Revista
de la
Universidad
del Zulia
Fundada en 1947
por el Dr. Jesús Enrique Lossada
DEPÓSITO LEGAL ZU2020000153
ISSN 0041-8811
E-ISSN 2665-0428
Ciencias del
Agro,
Ingeniería
y Tecnología
Año 14 N° 39
Enero - Abril 2023
Tercera Época
Maracaibo-Venezuela
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Innovative Strategies in agricultural production units: Knowledge in
development of new services and value chains
Reynier Israel Ramírez Molina*
Manuela Valentina Pinzón Acosta**
Keren Daniela Viloria De la Hoz***
Juan David Ríos Pérez****
Nelson David Lay Raby*****
ABSTRACT
The world faces unavoidable challenges that force organizations to undertake actions that solve, mitigate
and reverse problems arising from the lack of social, economic and environmental sustainability, with climate
change being one of the most pressing. The implementation of new technologies would mean a costly
transition, but fundamental and necessary to trace paths that help preserve the planet and the institutions
of all kinds that exist in it. The research seeks to describe innovative strategies in agricultural production
units as part of the knowledge in the development of new services and value chains. The innovation and
adoption of new technologies in processes and consumption patterns will only be possible if companies
manage to develop markets that provide in their value offer, the component of environmental sustainability
in a transversal way in all their activities. The findings show that the adoption of innovative strategies in
agricultural production companies has been slow, so the accompaniment of government entities, civil society
organizations, academia, research centers and others is crucial to address these problems and generate
strategies to solve them.
KEY WORDS: Agribusiness prospective, business sustainability, innovative strategies, value added.
This article is the product of the research entitled “Task structuring, interdependencies and value chains in Agricultural Units of the
Department of Atlántico”, a research project framed in the Young Researchers and Innovators Program No. 812 of the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation. , articulated with the Social Administration Research Group, and student intervention within the framework
of classroom processes that strengthen the didactic strategies used by the main author professor to ensure learning, of the Business
Administration Program, Department of Business Sciences , with the Human Talent Management Research Seedbed (SIGTH), from the
University of the Coast, Atlántico - Barranquilla, Colombia.
* Full Time Professor and Researcher of the Universidad de la Costa, Atlántico – Colombia. Senior Researcher. Business
Studies Department. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5073-5158. E-mail: rramirez13@cuc.edu.co
**Student of the Business Management program and Member of the Human Talent Management Research Seedbed (SIGTH)
of the Universidad de la Costa, Atlántico – Colombia. Business Studies Department. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
3626-461X. E-mail: mpinzon1@cuc.edu.co
*** Student of the Business Management program and Member of the Human Talent Management Research Seedbed
(SIGTH) of the Universidad de la Costa, Atlántico – Colombia. Business Studies Department. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6788-999X. E-mail: kviloria@cuc.edu.co
****Professional in Finance and International Affairs and Member of the Administración Social Research Group and Human
Talent Management Research Seedbed (SIGTH) of the Universidad de la Costa, Atlántico – Colombia. Business Studies
Department. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9520-9808. E-mail: jrios8@cuc.edu.co.
***** Full Time Professor, Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Universidad Andrés Bello, Viña del Mar - Chile. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8501-7570. E-mail: nelson.lay@unab.cl
Recibido: 21/09/2022 Aceptado: 15/11/2022
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Estrategias innovadoras en unidades productivas agropecuarias:
Conocimiento en desarrollo de nuevos servicios y cadenas de valor
RESUMEN
El mundo enfrenta desafíos ineludibles que obligan a las organizaciones a emprender acciones
que resuelvan, mitiguen y reviertan los problemas derivados de la falta de sostenibilidad social,
económica y ambiental, siendo el cambio climático uno de los más apremiantes. La
implementación de nuevas tecnologías significaría una transición costosa, pero fundamental y
necesaria para trazar caminos que ayuden a preservar el planeta y las instituciones de todo tipo
que en él existen. La investigación busca describir estrategias innovadoras en unidades
productivas agropecuarias como parte del conocimiento en el desarrollo de nuevos servicios y
cadenas de valor. La innovación y adopción de nuevas tecnologías en procesos y patrones de
consumo solo será posible si las empresas logran desarrollar mercados que aporten en su oferta
de valor, el componente de sostenibilidad ambiental de manera transversal en todas sus
actividades. Los hallazgos muestran que la adopción de estrategias innovadoras en las empresas
productoras agropecuarias ha sido lenta, por lo que el acompañamiento de entidades
gubernamentales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, academia, centros de investigación y otros
es crucial para abordar estos problemas y generar estrategias para solucionarlos.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Prospectiva agroindustrial, sustentabilidad empresarial, estrategias
innovadoras, valor agregado.
