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The purpose of this paper is to show that a proactive sourcing strategy can be just as important as a proactive marketing strategy in achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

The paper reports on action research carried out in the UK beef industry, with a focus on the food service supply chain. The methodology is inductive and qualitative, using a multi‐case, multi‐site approach. The supply chains presented in the case were analysed from farm gate to consumer, interviewing multiple participants at each stage of the supply chain.

This study offers some partial support for configuration‐based approaches. However, the case also raises some doubts about the validity of configuration thinking, as it is not the complexity or ambiguity of the relationships that is key in the case, but the fact that brand ownership and contracts create property rights for their owner that create a relatively permanent power resource for Pioneer, the case study company, in its market struggle with its customers and competitors. This interpretation supports the power and property rights views of strategic management rather than the configuration approach.

The research is based upon in‐depth knowledge of the UK beef and red meat industry. It would be beneficial if further in‐depth studies could be undertaken in other agri‐food supply chains to further validate the findings.

Although the focus of this article has been upon choosing appropriate sourcing strategies, the case study has also illustrated the importance for business managers of linking this sourcing strategy with a firm's marketing, and more specifically its branding strategy.

The paper analyses the key differences in demand, supply and power and leverage characteristics in the food service beef supply chain to highlight the need for government agencies, think‐tanks and industry participants to have a more robust understanding of industries before advocating the adoption of any one approach for all UK agri‐food supply chains. This paper should be of value to researchers in this area and to managers responsible for strategy formation in UK agri‐food supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze supply chain practices, and supply chain food quality performance indicator in the Australian beef processing industry.

A conceptual model was developed to test how supply chain practices: strategic alliance, customer focus, information sharing, information quality, Lean system and antecedent cooperative behavior: trust and commitment impact on food quality. A survey questionnaire to 600 Australian beef processors was conducted to collect the empirical data for testing of the formulated hypotheses. The stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesized relationships.

Strategic alliance, information quality and trust and commitment are significantly related to food quality. In particular, the standardized coefficient shows that information quality has a significant positive relationship with food quality.

As Lean principles have been widely adopted in the red meat industry, strategic alliance becomes even critical for maintaining cost and operation effectiveness in the beef supply chain. A various approaches in terms of innovative technologies can improve information quality and promote information sharing in the beef supply chain. To build trust and commitment among supply chain partners requires perception of mutual long-term goals.

Australian Meat Manufacturers face greater regulatory challenges and restraints (product labeling, food safety and carbon tax) over the next five years. Therefore, to tackle the challenges, the findings of this research have significant practical implications.

This study intends to fill the research gap and explore how advanced supply chain systems have a potential to provide contributions to Australian beef processing industry performance. Vertical integration between livestock producers, meat processors, wholesalers and retailers provides the opportunities for greater economies of scale in production and distribution.

The flow of the Sino-Brazilian frozen beef trade has intensified. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to characterize the supply chain structure, and identify its major fragilities.

Supply chain mapping was conducted based on the existing literature and primary data collection. Key stakeholders were detected and questioned through semi-structured interviews, which were later interpreted with content analysis.

The results reveal a low degree of chain coordination from the Brazilian farm to the Chinese consumer, arising from an immature traceability mechanism, a limited flow of reliable information between the segments, and low trust between the stakeholders.

The infancy of the beef trade, the paucity of literature on the topic, and restricted accessibility to key governmental and official materials imposes limits on the available information. Language and cultural barriers might have also impacted the interviewees’ responses. However, the participation of Brazilian and Chinese academics in both the interview analysis and chain mapping mitigates these shortcomings.

The Brazilian public and private sectors need to establish a reliable traceability system and information platform. This, together with investments in marketing and branding, would facilitate differential responses among traders and consumers, and, hence, improve supply chain sustainability.

By adopting an inter-country approach and directly sourcing views from specific key figures in the supply chain this study offers some unique insights and contributes to the literature on the emergence of a multi-polar global food trade.

Supply chain governance constitutes the rules, structures and institutions that guide supply chains toward various objectives, including environmental sustainability. Previous studies have provided insight into the relationship between governance and sustainability but have overlooked two crucial dimensions: power dynamics and the influence of outside actors. This paper aims to address these two gaps by measuring differential power (i.e. power asymmetries) among actors across the supply chain, including external actors.

This paper quantifies power dynamics across the entire chain through a structured survey in which supply chain participants rank their peer’s ability to affect environmental and social outcomes. This paper tests this approach by surveying 200 industry professionals (e.g. feedlot owners, retailers) and external actors (e.g. NGOs) in the US beef sector.

Respondents ranked the most powerful actors as follows: feedlot owners; processing plant owners; and regulatory agencies. Results also revealed that trade associations, retailers and cow–calf producers and ranchers perceive a sense of powerlessness. This study reveals multiple power nodes and confirms a shift in the power structure depending on which indicator respondents considered (e.g. environmental impacts vs employee safety). This study concludes that the buyer–producer dichotomy often used to assess supply chain governance fails to capture the complex dynamics among actors within supply chains.

This study demonstrates a novel approach to measure perceptions of power in supply chains. This method enables researchers to map networks of power across entire supply chains, including internal and external actors, to advance understanding of supply chain governance dynamics. Previous studies have misidentified who governs environmental outcomes in supply chains, and NGOs have overestimated the power of consumers and retailers to influence producers.

This paper aims to assess the findings of a research project that investigates the scope for lean strategies to be adopted in beef, lamb and pig supply chains.

