Agribusiness, Market Forces, Structural Change, Porter’s Five Forces, Agribusiness, Q13, L10, L22, M22, L80,

Boehlje, Michael

Olson, Kent D.

English

Research Papers in Economics

  
 
 
1st  Quarter 2011 | 26(1)  
THEME OVERVIEW: FUNDAMENTAL FORCES AFFECTING AGRIBUSINESS 
INDUSTRIES, PART II 
Kent Olson and Mike Boehlje 
JEL Classifications: Q13, L10, L22, M22, L80 
Keywords: Agribusiness, Market Forces, Structural Change, Porter’s Five Forces 
This is the second part of the theme on the numerous challenges and opportunities resulting from a number 
of fundamental forces facing agribusiness industries. The first set of articles followed the value chain for 
plants and plant products and the retail industry. Those articles were published in the previous issue of 
Choices . 
In this issue, the papers explore the forces affecting the animal and animal products value chain including the 
animal health industry (Buhr, Holtkamp, and Sornsen); livestock producers (Mintert and Lawrence); and the 
meatpacking industry (Buhr and Ginn). The article on the input industry is focused on the animal health 
industry since feed, the other major input for livestock, is covered in the previous issue and its discussion of 
the plant industry. 
The fourth article by Krause is a response to the previous articles on the plant and plant products value 
chain. This insightful article expands our understanding of the forces affecting the agribusiness industry. It 
went through a regular review and resubmit process by the guest editors and is included as part of the theme 
with the hope that it might stimulate additional submissions around the topic of the theme. 
An article discussing the forces affecting the fresh produce industry is planned for publication in a 
subsequent Choices issue. 
To provide a common thread for the articles, the authors use Michael Porter’s Five Competitive Forces (plus 
two additional forces) to guide discussion of how economic forces are creating opportunities and threats, and 
how companies and the value chain as a whole are changing. Porter identifies five forces that shape an 
industry: (1) rivalry among existing competitors, (2) threat of new entrants, (3) bargaining power of suppliers, 
(4) bargaining power of buyers, and (5) the threat of substitute products (Porter, 2008). Two additional forces 
affecting competition have been described as: (6) technology and (7) other drivers of change. These last two 
forces introduce an external dynamic to Porter’s forces. These seven forces are described in the introduction 
to the full theme in the previous issue of Choices (Olson and Boehlje). 
For More Information 
Porter, Michael E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 
(January 2008), p. 79-93. 
Olson K. and Boehlje M. 2010. Theme Overview: Fundamental Forces Affecting Agribusiness Industries. 
Choices 25(4) available at http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/article.php?article=150. 
Kent D. Olson (kdolson@umn.edu) is Professor, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, 
St. Paul, Minnesota. Michael Boehlje (boehljem@purdue.edu) is Distinguished Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. 
© 1999-2011 Choices. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced or electronically distributed as long as 
attribution to Choices and the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association is maintained.  
 
 

Theme Overview: Fundamental Forces Affecting Agribusiness Industries, Part II

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics