The transaction footprints of Scottish food and drink SMEs
Abstract
This paper presents a survey approach to measuring the “transaction footprints” of rural small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Combined with a graphical presentation of results, this contributes to the evidence base on the roles of local and global linkages. Findings suggest that the food and drink industry of Scotland is relatively localised in its input and sales interaction pattern, although substantial variations, associated with product specialisms, remoteness/accessibility, input purchasing and marketing strategies, exist. Localised SMEs have weathered the recession slightly better, but more outward-looking in firms tend to have greater optimism about the future. Transaction footprint analysis should be viewed as component of an ongoing process of re-mapping the network infrastructure of the rural economy, alongside analysis of untraded interdependencies, and institutional networks in the realm of governance.
Citation
Copus , A , Hopkins , J & Creaney , R S 2016 , ' The transaction footprints of Scottish food and drink SMEs ' , European Countryside , vol. 8 , no. 3 , pp. 227-249 . https://doi.org/10.1515/euco-2016-0017
Publication
European Countryside
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1803-8417Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 Andrew Copus et al., published by De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Description
This research is funded by Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) under Theme 8 ‘Vibrant Rural Communities’ of the Food, Land and People Programme (2011 - 2016).Collections
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