Introduction
In recent decades, catastrophic climate events have increased because of intensifying
global warming, putting at risk the sustainability of the current economic system (Fabris, 2020).
According to some authors (Ramírez et al., 2021; Kalkuhl and Wenz, 2020; Ríos et al., 2019),
productivity losses originated by this phenomenon would oscillate between 7% to 14%, mainly
affecting developing countries, as their economies are mostly depending on extractive activities
such as agriculture. In agreement with this, The World Bank (2020) (Fig. 1) estimates that the
proportion of agriculture in the gross domestic product (GDP) has been decreasing since 1995.
Agriculture has a greater participation in the GDP of developing countries (Hilmawan and
Clark, 2021) (Fig. 2), but this has not allowed them to eradicate problems such as hunger,
poverty, or violence (Sánchez-Villegas et al., 2021; Perez-Ruiz et al., 2020). This results from the
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low industrialization levels of these countries that restricts them to mere raw material
producers. As developing countries lack investment to innovate with new processes, services,
or products (Rohov et al., 2021), their raw materials are transformed in products of greater added
value in middle to high income countries.
Therefore, the introduction of innovative strategies and technological improvements
aimed towards economic and environmental sustainability become necessary for adapting to
new scenarios and overcome structural problems (Antequera et al., 2021; Ramírez et al., 2019).
From the academy and the government entities is necessary to promote training and education
spaces in green techniques of agricultural production (Melander and Arvidsson, 2022;
Melamed-Varela et al., 2019). Innovation capacity of agricultural companies will determine
which phases will be needed to develop new products and services. Innovation is understood as
the means necessary to identify dynamic capabilities, allowing to develop competitive
advantages useful to surpass industry rivals and achieve growth, better financial performance,
and develop new markets, among others.
Fig. 1: Agriculture, value added (% Gross Domestic Product) since 1991
(World Bank, 2022).
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
1991199319951997199920012003200520072009201120132015201720192021
GDP (%)
World agricultural GDP
Years
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Fig. 2: Agriculture, value added in 2020 (% GDP) (World Bank, 2020).
According to Prahalad and Hamel (1994), Barney and Zajac (1994) and Drucker (2002), in
every organization or company there are areas of opportunity, which may be either unexpected
events, incongruences, process needs, changes in market or industry trends, demographic
changes, perception changes, or the appearance of new knowledge. These areas of opportunity
must be faced through serious analyses, starting from assessing the events and trends of the
external environment, the dynamic capacities of the company, and the resources available for it,
as a mean for obtaining competitive advantages necessary to compete with industry rivals and
surpass them. This innovation process comes from methodical, deep studies on the opportunity
areas of the company, addressing socioeconomic issues and trends, resulting in ideas that may
answer to those challenges faced by the organization.
Once the imagination and creativity leap are made, it is necessary to get the right answers,
what Drucker (2002) calls functional inspiration. In order to achieve it, the author suggests that
those answers must be simple and focused on solving the existing opportunity to improve. As
results require expressions such as “this is very obvious”, “why I did not have this idea before?”,
“it’s so simple”, among others, it will be closer to reaching a solution. These solutions should be
–preferably- small, not flamboyant, and comprised of elemental ideas, so that they determinate
the direction of a new technology or industry. On the other side, if the desired result is the
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development of a new entrepreneurship or business, a complete package of products and
associated services will be required to provide a complete offer value, leading from the beginning.
