Agri-Food Management
MRM's AGRO axis is one of MRM's three thematic cross-disciplinary axes. It brings together researchers from all MRM management disciplines working on issues related to food and the agri-food sectors. It is headed by Gilles Séré de Lanauze and Carole Maurel.
Reflecting an interest that has been present for several decades, and in response to social demand (the strong presence of the agri-food sector in economic activity in Occitanie), MRM researchers involved in the agri-food axis (around thirty researchers) are interested in the strategies and management tools developed by agri-food companies.
The creation in 2017 of theI-site Muse, "Montpellier University of Excellence" around the triptych " Feed-Protect-Care" has profoundly strengthened the relevance and legitimacy of the agri-food axis' exchanges and work within MRM.
The agri-food sector is a wide-ranging field in which numerous disciplines and research issues intersect. Its dimensions are as much global and international as they are local, based on the dynamics of a given region. The aim of the group is to foster exchanges and links between researchers around common, multi-disciplinary research projects.
Regular meetings bring together members of different disciplinary groups from Montpellier research units or programs, including the MRM laboratory, theUMR MOISA of the Institut Agro de Montpellier and its OSA group (Organization and Strategies of Actors), and the Labex Entreprendre. The main areas of research focus on the following themes:
- New eating habits: vegetarianism, veganism, responsible food consumption, entomophagy
- Health food products and incentive marketing in the health food context
- Global value chains in the food industry
- The wine industry and wine export strategies
RESEARCH TOPICS
The Agri-Food Management Axis intends to pursue an interface strategy between the research groups and capacities of the MRM laboratory and the players in the agri-food sector, both economic and professional, as well as academic and scientific partners. The aim is to develop multidisciplinary projects within MRM and in collaboration with other components of the University of Montpellier, as well as with our main partners in Montpellier (Supagro, CIRAD). The work carried out by this axis is in line with the scientific orientation of the I-site Muse, which is guided by the three major challenges of "feeding, caring and protecting". The aim of the axis is to promote the laboratory's anchorage in the regional and national agri-food economic fabric, and its position as a major scientific player in the axis' chosen themes. As a result, several agri-food sectors are involved, such as the wine industry (a Key Initiative M-WineS Vigne et Vin has been created within the framework of Muse) and the equine industry. Three themes in particular stand out for the 2020-2024 period, and are detailed below.
Theme 1: Eating habits and practices: trends, economic and social issues
Work on this theme crosses issues relating to food and health, as well as the responsibility of players.
- Eating habits (Young adults, Seniors, Nomadic consumption)
- Obesity/health
- Responsible and sustainable eating habits, deviations from attitudes
- Social and normative influences, communities, trends (vegetarianism, veganism)
Theme 2: Product and brand enhancement strategies
Work on this theme, which is essentially rooted in strategic marketing, focuses more on the agri-food industry and its downstream aspects:
- product and process innovation,
- packaging and design issues,
- labeling and quality signs,
- brand building and communication.
Theme 3: Performance of agri-food businesses and individual or collective players
Much of the work in this area reflects the cross-disciplinary nature of finance and marketing in the study of the various dimensions of company and industry performance, performance measurement and its determinants:
- performance measurement,
- understanding short circuits,
- terroir, territories and globalization,
- governance and innovation in agricultural and winegrowing cooperatives,
- international business,
- collective brand actions around territories,
- circular economy and links between players,
- governance and innovation in VSEs.
The MRM laboratory's agrifood axis is intended to bring together and mobilize all the players in Montpellier who work on agrifood issues, bringing a cross-disciplinary approach and a plurality of viewpoints. Indeed, MRM managers can and do work with researchers from other institutes with an interest in agrifood issues and a strong presence on the Montpellier site.
In this context, three important elements stand out: the Research Partnership Agreement between MRM and Moisa; the partnership with the UNESCO World Food Chair; and participation in the LABEX Entreprendre.
In order to formalize numerous collaborations between researchers, MRM, which leads the "agri-food" cross-disciplinary axis, and MOISA, whose central research theme is the "governance of sustainable development in the agri-food sector" and which mobilizes management sciences, notably in the REGAAL team (Recherches sur les Gouvernances : consommateurs, entreprises, et filières Agro-Alimentaires et ruraLes) have worked to draw up a partnership agreement granting "visiting researcher" status in one or other of the laboratories to any researcher interested in agri-food issues.
MRM is also a partner of Labex Entreprendre, and several of the research projects carried out within this framework are in the agri-food field.
Seventeenth Agri-Food Marketing Day in Montpellier:
Date and venue: Friday, September 22, 2023 at L'Institut agro Montpellier
The event has been held since 2005, and since its first edition has been awarded the "Journées Thématiques" label by the French Marketing Association.
The aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners concerned with marketing and consumer behavior in the agri-food sector. The day's content is predominantly academic, but with strong interaction with managerial practice in the sector concerned, notably through round-table discussions. The day is open to both academics and practitioners wishing to interact with the academic world and recent advances in research. Papers will focus on marketing issues (strategic, operational) and consumer behavior in the agri-food sector in the broadest sense.
Les journées du Marketing Agro-Alimentaire - JMAM :
2023 Proceedings
2022 Proceedings
2021 Proceedings
2020 Proceedings
2019 Proceedings
2017 Proceedings
2015 Proceedings
2013 Proceedings
2012 Actes
2011 Proceedings
2010 Proceedings
2009 Proceedings
2008 Proceedings
2007 Proceedings
2006 Proceedings
2005 Proceedings
FNEGE label for the group's collective work :
The collective work "Les évolutions des liens sociaux autour des nouvelles pratiques alimentaires", written by some fifteen researchers from the AGRO division and published by Wiley-ISTE in 2022, has been awarded the FNEGE 2023 label in the "Collective research work" category.