Different paths to improving together: a taxonomy of buyer-supplier collaborations for sustainability in food supply networks
ISSN: 1359-8546
Article publication date: 9 October 2024
Issue publication date: 19 November 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Extant research shows collaboration among supply chain (SC) partners can address the significant environmental impacts of industrial food systems, but can be risky and resource-intensive. Past studies have predominantly treated buyer–supplier sustainability collaborations as a single aggregate concept missing the theoretical richness. This study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of these collaborations for jointly improving sustainable food supply networks.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study was conducted covering 8 SCs in the Dutch food processing industry, using data from 27 interviewees and extensive secondary material.
Findings
By applying the dynamic relational view, this study identifies three types of buyer–supplier collaboration, reflecting three paths of sustainable value creation: (1) the bilateral path, featuring equal participation and extensive collaboration, yielding substantial environmental and economic benefits; (2) the buyer-driven path, where the buyer leads the collaboration to address sustainability issues that are raised by stakeholders, relying on supplier expertise to improve SC traceability and sustainability reputation, albeit at higher costs; (3) the supplier-driven path, where the supplier leads the collaboration for incremental environmental and economic improvements.
Practical implications
The taxonomy results provide practical guidelines to assist managers in selecting the most suitable collaboration type for their specific sustainability goals and more effectively address sustainability challenges.
Originality/value
The three identified types of collaboration form a novel taxonomy for improving sustainability in food supply networks, representing different paths for SC partners to achieve progressively more substantial sustainability improvements. This taxonomy challenges the perspective that adopting sustainability invariably leads to increased costs by providing evidence of simultaneous economic and environmental improvements.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The authors also thank the companies involved for the opportunity to investigate their SC collaborations for sustainability, and former students Jeanine Schaapman and Giannis Papadopoulos for their assistance with managing contacts and data collection. This research was awarded the Sustainable Society (SuSo) Small Grant by the University of Groningen.
Citation
Boscari, S., van Donk, D.P., Pullman, M. and Xiao, C. (2024), "Different paths to improving together: a taxonomy of buyer-supplier collaborations for sustainability in food supply networks", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 996-1018. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-02-2024-0119
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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