Search results
1 – 10 of 167Meriam Trabelsi, Elena Casprini, Niccolò Fiorini and Lorenzo Zanni
This study analyses the literature on artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for the agri-food sector. This research aims to identify the current research streams, main…
Abstract
Purpose
This study analyses the literature on artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for the agri-food sector. This research aims to identify the current research streams, main methodologies used, findings and results delivered, gaps and future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on 69 published contributions in the field of AI in the agri-food sector. It begins with a bibliographic coupling to map and identify the current research streams and proceeds with a systematic literature review to examine the main topics and examine the main contributions.
Findings
Six clusters were identified: (1) AI adoption and benefits, (2) AI for efficiency and productivity, (3) AI for logistics and supply chain management, (4) AI for supporting decision making process for firms and consumers, (5) AI for risk mitigation and (6) AI marketing aspects. Then, the authors propose an interpretive framework composed of three main dimensions: (1) the two sides of AI: the “hard” side concerns the technology development and application while the “soft” side regards stakeholders' acceptance of the latter; (2) level of analysis: firm and inter-firm; (3) the impact of AI on value chain activities in the agri-food sector.
Originality/value
This study provides interpretive insights into the extant literature on AI in the agri-food sector, paving the way for future research and inspiring practitioners of different AI approaches in a traditionally low-tech sector.
Details
Keywords
Luis Collado, Pablo Galaso, María de las Mercedes Menéndez and Adrián Rodríguez Miranda
This paper aims to analyse how local agri-food systems (LAFS), compared to other production models, can offer innovative responses to the important environmental challenges facing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse how local agri-food systems (LAFS), compared to other production models, can offer innovative responses to the important environmental challenges facing food production under the twin transition. These responses are more conducive to community inclusion and local development.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper combines territorial development, clusters and industrial districts literature with studies on agri-food industry environmental problems and twin transition technologies to develop an agri-food systems typology. This typology is based on a territorial approach to environmental challenges of food production and serves to illustrate the ways in which LAFS can provide innovative responses to these challenges.
Findings
The study allows to visualise the differences between LAFS and other agri-food production models, showing how the operationalisation and implementation of digitisation occur at territorial level and how rural communities are involved in the process. The theoretical proposal emphasises not assuming that technology is inherently beneficial but ensuring that its implementation is inclusive and generates social value for the communities.
Originality/value
The paper aims to enrich future research by adopting a territorial perspective to study the twin transition challenges associated with food production systems.
Details
Keywords
Stefano Poponi, Alessandro Ruggieri, Francesco Pacchera and Gabriella Arcese
This work aims to assess the potential of a Bio-District as a model for applying the circular economy concerning the waste scope. It aims to understand the capability of organic…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to assess the potential of a Bio-District as a model for applying the circular economy concerning the waste scope. It aims to understand the capability of organic farms to manage waste with a circular perspective, starting with the use of indicators that directly or indirectly impact the waste scope.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on previous work that identified and systematised the circular indicators of the agri-food sector within a dashboard. With this research as a basis, the indicators within the waste scope in the dashboard were extracted. Cross-linked indicators with an indirect connection to the waste scope were also systematised and tested in a case study. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. The primary data came from a semi-structured interview, and the secondary data were from official databases.
Findings
The work highlights two important results. The first allows the definition of a subclassification of indicators by product and organisation, extracting those with a cross-linked characteristic concerning the waste scope. Secondly, the indicators' application shows the farm's circular and waste valorisation potential within the Bio-District. The study also made it possible to test a new indicator, the “Potential Energy Biomass Recovery”, to measure the farm's potential to produce energy from waste.
Originality/value
This research proposes a new circular economy approach to evaluate waste management in the agri-food sector.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a conceptual model that fuses institutional and resource-based theories to improve our understanding of firm internationalisation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses cross-sectional, national-level secondary data from the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute and World Economic Forum data sets on global entrepreneurship and competitiveness indices for 137 countries. The data is analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that national income, institutions, trade openness and availability of risk capital positively influenced firm internationalisation, while home-country networking had an inverse effect. However, home country infrastructure had no statistically significant effect on firm internationalisation.