According to Markides (2003), strategies must not be restricted to finding ways to attend
market changes but must be also proactive for the creation and discovery of novel ways to carry
out the social object of organizations, being imperious to invest in industries and technologies
of the future. Leyva et al., (2018) and Pang et al., (2019) point in this direction, conceiving the
degree of technological incorporation and strategic planning in corporate management as
primordial competitiveness factors. Technology and strategy start-u must be defined by the
object traced by high managers, being a key factor the knowledge on the superior performance
that is intended to reach, and the competitive advantages needed for that end (Hill and Jones,
2009). Newly proposed innovations, goods and services must aim to deliver the highest possible
value for the stakeholders involved in each organization (Antequera et al., 2019; De la Fuente-
Mella et al., 2022). An idea long rooted in successful businesses is that these must transmit value
in all stages of the economic business cycle starting at the high management level, reaching up
to the final consumer, and vice versa. Rios et al., (2020) and Ramirez and Rios (2020) claim that
companies must present an offer value attractive to the final consumers. Otherwise, other
organizations will find ways to become attractive to them and will lure most consumers
(Einsenmann et al., 2006; Hamel and Välikangas, 2003). This is also tangible regarding interest
groups such as collaborators and investors, which will tend to participate in an organization
that is committed to provide a more complete value offer (Klewitz and Hansen, 2014; Hitt et al.,
1996).
Consequently, agricultural production units will try to work in a joint way, establishing
cooperative relationships with industry members, being able to reach higher degrees of
economical, corporate, and environmental sustainability. Those business alliances will serve to
make all members of agricultural value chains to innovate in new processes, goods, and services,
and therefore, in a better value offer, benefiting all actors involved. Otherwise, it would expand
the inequality gap between different actors in developing country societies. Given the above, the
following question is made: how are innovative strategies in agricultural production units as
part of the knowledge in the development of new services and value chains?
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1. Business strategy in the development of new processes, products, and services
In several countries, the agricultural production units have implemented strategies, which
have helped them to survive. To achieve this process, agribusiness have generated and adopted
actions to create and preserve value. In a few cases, these strategies have also contributed to
consolidate a value proposition that attracts customers and consumers (Rambe and Khaola,
2022; Zhang and Berghäll, 2021). In another cases, the lack of capital and technical knowledge
specific to each agricultural production unit, has hindered the introduction of new technologies
(Nyam et al., 2022). This lack of capital and knowledge has hindered the economic exercise of
production units, preventing them from evolving beyond mere raw material producers to
providers of processed agricultural goods and related services.
According to Donner et al. (2020), agricultural production models are influenced by
politico-legal (laws, regulations, public policies) and economic (markets, subsidies)
environments in in which they carry out their activity. Also, factors inherent to each unit, such
as historical (origin and development of the business initiative), technological (type, quality,
and maturity of the tools employed), organizational (governance, cooperation, coordination,
logistics), financial (investments, cost-benefit structure), environmental, and social ones, have
impacts on them. Such as innovation findings, Donner et al. (2020) and Cherednichenko et al.
(2022) recognize cooperative production system, in which a group of people decide to associate
to produce specific food goods (cereals, wine, fruit, among others).
In the process, they generate residues that are being used by the pharmaceutical industry
in different research projects, as well as other agricultural producers, who acquire compost used
as fertilizer in their crop areas. On the other hand, Finco et al. (2018) reveal that innovations in
the agricultural sector are slowly assimilated. Innovation in agroindustry is seen as a low relative
to that of other sectors or activities. Therefore, it requires a proper political and economic
environment that encourages the apprehension of technological improvements useful to
increase food production. The alliance established by agricultural production units must be
sustainable and innovative to enable value chain that bring together their resources and
capabilities in joint efforts. These relationships will be beneficial in favor of solving social and
economic problems and circumstances. For this reason, the aim of the current study is to
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structure the interdependence of tasks and knowledge in development processes of new services
and value chains in agricultural units that allow access to new markets. The knowledge gathered
provides organizational tools for the preservation of critical resources, such as water, fertile land
and biodiversity. This study has been carried out in Atlántico Department (Colombia), during
2019 to 2021.
In the process of generating and adopting strategies that help building value, agricultural
production units in several countries have implemented some strategies that have helped them
to survive. In a few cases, these strategies have also helped to consolidate a value proposition
that attracts customers and consumers. On other hand, in most agricultural production units,
the lack of capital and technical knowledge specific to each agricultural production unit, has
hindered the introduction of new technologies. This lack of capital and knowledge has hindered
the economic exercise of production units, preventing them from evolving beyond mere raw
material producers to providers of manufactured agricultural goods and related services. A study
developed between 2015 and 2019 by Donner et al., (2020), examined production models and
innovation strategies for the generation of new products and services in 39 agricultural
production units of fifteen (15) countries such as Germany (5 cases), France (5), the Netherlands
(4), Switzerland (3), Italy (2), Denmark (2), Norway (1), Poland (1), Hungary (1), Austria (1),
the European Union as a whole (2), Taiwan (8), United States (2), Vietnam (1), and Brazil (1).
