Resource-Based Competence of Apple-Based Processing Units in Jammu and Kashmir

The literature of strategic management advocates the concept of innovative usage of the resources for sustainable competitive advantage based upon comparative advantage. Rapid industrialization and consumption has created avenues for the alignment of various natural endowments into industrial opportunities. Indian states like Jammu and Kashmir have rich natural agricultural and horticultural resource base supplemented with quality and taste of produces. However, the state has failed in creating a niche for its products in domestic and international markets. The study aims at exploring the reasons for the sluggish entrepreneurial growth in the food processing sector with reference to apple as a natural resource advantage. An exploratory study was carried out to study the status and the strategic interventions in areas that require immediate attention for strategic development and growth of the apple processing industry in the state. The strategic interventions are required in the apple industry for leveraging the benefits of the resource competence and for fostering social and economic development in the state. The study identifies the key strategic intervention in various areas which require immediate attention from the various stakeholders. The study reveals that there is a lack of convergence of apple into the applebased industrial and entrepreneurial ventures. Apple industry provides a window of opportunity which requires converging and integrating the largest production base into the innovative products through industrial intervention.