Purpose – High-specification food products that reach prices or expert reviews above average, results from buyer-supplier engagement in quality management. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main attributes of the coffee industry supply chain that deals with high-specification products. Coffee may be included in this category of consumption goods that has increasing importance at consumption level around the world. Several groups of high-quality food products such as wine, coffee, spirits and cheese seem to have a very similar supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – This study was based on multiple case studies. Three research techniques were used in the investigation: secondary data analysis, direct observations and interviews with coffee company’s managers and experts. The within-case and the cross-case analyses made it possible to find the main attributes of a high-specification product supply chain. Findings – The cases studies pointed out differences between the two groups of coffee shops in relation to their supply chain strategies. The first group can be called Independent Coffee Shops, since they are focussed on the coffee preparation business. The second group can be called Integrated Coffee Shops, due to the fact that these organizations are responsible to manufacturing activities in addition to the coffee preparation activities. Despite this supply chain configuration difference, both groups have a similar perception about their role for the final consumer, to provide a premium experience with coffee. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of this research comes from the fact it was possible to interview only one person in each organization. Only the commercialization of the supply chain was analyzed, if the agricultural production was also analyzed, this paper could have broader implications. Originality/value – The results of this research show the configuration of a supply chain that handles a high-specification product. They are set to transform the trade of a product that has a component of volatility in its quality attributes into a trade of a product that embodies all the desirable attributes preferred by a specific group of costumers. The logic of a supply chain that deals with commodities is different, since in most of the cases it will try to accommodate the variations on quality that comes from nature. This paper describes the market based strategy of 12 organizations and their supply chain configuration in order to offer a premium product.
The incorporation of sustainable aspects in the supply chain management (SCM) has become an important topic for researchers and professionals; however, it is a field that yet lacks a systemic understanding. The objective of this article is to conduct an analysis on the international literature about the SCM sustainability topic, by employing a systematic review protocol, covering the period from 2011 to 2016. The content analysis technique was performed, following the procedures of categorical thematic analysis proposed by Bardin (1977), which considers the creation of categories a posteriori, based in the direction senses related to the content analyzed. Besides to present the main characteristics of the articles related to distribution of publications per year, most studied sectors, main methods and approaches used main countries and journals of publications, we categorize the results at the systemic approach level of the sustainable development dimensions. We found that some dimensions are prominent when compared with the others: For example: the environmental one, on the other hand, the social one is approached few times in the papers considered in our analysis. These results also indicate that this type of discussion needs to be extended to other sectors that have not yet been explored. The contribution of this paper lies on the synthetization of the state-of-the-art related to sustainable SCM in the period considered, highlighting the environmental, social and economic dimensions, in order to identify a research agenda. By identifying possible research gaps, the results of this research contribute to guide future investigations on sustainable SCM, aiding researchers and practitioners in this field.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of rural warehouses condominiums (or “condos”) as new rural configurations in the Brazilian agribusiness from the perspective of the theory of collective action. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was complemented with multiple case studies based on interviews and direct observation. Content analysis was used to interpret the secondary and primary data. Findings Rural warehouse condos can be characterized as a collective action which is a new business model in Brazilian agribusiness. This new initiative has several advantages: reduction of the warehouse deficit and other logistical bottlenecks; strategic commercialization of production; reduction of logistical costs; inclusion of smallholders in the economy and, consequently, the generation of income for smallholders and their participation in the market. Research limitations/implications The study used a qualitative approach and findings and discussion are inherently interpretative. Social implications Understanding the organization of rural warehouse condos supports the inclusion of smallholding farmers and income generation. This creates a social benefit through rural growth and economic development. Some constraints related to the lack of public policies, specific credit lines in financial institutions, the problem of non-regularized rural areas, lack of transparency and conflicts among the members can limit expansion. Originality/value Rural warehouse condos are expanding mainly in the south region of Brazil, where smallholders are concentrated. In this new configuration, they can engage in an association to obtain several benefits, such as reduced logistics costs, better access to financing and increased bargaining power with suppliers. As this research dealt with a relatively new and poorly studied topic, it contributes to the development of new studies to map innovative warehousing practices.
Several organizations aim to establish and manage cooperative and collaborative actions in order to incorporate the principles related to sustainable management in supply chains. The indicators related to the social dimension are still barely explored in academic research, since the perceived business practices are still emerging in the contemporary world and in the organizational relations. The opposite of the financial and environmental dimensions, which are already rooted in the business environment. In agrifood chains, social aspects are essential when suppliers are often impoverished farmers, and labor practices are generally painful and exploitative. This paper aims to identify, in the international literature, the state-of-the-art research related to social sustainability in agrifood supply chains. To achieve this goal, a systematic literature review covering papers published in the Science Direct, Directory of Open Access Journals and Emerald Insight databases was carried out. Results indicate that academic production is still low, despite its growth in recent years, and is limited to approaches containing indicators of social sustainability related to support communities affected by agrifood business. In addition, it evidences arrangements among members of supply chains, mostly of the cooperative type, having collaborative arrangements with more limited approaches among the analyzed works.
RESUMOEste artigo analisa a internacionalização de firmas brasileiras para o mercado russo tendo como base teórica o modelo revisado de Uppsala proposto por Johanson e Vahlne (2009) no contexto de economias emergentes. Este estudo é exploratório descritivo e enquadrado como estudo de casos múltiplos em quatro frigoríficos brasileiros que se internacionalizaram para o mercado russo. Os resultados mostram que o modelo revisado de Uppsala contribui parcialmente para a explicação da internacionalização das firmas estudadas. Alguns pressupostos, como a ligação de mercado a mercado pela rede de negócios, o reconhecimento pela rede de competências inerentes à firma, a possibilidade de decisão de comprometimento no relacionamento da rede para a firma e o inverso foram empiricamente encontrados. Contudo, o modelo revisado de Uppsala não considera a possibilidade da utilização da rede de negócios como limitação da expansão de firmas tampouco no retorno de atributos de competências e capacidades da firma como diferencial em situações de redes de negócio com alto nível de confiança encontrados neste estudo.Palavras-chave: estratégia de internacionalização, redes de negócio, países emergentes. ABSTRACTThis article examines the internationalization of Brazilian firms in the Russian market through the revised Uppsala model (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009) in the context of emerging economies. This paper is an exploratory descriptive study with qualitative variables and is framed as a multiple case study carried out with four Brazilian meatpacking firms which internationalized their activities into the Russian market. The results show that the revised Uppsala model partially contributes to explaining the internationalization of firms studied. Some assumptions, like the link from market to market through the business network, the network's acknowledgement of the inherent powers in the firm, the possibility of a decision of commitment in the relationship to the firm's network and the reverse were found empirically. However, the revised Uppsala model does not envisage the use of networks limiting the expansion of firms neither the return attributes of competence and capabilities of the firm as a differential in cases of business networks with high level of commitment, found in this research.
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