In those cases, a semi-structured interview was applied to enquire on features of the politico-
legal (laws, regulations, public policies) and economic (markets, subsidies) environments; as
well as those qualities inherent to each unit, such as historical (origin and development of the
business initiative), technological (type, quality, and maturity of the tools employed),
organizational (governance, cooperation, coordination, logistics), financial (investments, cost-
benefit structure), environmental, and social ones.
Following the findings obtained by Donner et al. (2020), Cherednichenko et al. (2022)
conducted a study focused on collaborative and cooperative relationships, where only 15.3% of
the companies studied developed innovations aimed to improve their agricultural production
models. The first is a cooperative production system, in which a group of people decide to
associate to produce specific food goods (cereals, wine, fruit, among others). In the process, they
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generate residues that are being used by the pharmaceutical industry in different research
projects, as well as other agricultural producers, who acquire compost used as fertilizer in their
crop areas. The employed strategies comprise the association with entities external to the food
industry, and process innovation. This generated new products and services that in the past
would have been considered as worthless residues. In other cases, agricultural parks were
created, in which founding families implemented scale economies and encompassed elements of
the value chain external to food production. One of these external elements is energy generation,
employed in the transformation or heating processes, specialized logistics for vegetable
production and transport, and associations with other producers. It could be said that
implemented innovations were of the organizational kind, supporting the companies to manage
processes different from those of the production unit social object, in addition to networks and
agreements that benefit other producers.
Research on small and medium businesses, developed by Finco et al., (2018) reveal that
innovations in the agricultural sector are slowly assimilated. Innovation in agroindustry is seen
as a low relative to that of other sectors or activities. Therefore, it requires a proper political and
economic environment that encourages the apprehension of technological improvements useful
to increase food production. The study encompassed a sample of 23 companies for an
exploratory study, of which only 21% found new markets to commercialize their products, 18%
developed functional foods, and 19% optimized their production processes. To achieve this,
companies destined only 0.7% of their billing volume for change assimilation or generation in
their organization.
2. Strategies for the creation of value chains in agricultural production units
For those who research strategies for the creation value chains, care must be taken in their
conception, to keep the connection between the value intended for the interest groups and the
competitive advantages that must be maintained through time. To achieve this, it is expected to
count with one or more elements that are attractive to the members of the value chain. Managers
must implement actions and provide resources necessary to direct company activities towards
the satisfaction of consumers, investors, or those providing funds. The perspectives of being a
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winning company increase as strategy and execution are strengthened. In agreement with this,
the strategy of the company to incorporate, or being incorporated into, a value chain must be
supported on the value provided to investors and customers through their activities. Proceeding
otherwise would risk the company to be surpassed by competitors that find ways to become
attractive. At the same time, the strategy must be renewed and evolve according to existing
market trends. Due to this, it is necessary to obtain competitive advantages in the current
economic environment, characterized by being hypercompetitive and hyper-connected, to avoid
the company to be left behind with an impoverished economic performance.
To achieve the former goals, companies must evaluate the activities that their different
units and departments develop together, questioning if they add or take away value to the
product or service delivered to consumers and buyers. To maintain a unit that does not
contribute with a significant value to the company, implies wasting funds in bureaucracy,
burdening the competitiveness and profitability of the company. Senior managers should
eradicate those elements that contribute less, link them to those handling similar tasks, and add
elements that contribute to corporate success. In this regard, it is recommended to use strategies
allowing to create value chains, such as:
(a) Identification opportunities and threats: in anticipation of events that represent a
future advantage originating greater financial and economical profits and forecasting risks for
the survival of the organization. Regardless of how far away in the future they look, external
environmental events may imply real risks for the company, and every business must be prepared
for them. Given those agricultural businesses are susceptible to be affected by changed in
socioeconomic, market, legal, political, climatological, and environmental changes occurring at
the local and global levels
(b) Knowledge of elements, resources, and capabilities: the inside of the organization must
be observed, recognizing what resources the production unit possesses, aiming to those
strengths and weaknesses that are unique and unrepeatable by competitor. In this way,
strengths and weaknesses may be employed to take advantage of opportunities or strengthening
those elements burdening the competitiveness and organization processes, at the same time
facing those threats that may appear in the external environment.
