A system-wide interdisciplinary conceptual framework for food loss and waste mitigation strategies in the supply chain

The issues of food loss and waste (FLW) in the global supply chains have recently gained attention. However, causes for FLW and their mitigation strategies for curbing FLW at different stages of the supply chains remains under researched. Our research aims to address these research gaps in a three-fold way: i), we identified key causes (through root-cause analysis) of FLW in the supply chain of developed and less developed countries; ii), systematically classified measures and policies, which have been implemented to mitigate FLW; iii), developed an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for waste utilisation practices that can contribute towards the triple bottom-line in food system. A root-cause analysis was performed, and mitigation strategies identified by systematically analysing and synthesizing the extant research published over the past 20 years (1998 to 2018) in the areas of food loss and waste in the supply chain. A conceptual model for the prevention of FLW utilising a systems approach through the circular economy concept has been proposed. Since the agri-food sector is largely interdisciplinary, we have also demonstrated a method of integrating contributions from multiple disciplines in our proposed model towards achieving a total depollution (zero waste supply chain).     

An analysis of multi-stakeholder initiatives to reduce food loss and waste in an emerging country – Brazil

This paper aims to investigate the roles adopted by the distinct stakeholders that are engaged in a voluntary initiative to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) in the context of an emerging country. Data were collected by way of participant observation in multi-stakeholder events, observation visits and interviews with 54 food sector stakeholders, and from secondary data. The theoretical contribution of this paper is that it provides a systemic and realistic perspective for tackling FLW, as research in the field usually only focuses on one supply chain agent, or on consumer behaviour. Another contribution that may be replicated in other countries has to do with the role of each stakeholder in identifying the processes with which they are involved for reducing FLW. Activities and actions in a multi-stakeholder initiative change according to their positioning at the institutional or value chain level of analysis. Future studies should consider the extensive interplay that exists between the institutional and value chain levels in the food sector, and how they interact     

Digitalization within food supply chains to prevent food waste. Drivers,barriers and collaboration practices

Food supply chains increasingly rely on big-data management solutions to foster collaboration across the food supply chain and improve business performance. However, little is known about collaboration practices that actors on the digital food supply chain adopt to solve problems such as food waste, or about the drivers and barriers related to the digital transformation of the food supply chain. Most of food waste studies rely on quantitative analysis, which cannot reveal relevant details about the tensions and dynamics of collaboration. We conducted a qualitative study drawing on eighteen in-depth interviews - of managers of large multinational and local organizations covering different and relevant roles on the digital food supply chain - to investigate how organizational and food supply chain processes are affected by the digitalization of the operations along the food supply chain. By triangulating emerging findings with literature on supply chain management we discuss different views about collaborative practices for food waste prevention in the food supply chain and provide insights on how supply chain design and firms' operations have been re-conceptualized with the usage of digital technologies and on the institutional forces both limiting (barriers) and fostering (drivers) the diffusion of the digital food supply chain.     

The costs of increased localization for a multiple-product food supply chain: Dairy in the United States

There is increased interest in greater localization of food supply chains but little evidence about the effects of localization on supply-chain costs. Assessing these effects is complex in multiple-product, multi-process supply chains such as the dairy industry. In this study, we develop a spatially-disaggregated transshipment model for the US dairy sector that minimizes total supply-chain costs, including assembly, processing, interplant transportation and final product distribution. We employ the cost-minimizing solution as benchmark to compare alternative scenarios of increased supply chain localization. Our results indicate: (1) short-run limits to increased localization, (2) modest impacts on overall supply-chain costs, and (3) large cost re-allocations across supply chain segments, regions and products. We find that increased localization reduces assembly costs while increase processing and distribution costs. Cost increases are larger in regions with smaller raw milk supplies and during the season when less raw milk is produced. Minimizing distances traveled by all dairy products results in tradeoffs across products in terms of cost and distance traveled. The relationship between increased localization and costs appears to be nonlinear.     

Measurement,mitigation and prevention of food waste in supply chains: An online shopping perspective

This study introduces a framework and model, although applied in a practical setting, sets the stage for further theoretical development of mid-range theory. The methodology applied in the study has four main stages, namely interviews with managers from an online food retail supply chain, analysis of soft and hard data using questionnaire-based surveys of customers and suppliers, archival and factual information gathered from the supplier and the online food retailer to measure food waste across the supply chain and analytical models to quantify various effects. A number of propositions emerged from our multiple methodologies and observations. The major research contribution of this work is to advance Natural Resource Based View (NRBV) to the supply chain and various complexities involved in food waste management. Dynamic capabilities were clearly evident and necessary in rapidly changing industrial contexts such as online food supply chains. This paper also proposes a food waste minimization-and-mitigation model, establishes the direct and indirect outputs of food waste and brings attention of the food waste debate in the context of an exemplar online food supply chain, as well as provides a middle range theoretic framework to enhance understanding on theory and its application to this field informed mainly NRBV.     

