Abstract
The decreasing number of farmers and the progressively aging farmer population in Japan in recent years have posed serious problems. According to some reports, “value-adding agricultural activities” may offer a solution to these problems. However, there have not been many cases of successfully implementing such activities. In this paper, we aim to provide guidance on how to pursue these activities to gain competitive advantage. We analyze the case of Kamikatsu’s signature project, the so-called “Irodori Project” from the viewpoint of “competitive strategy as a narrative story.” We used the following two data collection methods of the Irodori Project to narrate its story. (1) We surveyed several reports on the project. (2) We interviewed the representative director of Irodori Co., Ltd. Although further research is necessary to increase the applicability of the findings in practice, our results indicate that to gain competitive advantage via value-adding agricultural activities, the following four aspects are important: (1) only one out of the three generic strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, focus) should be selected; (2) organizations’ should develop concepts based on social and customer needs; (3) the concepts should be used to create components that differentiate the organization from its competitors; (4) the components should contain “critical core.”
