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The purpose of this paper is to analyze gaps and trends, as well suggest approaches and methodologies that should be addressed by future studies for implementing the lean and green management in the agri-food sector.

Based on a sample with 117 papers, this paper presents a systematic review on the integration of lean and green in the agri-food sector.

Key findings indicate that research on lean and green topics has increased in recent years, an important gap in the integration of lean and green in the agri-food sector has been identified. Two paths that remain open for further research are detected: the lack of theoretical, prescriptive and quantitative research and the possibility of integrating the two most used tools of lean (i.e. value stream mapping) and green (i.e. life-cycle assessment).

This study does not only advance the theoretical knowledge of the lean and green field, but it is also beneficial for agri-food companies who aim to effectively deploy lean and green in their processes in order to improve both operational and environmental performances.

No other industry matches in such a complete way the agri-food industry’s challenge of sustainability that is due to the amount of resources it consumes and its interrelatedness with the well-being of humanity.

There are separate streams of established research on lean and green management in the agri-food sector, yet very few authors have addressed the intersection of these strategic initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to strive to close the current research gap pertaining to potential implications of the blockchain (BC) for sustainable business models (SBMs) in the agri-food industry.

To answer the research question, the authors utilised the Value Triangle framework by Biloslavo et al. (2018) in order to explore the potential innovation of BC for SBMs in the agri-food industry. Then, the authors apply it to an in-depth exploratory case study of the Placido Volpone winery. The authors draw data from strategic plans, annual reports, corporate website and a semi-structured interview with the winery's founder.

The authors show how BC technology could be a source of SBM innovation in the agri-food industry.

BC technology has the potential to significantly change SBMs. Given the huge set-up investments by the industry, academic research investigating potential implications and supporting companies in their application of BC is needed. This paper explores how the implications of BC as source of innovation on SBMs can be investigated.

The research results of this study can be used by company leaders and managers to support the development of SBMs through the introduction of BC technology in their business activities.

The paper is novel because it investigates the relationship between SBM innovation and BC providing theoretical justification to SBM technological innovation in an agri-food setting. Additionally, the paper provides an empirical application of the framework by Biloslavo et al. (2018) for understanding the development of SBM through BC in the agri-food industry.

Scholarly literature on entrepreneurial activities in the agri-food sector has flourished over the years in several different ways. This study uses the metaphor of an orchard to describe how this stream of literature has evolved from its initial “seeds” to the rich and diversified “fruits” of current debate. It is now time to harvest and catalogue these “fruits”. This study aims to map out and systematise the current stock of knowledge on agri-food entrepreneurship, so as to identify gaps and thus “plant” new seeds for the future of the “orchard”.

To identify thematic clusters, this study used a bibliometric analysis coupled with a systematic literature review performed over a dataset of 108 peer-reviewed articles.

The results revealed six thematic clusters related to agri-food entrepreneurship: ecosystems, formal and informal institutions; contextual entrepreneurial practices; community and stakeholders’ engagement; barriers and opportunities; entrepreneurial orientation; and sustainable entrepreneurship. After investigating each of them, this study created a framework to highlight future avenues through which the topic could be further developed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to systematise, analyse and critically interpret the literature concerned with agri-food entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern, duration and country-level determinants of global agri-food export competitiveness of 23 major global agri-food trading countries.

A large panel data set is compiled to facilitate assessment of the pattern, duration and country-level determinants of global agri-food export competitiveness using a revealed comparative advantage index.

The results suggest that the duration of revealed comparative advantage is heterogeneous at the agri-food product level. Long-term survival rates as revealed by the comparative advantage indices are among the highest for the Netherlands, France, Belgium, the USA, Argentina and New Zealand. The level of economic development, the share of agricultural employment, subsidies to agriculture and differentiated consumer agri-food products increase the likelihood of failure in the duration of comparative advantage, while the abundance of agricultural land and export diversification reduce that likelihood.

