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Traceability of food is of paramount importance to the increasingly sustainability-conscious consumers. Several tracking and tracing systems have been developed in the AgriFood sector in order to prove to the consumers the origins and processing of food products. Critical challenges in realizing food's traceability include cooperating with multiple actors on common data sharing standards and data models.

This research applies a design science approach to showcase traceability that includes preharvest activities and conditions in a case study. The authors demonstrate how existing data sharing standards can be applied in combination with new data models suitable for capturing transparency information about plant production.

Together with existing studies on farm-to-fork transparency, our results demonstrate how to realize transparency from field to fork and enable producers to show a complete bill of sustainability.

The existing standards and data models address transparency challenges in AgriFood chains from the moment of harvest up to retail (farm-to-fork) relatively well, but not what happens before harvest. In order to address sustainability concerns, there is a need to collect data about production activities related to product quality and sustainability before harvesting and share it downstream the supply chain. The ability to gather data on sustainability practices such as reducing pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer and water use are crucial requirements for producers to market their produce as quality and sustainable products.

This paper aims to report research into emergent supply chain management (SCM) practices in a context in which the imperative for business development requires efficient inter-firm collaboration. It explores the way key supply chain (SC) actors perceive entrepreneurial opportunities and evaluates their SC processes.

A whole chain approach, using qualitative methods, was used to investigate retail, wholesale and production links, with a special focus on small businesses which predominate in the agrifood sector. The methodology used is of vital importance to understand the complexity of the sector and the interdependencies among stakeholders.

Results suggest several SC malfunctions originating in diverse strategic planning practices and different entrepreneurial mentalities which hinder the process of emergence from traditional to more modern chain configurations. The fact that the nature of new opportunities in the agrifood sector (e.g. organics) was poorly understood, obstructs further development of the agrifood sector. Other key findings suggest problematic flows of information within the SC and minimal trust among stakeholders.

Sampling constraints suggest that caution should be exercised in extrapolating these conclusions elsewhere. Nonetheless, further investigation using similar approach should be applied in a wider context not only in Greece but also in other similar economies characterized by nascent SCs.

The study investigates the entire SC of a vital sector for numerous small- and medium-sized enterprises, with lessons for diverse emerging agribusiness economies. Insights, not only for the direct SC stakeholders but also for policymakers, could serve to unlock the potential of such sectors and also the exploitation of new opportunities in emerging markets which can be stifled by stagnant sectoral structures and conservative business attitudes.

Intellectual capital (IC) has been shown to play a crucial role in promoting competitive success among cooperatives as well as in other types of organizations. However, cooperatives are rarely included in this line of research. This paper aims to analyze how IC in agrifood cooperatives influences their prominence by fostering responsible research and innovation (RRI), reputation and performance.

A theoretical model was developed based on a literature review, and a quantitative study was conducted, including a representative sample of the current most prominent Spanish agrifood cooperatives. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the validity of constructs, path relationships and recent advances in the predictive model assessment.

This study’s findings show the specific role of human capital (HC) for enhancing social and structural capital in cooperatives. It was concluded that there is a need to revise and reconsider the role-played by IC in the cooperative movement.

The main practical contribution is to offer a specific vision of IC for agrifood cooperatives in order to maximize their market prominence. Since the study was conducted in Spain and based on a cross-sectional research approach, even though the new methodological tool partial least squares (PLS) predict was used, the authors cannot affirm whether IC will have the long-term expected effects as assumed in this research and in all contexts of the agrifood industry.

This is the first empirical study that has examined IC in agrifood cooperatives in Spain, with attention focused on the role of HC as a predictor of market success.

Much has been written on the effect of fast-moving business environments on organizational and supply chain (SC) management. Yet, empirical findings on the effect of changing external and internal contingencies on today’s globalized agrifood SC networks and performance are still fragmented into different organizational instruments, with some conflicting results remaining unexplained. This study aims to address these deficiencies by providing a comprehensive research framework to investigate how SC external and internal contingencies jointly influence organizational SC network structures and agrifood performance across mutually dependent tiers.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the so-called “contingency–netchain–performance” framework, based on contingent resource-based theory and the netchain approach, was empirically tested on data obtained from a standardized survey of 405 artisanal producers and 238 processors in the Nigerian shrimp sector.

The results provide statistical evidence that supports the path dependency of firm performance from the interplay of vertical, horizontal and lateral relationships and, primordially, from both external and internal contingencies. The findings show that the contingency paradigm of fit among small-scale food producers and processors cuts across tiers and uncover a tendency to adopt relational governance and tighter network structures that result in an organic organization as the best-fitting structure.

The paper presents a new research framework that offers comprehensive empirical explanations for the joint influence of SC external and internal contingencies on organizational SC network structures and performance across mutually dependent agrifood tiers. This study’s conceptual, practical and policy implications for SC management provide a nascent and flexible basis on which to identify the best-fitting organizational strategies that maximize firm performance across agrifood SC tiers characterized by changing business environments.

This study examines how accounting tools and techniques are used to create and support membership and reporting boundaries for a multi-entity sustainability scheme. It also considers whether boundary setting for this initiative helps to connect corporate activity with planetary boundaries and the SDGs.

A case study of a national agrifood sustainability scheme, analysing extensive documentary data and multi-entity sustainability reports. The concept of partial organising is used to frame the analysis.

Accounting, in the form of planning, verification, target setting, annual review and reporting, can be used to create a membership and a reporting boundary. Accounting tools and techniques support the scheme's standard-setting and monitoring elements. The study demonstrates that the scheme offers innovation in how sustainability reporting is managed. However, it does not currently provide a cumulative assessment of the effect of the sector's activity on ecological carrying capacity or connect this activity to global sustainability indicators.

