The welfare impact of food pathogen vaccines

Vaccines against several common foodborne pathogens are being developed and could substantially alter the policy tools available to address foodborne illness. However, little analysis is available to suggest how social welfare would be affected by consumer and industry responses to these new vaccines. To address this void, we use stated-preference data to estimate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for food safety vaccines and then simulate the welfare impacts of subsidizing consumer purchases of the vaccine given two different industry responses: maintaining current levels of food safety vigilance and reducing food safety vigilance due to a moral hazard response that undermines consumer confidence in food safety. To obtain consumer preferences for the vaccine, we simultaneously estimate a three-equation model that recognizes the recursive nature of responses to questions probing respondents’ willingness to purchase vaccines and perceptions of the probability and severity of possible foodborne illness incidents and the joint distribution of unobservable components. Our simulations show large consumer WTP if vaccines are relatively inexpensive while the presence of moral hazard increases respondents’ willingness to pay and voluntary uptake of vaccine.     

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.     

“Social food”: Food literacy co-construction and distortion on social media

Social media encourage the rapid spreading of food-related information and potentially act as a policy measure to improve food literacy, healthy eating and well-being. However, some authors warn about the lack of control over the quality of the shared information and the risks of knowledge distortion. The aim of this research is to understand how food literacy is co-constructed on social media and to identify the potential sources of bias, which lead to knowledge distortion. We use a netnographic approach (i.e. analysis of behavioral secondary data from social media and semi-structured interviews) to study both phenomena. Findings indicate that food literacy can be positively or negatively co-constructed in a social environment. Consumers can contribute to the construction of food literacy directly or indirectly on three levels (i.e. evaluation, adaptation suggestions and procedural critiques), which vary in depth and breadth of contribution. We further identify four types of biases, which risk affecting the quality of the co-constructed food literacy online, namely vividness, mindset, socio-cultural and cognitive dissonance bias. Findings help food policy makers to better understand how food literacy is developed outside of their control, and to identify the potential sources of knowledge distortion and how they can reduce these biases.     

Comparing environmental impacts of regional and national-scale food supply chains: A case study of processed tomatoes

This study uses life cycle assessment methodology to quantify the energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water use of processed tomato products grown, processed, and consumed within the Great Lakes region of the United States, and tomato products produced in California and then shipped to the Great Lakes region for consumption. The purpose is to assess the potential for regional food systems to reduce selected environmental impacts, particularly the energy and GHG footprints, of consumer-ready, processed food products, when compared to national-scale food systems in which consumer products are shipped long distances. The study also examines the role of different types of food processing in influencing life cycle energy use, water use, and emissions.Our results indicate that California-produced conventional and organic tomato paste and canned diced tomatoes are almost equivalent in energy use and GHG emissions to regionally produced and consumed products, but use of developed water resources is significantly higher for California-grown products. California tomato production benefits from higher per hectare yields and soil amendments with lower carbon dioxide emissions. These efficiencies substantially offset the added energy use and GHG emissions associated with long-distance shipment of products to the Great Lakes region, as long as shipments are made by rail rather than by truck. Paste, the more processed and concentrated product evaluated, amplifies any environmental advantages or disadvantages accrued in the field production stage, due to its raw tomato to finished product ratio of 6:1, suggesting that comparative regional advantage can play a role in lowering life cycle environmental impacts of highly condensed foods shipped long distances.     

The impact of coercive and non-coercive forms of influence on trust, commitment, and compliance in supply chains

A major premise in managing channel relationships is encouraging cooperation to achieve the aims of the relational partners. This often requires a balancing act between utilization of influence across the supply chain to motivate decisions, while employing tactics that do not damage the future of the relationship. This paper builds and tests a model of how influence strategies affect relational elements, specifically trust and commitment, which both promote strong inter-firm relationships and act as mediators of joint action, specifically cooperation and compliance across channel partners. Results suggest that coercive strategies are counterproductive in encouraging cooperation and compliance either directly or through relational intermediaries, while non-coercive influence produces positive outcomes and effects on intermediaries. Low levels of coercive influence do appear to generate positive outcomes. Managerial implications and future research based on these results conclude the paper.     

The impact of the Social Cash Transfer Scheme on food security in Malawi

The Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) was launched in 2006 to improve food security by directly providing cash transfers to the country’s most destitute households. Although government-implemented cash transfer schemes have gained popularity throughout Latin America, these schemes are just emerging in Africa. While where there is evidence of the beneficial impact of cash transfers on food security from Latin American countries, there is a dearth of evidence from resource poor countries in Africa.     

Food supply in Peru: Dependence and transnational monopolies

The Peruvian food supply system is characterized by the stagnation of agricultural production, by the increasing control of oligopolies and by dependence on imports. Traditional consumption patterns are changing and this has contributed to the national agricultural stagnation, the agro-industrial oligopoly and the increasing vulnerability of the country's food supplies. Against this background, the author reviews current strategies and policies for farming and food and resources. An alternative reform of the food supply system is then proposed.     

