Purpose: The paper compares two government-sponsored education programs for agricultural entrepreneurs: a Leadership program and a Lean program. Methodology: The paper takes both a qualitative and a quantitative approach in its collection and analysis of data from 54 semi- structured interviews and from a survey with 109 participants. Findings: The main challenges to business and personal development are time pressure and the need for better communications. The Leadership program participants emphasize the effect of internal barriers such asfixed mind-sets. The Lean program participants emphasize the effect of external barriers such asfinancing. Both groups emphasize personal and business growth more than the control group. Practical Implications: Entrepreneur education programs can help participants, program developers, and advisory organizations identify and manage business challenges and barriers. Theoretical Implications: The paper contributes to the literature about educations for entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector with its examination of agricultural entrepreneurs’reflections on barriers and challenges in business development and their linkage to overcoming barriers focused on a resource-based perspective with different types of resources. Originality/Value: The paper encourages examination of development challenges and barriers from the perspective of participators in entrepreneur education programs. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The importance of business model innovation (BMI) is widely recognized. BMI is especially important in the agri-food industry that faces enormous challenges as the demand for food increases worldwide. Much of the BMI research focuses on the technology and biomedical industries. Far less attention has been paid to the agri-food industry. This article is a systematic literature review of the BMI research in the agri-food industry. The article’s aim is to identify and categorize various barriers to BMI as described in the literature (in English) published in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014. The findings show a fairly even distribution among external and internal BMI barriers. Because the main barrier is the mind-set that is resistant to change, it is recommended the researchers and practitioners should focus more on the cognitive barriers to BMI in the agri-food industry.

Framtidens arbetsmarknad kommer att kräva en förändring av dagens kompetenser och färdigheter. Common Core handlar om att rusta dagens studenter för de utmaningar som den högteknologiska framtiden kommer att innebära. Högskolan i Halmstads vision är att vara ett lärosäte vars forskning och utbildning speglas av (VIS) värdeskapande, innovationsdrivande och samhällsutvecklande. I ljuset av det har högskolestyrelsen beslutat att genomföra ett omfattande strategiskt utvecklingsarbete. Detta innefattar ett bildningskoncept, i form av en gemensam kärna av kurser med fokus på samhällsutmaningar, på samtliga grundutbildningsprogram med planerad start 2020. Grundtanken med Common Core är att stimulera studenters intellektuella och praktiska förmåga att se sig själv och sin kunskap i en vidare kontext, förstå hur olika aspekter i vår globala värld samspelar och hur relationen mellan teknik, människa och samhälle fungerar. Vidare ska studenterna få möjlighet utveckla de kompetenser som framtiden och därmed arbetsmarknaden kräver. Då detta i grunden är ett top-down beslut, så har det inte varit oproblematiskt eller friktionsfritt. Tvärtom har det funnits ett uttalat motstånd i olika delar av organisationen, inte minst hos lärare som har pekat på svårigheterna med att införa ytterligare kurser i befintliga program och därmed har haft svårt att se vinsterna med Common Core. Det är inte ovanligt att det uppstår motstånd vad gäller förändringsarbete inom högre utbildning (Baume & Popovic, 2016).

Processen med utvecklingsarbetet har drivits framåt genom en styrgrupp, bestående av såväl lärare som studenter vilka har bidragit med olika kompetenser. För att säkerställa att arbetet har rätt riktning har det vid flera tillfällen genomförts diskussioner och workshops med representanter från näringslivet och studenter. Dessa har gemensamt visat på behovet av en bildning, perspektiv och vikten av olika generiska förmågor. Vidare har styrgruppen genom samtal och studiebesök inspirerats och tagit lärdom från Hong Kong University, då de har ett väl inarbetat Common Core-koncept (commoncore.hku, 2018). För att ett högskoleövergripande koncept ska bli framgångsrikt krävs transparens och kontinuerlig intern förankring. Det har därför genomförts ett flertal inspirationsföreläsningar, pilotprojekt och workshops med fokus att säkerställa att konceptet är väl underbyggt och accepterat i organisationen.

Utvecklingsarbetet har resulterat i en Common Core-struktur som innebär en strimma på totalt 18 hp, fördelat över tre år, som fullt implementerat kommer ingå i samtliga grundutbildningsprogram. Under termin 1 och 2 läser studenterna två gemensamma kurser, dels en introduktionskurs samt en kurs kring ”Vad är vetenskap och akademisk kommunikation”. Under termin 3-5 väljer studenterna tre olika kurser utifrån ett högskoleövergripande kursutbud. Grundtanken är att det i de olika kurserna blir en sammansättning av studenter från olika program, med olika ämneskompetenser som tillsammans skapar dynamik när de gemensamt ska arbeta med nutida och framtida samhällsutmaningar utifrån olika perspektiv.

