Agri-Food Management
MRM's AGRO focus area is one of MRM's three cross-disciplinary focus areas. It brings together researchers from all MRM management disciplines working on issues related to food and the agri-food sectors. It is led by Gilles Séré de Lanauze.
Reflecting an interest that has existed for several decades and responding to social demand (strong presence of agri-food in economic activity in Occitanie), MRM researchers involved in the agri-food sector (around thirty researchers) are interested in the management strategies and tools developed by agri-food companies.
The creation in 2017 ofthe I-site Muse, "Montpellier University of Excellence," based on the threefold approach of " Feed," has greatly strengthened the relevance and legitimacy of exchanges and work in the agri-food sector within MRM.
The agri-food sector is a broad field of research that brings together many disciplines and research topics. Its scope is both global and international, as well as local and focused on regional dynamics. The group's goal is to promote exchanges and connections between researchers around joint, multidisciplinary research projects.
Regular meetings bring together members of different disciplinary groups from Montpellier research units and programs, including the MRM laboratory,the MOISA joint research unit at the Montpellier Agro Institute and its OSA group ( ), as well as Labex Entreprendre. The main areas of research focus on the following topics:
- New eating habits: vegetarianism, veganism, responsible food consumption, entomophagy
- Health foods and incentive marketing in the context of healthy eating
- Global value chains in the agri-food sector
- The wine industry and wine export strategies
RESEARCH TOPICS
The Agri-Food Management division aims to implement a strategy that acts as an interface between the MRM laboratory's research groups and capabilities and stakeholders in the agri-food sector, including economic and professional actors, as well as academic and scientific partners. The aim of this focus area is to carry out multidisciplinary projects within MRM and in collaboration with other departments at the University of Montpellier, as well as externally with our main partners in Montpellier (Supagro, CIRAD). The work of this research area is therefore in line with the scientific orientation of the I-site Muse, which is guided by the response to three major challenges: "feeding, caring for, and protecting." The objective of this research area is to promote the laboratory's integration into the regional and national agri-food economic fabric and its position as a major scientific player in the themes selected for this research area. 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 sector, for example. Three themes in particular are emerging for the period 2020-2024, as detailed below.
Theme 1: Food behaviors and practices: developments, economic and societal challenges
Work on this topic intersects with issues relating to food and health, but also with questions of stakeholder responsibility.
- Eating habits (young adults, seniors, on-the-go consumption)
- Obesity/health
- Responsible and sustainable eating habits, deviations from attitudes
- Social and normative influences, communities, trends (vegetarianism, veganism)
Theme 2: Strategies for promoting products and brands
Work on this topic, which is mainly rooted in strategic marketing, focuses more on the agri-food industry in relation to the downstream sector:
- product and process innovation,
- packaging and design issues,
- certification and quality labels,
- brand building and communication.
Theme 3: Performance of agri-food companies and individual or collective actors
Research on this topic largely reflects a cross-disciplinary approach to finance and marketing in the study of various aspects of corporate and industry performance, performance measures, and their determinants:
- performance measurement,
- understanding of short supply chains,
- terroir, territories, and globalization,
- governance and innovation in agricultural and wine-growing cooperatives,
- international business activity,
- collective brand actions focused on specific regions,
- circular economy and links between stakeholders,
- Governance and innovation in very small enterprises.
AXIS MANAGERS
Gilles SERE DE LANAUZE
Contact
The MRM laboratory's agri-food focus aims to bring together and mobilize all Montpellier-based stakeholders working on agri-food issues, providing a cross-disciplinary approach and a plurality of perspectives. MRM managers could work, and already do work, with researchers from other institutes interested in agri-food issues and with a strong presence in Montpellier.
In this context, three important elements should be highlighted: the Research Partnership Agreement between MRM and Moisa; the partnership with the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems; and participation in LABEX Entreprendre.
To formalize numerous collaborations between researchers, MRM, which leads the cross-disciplinary "agri-food" research area, and MOISA, whose central research theme is "sustainable development governance in the agri-food sector" and which draws on management sciences, particularly within the REGAAL team (Research on Governance: Consumers, Businesses, and Agri-Food and Rural Sectors), have worked to develop a partnership agreement granting "visiting researcher" status in either laboratory to any researcher interested in agri-food issues.
MRM is also a partner of Labex Entreprendre, and several research projects conducted within this framework are in the agri-food sector.
Nineteenth Agri-Food Marketing Day in Montpellier:
Date and location: Friday, September 19, 2025, at the Montpellier Agricultural Institute
The day has been held since 2005 and, since its first edition, has been awarded the "Themed Days" label by the French Marketing Association.
The aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners involved in marketing and consumer behavior in the agri-food sector. The content of the day will be predominantly academic, but with a strong focus on managerial practice in the sector, particularly in the context of roundtable discussions. The day is open to academics and practitioners who wish to interact with the academic world and recent advances in research. Presentations will focus on marketing issues (strategic, operational) and consumer behavior in the agri-food sector in the broadest sense.
Agri-Food Marketing Days – JMAM:
2025 Proceedings
2024 Proceedings
2023 Proceedings
2022 Proceedings
2021 Proceedings
2020 Proceedings
2019 Proceedings
2017 Proceedings
2015 Proceedings
2013 Proceedings
2012 Proceedings
2011 Proceedings
2010 Proceedings
2009 Proceedings
2008 Proceedings
2007 Proceedings
2006 Proceedings
2005 Proceedings
FNEGE certification of the group's collective work:
The collective work "Les évolutions des liens sociaux autour des nouvelles pratiques alimentaires" (Changes in social ties around new eating habits), written by some fifteen researchers from the AGRO research group and published by Wiley-ISTE in 2022, has been awarded the FNEGE 2023 label in the "Collective research work" category.