Introduction In early 2010 executives of an international coffee exporting firm approached the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance in a decision to continue investing in the research and production of hybrid plants. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to analyze the agribusiness chain and make recommendations. Based on the student analysis, a case study (shown in the Appendix) was developed for classroom discussion. The case was subsequently discussed among the faculty, the student research team, and the case protagonists. This paper is organized as follows. The first section describes the research design, which was developed by the students in response to the situation faced by the case protagonists. The second section presents the results of the research, based upon an analysis of the data in the appended case study. The third section is a discussion of the informing outcomes. Section four offers conclusions. The Research Design Given the low productivity of coffee growers in Mexico and Central America and the importance of this region to ECOM as a major coffee exporter in the region, company executives decided in 2003 to invest in a coffee renovation project using hybrid plants. The focus of the project, based in a research station in Nicaragua, was to achieve higher yields, greater economic benefits for producers, improved harmony with the environment, enhanced characteristics in the cup (tastes and aroma of brewed coffee), plants with a higher resistance to pests, and longer harvest periods through the use of hybrid plants. In undertaking this project, ECOM executives were searching for a strategy that would generate profits for the company while increasing monetary incentives for participating producers. To this end, they approached members of the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to gather data, conduct an analysis of the alternatives, and prepare recommendations. This research was conducted under faculty supervision. Based on their analysis of the data, two alternatives were identified. The first alternative, an increase in the current price of the hybrid coffee plants, resulted in an unfavorable outcome for producers, since the price at which the project would become profitable would leave producers with a negligible increase in profit margins; therefore, producers would have no incentive to opt for the renewal with hybrid coffee plants. As a second alternative, the student research team proposed that ECOM retain a percentage of the increase in production that the producers would obtain by renewing with hybrid plants. This alternative showed positive results for producers. The percentage retained, at which the project would become profitable, would leave the producers with a twenty percent increase in profit above that obtained by renewing with conventional plants. As a third alternative, ECOM could implement a mixed strategy that included increasing prices and defining a rate of retention. An analysis of the impact on profits for different participants in the agribusiness chain of the project revealed that by selling its hybrid plants in the final phase of plant development rather than at intermediate phases, investments in fixed assets for the members of the agribusiness chain would be diminished. These members did not have to invest in nursery facilities, but ECOM did, making it more difficult for the ECOM Project to become profitable. Thus an analysis of a strategy to recover ECOM's investment was performed. Finding that ECOM could ask a higher percentage of retention of the increases in production, the result was that the producers would have 18.6 percentage points more than if they renewed with conventional plants. Producers would now have an incentive to buy the product. To gather the information needed for this project, the student research group visited the laboratory in Nicaragua and the farm in charge of the production and distribution of the hybrid coffee plants. …