Food System Dynamics (E-Journals)
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Corporate Social Communication and Corporate Social Performance
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to provide firms in the food and agricultural sector a model that enables them to assess their corporate social initiatives in conjunction with their stakeholders. Building on the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social performance (CSP) and the relational view the paper argues that firms can improve the results of their corporate social initiatives by setting up a dialogue with their stakeholders and to relate this to their internal organizational delivery system. The CSP model is based on the SERVQUAL methodology. The model addresses how a potential (mis)match between a firm’s CSR initiative and stakeholders expectations and experiences is related to four gaps in the firm’s internal organizational delivery system and how this effects the firm’s CSP. CSP measurement is a fundamental part of a firm’s strategy if one accepts the tenet that firm survival and growth depends on the ability of firms to meet the needs of their stakeholders and to manage corporate image. It is to the firm to make stakeholder’s expectations transparent and plan action in alignment with the firm’s business strategy. The paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of CSP measurement by linking a firm’s CSP to the firm’s delivery system. It addresses how CSP can evolve over time by putting the dialogue with stakeholders central
Evaluation of Policies to Promote Healthy Eating in the EU
Get PDFUnhealthy diets lead to a range of serious conditions such as diabetes, cancers, cardio-vascular disease and stroke which, as well as individual pain and suffering and shortened life, create a burden for the state in the form of health care costs and lost economic production; diseases linked to overweight and obesity account for around 5% of total health care costs in Europe, and at least as much again in lost economic production. In this context it is no surprise that healthy eating has become a major public health concern, prompting many European Member States to take measures to improve their citizens’ diets. Neither is it a surprise that governments are at least paying lip-service to a desire that their interventions should be evidence-based, meaning there should be evidence that they are effective and cost effective. Probably, though less explicitly stated, politicians would like evidence that interventions will be acceptable to the public. These wishes are more complex than appears at first sight
Building Supply Systems from Scratch: The Case of the Castor Bean for Biodiesel Chain in Minas Gerais, Brazil
Get PDFThe present study contributes to identifying obstacles to the development of a local biodiesel agro-industrial system (AGS) in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research questions are: “How do local social characteristics influence the organizational effectiveness of agents involved in the joint production effort?”; and “How can the institutional arrangement of biodiesel production be described?” The method adopted is the case study, focused on family farmers served by the Family Farmers Rural Extension and Technical Assistance Company (EMATER). This state organization introduced castor beans (Ricinus communis L.) to family farmers as an alternative crop to supply a processing plant (Darcy Ribeiro Biodiesel Plant—DRBP) in northern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. These family farmers are not horizontally organized, and sign individual contracts with DRBP. The paper concludes that the primary obstacle to developing the biodiesel AGS with castor beans in Minas Gerais is the lack of horizontal organization among family farmers
The International Olive Oil Trade A network analysis
Get PDFAim of this paper is to test weather or not the Network Analysis (NA) could possibly help to grasp Country level competitiveness in the International Trade Network (ITN) of a specific commodity. We focus over the positions that each Country occupies within the net of international trade exchanges assuming this could lead to competitive advantage. Starting from Ronald Burt's structural holes theory, we move forward analyzing the whole network evolution in the last years. We apply NA to the world network of valued exchange relationships of virgin olive oils building a 12 years time series of weighted directed networks (WDN)
The Implementation of a Quality Management Standard in a Food SME: A Network Learning Perspective
Get PDFIn the modern agrifood economies, the development of quality management standards is crucial, and food small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually face difficulties in implementing them. In this context, the aim of the article is two‐fold. Firstly it is to craft an original analytical framework in line with the literature on innovation networks and related learning effects specifically devoted to the study of quality management standards implementation. Secondly the objective of the article is to apply this framework to a specific food SME case in order to test it and to identify the key network learningeffects that occur during the implementation of a quality management standard, namely the ISO 22000 standard for food safety. From this research, the practical output will be to propose tools to enhance food SMEs’ innovative capacity, through an improvement of their insertion in active formal and/or informal innovation networks. These specific tools will be especially targeted towards the strengthening of learning processes between the SME and the partners involved in the implementation
The Role of Network Administrative Organizations in the Development of Social Capital in Inter‐Organizational Food Networks