Research limitations/implications
The findings highlight the importance of considering home country attributes in understanding the internationalisation of firms.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the role of local factors on the internationalisation of entrepreneurial ventures. It also tests a novel conceptual model that integrates institutional and resource-based theories to explain the nuances of the internationalisation of business ventures globally.
Details
Keywords
Gulnara Dzhenishevna Dzhunushalieva and Ramona Teuber
Food-related innovations might contribute to a qualitative leap in the transition to sustainable food systems. In this article, the authors map the existing literature on food and…
Abstract
Purpose
Food-related innovations might contribute to a qualitative leap in the transition to sustainable food systems. In this article, the authors map the existing literature on food and innovation in order to identify and systematise major research streams and relate them to current discussions on sustainability. The authors rely on a broad definition of innovation covering specific technological innovations as well as social, environmental and system innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed the relationship between innovation and food through bibliometric and content analysis, augmented with visualisation based on data (N = 7,987) extracted from the Web of Science. The published volume, research areas and influential journals were investigated using descriptive analyses.
Findings
This review categorises the literature on innovation and food into six main clusters, showing that most of the studies are carried out at the macro-level related to the global sustainable food systems. Network visualisation allowed them to distribute recent keywords associated with innovation across the agri-food value chain. Moreover, the authors identified environmental, social and economic pillars of innovation, which not only relate to sustainability but also are associated with open innovation as well as social innovation and eco-innovation.
Originality/value
This bibliometric analysis is amongst the first to examine the holistic knowledge structure surrounding a triple concept of innovation, food and sustainability. In addition, the study identifies research gaps and indicates new research directions, which add further value.
Details
Keywords
Yun-Cih Chang, Yir-Hueih Luh and Ming-Feng Hsieh
This study investigates the economic outcomes of organic farming controlling for the four major aspects of a cropping system, including climate, genotypes, management and soil…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the economic outcomes of organic farming controlling for the four major aspects of a cropping system, including climate, genotypes, management and soil. Considering possible variations in treatment responses, this study also presents empirical evidence of heterogeneous treatment effects associated with spatial agglomeration or farm covariates.
Design/methodology/approach
Rice farm households data taken from the 2015 Agriculture Census is merged with township-level seasonal weather data, crop suitability index and average income per capita in Taiwan. To address the selection bias problem, the authors apply the Probit-2SLS instrumental variable (IV) method in the binary treatment model under homogeneous and heterogeneous assumptions.
Findings
It is found that organic farming leads to a significantly positive effect on rice farms' economic performances in terms of cost reduction and profit growth. This positive treatment effect is more sizable with spatial agglomeration. Furthermore, the treatment effect of organic farming is found to vary with the farm characteristics such as farmland area and the number of hired workers.
Practical implications
Two important implications for the promotion of sustainable agri-food production are inferred: (1) establishing organic agriculture specialized zones may benefit rural development; (2) providing economic incentives to small farms to expand their scale may be a more effective policy means to promote sustainable agri-food production.
Originality/value
The findings in this study complement the body of knowledge by drawing insights from the agriculture census data and providing profound evidence of the heterogeneous outcomes of organic farming due to spatial clustering and farm covariates.
Details
Keywords
Nugun P. Jellason, Ambisisi Ambituuni, Douglas A. Adu, Joy A. Jellason, Muhammad Imran Qureshi, Abisola Olarinde and Louise Manning
We conducted a systematic review to explore the potential for the application of blockchain technologies for supply chain resilience in a small-scale agri-food business context.
Abstract
Purpose
We conducted a systematic review to explore the potential for the application of blockchain technologies for supply chain resilience in a small-scale agri-food business context.
Design/methodology/approach
As part of the research methodology, scientific databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus were used to find relevant articles for this review.
Findings
The systematic review of articles (n = 57) found that the use of blockchain technology in the small-scale agri-food business sector can reduce the risk of food fraud by assuring the provenance of food products.
Research limitations/implications
Only a few papers were directly from a small-scale agribusiness context. Key challenges that limit the implementation of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies include concerns over the disclosure of proprietary information and trade secrets, incomplete or inaccurate information, economic and technical difficulties, low levels of trust in the technology, risk of human error and poor governance of process-related issues.
