Horizontal Linkages as drivers of entrepreneurship in agribusiness value chains. Evidence from the cassava, yam and plantain value chains of Nigeria. (Published)
Empirical evidence shows that entrepreneurship in Nigerian agribusiness value chains is severely limited by lack of access to resources such as finances, inputs, policies, infrastructures, supporting services, and markets. Drawing from the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship and with a greater emphasis on the theory’s view on social networks as an access route to other resources, the study aimed to find out if the availability of resources through membership of horizontal linkage groups impacts on entrepreneurship levels of farmers and processors in agribusiness value chains. The study employed multi-stage sampling techniques in selecting 600 farmers and processors operating in the cassava, yam and plantain value chains from the five top producing states of these crops in Nigeria. Primary data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and ordinal logistic regression was used to test the hypothesis. The social capital theory aspect of the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship was proven to be true in this study as findings show that though horizontal linkages are not very popular in these value chains, the farmers and processors who belong to linkage groups have better access to resources and show a higher level of entrepreneurship through the upgrading of their products, processes or functions.
Keywords: agribusiness; entrepreneurship; upgrading; horizontal linkages; value chain.