Designing supply chains: Towards theory development

This paper describes a typology for designing supply chains that work in harmony to design, produce, and deliver products with different characteristics and customer expectations. This research discusses supply chain types that are necessary for success across three types of products: standard, innovative, and hybrid. It develops a framework for categorizing the supply chain types according to product characteristics and stage of the product life cycle. The key success factor for a product change as the product moves through its life cycle, and this may require different supply chain characteristics and capabilities. The paper blends literature and theory development with cases study research to create the typology and develop a set of research questions for further investigation.     

The paradoxes of food waste reduction in the horticultural supply chain

Research on on food waste is often reductionist, in that it attempts to measure food waste at single points within the supply chain. While this enables consideration of where food is being wasted within the supply chain, it does not necessarily answer why and how food is wasted across an entire supply chain. Using a paradox theory approach, the aim of this paper is to address these knowledge gaps by exploring the inherent paradoxes in resolving food waste across a supply chain. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research within the Australian horticulture industry, the findings reveal four macro-level paradoxes relating to policy, markets, responsibility, and marketing. This paper makes a novel contribution through consideration of a holistic, whole of chain perspective in relation to food waste. It also extends paradox theory into food waste scholarship. From a managerial perspective, the visibility of paradoxes highlights the need for organisations in the food supply chain to look beyond their own organisational boundaries and adopt a whole-of-chain approach in an attempt to address food waste.     

The trade-off between trust and distrust in supply chain collaboration

Trust and distrust can play an important role in a healthy supply chain collaborative relationship, and both carry potential shortcomings. Little attention has been paid to understanding and explaining the development process of trust and distrust in supply chain collaborations, especially in an international context. Using the Transaction Cost Economics theory, this study begins by discussing expressions of trust and distrust within the context of a supply chain collaboration dyad. Then, we explore how trust and distrust interact at a network level. Using a novel, longitudinal, multi-case-study approach, this paper provides new empirical evidence of the complementary roles of trust and distrust in supply chain collaboration, exploring how these concepts work together across different stages of the relationship and in different contexts. This study distinguishes between ‘competence trust’ and ‘integrity trust’ concerning collaboration contracts which typically create distrust. Finally, this paper offers unique insights into the influence of culture on the interpretation and performance of trust and distrust in international supply chain collaboration, grounded in the context of the Chinese automotive industry.     

Developing an organizational typology of criminals in the meat supply chain

The European Horsemeat Scandal of 2013 highlighted the increasing organization and sophistication of the contemporary food criminal. This study aims to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the typology of the food criminal in terms of their modus operandi and how individuals and organized crime groups develop criminal business models and networks in the context of meat supply. This research initiates a synthesized literature review across the seemingly disparate academic disciplines of food and agricultural policy, business theory and criminology in order to characterize the modes of operation at work in such networks. A conceptual framework is developed that considers the actors and drivers involved in criminal activity using the meat supply chain as an example.     

The role of e-marketplaces in supply chain management

Electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) have a profound influence on the way in which organizations manage their supply chains. Proponents of the e-marketplace concept suggest that web-based trading systems, such as World Wide Retail Exchange (WWRE) and GlobalNetXchange (GNX), would enable companies to more efficiently buy, sell, and manage their supply chain processes on a global scale. This study investigates the extent to which e-business tools of the e-marketplace are used by channel members in the retail sector for business-to-business supply chain management (SCM). The study is based on a survey involving food service companies, retailers, and wholesalers in the UK. It is shown that the e-marketplace supply chain applications enable the majority of companies to automate transaction-based activities and procurement-related processes rather than strategic supply chain activities. The results also indicate that full participation in e-marketplaces requires companies to integrate their internal and external supply chain activities and share strategic information.     

