Informal and Formal Mechanisms of Coordination in Hybrid Food Value Chains

Abstract

The challenges of meeting growing consumer demand for local food, especially from larger, institutional buyers, has sparked many to look beyond direct marketing to alternative models of produce aggregation and distribution. Value chains that incorporate conventional food system infrastructure are one such model for local food system development, but little research has studied their functioning and outcomes. Arrangements where conventional produce distributors handle local food can be viewed as "hybrid" food value chains, since they include both local and global resources, and combine conventional food system infrastructure with the more alternative goal of building local food systems. This qualitative study examines three hybrid food value chains that revolve around con

Collaboration and Commitment in a Regional Supermarket Supply Chain

“…In prior research on cross-scale food supply chains, researchers and practitioners have suggested that collaborative relationships require trust (Abatekassa & Peterson, 2011;Bloom & Hinrichs, 2011;Clark & Inwood, 2015). As we have seen in this case, growers and buyers had interpersonal trust, believing in the inherent integrity of partners, but low confidence in the reliability of their trading partners, due to factors perceived as beyond their trading partners' control.…”

“…Local food sold through intermediated market channels is often described in terms of SFME's "scaling-up" for larger markets (e.g., Day-Farnsworth, McCowan, Miller, & Pfeiffer, 2009;Friedmann, 2007;Heiss, Sevoian, Conner, & Berlin, 2015). One strategy to build cross-scale connections between SMFEs and larger buyers is for product to "piggy-back" on conventional distributional and retail infrastructure (Bloom & Hinrichs, 2011;Clark & Inwood, 2015).…”

Peri-Urban Food Futures: Opportunities and Challenges to Reconfiguring Sustainable Local Agri-food Value Chains on the Sunshine Coast, Australia

“…For example, deliberate values-based engagement and commitment to noneconomic goals can lead to successful interorganizational coordination in hybrid food value chains that build aggregation and distribution in local food systems on pre-existing conventional infrastructure (Bloom & Hinrichs, 2011). Investigation of U.S. counties on the rural/urban interface have shown the importance of government programs and supportive governance frameworks.…”

Fair Labor Practices in Values-Based Agrifood Supply Chains?

“…As emphasized in the literature, in fact, VBSCs are often created through hybrid (Bloom & Hinrichs, 2011) enterprise coalitions. Our AOTM case study review reveals that values-based agrifood businesses often partner strategically with enterprises that are part of the conventional agrifood system in order to process, distribute, and sell their product.…”