agriculture - Publications - Faculty & Research

22 Apr 2020
Research Event

How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

Until a few years ago, climate change’s potential impact seemed abstract for many investors. Now, as sea levels rise, hurricanes intensify, and droughts threaten food supplies, many investors are confronting its financial realities. But it’s not a simple calculation.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

14 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

strategy for how you actually get to those results. For example, the MCC made a $550 million grant to the government of Ghana that was focused on infrastructure such as irrigation and roads that could get farm goods to market, as well as View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

May 2025
Background Note

Social Enterprise in Latin America

By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza

This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details

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01 Jun 2019
News

City on a Hill

more than $1 million in grants to renovate the aging West Wind dormitory, provide technical assistance to local farmers, and establish a commercial kitchen that local growers can use to make value-added agricultural products; turned the... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Clay Cook

September 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

River Remedy: Navigating Mississippi’s Medical Marijuana Market

By: Robin Greenwood, Richard S. Ruback and Robert Ialenti

MBA student William Chism, the founder of a fully integrated medical marijuana company based in Mississippi, must respond to a significant disruption in the fledgling industry. In late 2023, Rapid Analytics, one of two active licensed testing facilities, has its... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Growth and Maturation; Forecasting and Prediction; Microeconomics; Local Range; Government Legislation; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Competitive Strategy; Governance Controls; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Mississippi

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November 2010 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Cresud S.A., Farmer or Real Estate Developer?

By: Ray Goldberg, Arthur I Segel, Gustavo Herrero and Andrew Terris

Alejandro Elsztain, CEO of Cresud S.A., is faced with the difficult choice of whether to sell, develop, or continue to hold the 151,000 hectares of remaining undeveloped farmland at the company's Los Pozos farm in Argentina. Developing the land will further expose... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management; Ownership Stake; Property; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Argentina

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20 Nov 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Building a Nonprofit Marketplace to Feed America

Keywords: Re: Scott Duke Kominers; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Agriculture & Agribusiness

June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
Case

John Deere Component Works (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Production; Business or Company Management; Planning; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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05 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 5, 2017

urban and rural, the new urbanization does not upend China’s longstanding duality between those categories. The central goals of the new urbanization are to manage urbanization so as to generate domestic demand and reorganize agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 2

Pontal, a partially built irrigation project in the SFV. In exchange for partial reimbursement from the Brazilian government and free use of 30,000 hectares land for 25 years, the private-sector partner would finish constructing the irrigation infrastructure and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Hormel Foods

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

In 2019, CEO Jim Snee is weighing how to shape the image of Hormel Foods, one of the largest U.S. meat and food companies, at a time when the industry faces unprecedented scrutiny. Based in the small town of Austin, Minnesota, the nearly 130-year-old firm is best known... View Details

Keywords: Brand Portfolio Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Risk Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; China

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December 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Kellogg Company/eighteen94 capital

By: David Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred

With 33,000 employees and revenues of $13 billion in 2016, Kellogg Company was the world’s largest producer of branded packaged cereal and a leader in branded convenience foods. Founded in 1906 and based in Michigan, the company had a proud history of product and... View Details

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January 2025
Case

Barilla: Feeding the Future

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Forest L. Reinhardt, Dante Roscini and Carlota Moniz

Keywords: Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Italy

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15 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 15

agricultural subsidies and tariffs, or instead to pursue regional trade agreements in South and Central America. Rousseff also pledged active government involvement in the economy, described in the case as "Brazilian... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2020
Supplement

Luvo (B)

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This case, a follow on to HBS No. 517-049 "Luvo," provides a brief look at changes that have occurred at Luvo, now called Performance Kitchen, since the timing of the first case (mid-2016). Set in January 2020, “Luvo (B)” touches on developments such as the company's... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Food; Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; Canada

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08 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

focusing on its strategy and growth since the IPO and challenges for the future. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/318077 Harvard Business School Case 717-478 Precision Agriculture at Deere & Company No... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809095 GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards Harvard Business School Case 509-004 In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

company so dedicated to reinventing agriculture to be more sustainable and less polluting use planet-friendly packaging? It wasn’t an oversight. As founder Viraj Puri recalls, when the company was starting out, his team researched... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

22 Apr 2015
Op-Ed

Reforming Greece: Myths and Truths

goods rather than agriculture or services. Industrial exports increased as a percentage of total exports from circa 25 percent to 40 percent between 2007 and 2013. It is no coincidence that the largest increase in labor productivity over... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

Teaching Interest

Overview

Globalization and Emerging Markets (Elective Course) The world order has changed significantly in the last two decades. The influence of western-style varieties of capitalism has been challenged by new forms of capitalism that rely less on private enterprise and on the... View Details

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How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

Social Enterprise in Latin America

City on a Hill

River Remedy: Navigating Mississippi’s Medical Marijuana Market

Cresud S.A., Farmer or Real Estate Developer?

Building a Nonprofit Marketplace to Feed America

John Deere Component Works (B)

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 5, 2017

First Look: June 2

Hormel Foods

Kellogg Company/eighteen94 capital

Barilla: Feeding the Future

First Look: March 15

Luvo (B)

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

First Look: February 10, 2009

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

Reforming Greece: Myths and Truths

Overview