Analysis of Conceptual Definitions of Agribusiness Using the Conceptual Bibliographic Method

Abstract

Purpose: Agribusiness is a phenomenon of interest to science from several aspects, and this multiplicity of aspects taken simultaneously is a new way of trying to understand and explain it. Specific, unidisciplinary studies still predominate on a single element of agribusiness, such as finance, marketing, and production, among countless others. However, the trend is towards multifactorial studies because agribusiness is a phenomenon that cannot be classified solely as industry, commerce, or service or as a primary, secondary, or tertiary sector. Consolidated agribusiness is all of these things simultaneously, whose reality is delimited by science based on its conceptual definitions. Therefore, the definitions must be analyzed so that the current stage of scientific knowledge about the phenomenon can be understood, especially its limits, characteristics, and dynamics, which are the purposes of this study.   Theoretical Structure: The theoretical architecture of this study consisted of seeking to understand the phenomenon of agribusiness with socio-economic development, which is its most evident externality. It was carried out interdisciplinary, highlighting its integral reality based on what appears and can be identified in the conceptual definitions available in scientific publications. The justification for this procedure was the need to understand agribusiness from multiple scientific views so that its various aspects could be understood.   Design/Methodology/Approach: This study aimed to analyze the conceptual definitions of agribusiness in the scientific literature in studies published between 2015 and 2023. To this end, it established three guiding questions, which sought to identify the frontiers of knowledge about the phenomenon, its main attributes, and what logical scheme it is possible to find among its main defining characteristics. For this, the conceptual bibliographic method was used, which consists of formulating a problem and its breakdown into a response pattern, collecting data in scientific databases, organizing and analyzing data based on semantic resources, and generating responses from the diagrammatic layout of the data organization.   Findings: The results showed the existence of nine approaches to agribusiness (set, sum, activity, science, practice, configuration, industry, process, and transformation) and eight groups of attributes (transnational activities, commercialization, distribution logistics, supply logistics, companies, production, services, and agroecosystem). These discoveries allowed us to understand that agribusiness has an evolutionary dynamic that begins with the professionalization of the rural output and culminates with the irradiation of the reach of this production to transnational borders. Research, Practical, and Social Implications: These findings fundamentally affect how agribusiness is viewed. In Brazil, in particular, the prevalent mentality tends to distinguish agribusiness as a unique and exclusive form of large rural enterprises, almost all of which are already globalized, excluding small enterprises from this coverage, almost always classified as family farming. Suppose the family farmer establishes himself as an enterprise. In that case, he often receives the entire discriminatory range intended for the large agribusiness enterprise, discouraging his professionalization, an essential corollary of the germ of agribusiness. Professionalization involves replacing improvised methods of producing and managing the enterprise with rational aspects originating from science and introducing scientifically subsidized techniques and technologies.   Originality/Value: The main contribution of this study to science was the construction of an evolutionary dynamic of agribusiness, which begins with the professionalization of rural production and culminates with globalization. These findings suggest that the family farming stage needs to be broken so that the benefits of professionalization can lead to improved quality of life and desired socioeconomic development for producers and partners.