Reviewing Value Creation in Agriculture—A Conceptual Analysis and a New Framework

Creation of business value is a major objective of any enterprise, but the way in which value is created and its consequences call for re-evaluation in response to current sustainability goals. The agricultural sector serves basic human needs, but its systems and methods for production, processing, and consumption often pose challenges to sustainable development. To address these challenges, this study consolidated value-creating factors identified in a systematic literature review into nine clusters: collaboration, communication, knowledge, production, diversification, entrepreneurism, funding, policies, and inclusiveness. These clusters were analyzed with a Triple Bottom Line framework where financial, environmental, and social dimensions are part of sustainable development. The analysis revealed that agricultural enterprises pursue business activities in a near-term perspective, with few having strategies for long-term activities such as innovativeness, knowledge acquisition, and collaboration with external stakeholders. These findings highlight the complexity in creation of sustainable business value and call for further investigation of how value is conceptualized in the agricultural sector. Re-thinking value creation in the sector should consider why value is created, for whom, the time perspective in which value is assessed, and the aspects given weight in the assessment.

Factors related to innovative output in the Dutch agrifood industry

The present study assessed the factors related to innovative output in the Dutch agrifood industry, a scale-intensive, supplierdominated industry. We concentrated on explanatory variables related to cooperation, information sources, innovation objectives, obstacles to innovation, and innovation resources. Firm-level data were used from the Dutch section of the 2001 Community Innovation Survey (CIS, N=328). We conducted linear and binary logistic regression to analyse the data. The results show that in order to be successful in product innovation, firms must have a strong market orientation. Furthermore, we found that in order to become (more) innovative, firms must have organisational conditions in place, as organisational obstacles are associated with lower levels of innovative output. Innovation subsidies turn out to have a positive effect on both product and process innovations. With respect to the value of a focal firm's network, the surprising conclusion can be drawn that the network is not perceived as crucial for innovation: cooperation is not a factor that explains innovative output; and network actors are - only to a limited extent - perceived as important sources of information for innovation. Competitors as an important source of information explain the share of the total turnover from new or improved products, whereas suppliers are an important information source for process innovators. In summary, innovative agrifood firms do not rely strongly on external sources, contrary to expectations for supplier-dominated firms. Instead, Dutch innovative agrifood firms more strongly reflect the characteristics of scale-intensive firms.