There has been a noticeable trend in agriculture from the production of standardized commodities to the production of specialized, differentiated products. At the same time, there has not been a great deal of research into the strategic aspects of product-oriented agriculture. This dissertation is made up of three interrelated essays that address the strategic aspects of product-oriented agriculture. These essays examine the strategic implications of the production and marketing of differentiated agricultural products at the level of the firm, and at the level of an agricultural subsector in a specific geographic location.;The first essay examines the business strategies of value-added agricultural producers, and contrasts their management emphasis, product offerings, and resource needs with those of commodity producers. An empirical study of agricultural producers provides data to test for differences between producers who produce differentiated agricultural products and those who do not. A strategy classification framework for agricultural producers is introduced, based on the production and marketing of differentiated agricultural products. The five types of strategies in the framework are: Commodity Producers, Reverting Commodity Producers, Transitional Producers, Product Production Specialists, and Product Producer-Marketers.;Agricultural economists and government analysts have for many years produced assessments, or inventories, of resources related to agricultural production. Three prior inventorying efforts, the U.S. Census of Agriculture, the Status and Potential of Michigan Agriculture (SAPMA) project and the Florida FIRST project, were evaluated in the second essay. These prior approaches to inventorying agricultural resources are shown to be commodity-oriented. Because different resources are necessary in the new, product-oriented agricultural environment, a new resource inventorying process is needed. The second essay addresses the issue of inventorying resources to support decision making in an environment characterized by differentiated agricultural products. More specifically, it explores the question of what information is best suited for strategic analysis and strategy formulation for firms involved in product-oriented agriculture. A new framework for inventorying agricultural resources is introduced, and suggestions for implementing it are included.;The third essay features a case study of a group of agricultural producers who face a strategic decision, namely, whether or not to establish a marketing cooperative for organic vegetables. Besides facilitating the solution of a specific strategic problem, this case study presents current demand and market conditions facing the organic vegetable industry. Further, the new resource inventory for product-oriented agriculture, which was introduced in the second essay, is applied in this specific strategic situation. This application verified the workability of the theory and its usefulness for strategic planning in product-oriented agriculture.
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