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(c) Strengthening abilities. The evolution of abilities towards an exceptional nature will
generate competitive advantages. At the same time, it is necessary to find the way in which they
are not imitated by industry competitors, strengthening the organization competitiveness.
(d) Characterization of interest groups: strengthening strategic ties with organizations
and interest groups (stakeholders), generating complementarity relationships and progress for
all parts.
(e) Establishment of strategic alliances: relationships with providers and buyers insert the
production unit into value chains, which will gradually generate clusters, interdependence
relationships, and mutual benefits. In the same way, it is necessary to find ways to achieve
common benefits.
(f) Search for agreements with competitors and companies in the sector: convene with
those businesses with economic activities related to those of the company is useful to resolve
problems, strengthening the industry and generating economic growth and social progress.
Complementarity relationships contribute to solve problems of resource supply, logistic, and
communications.
(g) Human talent teaching in strategic management processes: training collaborators in
formation programs raises awareness on the direction in which the company is heading, taking
advantage of elements, resources, and organization capabilities in more efficient ways.
Therefore, strategic management knowledge raises awareness on the goals, the organizations
pursuing them, and the role of organizations in achieving those goals.
3. Materials and methods
Atlántico is one of the 32 departments in which Colombia is politically divided. It is located
on the northern Caribbean region of the country. To the north and northwest, the Atlántico
department limits with the Caribbean Sea, to the east with the Magdalena River and the
Magdalena Department, and to the south, southwest and west with the Bolivar Department (Fig
3). The Atlántico department comprises 22 municipalities and a Special, Commercial and Port
District, Barranquilla, which is also the capital city. The area of the department is 3,386 km2 in
area and the population is of 2,771,139 (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística
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[DANE], 2020; Gobernación del Atlántico, 2014). According to the latest agriculture and
livestock census of DANE (2014), there are 1590 agricultural production units in the Atlántico
Department. Snowball sampling was employed for sample selection, as it takes advantage of
individual contact networks of the initial sample to attract more subjects to participate in the
research, considering the access to study subjects.
In this regard, Agricultural Production Units (APU) are the observation and analysis units,
comprising fifty-six (56) study subjects of the agriculture and livestock production
organizations. These may be formed by part of a land property, a complete property, a set of
properties or parts of contiguous properties, or separated in one or more municipalities,
independently of size, land ownership and the number of properties comprising it. These
organizations fulfill the following conditions: they produce agricultural, forestry, livestock, or
aquacultural or fishery goods. They have a unique natural or legal producer that assumes the
responsibility and risk of the productive activity, and they use at least one mean of production
such as buildings, machinery, equipment, and/or workforce in the properties that comprise
them.
Fig. 3: Location of the Cumaco hamlet, in the department of Atlántico, Colombia and South
America.
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In agreement with these selection criteria, APU population in two municipalities,
Sabanalarga and Ponedera was used, choosing the Cumaco hamlet for this study. This place is
located at the confluence of territorial units of both municipalities, with these producing units
being destined supply chain catering and personal consumption. Regarding exclusion criteria,
these were specifically based on management and functional structure of agricultural
production units, limiting research to those APUs owned by only one natural or legal person,
employing workforce or machinery in their activities, and producing agricultural, forestry,
livestock, aquaculture and fishery goods. In the same way, to respond to the research objective,
an arithmetic mean scale of interpretation was conceived for indicators of external environment,
internal environment, organization linked components, components that proves entry of
elements to the system, organization conditions, organization qualities or aptitudes,
opportunity and threat identification, knowledge of elements, resources and capabilities,
capability strengthening, interest group characterization, strategic alliance establishment,
search of agreements with competitors and companies in the same sector, and human talent
training in strategic management processes (see Table 1).
Score rank
Categorization
1-1.79
Does not know
1.80-2.59
Knows little
2.6-3.39
Knows partially
3.4-4.19
knows
4.2-5
Totally knows
Table 1: Categorization scale of the arithmetic mean establishing the behavior of the variable’s
interdependence of tasks and knowledge in development processes of new services and value
chains.
Source: Hernández et al. (2014).