A game-theoretic approach to behavioral food risks: The case of grain producers

Food risks may be caused by malpractice of suppliers who exploit the fact that their production processes and resulting product properties cannot be directly observed by buyers. The probability of malpractice increases with the profits that can be earned through opportunistic behavior. In this paper, we develop a moral hazard model for the empirical analyses of behavioral risks. It accounts for the essential fact that incomplete inspection and tracing increase the profitability of rule-breaking behavior, and that monitoring, tracing and sanctioning are costly. Using the model, we first demonstrate how to design efficient contracts in various situations. In a case study, we then analyze farmers’ incentives with regard to the minimum waiting period after fungicide use. Data are gathered in interviews with three large-scale German farmers and a grain dealer. We find that, while their perception of parameters varies widely, high temptations for rule-breaking arise in some cases. We conclude that empirical moral hazard analyses have significant potential to shed light on behavioral risks.     

NGOs and the creation of value in supply chains

Research Summary: Firms and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often collaborate to establish new supply chains. With a formal model, we analyze how NGOs can alleviate market failures and improve supplier economic inclusion while strategically interacting with firms. We account for the specific goals of the NGO and the need to induce collaboration between firms and their suppliers. The analysis reveals a “valley of frustration,” when NGO efforts benefit all actors but only marginally the firm. We also show that more powerful firms might prefer to internalize NGO functions, while firms with lower bargaining power and higher investment requirements are better off collaborating with NGOs. Finally, we study NGOs-firms matching patterns and find that firms with higher bargaining power match with NGOs holding stronger capabilities. Managerial Summary: This article analyzes interactions between firms and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) aiming to improve the economic inclusion of suppliers or to promote the adoption of specific (e.g., sustainable) practices. For firm executives, this study shows the constraints and benefits associated with working with NGOs, the conditions under which integration of NGO functions is preferable as well as the types of NGOs that offer better prospects for a successful collaboration. For NGO executives, it highlights the need to provide enough economic incentives to firms and suppliers alike to ensure their collaboration and the trade-offs associated with this constraint, in particular, if NGO capabilities are limited. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of how NGO activities can influence value creation in a vertical value chain.     

Social imaginary and dilemmas of policy practice: The food safety arena in Japan

Through the string of food safety scares that has rocked Japanese society since the early 2000s, conflicts between the traditional notion of socially acceptable risk and the idea of a science-based risk analysis approach have surfaced in the food safety arena. Elites, including government officials and those members of scientific communities who support the science-based risk analysis approach, have become responsible for communicating seemingly contradictory ideas such as “food in Japan is safe” and “there is no such thing as zero risk with food.” This communication logjam has resulted in confusion and created public distrust of both government and scientific experts. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to examine the struggles and challenges faced by government officials in explaining and practicing policies that pertain to highly controversial food safety issues. The primary data used for illuminating the discourses is the official minutes of governmental committees including the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee and the Consumer Commission.     

The determinants of innovation in green supply chains: evidence from an Italian sectoral study

Innovation processes are increasingly spreading through the unbounded universe of European small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It represents a fundamental opportunity especially for those SMEs operating in the so‐called ‘green economy’ sectors, in order to be competitive in a National, European and International market with their sustainable products and services. Drawing upon a database of over 300 enterprises operating within the eight defined green sectors, this paper assesses the determinants and drawbacks of innovation. In particular, by using an econometrical approach, we tested the following propositions: (1) small dimension of enterprises is not an obstacle to their innovation capabilities; (2) the adoption of an internationalisation strategy is an opportunity and a stimulus to innovation for SMEs; (3) cooperation with research centres, financial partners, trade association and public entities can help SMEs to overcome difficulties and help them to develop and offer innovative products and services, so to be competitive at an international level. The econometric analysis shows a positive impact of the variables ‘dimension’ and ‘level of internationalisation’ on innovation capabilities. In addition, cooperation with research centres and access to capital market are positively related with effective innovations.     

Coordination of planning and scheduling decisions in global supply chains with dual supply modes

We address the problem of coordinating aggregate planning decisions and short-term scheduling decisions in supply chains with dual supply modes. We consider long lead time, less expensive sea shipments that are based on demand forecast, and responsive but costly air shipments that are based on revised forecast closer to the demand period. The planning problem determines the sea shipment order quantity and inventory level, while the scheduling model determines the schedule and quantity of air shipments. Results from our numerical experiments suggest that our model leads to consistent cost improvements over a wide range of operating scenarios.     

