News

Defense of the Thesis of Alfonso Menoyo González

Thesis title: Análisis de modelos de negocio de empresas agroalimentarias con líneas de producto poco diferenciables e impacto en el desarrollo comunitario en el entorno del País Vasco. Obtained the qualification SOBRESALIENTE

---

On November 28, the doctoral Alfonso Menoyo González made the reading of the Doctoral Thesis entitled: Análisis de modelos de negocio de empresas agroalimentarias con líneas de producto poco diferenciables e impacto en el desarrollo comunitario en el entorno del País Vasco.   

Director: Dr.  David Sánchez Bote  (Eroski S.Coop) 

Summary of the thesis:

Recent years have been marked by a growing importance of movements oriented towards sustainability proposals, aligned with healthier life models, and linked to the care of our communities or regions.

Within this approach, the sector, which we could generally call “food”, occupies a key position. Historically, agribusiness has been presented as an indicator of the level of civilization and development of a society. Additionally, because of the impact it has on the territory, it is presented as a sector closely linked to the specificities of the region, giving rise to the first differentiations and internationally recognized brands, as well as the first versions of what we can consider as tractor sector.

The increasing globalization together with the standardization of quality levels have allowed society to have greater access to safe, varied and quality products. However, they have also generated a progressive commoditization of food products, moving the producer to a position of mere supplier, almost invisible to the final consumer.

This loss of differentiation related to commoditization shifts the center of competitive advantage towards costs and may drive the relocation of organizations towards lower cost and, hypothetically, more profitable alternatives.

Faced with this scenario, a part of the industry reacts, rethinking its value proposition, trying to shift the competitive pressure of price to other elements linked to differentiation.

This work will try to analyze to what extent and the business model in its relationship with the region, can be presented as the key tool to manage the sustainability of the value proposition, and analyzing the value of this link with the territory as a mainstay. to achieve the pursued sustainability of these propositions around values beyond mere price. Through a qualitative study, the research identifies, based on a previous phase of interviews with experts, a series of success cases from which a relationship can be established between the success of a differentiation strategy and management based in the business model. The research will try to verify the presence or absence of the success vectors identified in the theoretical framework and their relevance to the success of the case. The interview phase with experts concludes with the selection of the success cases that have been the subject of subsequent study in detail within the present work.

The study and analysis of the selected cases tries to demonstrate the importance of the business model in the sustainability of the strategies and how a level of management, in a specific cultural environment, allows leveraging the competitive advantages of the organization in its model. relationship with the environment or ecosystem and in interaction with the customer.

The research presented below tries to reaffirm the importance of the business model as a key tool for reading and converting trends into elements of the value proposition that can be recognized by the market. The work developed highlights the importance of the success vectors of experiential relationship with the client and link with the environment, as levers of success in the sustainability and solidity of the position in the market.