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The objective of this article is to assess the competitiveness of the European food industry from an economic and legal perspective. Knowledge of its present competitiveness and improvement opportunities are lacking. To close this knowledge gap, we measured the competitiveness of eight subsectors, benchmarked them with four leading world economies, assessed the effect of differences in legal requirements, and predicted future developments using scenario analysis. International economics indicators supplemented with data on legal issues from a survey conducted by leading experts were used to measure competitiveness. The results show that the EU food industry's competitiveness is weak. The legal system was positively evaluated compared to the U.S. system, but major improvements are possible. The recommendations are to improve economies of scale, economies of scope, ICT-based supply chain management, and exploit cultural differences through innovation, within a more flexible and streamlined legal framework. [Econlit. Citations:F14, L66; Q13]. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper presents the results of a survey that included 492 companies in the Dutch agri-food sector with respect to the influence of stakeholder groups on the companies' level of environmental management system (EMS) implementation. It is concluded that primary stakeholders (government, clients) are more relevant for EMS development than secondary stakeholders (such as environmental organizations). The results suggest that small and medium-sized companies are able to accommodate to demands with respect to the implementation of internally oriented care systems (I-EMSs). I-EMSs focus at the single firm or location. In general, they are predominantly influenced by governmental and other 'non-commercial' stakeholder groups. For the implementation of externally oriented EMSs (E-EMSs), which focus on the supply chain and network, qualitative rather than quantitative relationship characteristics between companies and the government are important. Moreover, commercial stakeholder groups (such as suppliers, clients and competitors) influence E-EMS levels significantly.

El objetivo de este trabajo de investigación es implementar un algoritmo de tipo heurístico; el cual genere, mediante un análisis matemático, una solución óptima a los problemas de localización encontrados en las diferentes empresas de distribución de alimentos perecederos que utilizan la metodología Cross Docking (CD).Estos problemas de localización tienen una constitución de un problema combinatorial, debido a las diferentes variables que se deben tener en cuenta. Por ende, se produce un contexto de problema NP y NP-hard que las máquinas de turing, o computadores, no son posibles de solucionar.Con esta tesis, se busca reducir, a partir de un algoritmo, la complejidad computacional del problema a un problema P y, de esta manera, contribuir con una solución acorde para que las empresas, cuando contemplen la localización o el reemplazo de instalaciones de Centros de Distribución (CEDIS), no vean afectadas sus finanzas y tiempos de ejecución por una mala decisión o por el cierre de uno de sus CEDIS.Se resalta que este tipo de inconvenientes suelen ser frecuentes y generan una gran problemática para las empresas por la incertidumbre producida al momento de tomar estas decisiones. Palabras claveCross docking, cadena de suministros, centros de distribución, algoritmos, eficiencia, complejidad computacional.