The paper reports on action research carried out in three red meat supply chains. The methodology is inductive and qualitative, using a multi‐case, multi‐site approach. Each of the supply chains was analysed from farm gate to consumer, interviewing multiple participants at each stage of the supply chain.

The analysis demonstrates that, although a lean approach has been introduced in the pig supply chain, it is much more problematic in beef and lamb supply chains. Furthermore, the majority of participants in the UK pig supply chain – the first to adopt lean strategies – have not received the commercial improvement (the “stairway to heaven” of higher returns) that was anticipated. On the contrary, the majority of participants in this supply chain are experiencing a strategic “treadmill to oblivion” of continuous lean operational efficiency, but with low commercial returns.

The research is based upon three red meat supply chains – beef, lamb and pig. It would be beneficial if further in‐depth studies could be undertaken in other agri‐food supply chains to further validate the findings.

If government agencies and/or multiple retailers develop lean strategies in UK beef and lamb supply chains, it is not at all clear that this will benefit all parties in these chains. This raises important questions about the efficacy and appropriateness of lean strategies in supply chains that do not have the same demand, supply and power and leverage characteristics as those in which lean principles were first developed.

This paper should be of value to researchers in this area and to managers responsible for strategy formation in UK agri‐food supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an emergent supply chain management system that supports a sustainable values based organization (VBO) using a structuration theory‐based framework.

A case study of a sustainable beef cooperative employing a structuration theory framework provides insights into sustainable supply chain management models.

The supply chain design and management afford the key to the VBO's success. In order to attain the necessary price premium, the unique product attributes acquired through the natural beef production process must be sustained along the entire supply chain and communicated to the end customer. Structuration theory is useful in understanding supply chain management in VBOs.

The paper has implications for studying VBOs, particularly those prioritizing sustainability values. The descriptive model presented is useful in settings where organizational structure and the supply chain are needed to support sustainable products and processes and whose success is facilitated by establishing strategic partners, especially those that make possible economies of scale. The study is limited to one, privately owned firm, operating in a specialty industry sector.

The paper has implications for those entities with an identified values set that endows the product with unique characteristics that must be conveyed to their end consumer in order to command a price premium and/or differentiate the product from a commodity. The case study provides an example of how a unique product as well as a facilitating organizational structure and supply chain emerge out of the application of a set of core values.

Little previous research focuses on implications of supply chain management in VBOs. In addition, the paper contributes to both the supply chain management and sustainability literature by relating supply chain management to a more comprehensive sustainability agenda including social, environmental, and long‐term economic sustainability and by a theoretically based structuring.

The purpose of this paper is to present an economic evaluation of Uruguay’s beef industry competitiveness to quantify the effects of public policies (taxes, subsidies, social charges) on the various links constituting the beef export chain and estimate the impact of transfers of resources between the beef industry and other sectors of the economy.

The Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) techniques were employed to quantify the effects of public policies on the competitiveness of Uruguay’s beef industry. A series of PAM coefficients were calculated to assess the competitiveness of the beef export chain in 2010 and 2013 with comparison between the two years to make policy recommendations.

Beef sector returns captured by private agents decreased from 30 percent in 2010 to 10 percent in 2013. Competitiveness of the beef export chain deteriorated between 2010 and 2013 due primarily to higher prices paid for live cattle by the beef slaughtering, manufacturing, and packing sector. Uruguay’s beef industry transfers resources to the larger economy via social security payments and is penalized as a result of high capital costs.

Although three different sources of resource transfers were identified, more effort is needed to improve the precision of estimations.

The competitiveness of export chains is critical to the economic and social wellbeing of small-economy countries. They must be efficient producing for the international markets at the time they constitute pillars of the whole economy.

The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated modelling framework that links management action to supply chain processes and then to competitive advantage.

Using survey responses about supply chain management in the Australian beef processing industry, regression analysis was used to develop a model simultaneously explaining the links from management action to supply chain processes and on to competitive advantage.

A relatively simple regression model was established that should be widely applicable in agri‐food processing industries. In the context of our example industry, the results suggest that there is a strong link from some supply chain practices to competitive advantage, with trust and information quality being important drivers of the process.

Being based on a survey approach, a limitation is that that the results show managers' perceived influences on supply chain performance, not the influences observed by the researchers.

The regression method provides an easy way of summarising the links between supply chain practices and competitive advantage. This method may be generally applicable across agri‐food industries, particularly those with many small and medium‐size food enterprises.

This research provides a new method of integrating various aspects of supply chain management and competitive advantage. The method has the great advantage of parsimony.

Prior to the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, detailed information on beef products seemed no real necessity. However, following the outbreak of BSE, the Government felt obliged to protect consumer interest with legislation. Obligatory product information became required for beef traceability. This paper describes how the emergence of beef product information became relevant against the background of BSE. The paper describes the beef sector over time, through two case studies. From both studies, the emergence of product information exchange can be clearly noted. The first study describes the type of information exchanged, before the BSE outbreak. The second study describes the type of information exchanged after the BSE outbreak, prior to compulsory labelling.

A highly‐fragmented UK beef industry today faces large, powerful retailers, potentially giving rise to mistrust and lack of common purpose. Consumer confidence in beef has been undermined by BSE and similar crises. The beef supply chain has responded with a number of initiatives designed to improve the quality and marketing of the product, and Government has put in place risk management controls. This paper uses ISO 9001:2000 as an audit frame to assess quality assurance for beef in Scotland, focusing specifically on supply chain integration and integrity of product specification. Identification of responsibilities for quality within the chain, standard setting and audit are also highlighted.