Exploring the development of an agribusiness ecosystem for Singapore: Lessons from Taiwan

• Main Author: FU, Kuo-Chang
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem; Agribusiness Ecosystem; Taiwan; Singapore; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/459; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1457/viewcontent/GPGM_AY2018_PhD_Michael_FU_Kuo_Chang_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The COVID-19 pandemic and complex global circumstances have prompted a heightened level of apprehension about food security in Singapore. With a land area of slightly over 700 square kilometers, of which a mere 1% is dedicated to agricultural purposes, Singapore's overall level of food self-sufficiency is less than 10%. Historically, Singapore has relied on imports to address its food deficits. However, due to the pandemic's impact and geopolitical tensions, which have resulted in instability within the global supply chain, Singapore is now compelled to re-evaluate its approach to food security. Consequently, there has been a substantial focus on exploring strategies that would increase the nation's food self-sufficiency, which is deemed an essential and significant topic of discussion for Singapore. In 2019, the Singapore government launched the 30/30 initiative, outlining its endeavor to expand locally produced food to meet 30% of its national nutritional needs. However, at the current context level of food self-sufficiency at less than 10%, this would mean that, Singapore’s local food production needs to grow by about 3 times within a decade. Despite the government's extensive efforts to bolster domestic agricultural yields, it remains crucial to assess the effectiveness of current measures and to confront the daunting task of implementing the 30/30 program. missing image.gifThis research aims to examine the experiences of other countries from a holistic academic perspective and based on these findings, to provide recommendations as a case study to Singapore for enhancing its agribusiness ecosystem. Given the scarcity and value of land, labor, and capital in Singapore, the nation would benefit from leveraging on modern agricultural technology and agricultural enterprises to establish an agribusiness ecosystem to accelerates the development and growth of its agricultural industry. In the past, Singapore focuses on high value-added industries over agricultural development and, as a result, lacks the necessary expertise and talent in the agricultural field. Therefore, drawing on practical experiences from other countries is vital to building a successful agribusiness ecosystem in Singapore. This study uncovered that Taiwan, a comparable island located in Southeast Asia, has achieved a self-sufficiency rate of about 31% in 2020. Taiwan is a notable “fruit kingdom” and boosts a well-established marine fishery and aquaculture industry. Moreover, its supplies of pork and poultry eggs far exceed its domestic demand. It has the capacity to export high-quality pork, vegetables, sugar, sugar cane, tea, rice, and tropical and sub-tropical fruits, with its exports demonstrating an upward trend. In addition, Taiwan has accumulated extensive years of experience in developing enterprises’ ecosystem, rendering it a model case study on a global scale. Given the similarities between Taiwan and Singapore in terms of geographical location, race, population age structure, and level of economic development, Taiwan’s experiences in ecosystem development are a noteworthy reference for Singapore to emulate. This study tries to examine the question of “What lessons could Singapore draw from Taiwan in the development of its agribusiness Ecosystem?” To achieve this objective, the study will explore three sub-research questions, namely: missing image.gif1) What domains constitute the agribusiness ecosystem? 2) What are the primary challenges confronting agribusiness entrepreneurs and what are the potential solutions? 3) What insights can Singapore derive from Taiwan’s experience in establishing an agribusiness ecosystem? This study will be conducted over several phases. The initial phase is to review the literature pertaining to enterprise ecosystem and to establish the theoretical framework for this study. Drawing from the research of Isenberg (2011), the domains of the enterprise ecosystem are: policy, finance, culture, support, human capital, and markets. These domains interact in intricate yet distinct ways to shape various business ecosystems. Each business ecosystem consists of multiple elements. The second phase of this research involves the development of an interview protocol aligned with the research questions and research models, followed by conducting interviews with founders of the targeted enterprises. As the research seeks to consolidate Taiwan’s experience and provide recommendations as a case study to Singapore for enhancing its agribusiness ecosystem, the interview outline will be designed based on the established Isenberg (2011) model, taking into considerations the distinctive characteristics and features of agricultural enterprises and Singapore’s current context. Subsequently, the author will select small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that satisfy the research criteria and requirements. Finally, the author will conduct in-depth interviews with the founders to comprehend the composition of domains and elements of each domain in Taiwan’s agricultural enterprise ecosystem. missing image.gifThe third phase involves consolidating the findings from the interviews conducted with the Taiwan’s agricultural enterprises, contextualized the model and furnishing the report for the advancements of Singapore’s agribusiness ecosystem. The study has yielded several implications across its five chapters. Firstly, the Isenberg’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (EE) model was found to be applicable to Taiwan's agricultural enterprise (AE), with its six domains of the model being identifiable in the Taiwanese context. As Singapore and Taiwan shares many similarities, the model is believed to be applicable to Singapore’s AE providing insights for its development. Secondly, the study highlighted the importance of the individuals involved in the AE, particularly the role of connectors. The interviewees emphasized the significant impact of connectors, who bridge the different domains and elements of AE. Lastly, this study highlighted that Isenberg’s model must be contextualized to the specific industry and geography to which it is applied. The interviewees shared their difficulties in navigating the various domains of the ecosystem, some of which may be specific to Taiwan. missing image.gifThis study’s significance lies primarily in three aspects. First, to address a theoretical gap in the field of agribusiness ecosystem research. Existing research on ecosystem generally overlooks industry segmentation, with many presuming that the ecosystem model is a generic model applicable across all industries. However, research by Tan et al. (2000) demonstrates that the ecosystem and business infrastructure are influenced by industry and geographic factors. There is a dearth of research specifically examining ecosystems from the perspective of agricultural enterprises. This study aims to address this gap by proposing the concept of an agricultural enterprise ecosystem and building on existing models to advance our understanding of agricultural ecosystems. The second significance of this study lies in its consolidation of Taiwan's experiences in the development of agribusiness ecosystems. Taiwan has a long history of agricultural development and began establishing its ecosystem as early as the 1960s. Over time, its agricultural ecosystem has become a global model, and earned a reputation as a prestigious agricultural region in Asia. This study seeks to refine and systematize Taiwan’s experience in agricultural development from the perspective of agricultural ecosystems. By doing so, this study aims to provide valuable insights and lessons for other countries, including Singapore, seeking to develop their own agribusiness ecosystems. The third significance is that this study could offer as a reference for Singapore when developing its agricultural enterprise ecosystem. Given Singapore's pressing need to address its food security issues, there is a critical need to establish an enterprise ecosystem that can effectively integrate technology, innovation, sustainability, investment, and other key factors necessary for success in agribusiness. From an academic standpoint, this study consolidates and synthesizes the unique characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of Taiwan's agribusiness ecosystem, and relate to Singapore's current situation.