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...

The sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is constantly challenged on today’s dynamic operating environment. Evolving regulatory trends, difficult economic conditions, and diminishing natural resources, pose serious questions for all players across the food system....

In the modern agrifood economies, the development of quality management standards is crucial, and food small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually face difficulties in implementing them. In this context, the aim of the article is two-fold. Firstly it is to craft an original analytical framework...

Non-price competition is increasingly important in world food markets. Recently, the expression export sophistication has been introduced in the economic literature to refer to a wide set of attributes that increase product value. An index has been proposed to measure sophistication in an...

This paper aims at analysing which kinds of currently labelled information are of interest and actually used by consumers, and which additional kinds could improve consumer choices. We investigate the attitude of consumers with respect to innovative strategies for the diffusion of product...

The present study contributes to identifying obstacles to the development of a local biodiesel agro-industrial system (AGS) in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research questions are: “How do local social characteristics influence the organizational effectiveness of agents involved in...

The driver for this paper is the need to better understand the potential for learning and innovation that networks can provide especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which comprise by far the majority of enterprises in the food sector. With the challenges the food sector is...

The EC funded FI-PPP programme is currently elaborating a large set of enabling technologies that shall help to overcome challenges towards a sustainable networked society of tomorrow. This up-front investment can highly facilitate access to such Internet potentials by food chain SMEs....

Improvements in the food sector imply enhancements of delivering food which is safe, affordable, readily available, and of the quality and diversity consumers expect. However, prevalent information systems (IS) of companies in the food industry are not ready to support further significant...

in the coming decades: the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates an increase of the world population from the current 6 billion people to 9-11 billion people by 2050 leading to a doubling of world-wide food demand (FAO 2009). In the meantime, we have already...