Future research can build on this study's insights to further develop our understanding of multi-entity sustainability reporting and accounting's role in organising for sustainability. The authors identify several research avenues including: boundary setting in ecologically significant sectors, integrating global sustainability indicators at sectoral and organisational levels, sustainability controls in multi-entity settings and the potential of multi-entity reporting to provide substantive disclosure.

This paper provides insight into accounting's role in boundary setting for a multi-entity sustainability initiative. It adds to our understanding of the potential of a multi-entity reporting boundary to support connected measurement between corporate activity and global sustainability indicators. It builds on work on partial organising and provides insight into how accounting can support this form of organising for sustainability.

As an important form of the e-commerce industry, online group buying is under the spotlight from with two sides: cheaper price but longer waiting time. The purpose of this paper is to adequately investigate the interaction between saving and waiting time of group buying comprehensively.

To fill the research gap, the authors elaborate a dual-channel supply chain (SC) with regular retail (individual buying) and group-buying channel, and formulate the demand based on the consumer utility with the positive effect of saving money and the negative effect of wasting time.

The authors find that power structure only changes the optimal prices, instead of the waiting time. The selling price mainly influences consumer demands, instead of the price discount of group buying. The SC profits are only positive to the channel preference, and it is the decisive parameter of consumers' choice. The price sensitivity lays a more remarkable impact on the SC compared to the time sensitivity. Above all, the price is the main factor of group buying, instead of time.

These results underscore the improvement for the dual-channel SC of group buying, providing managerial insights for the group-buying industry.

The cold supply chain industry is still emerging and digital transformation is in the nascent stage in this industry. This paper argues that there are various barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain and aims to develop and validate a model for overcoming key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain.

The adoption of blockchain technology was proposed through interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and further it is validated using structural equation modeling (SEM).

In this study, ten key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain were identified, modelled and analysed. Poor leadership style of top management was found to be the most important barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain. The results of SEM indicate that all the paths are supported. The findings showcase the barriers responsible for the lack of blockchain technology infrastructure that ultimately impacts the cold supply chains.

This study highlights the fact that the fate of blockchain technology infrastructure development depends on the leadership style of top management. Demonstrating good leadership style by top management can help overcome the barriers. A good leader pulls the entire team instead of pushing the team. A good leader can guide the entire team to improve IT governance, financial investment, digital footprint, digital readiness, skills and collaboration with service providers to implement blockchain technology. Not only that, a good leader provides mental strength to the team and helps overcome the fear of implementing blockchain in the cold supply chain. A good leader demonstrates good administrative skills and focus on security and privacy policies.

This is a novel contribution towards analysing the key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the South African cold supply chain using the integrated ISM–MICMAC and SEM approach.

Despite several contributions to greenhouse gas emission and carbon footprint reduction, the literature lacks empirical insights into the business impact of climate risks, when they materialize, and techniques to manage them. This study aims to devise a model delving into critical climate risks and the role of consortia and social capital to mitigate these risks.

A mixed-methods approach was used, including qualitative and quantitative data from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an Australian agrifood supply chain (AFSC).

The qualitative analysis uncovers four critical climate risks and a repertoire of relational, structural, and cognitive social capital accrued by SMEs of AFSC through consortia. The quantitative analysis corroborates that the SMEs that accumulate higher social capital through active engagement within consortia are able to respond more effectively to climate risks than to others. The authors, therefore, find that climate risk mitigation in SMEs is the function of both association (consortia) membership and the accrual of higher social capital through active involvement and collaboration within networks.

This is the first study in using a moderated-moderation model that simultaneously investigates the business impact of climate risks and how the moderating impact of consortia (a primary moderator) is further moderated by social capital (a secondary moderator) in explaining SMEs performance. The paper addresses the lack of adequate empirical research, particularly mixed-methods, in supply chain risk management literature.

This research aims to provide a predictive model assessment on the effect of information sharing on fresh produce supply chain (FPSC) performance during the COVID-19 pandemic by incorporating information quality as an important part of information sharing, as well as cognitive and affective appraisals as part of a social learning process (mediators) into the model.

An online survey was conducted on 197 small fresh produce (fruits and vegetables) retailers in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) particularly PLSpredict supported by SmartPLS 4 software.

This research reveals that information sharing is positively and significantly associated with information quality and that the two constructs are not directly associated with FPSC performance. The path analysis suggests that the effect of information sharing on FPSC performance is fully mediated by cognitive and affective appraisals to the information-sharing activity. It also suggests that the effect of information quality on FPSC performance is fully mediated by affective rather than cognitive appraisal. This model shows a high predictive power and highlights the pivotal role of the learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research is the first to employ a predictive model assessment in PLS-SEM to empirically predict the effect of information sharing on FPSC performance using a social learning perspective, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

India's agri-food industry is rapidly expanding to keep up with the country's growing population. With the help of the fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), modernization is creating a new revolution in the agri-food sector. Its applications in the food supply chain as a supply chain 4.0 (SC 4.0) have made it convenient to deliver products efficiently from farms to consumers. The various technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics and blockchain, etc., have impacted emerging supply chains. But many challenges are perceived by stakeholders toward the adoption of SC 4.0 technologies in India. The authors identified the challenges of adopting SC 4.0 for the agri-food sector and used the Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) tool to analyze those challenges. Based on literature research, nine major issues were diagnosed and then simulated using expert opinion. Primary data were also gathered with the help of a questionnaire to identify the status of acceptance level of these technologies. This study highlights the importance of government support, availability of sources of funds, customer orientation toward food safety, the commitment of management toward modernization, aware and well trained and motivated employees are a few of the major factors impacting the adoption of SC 4.0 technologies.