What are agricultural economics Ph.D. students learning about agribusiness research methods and subject areas1

NACTA Journal, Jun 2003 by House, Lisa, Sterns, James

In management subjects, human resource management, which is a topic less than 10% of all students indicated was covered in any of their classes, was used by 40% of the agribusiness students in their research. Organizational theory, taught mainly in agricultural economics classes, was used by nearly 50% of agribusiness students in their research. Only the agribusiness students used channels and logistics, e-commerce, and corporate finance in research.

Finally, respondents were asked what topics they were exposed to in seminars (Figure 5). Approximately 30% of agribusiness students indicated they were learning through seminars about case study research, topics in finance, organizational behavior, strategic management and supply chain management. Other students were less likely to report this type of exposure to the listed agribusiness topics. Reasons for this would need to be confirmed with further research but possible explanations could include that these students were less interested in attending seminars on agribusiness topics, or that they were at locations where these topics are not offered (perhaps because their graduate programs do not offer agribusiness specializations).

Discussion

Much like agribusiness research itself, data collection for this paper presented numerous challenges. The term "agribusiness" is a catch-all term with as many definitions as there are individuals attempting to define it. This ambiguity had several implications for this study. First, it is difficult to identify a target population of recent graduates and current students who are trained in "agribusiness" since that very term lacks a consensus definition. Second, since "agribusiness" as a field is still quite new to the agricultural economics profession, there are small-number limitations that undermine survey-based data collection targeting students and alumni with this specialization. For the 12 graduate programs that do offer a Ph.D. field in agribusiness, most have had the field in place for less than five years, and few, if any, programs have graduated more than 10 "agribusiness" Ph.D. students. And third, the list of 24 topics related to agribusiness research used in this survey needs further elaboration. As noted earlier, four of the original topics were sufficiently vague and confusing to be excluded from the analysis. Also, other research methods and subject areas pertinent to the field of agribusiness should be included in any future research on this topic.

Should further research be pursued on this topic, several steps could be taken to address these limitations. First, in-depth interviewing and focus groups of current and recently graduated "agribusiness" Ph.D. students would offer alternatives that could overcome the limitations of the small target population. Second, refining the list of relevant subject areas and research methods may become possible as Ph.D. programs develop written field exams for agribusiness. A compilation of these exams would offer insights into what might be included in a consensus specification of the field. Round table discussions at public forums like the WCC-72 meetings and the Agribusiness Economics and Management (AEM) section of the AAEA also could be used to generate ideas.