Value portfolio in the multifunctional farm: new theoretical-methodological approaches

Value creation, has gained, in the past years, significant attention in the national and in-ternational agricultural economics debate, developing new theoretical approaches which have allowed to reinterpret functional repositioning processes of the farms (multifunc-tional). From this perspective, therefore, multifunctionality allows the farm to respond, to the new responsible and conscious social requirements, to produce public wellness, to inte-grate income, and to identify value creation pathways which are socially responsible. In this way, the traditional concept of multifunctionality is renewed, moving away from a mere instrument of justification for government intervention to becoming a true strategic factor of competitive advantage. This paper proposes a theoretical model which allows to analyze how boundary shift processes brings to the creation of “value portfolio” (VP), (Marotta, Nazzaro, 2010, 2011), and to new models of multifunctional and multi-value farms. On a methodologi-cal level, the use of “Value Portfolio and Multifunctional Governance Analysis” (VPMGA), (Marotta, Nazzaro, 2010, 2011), has allowed to empirically validate the VP model, in specific agri-food supply chains and rural systems of the Campania region in Southern Italy, according to an approach which integrating and completing value chain analysis and governance value analysis, proposes itself to be innovative and a better re-presentation of the multifunctional farms’ specifics. The results have allowed to verify how boundary shift and, therefore, the VP, have enabled to diversify risk, in situations of crises, representing a competitive strategy for the multifunctional farm compared to the farms which have conserved only traditional core business.