Power and firm profitability in supply chains: french manufacturing industry in 1993

The paper examines the relationships between the power of suppliers and buyers and the profitability of sellers who are situated in supply chains between both sets of firms. A review of the literature on power in exchange relations shows there are several power concepts which may have a different impact on seller profitability and whose impact possibly can offset each other. This may be the source of the conflicting evidence on this topic. A failure to distinguish among the concepts may also lead to an underestimation of industry effects relative to resource effects as drivers of firm profitability. The paper uses a new data base of the Banque de France on French manufacturing industry. The anlayses examine whether different power concepts may be empirically identified and what their relationships are with seller profitability. The findings point to the existence of multiple power concepts and indicate that, in the sample, industry effects are more important than firm effects (as measured by relative market share) in explaining seller profitability. The findings also suggest that buyer power explains a much larger percentage of the variance in seller profitability than supplier power. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge and information flows in supply chains: A study on pharmaceutical companies

A great deal of attention in the supply chain management literature is devoted to study material and demand information flows and their coordination. But in many situations, supply chains may convey information from different nature, they may be an important channel companies have to deliver knowledge, or specifically, technical information to the market. This paper studies the technical flow and highlights its particular requirements. Drawing upon a qualitative field research, it studies pharmaceutical companies, since those companies face a very specific challenge: consumers do not have discretion over their choices, ethical drugs must be prescribed by physicians to be bought and used by final consumers. Technical information flow is rich, and must be redundant and early delivered at multiple points. Thus, apart from the regular material channel where products and order information flow, those companies build a specialized information channel, developed to communicate to those who need it to create demand. Conclusions can be extended to supply chains where products and services are complex and decision makers must be clearly informed about technology-related information.     

The impact of trust on innovativeness and supply chain performance

Trust is identified as a significant predictor of positive performance in business relationships. On the premise that the effects of trust have not been given the deserved scholarly attention in the supply chain context, this paper investigates the effects of trust on innovativeness and supply chain performance. The hypothesised model is operationalised with survey data and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings add credence to the positive effects of trust and identify trust and innovativeness as antecedents to higher performance in the supply chain.     

The impact of migration on food consumption patterns: The case of Vietnam

This paper explores the relationship between migration and consumption patterns using panel data from the 2004 and 2006 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. Employing an instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of migration, our results indicate that short-term migration has a positive effect on overall per capita food expenditures, per capita calorie consumption and food diversity. Long-term migration also appears to be positively related to consumption, but impacts are often insignificant and of a lesser magnitude than short-term migration. The results provide no evidence of negative effects of migration, and support the view that short-term migration is a mechanism by which households maintain food security. The results suggest that to improve food security the Vietnamese government should enact policies that facilitate short-term migration flows as well as the transferring of remittances.     

The impact of the European Novel Food Regulation on trade and food innovation based on traditional plant foods from developing countries

The stringent food safety assessment for novel foods required by the European Union’s Novel Food Regulation (NFR) places a high burden of proof on those bringing traditional food products to the EU market not consumed in the EU prior 1997. The regulation has emerged as a non-tariff trade barrier for heritage foods from developing countries that are viewed as “exotic” from the EU perspective. We show how the regulation has discouraged investment in supply chains and market development, and how this negatively affects income generation and rural poverty alleviation in developing countries. Focusing on plant-derived foods, this paper proposes to recognize traditional exotic foods in current EU law as a food category sui generis with food safety evidence requirements being proportionate to the risks they may pose. We argue that development activities promoting export food chains must increasingly accommodate legitimate food safety concerns about neglected food species in project design and seek to generate data to enhance regulatory acceptance in target markets.     

The impact of market liberalisation on food security in Zambia

The main elements in agricultural market liberalisation have been the dismantling of the state institutions for marketing and distribution of agricultural produce, the abolition of subsidies, the liberalisation of import and export trade, and the market determination of input and output prices. Economic policy reforms on the monetary, fiscal and other fronts also impinged on the variables influencing production, trade and consumption. This paper highlights some of the undesirable offshoots of the previous policy regime and enumerates the specific policies that have been introduced since 1992. It describes the positive and negative outcomes witnessed so far. Finally, it suggests what needs to be done to eliminate the prevailing major constraints to growth in food production and consumption.     

The impact of a food security program on household food consumption in Northwestern Ethiopia: A matching estimator approach

With the financial support from various development partners, Ethiopia has designed and implemented several programs to improve household food security. Yet, food insecurity is still a major challenge to several millions of people in the country and it is questionable whether the different food security programs implemented over the past years have been successful. Using a propensity score matching method to control for pre-intervention differences, this study examined the impact on household food calorie intake of an integrated food security program (IFSP), which had been implemented in Northwestern Ethiopia by two non-governmental organizations as a case study. The estimated results provide evidence that IFSP has a positive and statistically significant effect on food calorie intake. In particular, IFSP has raised physical food calorie intake by 30% among the beneficiary households. However, we also found that IFSP has differential impact depending on family size, landownership and gender of head of household. Overall, the paper provides evidence that supporting integrated food security programs is important to improve food security in rural areas.