Stakeholder Orientation and Acquisition Performance

Research summary : In this article, we study how a firm's stakeholder orientation affects the performance of its corporate acquisitions. We depart from prior literature and suggest that orientations toward employees, customers, suppliers, and local communities will affect long‐term acquisition performance both directly and through its interactions with process characteristics, such as preacquisition relatedness and postacquisition integration. Analyses of data on a sample of 1884 acquisitions show overall a positive association between acquirers' stakeholder orientation and acquisition performance. In addition, we find support for a positive moderation of business relatedness on the performance impacts of stakeholder orientation. Structural integration has a similarly positive moderation effect only for some of the stakeholder categories. Managerial summary : Does collaboration with stakeholders during an acquisition pay off in terms of performance? The results of this research show that it is worth engaging stakeholders during the M&A process, but that the efficacy of involvement practices may depend on the type of stakeholders and the characteristics of the acquisition. While acquiring firms that take account of suppliers and local communities consistently overperform in their acquisitions, the inclusion of employees might be not beneficial (and even harmful) when the target firm operates in a dissimilar business or when managers do not plan to maintain it as a separate entity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A critique of high-value supply chains as a means of modernising agriculture in China: The case of the beef industry

China has embarked on an agricultural modernisation program with far-reaching implications for rural development, food safety and trade. A major focus of China’s agricultural modernisation program has been to build high-value supply chains and large, modern agro-industrial enterprises. This paper provides a critique of these efforts in the case of the high-value beef supply chain. It finds that interventionist policies to fast-track the development of high-value supply chains have perverse outcomes and that a more incremental and facilitative approach to modernisation should be pursued based around the development of mid-value supply chains.     

“Green” supply chain management: The role of trust and top management in B2B and B2C markets

“Green” supply chain management (GSCM) has often been associated with highly visible companies (Bowen, 2000) and firms within consumer-focused industries (Buysse & Verbeke, 2003; Hall, 2000; Roht-Arriaza, 1996). As such, GSCM has partly been led by development of consumer awareness of environmental issues (Beamon, 1999; Zhu et al., 2005). This suggest that firms operating in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets have strong incentives to implement GSCM, due to both institutional and stakeholder pressure. However, this leaves the role of GSCM in business-to-business (B2B) sectors relatively unexplored and to-date little is known about: 1) the relative engagement with GSCM among firms in business-to-consumer and business-to-business sectors; 2) the conditions that are necessary for successful implementation of “green” practices in B2B supply chains. This study addresses these issues within the context of 340 buyer–supplier relationships in the United Kingdom, using an innovative research methodology that captures firms' engagement with GSCM practices and minimizes social desirability and common source biases. Our results show that GSCM is relatively limited among firms in B2B markets compared to firms in B2C markets. At the same time, we show that developing trust with supply chain partners, while also having top management support, is a crucial driver of engagement with GSCM among firms in B2B sector but less important among firms in B2C sector. These findings provide considerable insights to managers and marketers of B2B supply chains that seek to respond to a growing interest of environmental performance of supply chain.     

Remarks on Engineering Economy Studies from the Viewpoint of Statistical Decision Theory

Lack of credit during periods of financial stress can reduce sales in an entire supply chain. To reduce the reliance on external credit, we introduce a new financing framework in which key supply chain stakeholders accept delayed payment for a pre-agreed portion of their product or service. By doing so throughout the supply chain, each stakeholder must self-finance only their in-house activities—but not the cost of purchased components and services because those are in turn financed by their suppliers. Intended to account for only a small fraction of sales, this framework is limited to supplying customers who do not qualify for external financing. The payments from these customers are distributed among the value chain stakeholders according to an agreed-upon policy. These additional sales would otherwise be lost for lack of consumer credit. This approach increases sales and profitability for the entire supply chain and is especially advantageous during credit crunches. In addition to describing this new financing framework, this article places it in the context of other financing arrangements, provides an example with cash flow and net present value calculations, and identifies implementation challenges and characteristics of supply chains that are good candidates.     

Customer collaboration,service firms' diversification and innovation performance

To sustain competitive advantage, service firms must adapt to the market environment, often by means of diversification and innovation. While extensive research has focussed on the role of customer collaboration in service firm innovation performance, fewer studies have examined the role of firm diversification in this relationship. This study draws on the resource-based view and dynamic capability literature to explore relationships between customer collaboration, diversification and innovation performance of service firms. A conceptual framework was developed and tested using a survey of 156 mining equipment, technology and services (METS) firms in South Australia, and case studies. The findings indicate that service and market diversification mediate the relationship between customer collaboration and innovation performance. Importantly, our findings demonstrate that customer collaboration has no direct effect on the innovation performance of service firms. The research helps practitioners and policymakers to understand the importance of enhancing collaboration across supply chains to build diversified and resilient to downturns in traditional sectors service economies.     

