Strategic Planning and Management of Food and Agribusiness Chains: The ChainPlan Method (Framework)

Abstract

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to improve the method for the strategic planning and management of food and agribusiness chains. Design/methodology/approach – Several research methodologies are used to develop the ChainPlan methodology. The theory (literature review) provided the basis on which to build a preliminary framework ten years prior. Then, empirical application of the initial method provided insights regarding needed additions to and subtractions from the original method. These insights, combined with continued research on advances in the theories, contributed to further development of the ChainPlan methodology Findings – A method is proposed to fill the theoretical gap regarding the strategic planning applied to agribusiness chains. The ChainPlan method is a theoretical-empirical method, built based on the academic literature and perfected over the years through its application in several productive chains Originality/value – Many authors have proposed a method to build strategic plans in organizations, but when planning agribusiness chains is concerned, the academic discussion revolves around the coordination of agribusiness chains and analyses to be applied in this sector. This article fills this theoretical gap and proposes a tool, which is a specific strategic planning method to be applied in agribusiness chain

Keywords

• strategic planning and management
• agribusiness
• systems