Quality assurance and labeling play an important and increasing role in firms’ marketing strategies. In almost all cases, a price incentive has been stressed as the major incentive for firms to participate in such schemes. We argue here that important non-price incentives for participation in...

Corporate Growth is a concept that has been widely treated in a specific way or as part of strategy theories, in definition and in econometric models and has also been studied in many different aspects and approaches. The author describes in depth the main variables affecting corporate growth...

This paper investigates competition in the Dutch manufacturing sector. We look at various indicators that have been used throughout the literature and relate these to productivity growth. Moreover, where possible, the indicators and productivity growth are calculated at both the firm and...

This study analyzes the total factor productivity of 1,067 Japanese manufacturing firms. In production estimation, we employ the directional distance function and Luenberger productivity indicator. Research and development strategy survey data are used to analyze the determinant factors related...

The life cycle approach is widely used in the analysis of sustainability. Its application to supply chains is necessary since the product flows, from processing of raw materials to the final customer, are considered. The role of the organizational aspects, expressed in terms of relationships...

The purpose of this proposal is to explore a new concept of 'Metadistrict' to be applied in a region of Southern Italy – Apulia - in order to analyze the impact that the activation of a special network between different sector chains and several integrated projects may have for revitalizing...

The field of nutrition is facing numerous social, ecological and economic challenges in the coming decades. The food industry belongs to the most significant economic sectors worldwide and the increasing population of 9 billion in 2050 will cause a growing demand on food. So far, changing...

This paper presents a novel approach to gain a deeper understanding of the forces driving sustainability transitions in food production and consumption. It follows a complex adaptive systems approach to study processes leading to sociotechnical innovations on a timescale of typically a decade....

Firms in the agri-food industry are embedded in a system of institutions, regulations and policies that shape their economic environment and affect their conduct and performance. Changes in this system can propose new challenges for the firms that need to adequately and efficiently change and...