Sustainability Experiments in the Agri-Food System: Uncovering the Factors of New Governance and Collaboration Success

Abstract

Abstract:In recent years, research, society and industry recognize the need to transform the agri-food system towards sustainability. Within this process, sustainability experiments play a crucial role in transforming the structure, culture and practices. In literature, much attention is given to new business models, even if the transformation of conventional firms toward sustainability may offer opportunities to accelerate the transformation. Further acceleration could be achieved through collaboration of multiple actors across the agri-food system, but this calls for a systems approach. Therefore, we developed and applied a new sustainability experiment systems approach (SESA) consisting of an analytical framework that allows a reflective evaluation and cross-case analysis of multi-actor governance networks based on business and learning evaluation criteria. We performed a cross-case analysis of four agri-food sustainability experiments in Flanders to test and validate SESA. Hereby, the key factors of the success of collaboration and its performance were identified at the beginning of a sustainability experiment. Some of the key factors identified were risk sharing and the drivers to participate. We are convinced that these results may be used as an analytical tool for researchers, a tool to support and design new initiatives for policymakers, and a reflective tool for participating actors.

Collaboration for Sustainability in the Food Supply Chain: A Multi-Stage Study in Italy

“…Several authors suggest that supply chain collaboration can influence a company's performance [3,6,18,24,25,27]. However, investigation in the FSC in respect of collaboration for sustainability and specifically, analyzing the performance effects of such relationships has been sparsely researched.…”

“…Collaboration for sustainability in the supply chain is a relatively new topic in literature [26,27] Literature has studied "green" collaborative relationships in the supply chain but a broader sustainability perspective, including economic, environmental and/or social areas, is rather unusual [25,28,29]. Nonetheless, authors recognized that collaboration for sustainability would help firms to develop resources and competences that otherwise would not be possible, with the ultimate goal of achieving competitive advantage [2,7,18,[27][28][29].…”

“…Barrat (2004) [4] identified two main typologies: vertical (i.e., with customers, with suppliers) and horizontal (i.e., with competitors and other organizations). For a collaboration initiative to be successful, cultural and strategic elements need to be considered e.g., trust, corporate focus, intra-organizational support, communication [25]. In this context, Barrat also highlights the importance of focusing "on the small number of close relationships rather than trying to collaborate with everyone" [4], because collaboration implies high resources investment.…”

“…The third refers to a more strategic level of involvement and to fully integrated processes [26]. The authors differentiate the focus, objectives and payoffs in each typology, underlining that each one implies a distinct management strategy, different level of people interaction and return expected from the relationship [7,25,26].…”

“…The intrinsic structure of the FSC where companies are different in terms of product characteristics, size, location and access to ICT adversely affects the collaboration they could establish, also because of their different bargaining power. Companies in this industry must consider the challenges in identifying what activities are feasible to collaborate in, with whom and what are the related expected benefits and barriers [6,25].…”