Innovative agricultural businesses – elements of an efficient farm management

Abstract

Innovation is one of the neo-factors with the greatest influence on building or enhancing a competitive advantage in all fields of activity, including the agricultural sector. Innovative agricultural businesses are the ones that ensure differentiation in relation to competition and are the main sources of added value in a dynamic economy. Innovation is one of the attributes of the entrepreneur. Business ideas that identify new products, new features or usage patterns as well as new market niches are tools that help ensuring successful management of the farms concerned. The paper aims to identify a series of innovative business ideas related to agricultural and agri-food activities, to provide examples of good practices associated with these businesses and to analyze the importance of innovation at European, national and local level. The study highlighted the direct correlation between innovation and performance, the Research and Development department of each enterprise gaining increasing importance related to the production department. Firms that did not adapt to the ever-changing environment and did not adopt differentiation strategies have involved or stagnated economically while companies that have come up with new products or presentation methods, new technologies and processing systems have considerably improved their economic results by becoming leaders in the segment targeted by them. Growing lavender, planting peanut, natural juice factories or cultivating and processing medicinal plants are some of the innovative businesses identified that have developed and brought to the entrepreneurs great results and to customers new products and services adapted to their needs.