Regarding the validity of the instrument, the content was subjected to judgement by ten
(10) experts in the study variables. These experts verified the relevance of items, objectives,
dimensions, and indicators, as well as sample collection. In the analysis of results, the researcher
analyses processed data, inspecting the original material compiled for its analysis. Survey
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answers were contrasted in order to carefully observe information, studying the moment,
conditions, and aptitudes shown as the information was provided. In this stage, the information
is coded and tabulated. The software IBM SPSS Statistics, version 22 was used to calculate
descriptive statistics. These calculations were in turn used to make inferences on some aspects
of the population, hypothesis confirmation, hypothesis tests, or estimates of the arithmetic mean
or other characteristics of the population (Cruz et al., 2014). In this way, the procedure to be
followed is established, detailing those activities that lead to obtaining the desired results in
each stage of process development. Thus, five stages were recognized: topic selection, literature
review, methodology selection, instrument application and analysis, and discussion of results.
4. Results and discussion
In this section, results obtained from compiled information are analyzed, in agreement
with the research, responding to the assessed objective through dimensions and indicators. The
objective is to interpret the totality of answers obtained from the survey, comprised by
presentation of results, analyses, and discussion. Therefore, in the following table the results
obtained by the instrument application are presented. The results are posterior to the
interpretation of answers obtained through a questionary directed to the (56) subjects,
including: management staff and owners of agricultural production units, either property of a
single natural or legal person, employing workforce and/or machinery in their activities, and
practicing forestry, livestock, agricultural, aquacultural and fishery exploitation in the
municipalities of Sabanalarga, Ponedera and Palmar de Varela of the Atlántico department.
Table 2 evidence that 19 informants, that is. 33.33% of survey respondents, partially knows
strategies lead to identifying opportunities and threats. The second indicator shows that the
greatest part of the surveyed population (32 survey respondents, 38.69% of the total) have a
partial knowledge of the elements, resources, and capabilities of their agricultural production
units. The study also demonstrates that 15 survey respondents (26.79% of study subjects) has
obtained partial knowledge on strategies that allow to strengthen the capacities of their
productive units.
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Answer Options
S
CS
AV
CN
N
Total
Average
Indicators
Items
Fa
Fr
Fa
Fr
Fa
Fr
Fa
Fr
Fa
Fr
Fa
Fr
Identification of
opportunities and
threats.
19 - 21
13
22.62
12
21.43
19
33.33
11
19.05
2
3.57
56
100
3.40
Knowledge of the
elements,
resources and
capacities.
22 - 24
17
30.95
12
22.02
22
38.69
5
8.33
0
0.00
56
100
3.76
Capacity building.
25 - 27
12
20.83
14
25.60
15
26.79
11
19.64
4
7.14
56
100
3.33
Characterization
of interest groups.
28 - 30
15
27.38
12
22.02
13
23.81
8
14.88
7
11.90
56
100
3.38
Establishment of
strategic alliances.
31 - 30
12
21.43
18
32.74
13
23.81
8
14.29
4
7.74
56
100
3.46
Search for
agreements with
competitors and
companies in the
sector.
34 - 36
12
22.02
16
29.17
17
30.36
9
16.67
1
1.79
56
100
3.53
Training of human
talent in strategic
management
processes.
37 - 39
24
42.26
10
17.26
11
20.24
9
16.67
2
3.57
56
100
3.78
Mean
15
26.79
14
24.32
16
28.15
9
15.65
3
5.10
56
100
3.52
Scales of the interpretation of the mean.
Categories
Ranks
Alternatives
Total average of the dimension.
Does not know
1 – 1.79
(1) Never
3.52
Knows little
1.8 – 2.59
(2) Rarely
Knows partially
2.6 – 3.39
(3) occasionally
knows
3.4 – 4.19
(4) usually
Totally knows
4.2 - 5
(5) always
Category "knows"
Table 2: Innovative strategies for the incorporation of value chains in agricultural production
units.
Source: Own elaboration (2022).
Regarding the characterization of groups of interest, table 2 shows that 15 (27.38%) survey
respondents claim to have a complete knowledge of actions that agree with this strategy. On the
other side, 18 (32.74%) survey respondents claim that knows oh and has established strategic
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alliances with companies in the sector, providers, and buyers. However, agreements with
industry competitors have been only partially made, represented by 17 (30.36%) survey
respondents. Lastly, 24 (42.26%) study subjects have claimed to have implemented human
talent training in processes related to the strategic management of agricultural production units.
In the same way, it is inferred that the strategy is a fundamental tool of business success.
Strategy allows to establish a series of actions that help preserve organizations, as objectives are
fixed, actions are established, resources are provided, and a permanent review is performed to
evaluate the status of proposed goals, in addition to action relevance and effectiveness. Those
strategies that are properly aligned to organizational goals generate synergies and capacities
that, as they are improved, result in unique qualities, therefore, in competitive advantages. For
those researchers studying strategy in companies, this comprises a set of management tools
intended to reach corporative objectives, surpassing market rivals, correcting weaknesses
identified within companies, implementing new technologies, foresee market events, among
others. Strategy is born from high management, and requires proactive, generous executives
with its attainment, providing resources and elements necessary to be carried out. At the same
time, strategy must be communicated to collaborators and organization elements. This must go
beyond a declaration of intent for the mission, communicating in order to generate commitment
by the human resource and establish permanent evaluation processes to successfully fulfill the
strategies.
In turn, the strategy must be conceived at different dimensions and directions, considering
the need to address event that may happen within business units and their elements (for which,
depending on the case, it will be also necessary to design strategies to reach objectives), as well
as outside them. The former can be supported by considering that there are events (that is,
external occurrences) that appear as threats or opportunities, affecting company functioning it
the tools necessary to confront these events are absent. An adverse event, such as the appearance
of a new market competitor or the introduction of a new technology, may positively or
negatively affect the company according to its condition. The degree of affectation will depend
on the strategies previously set up by the company. Therefore, strengthening the inner workings
of the company, either reinforcing competitive advantages or taking corrective measures in those
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processes that are not carried out as expected, will be crucial for facing the future in a positive
way; on the contrary, the company runs the risk of failing or disappearing. The scope of the
strategy is not defined, as it can be applied to any context in which a goal is defined, and actions
can be outlined to reach this goal.
Conclusion
According to the bibliographic reviews, analysis, presentation and discussion of the
results, it is concluded that the strategy in companies has been in constant evolution since its
appearance in the 20th century, going from being exclusively actions to achieve goals, to
becoming a valuable tool that serves to deal with events in the environment, obtain useful
competitive advantages to lead markets, deliver a value offer to stakeholders, the development
of skills and capabilities, among others. In the context of business strategy, currents have been
strengthened that affirm that it serves to potentiate strengths to make them unique and difficult
to match and then turn them into competitive advantages. In addition to that, it is taken for
granted that the strategies must be unique and adapted to the context of the organizations,
avoiding falling into universal formulas that can lead to failure.
In recent years, new aspects of business strategy advocate the implementation of strategies
that are sustainable and environmentally sustainable, considering aspects such as social
responsibility and the development of new markets. The company's management is
strengthened to the extent that it manages to design strategies that combine management tools
relevant to the context and goals to be achieved, focused on the meticulous study of strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, in addition to the implementation of the vision based
on resources. Being clear about these concepts helps to know the external and internal reality of
the company, a key matter for designing and implementing the appropriate strategies.
The studies carried out on innovation in the agricultural sector have been carried out
mostly in developed countries, which represents an opportunity for improvement for the
progress of science, technology, and socioeconomic development in developing countries.
Agricultural producers who have established strategic approaches and continuous
improvement have been able to lead industry sectors and market segments, generating economic
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growth and social progress. In this sense, studies carried out in different regions of the world
show that agricultural production units have had a slow process of adopting innovations,
limiting their economic growth, and delaying attention to the urgent problems of economic,
social and environmental sustainability.
Likewise, there is a lack of knowledge of new tools and technologies that can be
implemented to improve managerial and productive practices in these organizations. Regarding
the establishment of alliances with companies in the sector or related to the corporate purpose
of these companies, such as their suppliers and clients, relationships must be strengthened that
allow the construction of reliable value chains that generate closer links.
Thus, it will be essential to persevere in promoting and strengthening the strategic
development of economic and business management, regardless of the productive nature of the
companies. The intervention of the educational sector, public and companies with diverse
economic vocation is crucial and, in this way, promote a business culture, where the vision is
placed on the prosperity of the regions and thus benefit the entire society.
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