Over the past decades, increasing agricultural knowledge and numerous innovation systems in the agribusiness have ensured that the international food system provides adequate supplies of food for an always growing population. Beyond this central role played by the sector in food security, agribusiness has also contributed to the global economic development and the worldwide poverty alleviation by being and remaining one of the main industrial sectors. However, and as a result of the increasing awareness of environmental threats and of food safety combined with the agribusiness digitalisation from production to processing and to retail, all the processes and infrastructures involved in the globalised food system witness rapid transformations and new constraints raising simultaneously new challenges and opportunities.
Area of expertise
Agribusiness, sustainable development and CSR
Creation date
May 2018
Research centre director
Guillaume Bagnarosa is a Professor of Finance at Rennes School of Business, where he heads the Agribusiness area of excellence. He worked for 15 years in the research departments of several hedge funds and investment banks in Paris and London. He is a research associate at INRAe’s SMART laboratory. Professor Bagnarosa holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Ambition of the centre
The Agribusiness Research Centre advances knowledge of agri-food systems by conducting research into consumer behaviour, risk management and innovative production models. The centre strengthens the school’s links with the local economy in an area of vital importance to the region. By encouraging innovation and resilience, we aim to ensure a sustainable and secure future for food production in our country and around the world.
Associated or derived Rennes SB courses
Master 2 in Strategic Transition Management
Academic partnerships
Wageningen University and Research, Institut Agro, ESA.
Corporate and institutional partnerships
Eureden, Avril, Norac, Roullier, INRAe.
3 key figures
Distinctive feature
Two former Rennes SB MSc students, Morgane Loquen and Thibaud Garnier, obtained their French PhDs in 2024 following Rennes SB’s fully-funded PhD programme in agri-food.
This theme focuses on the modeling of risk in agribusinesses. Two risk dimensions are studied in this research theme: the commodities markets prices fluctuations and the climate risk. Their potential impact on the supply chain and the agribusiness companies’ performances will be estimated and the hedging strategies for reducing it considered.
This research specializes in food consumption research, i.e. social and cultural aspects of consumption (food trends, food and retailing behaviours) and contexts (such as tourism), psychological issues (attitudes, decision making…) and digital influences on food consumption (food apps, food porn…). This theme includes consumer related food research topics with a clear positioning around the strengths of the Brittany region and the competencies of Rennes SB researchers.
This research focuses on the three aspects of the inputs, the processes, and the outcomes of innovating in agribusiness. Ten topics have been selected because of the current relevance in the innovation management literature: (i) Input for innovating in agribusiness (knowledge dynamics, knowledge transfers, and firms’ knowledge-based view in agribusiness); (ii) Innovation ecosystem in agribusiness; (iii) Business Model Innovation in agribusiness); (iv) Processes for innovating in agribusiness (Multi-level Organizational, team, and individual ambidexterity in agribusiness; (v) Absorptive and desorptive capacity in agribusiness; (vi) Outside-in and inside-out open Innovation in agribusiness; (vii) Innovative strategic alliances in agribusiness; (viii) Outcomes from innovating in agribusiness (Radical/incremental innovation in agribusiness; (ix) Disruptive/ sustaining innovation in agribusiness; (x) Innovation performance in agribusiness). All those topics are currently requiring further research in innovation management. In particular, we note the absence of empirical studies in agribusiness, in contrast to other industries, such has the semi-conductor, cars, and knowledge intensive business services.
Investigate “agricultural externalities”, that is, agriculture’s positive and negative externalities stemming from and geared towards three main stakeholders: (i) organizations, for instance work organizations such as cooperatives and businesses or societal organizations such governmental agencies, (ii) humans, such as peasants or consumers, and (iii) non-humans such as land or animals.
QMCM (Quantitative Modelling in Commodity Markets) meeting every two weeks. Research seminars are jointly organised with INRAe.
Following our joint agreement with INRAe, the members of the agribusiness research center are participating to the weekly Agricultural Economics research seminars of the INRAe in Rennes.
Jointly with the CUT: Conference on Agribusiness and Sustainable Agriculture (CASA) twice a year.
During the Affi 2022 (French Association in Finance): we organised a Round table and a Special Session on Agri-finance with guest speakers from Avril Group, INRAe, ESSEC and FAO.
Jointly with the CUT: Rennes SB Summit.
Rennes SB PhD (Food Economics + Advanced Qualitative Methods 2 x 30h).
Four CIFRE Doctoral scholarships with Avril group, Saipol, Norac, Eureden and the UMR SMART (INRAe – Institut Agro).
1 Post-doc position co-funded with the INRAe.
Grant for the LINCONIAA Project.