Illegal activity in the UK halal (sheep) supply chain: Towards greater understanding

Food supply chain theory and practice assumes that the processes involved are legal and value adding. In this paper, using examples from the UK halal (sheep) meat supply chain, we outline a value extracting value chain through a mixed methods qualitative approach consisting of face-to-face-interviews and a documentary research strategy underpinned by Narrative Inquiry. Building on previous theoretical work on Illegal Rural Enterprise, we present a narrative of an individual rogue-farmer, and explore his involvement in the illegal halal (‘smokies’) trade over a fifteen-year period. The paper provides a compelling story that will enable investigators to better understand illegal enterprise from a supply chain perspective and more adequately address the concerns stated in the UK Fraud Act 2006. The paper will be useful to food standards agencies in that furthers our understanding of entrepreneurial practice and morality in the food industry. The results demonstrate that illegal rural enterprise is a multi-faceted concept that requires an understanding of business practices and processes alongside a multi-agency approach to enterprise orientated crime. Our approach suggests that supply chains can be ‘flipped’ in order to understand illegal processes in addition to conventional legal processes.     

In Chains? An Empirical Study of Antecedents of Supplier Product Development Activity in the Automotive Industry*

In the literature on interorganizational collaboration in product development, considerable attention is given to supplier role classifications. Such classifications often link to a supplier's position in the overall supply chain, but the claim that this position has a substantial impact on its product development activities has seldom been empirically validated. The results from the present survey among Swedish automotive suppliers demonstrate that supplier product development activity is significantly affected by the position of the supplier in the supply chain and the supplier's strategic focus on innovation. While the latter has a stronger impact on product development activities, there is also an interaction effect implying that the effects of a supplier's innovation strategy are contingent on its supply chain position. Contrary to expectations, customer development commitment does not have any significant direct effect on supplier product development activities. Instead, this relation is fully mediated by supplier innovation strategy. These findings imply that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, product development activities are not strictly organized in “chains.” Although supply chains can be useful metaphors for understanding the distribution of regular production activities between firms, they arguably apply less to the distribution of product development activities.     

Structuring and contracting in competing supply chains

This paper considers two competing supply chains, each with multiple upstream suppliers producing complementary products and selling to a single buyer (e.g., assembler or retailer), who then sells the finished assembled product to a market that involves both demand uncertainty and competition. Our main research questions focus on what supply chain structure (integration vs. decentralization) and which contracting strategy a business should choose. We find that supply chains that decentralize perform better under strong market competition (i.e., high degree of product substitution between supply chains). However, when a large number of suppliers exist, supply chains that integrate perform better. When decentralized structures are used for both supply chains, a consignment with revenue sharing contract generally outperforms a wholesale price contract from the downstream retailer's point of view. Interestingly, for a supplier, a wholesale price contract, which pushes all demand risks to the downstream retailer, might not be preferred. For the entire supply chain, one contract strategy can outperform another depending on the degree of competition, the cost share of the buyer, and the number of suppliers.     

Managing the supply chain during disruptions: Developing a framework for decision-making

Business-to-business firms have traditionally encountered disruptions, but the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic was extraordinary as it interrupted global supply chains by causing unprecedented shocks to supply and demand. Firms experienced extraordinary pressure and struggled to minimize the immediate and long-term impact of supply chains disruptions. Applying chaos theory, this study employs a single-case method to understand the disruptions to the business-to-business oil and gas supply chain. We make three major contributions. First, we examine firm decision-making during significant disruptions. Second, we use chaos theory to better understand the decision-making process. Finally, we develop a framework to explicate the decision-making process and provide guidelines for decision-making during disruptions. Our findings provide theoretical insights and have important implications for practitioners addressing supply chain disruptions during crises.     

Impact of demand uncertainty on supply chain cooperation of single-period products

Cooperation is an approach of improving competitive advantages of a supply chain. A two-echelon supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer for a single-period product is studied, and retail-market demand uncertainty is described by coefficient of variation. We develop a cooperation mechanism to address the cooperation and its implementation between the manufacturer and the retailer, two market situations are considered: (i) the wholesale price and the order quantity are decision variables, (ii) the wholesale and the retail prices as well as the order quantity are decision variables. In both market situations, our research shows that: (1) the cooperation mechanism can improve the overall channel profits and the supply chain members’ allocated profits, (2) the described cooperation is conditional on retail-market demand uncertainty: it can be implemented if, and only if, the fluctuation of retail-market demand is relatively small and coefficient of variation of retail-market demand does not exceed an upper bound. Impacts of retail-market demand uncertainty on wholesale price, order quantity and/or retail price have also been investigated through analytical and numerical analyses. Although our research is based on the assumption that the manufacturer dominates the supply chain in the non-cooperative situation, which is not the case for most retailer-driven supply chains, this research is still significant on providing guidelines for practitioners in current China mid-level car market that is similar to situations described in the paper.