Originality/value
The application of blockchain technology ensures that the risks and costs associated with non-compliance, product recalls and product loss are reduced. Improved communication and information sharing can increase resilience and better support provenance claims and traceability. Better customer relationships can be built, increasing supply chain efficiency and resilience.
Details
Keywords
The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of…
Abstract
Purpose
The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of plant-based products with data from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Design/methodology/approach
Introducing the structural topic modeling method allowed us to test theories on recall in the context of sustainable food consumption, enhancing the understanding of food recall processes. This approach helps identify latent topics of product recalls and their interwoven relationships with various stakeholders.
Findings
The results answer a standing research call for empirical investigation in a nascent food industry to identify stakeholders’ engagements for food safety crisis management for corporate social responsibility practices. This finding provides novel insights on managing threats to food safety at an industry level to extend existing antecedents and consequences of product recall at a micro level.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this empirical finding may provide insights into stakeholder management and develop evidence-based strategies to prevent threats to food safety. For public policymakers, this analysis may help identify patterns of recalls and assist guidelines and alarm systems (e.g. EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) on threats in the food supply chain.
Originality/value
Two detected clusters, such as opportunisms of market actors in the plant-based food system and food culture, from the analysis help understand corporate social responsibility and food safety in the plant-based food industry.
Details
Keywords
W. Madushan Fernando, H. Niles Perera, R.M. Chandima Ratnayake and Amila Thibbotuwawa
This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Among the tea producers, smallholder tea producers account for a substantial portion of total tea production in several countries. Mobile phones play a significant role in providing smallholder producers with access to crucial agricultural information, markets and financial services.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a deductive approach, analysing mobile phone ownership, literacy, experience and perception among smallholder tea producers. The chi-squared test of independence and hierarchical clustering methods were used to test the hypotheses and address the research questions.
Findings
The study identifies four clusters of smallholder tea producers as Basic Tech Adopters, Digital Laggards, Skeptical Feature Phone Users and Tech-savvy Adopters based on their characteristics towards mobile-based technologies. Approximately 75% of the surveyed sample, which included both tech-savvy and basic-tech adopters, showed a positive attitude toward adopting mobile-based agricultural technologies.
Practical implications
The study suggests developing targeted strategies and policies to enhance the productivity of the smallholder tea production process in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of awareness, access, affordability and availability when implementing digital services for businesses at the base of the pyramid, such as tea smallholdings in developing economies.
Originality/value
The present study aims to address the lack of data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings. The findings of this study enable the enhancement of entrepreneurship within the tea production supply chain, especially, within stakeholders who deliver digital transformation support services.
Details
Keywords
Michel Tavares Quinteiro Milcent Assis, Maria Raquel David Pereira Ventura Lucas and Maria Matos Rainho
The purpose of this work is to study the relationships of trust in a local agri-food supply chain in Southern Brazil. In an unsustainable context, where the number of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to study the relationships of trust in a local agri-food supply chain in Southern Brazil. In an unsustainable context, where the number of mariculturists is decreasing, the authors seek to identify what the factors are and how they contribute to this problem, as well as find solutions aimed at the sustainability of that chain.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carried out qualitative research with 15 semi-structured interviews that took place in the year 2021. The thematic analysis of the results applied the IRAMUTEQ software and the assessment of the narratives was guided by prior thematic analysis.
Findings
The supply chain under investigation requires better organisation. Communication and interpersonal trust proved important in the relationship between producers and control bodies. The university, as a seed supplier, needs predictability and efficiency to convey inter-organisational trust. Informal relationships are interpersonal and extremely trust-based and inter-organisational trust increases the performance of establishments and promotes the development of innovative structures. Furthermore, in crisis periods interpersonal trust increases.
Practical implications
The results allow policymakers to plan better their actions and build more effective tactics in order to reach sustainable development. This work is also important for stakeholders and managers, as it guides improvements in management, governance and sustainability of agri-food supply chains.
Originality/value
An unprecedented research was done on the studied supply chain, knowing the relationships of trust among them, identifying peculiar partnerships and recognising some constructs and outcomes of trust.
Details