1,721,102 research outputs found
Sustainable in global commodity trade: Successful responsible entrepreneurship or fallacious market capture?
No full textAllocation of Public and/or Private Responsibilities: sturingsarrangementen voor adaptieve gebiedsontwikkeling
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Sustainable supply chain governance systems: conditions for effective market based governance in global trade
No full textIn this article I discuss the conceptualisation and existing empirical
research on the creation of sustainable global product chains. This papers sets
steps in moving from normative prescriptive approaches towards an empirical
descriptive approach, comparing available research in various forms of global
markets and types of commodities and lifting the analysis to the level of
‘product channels’ (the collective level) instead of ‘product chains’ of
collaborating individual businesses. It explores various strategies employed
by businesses in international collaboration in product improvement
and competitive mechanisms that may support the change towards more
sustainable products sourced from developing countries. Recent research in the
Dutch-South African value chain of fruits and wine are used as examples to
illustrate the virtue of this three level approach. For a full understanding of
dynamics in achieving sustainability in global value chains a multi-level
theoretical approach is required combining empirical studies at firm level, at
global value chain system level and at the level of global dynamics
Innovative business cases in the South Africa table grape and wine industry's: developing the concept op empowerment entrepreneurship
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on an innovative initiative
taken spontaneously by producers in the supply chain of the table grapes and
wine industry to empower employees. Empowerment is a fundamental force for
change in doing business in South Africa and its societies, especially in the
lives of previously disadvantaged people (PDI). The majority of the PDI
employed in the agriculture industry have been marginalised with regards to
business opportunities and proper education for decades by the political system
of the country prior to 1994.
By examining the innovative business models used by the producer in the
empowerment process we gain a broader comprehension of how sustainable
empowerment of employees in a supply chain can successfully be integrated
into the business strategy used by the producers. The business models have
undergone several innovative changes over time to find the ‘ultimate’ business
model for creating empowerment in South Africa
Sustainability Through the Market - the Impacts of Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Introduction
No full textSelf-Governance for Sustainable Global Supply Chains: Can it deliver the impacts needed?
No full textThe world community convened in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 for the third UN Conference
on Sustainable Development. We are, however, increasingly facing major persistent threats,
which despite being known for a few decades are still far from being solved – or are even still
increasing. On the individual business level, this has four major implications: increased
social pressures; possible reputational damage; exposure to resource wars; and front-running
competitors adjusting their value chain strategies. In supply chain governance this leads to
four main types of strategies: do it yourself; join forces; the 5C-approach and harmonising.
The key question is: is this sufficient? Imagine 2022 – where will we be 10 years after Rio
2012? Is a rapid and structural transition to a circular and fair global economy possible, using
this path of self-governance for products traded in the global economic arena? This will
strongly depend on four key factors: rapid growth of consumer demand; ‘all-inclusiveness’ of
these supply chain governance approaches; successful uplifting production practices of all
suppliers; and addressing the major issues of unsustainability. Here we see various serious
weaknesses, like the lack of third-order evaluation and biases causing some of the more
recent issues to be overlooked and less visible supply chains. The challenge is to develop a
form of ‘meta’-governance, including new approaches by governments, combining public
policy strategies with the demonstrated virtues of self-governance
Government interventions in sustainable supply chain governance: Experience in Dutch front-running cases
No full textNumerous multi-actor governance systems have recently emerged, ensuring sustainability of international traded products. Business and civil society actors play a dominant role in initiating and governing ‘sustainable supply chain governance systems’ (SSCG systems). Within specific product markets we see the emergence of various competing SSCG systems.
This has led to debates on effectiveness, transparency and legitimacy of these forms of self-governance in the market. These developments also call for a debate on appropriate roles for (national) governments.
Most of the academic literature in this field focuses on methodologies for supply chain governance and their impacts, but hardly addresses the roles taken on by governments and effectiveness of possible government interventions. This article combines analysis of market dynamics in the timber and coffee product chains with policy analysis, integrating approaches from the research fields of sustainable business and policy analysis.
The article shows how competition between various sustainable supply chain governance systems in The Netherlands has resulted in recent market breakthroughs, while initially government interventions were very limited and diverse.
The article suggests an approach for more systematic analysis of these dynamics and the roles of various actors, by identifying both the ‘public policy cycle’ and the ‘private policy cycle’
Social Dimension of Industrial Ecology: on the implications of the inherent nature of social phenomena
No full textConversion to Organic Agriculture: Opportunities and Constraints
No full textThis dissertation aims to attribute to the debate on how to achieve a more sustainable agriculture in the Netherlands. Two options are often mentioned: make current agricultural practices more sustainable through slow and deliberate changes. This option might be successful but can lead to further deterioration of the environment. The other option is immediate conversion to organic agriculture. Despite a growing market for organic agricultural products, there is however no large scale conversion to organic production in the Netherlands. We address this topic with the research question: What determines the conversion towards organic agriculture and how might the change towards sustainable agriculture be accelerated? We introduce two explanatory perspectives on conversion to organic agriculture. The first is that farmers, primary producers, are reluctant to change their modes of production. To investigate this we conducted a survey on agricultural sustainability in general and on adoption of conservation agriculture techniques in Dutch arable farming. Our results indicate that adoption of the techniques depends mainly on the fit of the technique with their farming philosophy, the availability of relevant information and on assessment of the risks associated with the technique. Moreover, farmers are aware of the call for more sustainable production and are, in general, willing to work on achieving this. Furthermore, our findings show that farmers are probably not reluctant to change per se. The second explanatory perspective we investigate is the way agriculture is organized. As a starting point of our analysis we assume that the explanation can be found in the fact that the primary producer is embedded in a chain-network that limits the individual freedom of choice. A theoretical framework was constructed of agricultural production chains and the networks that surround them. To identify opportunities for and constraints to conversion to organic agriculture we analysed the potato chain-network, the dairy chain-network, and hard fruit chain-network. Our findings show that while there are opportunities, these opportunities are not balanced out by constraints to conversion. Important constraints are to be found in the way the markets for products and produce function and are structured, and in the organization of the chains that result from this market structure. These structures make it difficult or unattractive for actors - especially farmers - to switch between suppliers and purchasers. Furthermore, the power balance between different actors in the chain makes conversion more difficult that it would seem at first. In conclusion our analysis shows that there are few opportunities and many constraints when it comes to conversion. To accommodate further conversion towards organic agriculture the barriers put up by the constraints need to be lifted. Our analysis shows that achieving sustainable agriculture rises above the issue of individual farmers and consumers. To overcome the constraints for converting to organic production, and to be able to address all issues that need to be addressed to improve the performance of conventional agriculture, all parties within the food production chain-network should be involved. Sustainable agriculture therefore requires coordinated actions of all actors within a chain-network
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