The framework is conceptually innovative in how it models the likelihood of failure in the duration of comparative advantage and assesses implications. Export competitiveness is a crucial factor in long-term global farm business survival as it fosters opportunities for business prosperity on global markets.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and successful open innovation within agri-food businesses. This particular piece of research focuses on agri-food businesses which utilize crowdfunding platforms.

The research adopts a survey-based methodology, which is useful in enhancing the generalization of results. The final sample includes 80 cases for the analysis. The model and the hypotheses were tested through a hierarchical regression model.

This research assesses the importance of knowledge management capabilities for successful open innovation in crowdfunding for agri-food businesses. In particular, it emerged that IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities are enablers of open innovation strategies. Additionally, it emerged that knowledge exploration capabilities can positively mediate the relationship between IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities and open innovation in the context of agri-food businesses.

To the authors’ best knowledge, few researchers have explored this topic and, as such, there is a need to better conceptualize this intriguing phenomenon and to provide empirical evidence to support it.

The purpose of this study is to assess the potential economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's macroeconomy and agri-food system and provide policy recommendations to stimulate economic growth and agri-food system development.

An economy-wide multisector multiplier model built on China's most recent social accounting matrix (SAM) for 2017 with 149 economic sectors is used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on China's macroeconomy and agri-food system. SAM multiplier analysis focuses on supply chain linkages and captures the complexity of an interconnected economy.

The paper finds that both the macroeconomy and agri-food systems are hit significantly by COVID-19. There are three main findings. First, affected by COVID-19, GDP decreased by 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with that in 2019, while the economic loss of the agri-food system is equivalent to 7% of its value added (about RMB 0.26 trillion). More than 46m agri-food system workers (about 27% of total employment) lost their jobs to COVID-19 in the lockdown phase. The COVID-19 affects the employment of unskilled labor more than that of skilled labor. Second, when the economy starts to recover during the second and third quarters, the growth rate in the value added of the agri-food system turns positive but still modest. Many jobs resume during the period, but the level of agri-food system employment continues to be lower than the base. The agri-food system employment recovery is slower than that of other sectors largely due to the sluggish recovery of restaurants. Agri-food system employment drops by 8.6m, which accounts for about 33% of the total jobs lost. Third, although the domestic economy is expected to be normal in the fourth quarter, external demand still faces uncertainties due to the global pandemic. The agri-food system is projected to grow by 1.1% annually in 2020 with resuming export demand, while only by 0.4% without resuming export demand. These rates are much lower than an annual growth rate of 4.3% for the agri-food system in 2019. The results also show that, without resuming export demand, China's total economy will grow less than 1% in 2020, while, with export demand resumed, the growth rate rises to 1.7%. These rates are much lower than an annual GDP growth rate of 6.1% in 2019.

The results show that continuously reducing economic dependency on exports and stimulating domestic demand are key areas that require policy support. The agri-food system can play an important role in supporting broad economic growth and job creation as SMEs are major part of the AFS. Job creation requires policies to promote innovation by entrepreneurs who run numerous SMEs in China.

This paper represents the first systematic study assessing the impact of COVID-19 on China's agri-food system in terms of value added and employment. The assessment considers three phases of lockdown, recovery and normal phases in order to capture the full potential cost of COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument that measures a set of dynamic drivers for managing innovation capability; and to validate this instrument in the agri-food sector.

Based on the innovation drivers identified after an extensive literature review, a measurement instrument was developed and then empirically validated through collecting preliminary data from 434 Greek agri-food companies. Exploratory factor analysis was applied, while their validity was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis.

The analysis of the data confirms a valid measurement instrument of innovation drivers which consists of five drivers, namely, collaboration, environmental dynamism, knowledge orientation, quality orientation, and process management. The level of the five innovation drivers by the sample companies is deemed high, though not, however, excellent.

A research challenge is to understand how the five innovation drivers are associated with agri-food business performance taking into consideration the role of environmental uncertainty. Moreover, it is worth validating this measurement instrument using multiple indicators for innovation drivers.

The main contribution of this paper is that it develops a valid measurement instrument that can be used by agri-food companies as a self-assessment tool and a benchmarking tool. In doing so, suitable strategies can be selected in order for an agri-food to improve its innovation capability.

