Abstract:

The paper presents the Sustainability in Agribusiness Case Research Centre, a virtual Centre being developed by the author at the University of (withheld) with colleagues from European and Latin American universities. The Centre is explicitly designed to promote the writing and classroom adoption of teaching cases on Agribusiness Sustainability, not only in business programs but also in agricultural, veterinary and natural science programs alike.

The stated objective of this paper is to promote the value of this initiative to engage international colleagues interested in collaborating with the Center. This conference offers an unique vantage point to promote this Center.

The paper will discuss the rationale for the Centre, stemming from the consideration that Agribusiness Sustainability is a broad, fast evolving and at times confusing field, where science, emotions, economic and social considerations and interests, and media not necessarily independent nor well grounded, do converge and sometimes collide, at times leaving the general public and students alike somewhat confused. Something can be done to reduce these conflicts, and teaching cases may help this effort.

The Centre stems from two key considerations. The first is that Sustainability, and agbus. Sustainability in particular, is not a clear-cut black and white problem. Well written, cogent teaching cases may help the learning experience of the case users, be they undergraduate, graduate students or adult learners in sciences and business alike, and therefore help the promotion of sustainability in a higher level.

Another important conviction of the Centre organizers is that several natural science applied research papers could be complemented by an ad hoc teaching case. This would help the scientist being trained to better visualize and understand the potential consequences (opportunities and or challenges) of their research when placed in an applied much more interdisciplinary context. To achieve this objective though, it is necessary to encourage a new collaboration between natural science and business colleagues. The Center may be instrumental in this endeavor. To this end the Center will also assist colleagues interested in exploring case writing and case adoption.

These objectives will be initially achieved by publishing peer reviewed cases in special issues of established e-journals, and eventually by developing a Center-specific teaching case collection (available online, with teaching notes available to registered instructors from the Centre administration).

Over the next three to five years the Sustainability in Agribusiness Case Research Centre will become a leading international reference point for researchers interested in developing and publishing blind peer reviewed teaching cases on agribusiness sustainability. The Centre will bring together international colleagues to promote the publication of teaching cases from original projects and from more traditional research activities. This Center will be about the “creation of advanced knowledge on a globally competitive basis, its application to local problems and the development of socially useful solutions”, focused on sustainability issues in the food and agribusiness sector

The paper will expand on these considerations proposing practical steps which hopefully will motivate colleagues to join this initiative.

Keywords:

Agribusiness Sustainability, teaching cases.