Get PDFThis paper is concerned with the role of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in the development of social capital in inter‐organizational networks aiming at supporting their members to innovate in the food sector through interacting with one another. A multi‐case study approach is used whereby three Belgian inter‐organizational networks are investigated i.e. Wagralim, Réseau‐Club and Flanders Food. Our study shows that there are many options available to NAOs to build social capital within the networks they are responsible for; options which we propose to categorize in three main distinct groups: creation of boundary objects, careful selection of members and effective communication
Farmers’ Markets, Producer and Consumer Behaviour: Analysis of Interactions with the Metrics of Sustainability
Get PDFThis paper provides insights of the Italian farmers' markets (FMs) experience. These short food chains can be conceptualized among the so-called "alternative agro-food networks", which reject the traditional food chains features - productivity, products standardization and industrial organization - to focus on other issues such as quality, local production and "naturality" of agro-food production.The main objective of the paper is to evaluate the sustainability of FMs, through the analysis of the demand and the supply side. The analysis is based on a survey administered in 13 Italian FMs, involving 158 farmers and 458 consumers. Data are used to evaluate consumers' demand for sustainability within FMs and sustainability indicators at the farm level. These indicators support a classification of the farms, aimed at analysing their motivation to participate in the markets and the extent to which they are able to meet consumers' demand.Results show that FMs might be able to favour the spreading of a more sustainable economy. However, farms should improve their business strategies in order to meet consumers' demand for sustainability. In this respect, agricultural policies at the European and local level can play a role, in order to enhance sustainable practices within the farms
The Agri-food Competitive Performance in the EU Countries: A Fifteen Years Retrospective
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competitive performance of different European countries at sector level in the intra-EU market from 1995 to 2011, comparing food industry and agricultural sector. In particular, we aim to assess the effect of the EU enlargement (first period) and the economic crisis (second period) on the competitiveness of EU countries. The data come from the Eurostat database of international trade. The competitive performance of EU countries is measured through several trade indices, such as Export and Import Market Share, Revealed Comparative Advantage, Net Export Index, and Vollrath indices, analysing their values over the last fifteen years. Our analysis showed that, in the EU countries, agriculture and food industry do not reveal strong differences in competitive performance during the last fifteen years. Among big countries, France and Spain showed a continuous worsening competitive performance. A similar trend is found for Belgium. On the contrary, the Netherlands revealed the best performance, both in agriculture and in food industry, together with Italy. Nevertheless, the Netherlands has lightly lost specialisation because of a rise of total exports that have affected the value of RCA. Italy is characterised by a smaller increase, especially in the food sector. The only country showing a significant difference in competitive trends between agriculture and food industry is Germany. It became leader in the food industry of EU, with a growing performance over the period analysed, while it is not competitive nor specialised in agriculture. Among small countries, it is worth to highlight the performance of Austria
Enhancing the Innovativeness of Food SMEs through the Management of Strategic Network Behavior and Network Learning Performance
Get PDFThe European project NetGrow stands for Enhancing the innovativeness of food SMEs through the management of strategic network behavior and network learning performance. It is a FP7 Cooperation project in the theme Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology with an EC contribution of 3M €. The project has a duration of 4 years and will be finished in April 2014. The project coordinator is Prof. dr. Xavier Gellynck from Ghent University, Belgium. The aim of Netgrow is to enhance network learning leading to increased innovation, economic growth andsustainable competitive advantage for food small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
Sustainability Assessment Framework for Food Supply Chain Logistics: Empirical Findings from Dutch Food Industry
Get PDFFood companies are increasingly challenged to balance business performance and economic gains with environmental and social performance. Therefore, in 2012, we started a collaborative project on this topic named SCALE (Step Change in Agri-food Logistics Ecosystems). SCALE aims to improve the sustainability of food and drink supply chain logistics in the context of rising food demands, increasing energy prices and the need to reduce environmentally damaging emissions. More in particular, SCALE aims to deliver a number of tools and frameworks valuable for the agri-food sector to secure a step change in operational practices, which will improve the efficiency and sustainability of supply chain logistics. In the paper we present the first results of this project. Aim of this paper is (1) to present a sustainability research framework for food supply chains logistics including drivers, strategies, performance indicators, metrics and improvement opportunities to measure and potentially enhance sustainability performances; and (2) to analyse and diagnose the current status of Dutch food & drinks companies and logistics service providers using this framework. Results are found via a literature review, web-based research and structured interviews with Dutch food and logistics service industry