The proposed model provides plausible guidelines that advance innovation management research in the agri-food companies.

As evidence mounts on the importance of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to national and international economies and the opportunities presented to them by the internet, it becomes important to understand the key issues which determine internet adoption and utilisation. With literature on SME internet adoption fragmented and incoherent, there is also a need for conceptual framework development and testing to provide more focused research in this important area. Several researchers have also highlighted a need for research which concentrates more on specific industrial sectors rather than taking a more generalist approach to SME internet adoption. Within this evolving research context, the agri‐food industry makes a particularly relevant area of study, which this paper aims to study.

This paper addresses this purpose by conducting a study of 50 Northern Ireland SME agri‐food companies. The study utilises and tests a conceptual framework derived from the extant literature in relation to the determinants of SME web site adoption and utilisation.

The findings of this study point to the need for SME agri‐food companies to develop an awareness of the internet's efficacy for their business and a subsequent dynamic strategic approach in adoption and utilisation. However, the lack of marketing ability and negative industry norms prevalent within developed economy agri‐food industries will contribute negatively to internet adoption and utilisation. These will need to be addressed if the internet, and web site adoption and utilisation in particular, are to provide an effective business tool. The research findings support the conceptual framework's usefulness as a research tool. The findings point to the importance of marketing ability and industry norms in relation to their impact on the central determinants of internet adoption by the SME agri‐food companies studied.

In this paper it is contended that a lack of marketing ability and negative industry attitudes towards internet adoption and utilisation will constrain levels of awareness of the efficacy of the internet as a business tool for the individual businesses researched. The findings reveal that this will subsequently contribute to a lack of strategic web site development and subsequent utilisation.

This paper aims at understanding how companies in the agri-food are reconfiguring their competitive strategies to face the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Literature has focused mainly on the effect of the pandemic on the supply chain or in its value chain but little has been said on the competitive strategies adopted to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was conducted on Italian companies operating in the agri-food industry from May to September 2020, following a mixed method approach. First, a focus group with experts in competitive strategy and agri-food industry has been organized to identify the most important challenges that companies are facing. Second, through a structured questionnaire, data from 123 companies operating in the agri-food industry were gathered and analyzed with K-means clustering method.

Four clusters of companies were identified, each implementing different strategies to face the COVID-19 pandemic: “the cost fanatics”, “the brand focused”, “the sales centered” and “the strategists”. Furthermore, it was possible to identify new trends in competitive strategies to increase the added value that the Italian agri-food industry can provide to the customer.

The paper answers to the need for an investigation of the competitive strategies that agri-food companies have put in place to face the COVID-19 pandemic; moreover, it provides insights on how companies are adapting themselves to this rapidly changing environment. From a managerial point of view, it gives practitioners and managers useful insights on the different strategies that companies are undertaking to maintain a competitive advantage.

The authors investigate the contributions of social capital (SC) dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) in crowdfunding campaigns by comparing the dynamics of agri-food businesses with those of two other sectors – cultural and technological.

The authors develop linear regressions on a proprietary data set of 5,290 projects launched on the Italian platform “Produzionidalbasso.com”, from 2014 to 2020.

The authors’ findings suggest that combining the three social capital dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) has a more substantial overall effect on the number of backers involved in agri-food projects than in cultural and technological projects. Agri-food entrepreneurs effectively mobilize all resources embedded in the SC dimensions and therefore create the conditions to develop new ties that financially support the project.

Agri-food entrepreneurs may benefit from those results improving their funding strategies. Therefore, agri-food entrepreneurs can explore and exploit the instruments available on the CFD platform – video and rewards associated with the campaign – gaining more benefit from the backers involved compared with other project categories.

The study proposes a broader perspective regarding SC that encompasses the proponent, the company and the campaign with three different types of ties: bonding, bridging and linking. These SC dimensions can differently shape diverse sectors and this eclectic configuration can differentiate the effects of SC in crowdfunding campaigns. This study pinpoints how crowdfunding determinants change, based on project categories.