European society, with its steadily increased welfare levels, is not only concerned about food (safety, prices), but also on other aspects such as biodiversity loss, landscape degradation, pollution of water, soil and atmosphere. To a large extent these concerns can be translated into a wider...

The debate about the governance of complex systems of production represents a rich branch of the literature of applied organization theory. The particular application to agro‐related networks is a relevant example since agriculture plays new roles in modern society. The core of the analysis is...

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...

debate on appropriate framework, tools and methods to evaluate food and feed along the chains. This paper presents literature review for evaluation of triple bottom line impacts of soy and beef chains in particular, and food chains in general. We reviewed literature on the sustainability of soy...

An emerging concept in strategic management directed at finding new business and value propositions is the framework coined ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ (BOS) by Kim and Mauborgne, from INSEAD, Fontainebleau. The authors developed the BOS-framework, which comprises of a set of tools, on the basis...