Inventorying resources: an application to product-oriented agriculture

Different resources are necessary in the new, product-oriented agricultural environment. This article explores the question of what information is best suited for strategic analysis and strategy formulation for firms involved in product-oriented agriculture. This article will draw upon theoretical literature from general management and interviews with agricultural producers to develop a new method of inventorying agricultural resources for product-oriented agriculture. The article addresses two research questions. What resource inventory would be particularly relevant to product-oriented agricultural producers? And, how does this inventory differ from historic agricultural resource inventories? In order to fully address these questions, it is necessary to examine theoretical and empirical work that is related to strategic analysis and strategy formulation for agribusiness firms, especially those that produce differentiated agricultural products. A new framework for inventorying agricultural resources is introduced.