallholder farmer dominant developing countries.
{"title":"Pitfalls of External Institutional Facilitation of Farmer Organizations: Insights from Farmer Companies in Sri Lanka","authors":"H. S. R. Rosairo, M. Esham","doi":"10.1177/09763996211060772","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211060772","url":null,"abstract":"Farmer companies (FCs) were a form of farmer-owned firms established in Sri Lanka during the mid-1990s. These have been facilitated by state institutions. Maximization of returns through commercial agriculture has been the main objective of FCs. However, no FCs were operating by the year 2010. This article explains that the institutional facilitation is a strong ingredient in the establishment of FCs in Sri Lanka. This article explainfs how the institutional and governance arrangements of FCs were influenced by the facilitating institutions during the institutional facilitation. It also suggests that institutional facilitation affected the performance of FCs. Six failed FCs were studied. Strategic facilitation was responsible for the performance and sustainability of FCs while operative facilitation provided the basis for direction and operations. Results indicate that poor performance and failure of FCs were due to institutional facilitation that has introduced weak institutional and governance arrangements. There was non-shareholder influence on the Boards of Directors; geographically restricted shareholding; democratic voting rights; and shareholder rights not linked to equity or patronage. Governance problems included voting by the raise of hand; managers not reporting to the Boards directly; shareholders did not elect all the directors. Institutional facilitation of FCs in Sri Lanka has been done by the state facilitating institutions. They have been excessively authoritative on their respective FCs. Therefore, changing the label from cooperatives to companies would not result in better performance. Some recommendations are that facilitating institutions empower FCs through capacity-building; participatory approach in facilitation; remove the geographical restriction in shareholding; install variable shareholding; build capacity of managerial staff; use secret ballots at voting, and practice proportional voting. Understanding the role of facilitating institutions and the dynamics of facilitation would be useful to promote farmer collectives in smallholder farmer dominant developing countries.","PeriodicalId":41791,"journal":{"name":"Millennial Asia","volume":"12 1","pages":"367 - 389"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47553190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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