Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold: to understand the cooperation activities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in food processing industry clusters; to understand the role of cooperation in improving innovation; and to understand the relationship between cooperation, innovation, and business performance of SMEs in food processing industry clusters in rural areas of Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical survey was conducted on SMEs in food processing industry clusters. Primary data collected in five SMEs clusters were analyzed by regression and correlation analyses using the path-analytic approach. In this study, the following two hypotheses were examined: cooperation is positively related to innovation; and innovation of SMEs is positively related to business performance. Findings – Using the path analytical method, this paper provides evidence that cooperation is significantly related to innovation of SMEs in food processing industry clusters. Moreover, business performance is a function of innovation, in which research results show that innovation significantly affects the business performance of SMEs. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence that the cooperation of SMEs with universities and other firms, which are activities more likely to occur within clusters, is positively associated with innovation. Such a contribution is very important for completing the explanation of innovation phenomena that exists in the clusters, since empirical research exploring the role of cooperation in the innovation of SMEs in food processing industry clusters is still rare.

Multifunctionality of urban agriculture is essential for the sustainability of both cities and urban farms, especially in Asian mega-cities exhibiting extensive urban sprawl. To maximise the multifunctionality of these farms, entrepreneurial or innovative farm diversification is important. However, there is insufficient research on this issue in developed countries. This study aims to demonstrate the existence of advanced diversified farms characterised by entrepreneurship, skilled farm management and social networks and explore their economic and social sustainability by using data from a survey of 386 farms located close to urban areas in Japan. Gaussian mixture clustering analysis revealed that only about 10% of the sample can be classified as advanced diversified farms and most of the other diversified farms do not exhibit entrepreneurial attributes. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that advanced diversification has a positive impact not only on the economic viability of farms, but also on their social performance. These findings have significant implications for policies promoting the sustainability of urban agriculture, suggesting that a more balanced promotion of the diversification and entrepreneurial attributes of farms is crucial to building a sustainable relationship between cities and urban agriculture.

Throughout the past few decades, significance of entrepreneurial competencies has been amplified due to the strategic role take part by the entrepreneur of a business enterprise. Therefore, the aim of the study is to examine the impact of owner/managers entrepreneurial competencies on Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) of tea manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka and the relationship between background characteristics of owner/managers and entrepreneurial competencies. Primary data was collected in low country tea manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. The sample includes 109 private sector tea factories. Entrepreneurial competencies were operationalized as opportunity, organizing, strategic, relationship, commitment and conceptual competencies. Data were analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. It was found that background characteristics of owner/managers have direct impact on entrepreneurial competencies. Further it implies that entrepreneurs strategic and commitment competencies have direct positive relationship with EO. When considering the dimensions of EO, innovativeness was greatly affected by owner/managers competencies whereas risk taking behavior was less affected by competencies. Hence, findings of the present study would be essential for owner/managers and strategy makers to enhance the EO of tea manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka towards global competition in the tea industry by knowing what competencies are crucial for EO.