Syftet med det här konferensbidraget är dels att beskriva Common Core som koncept, dels att diskutera problematiken med att genomföra och implementera högskoleövergripande projekt då organisatoriska strukturer skapar både möjligheter och hinder.

Purpose: The purpose of this empirical paper is to illustrate two leadership development programs in Swedish agriculture. Further, it is to compare the two programs related to outcomes in terms of barriers and challenges in the development process and suggest possible ways to continue the leadership development for business model innovation in the agricultural sector.

Design/methodology/approach: The data collection includes 54 interviews and a survey sent to 109 entrepreneursin Sweden. The interviews were collected with (i) entrepreneurs who participated in the Project ‘Ledarpraktikan’ (‘Leader practice’) (LP) 2013 and (ii) entrepreneurs who participated in the project ‘Lean Agriculture’ (LA) 2012. The survey was sent in the spring 2017 to 109 entrepreneurs (37 from ´LP´, 35 from ´LA´ and 37 not having participated in any of the programs called control group ´CG´). The overall response rate in the survey is 68% (51% from ´LP´, 80% from ´LA´ and 73% from ‘CG’. Content analysis and descriptive analysis have been used in the study.

Findings: From the qualitative studies, we can see that entrepreneurs having participated in ‘LP’ perceive that they have acquired deeper knowledge and understanding regarding selfleadership than entrepreneurs participating in ´LA´. The latter entrepreneurs also have described their need for more knowledge in self-leadership. The entrepreneurs participating in ´LA´ have, through analysis of the day-to-day work, acquired a more developed systematic working environment. The comparison between the three groups in the survey show that there are several similarities between the groups, for example they don´t see institutional rules to be barriers in their firm development process. We have found differences in barriers for business development in terms of (i) growth willingness, (ii) lack of employees, (iii) lack of support and (iv) lack of spare time.

Practical implications: There is a need for further leadership development knowledge in Swedish agriculture, both for entrepreneurs in the development of their business models and for agricultural advisors regarding their new role as coaches instead of traditional advisers.

Policy implications: It is important that organizations supporting financial solutions for the agricultural businesses also support leadership development programmes in the industry.

Originality/value: The originality with the paper is that there has been two large analyses regarding two leadership development programs in Swedish agriculture, which is unique in this industry.

The purpose of this article is to deepen our understanding of what we know about business model innovation in the agri-food sector, both from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective. The methodological approach used in the paper is built on interviews, focus groups and observations of agricultural entrepreneurs and agricultural advisors in the agriculture sector and a review of over 500 peer-reviewed research papers for the period 1990-2014. The findings of the study indicate that entrepreneurs within the agri-food sector ought to shift focus from only a producer perspective to also include an entrepreneurial perspective, e.g. to focus on business model innovation. Based on this knowledge the authors present implications for research and practice. The research field is young and broad, but developing, and in need of stronger theoretical foundations. This article is based on a combination of a systematic literature review of a new emerging field as well as empirical in-depth interviews, focus groups and observations. © 2016, IGI Global.

Purpose

Because the business model is a fairly new concept, research is lacking on business model innovation in certain industry sectors. One such sector is the agri-food sector. Using a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1990 to 2014, this paper examines the where, when, and how of the use of business models and business model innovation in the agri-food sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A web-based search was conducted to identify peer-reviewed journal articles that contained a combination of “business model” or “business model innovation” with agriculture-related and food-related terms (e.g., “agri-food sector”). After winnowing out irrelevant and duplicate articles, 505 articles were chosen for analysis.

Findings

Using categories, the paper analyses various data about the selected articles. The categories include research settings, units of analysis, methodologies, and theories. Based on this analysis, the paper finds that these agri-food sector articles are primarily qualitative, empirical studies that focus on one or a few companies (i.e., case studies). The paper also finds that theory is not yet well developed in the research on the agri-food sector.

Originality/value

Systematic literature reviews of various concepts, theories, and models are common in many fields (e.g., information/software technology, healthcare, and organizational management). However, no such review is available for the agri-food sector, in particular in its use of business models and business model innovation. This paper addresses that gap with its review of relevant articles published in more than 300 journals in recent years. Based on this review, the paper draws conclusions about business model innovation in the agri-food sector and offers suggestions for future research. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited