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A Marketing Approach to Commodity Futures Exchanges: A Case Study of the Dutch Hog Industry
Author(s) -
Meulenberg Matthew T. G.,
Pennings Joost M. E.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2002.tb00005.x
Subject(s) - futures contract , commodity , forward market , futures market , cash , market orientation , market penetration , variable (mathematics) , business , spot market , economics , linear discriminant analysis , latent variable , marketing , financial economics , industrial organization , finance , electricity , mathematical analysis , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , electrical engineering , engineering
This paper proposes a marketing strategic approach to commodity futures exchanges to optimise the (hedging) services offered. First, the environment of commodity futures exchanges is examined. Second, the threats and opportunities of commodity futures exchanges are analysed. Our analysis demonstrates that market orientation is an important element in the market strategies of commodity futures exchanges. Our market strategic framework is applied to the Dutch hog futures market. It is concluded that market penetration is an appropriate strategy. Consequently, to identify the variables that distinguish between farmers who initiate futures positions and farmers who do not, we conducted a discriminant analysis on data gathered from 418 Dutch hog farmers. The discriminant analysis shows that latent variables, such as farmers' perceived performance, farmers' reference price and farmers' market orientation, are important discriminating variables. Furthermore, farmers' cash market behaviour (in terms of the frequency of selling in the spot market) is an important discriminating variable as well. The usefulness of these results as input for a penetration policy is demonstrated.