Title: Agro-biotechnological innovation: evaluating decision making drivers in SMEs

Authors: Alessandro Basile

Addresses: Department of Economics and Business, PhD Business Economics and Management, University of Catania, Corso Italia No. 55 – 95129 Catania, Italy

Abstract: This paper investigates the decision-making process regarding the choice of using biotechnologies in agricultural SMEs as well as the implications about business management. Moving from the benchmark and trade-off of two types of production process (conventional and biotech), the topic will be discussed by using a business analysis perspective. In addition, an application based on the mathematical model of Kuhn-Tucker multipliers is presented. Empirical results, discourage the introduction of biotech productions, mainly because of size and governance mechanisms of the SMEs.

Keywords: agro-biotechnologies; decision making; management decisions; firm performance; business opportunities; biotechnology; agriculture; agricultural SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; biotech; mathematical modelling; Kuhn-Tucker multipliers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2012.051043

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2012 Vol.12 No.1, pp.21 - 35

Received: 03 May 2012
Accepted: 29 Jun 2012
Published online: 04 Sep 2014 *

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