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This paper investigates strategies for addressing the global challenge of food loss and waste (FLW) within the food industry. It examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and state regulatory interventions for reducing FLW.

This mixed method study utilizes a unique panel dataset which includes the 150 largest food industry companies in Italy, Norway and the UK. It combines quantitative data analysis with qualitative insights derived from corporate strategies and corporate communications.

The analysis reveals that food companies with an established CSR strategy and in particular companies whose CSR reports highlight their environmental and social achievements are more likely to achieve in effective FLW reduction. Additionally, national-level regulatory interventions guided by European Union waste strategies act as pivotal benchmarks and encourage stricter corporate food waste management policies.

This research underscores the significance of CSR strategies and effective state regulation in the fight against FLW and offers policymakers and businesses valuable insights enabling development of robust strategies.

By emphasizing the interplay between CSR and regulatory intervention, this research contributes to the achievement of a more sustainable and efficient global food system that addresses both economic and ethical concerns and could have far-reaching societal and environmental implications.

The paper sheds light on the interplay between CSR initiatives and regulatory interventions for tackling FLW and emphasizes their synergistic impact on sustainable practices within the food industry.

Since previous literature provides fragmented and conflicting results about the use of digital data for product innovation, the article aims to comprehensively explore and shed light on how agri-food firms utilise external and internal digital data sources when dealing with different product innovations, such as incremental, architecture and radical innovation.

This paper adopts an exploratory multiple-case study and a theory-building process, focussing on the agri-food industry. We collected primary and secondary data from eight manufacturing companies.

The findings of this research show an empirical framework of six agri-food firms’ digital data utilisation behaviours: the supervisor, the passive supervisor, the developer, the passive developer, the pathfinder and the conjunction behaviour. These digital data utilisation behaviours vary according to a combination of data sources, such as internal data related to inside phenomenon measures (e.g. data generated by sensors installed in the production plan) or external data (e.g., market trends, overall sector sales), and innovation purposes.

This article offers guiding principles that assist agri-food companies when utilising internal and external digital data sources for specific product innovation outcomes such as incremental, architectural and radical innovation.

The significance of external and internal data sources in stimulating product innovation has garnered substantial attention within academic discussions, highlighting the critical importance of analysing digital data for driving such innovation. Nonetheless, the predominant approach is to study a single innovation outcome through the lens of digital technology. In contrast, our study stands out by adopting a fundamental perspective on data sources, enabling a more nuanced explanation of the overall product innovation outcomes within the agri-food sector.

Online food delivery service has evolved swiftly and stretched the bounds of the catering business. In the gig economy, being a food delivery rider draws employees with the promise of flexibility and independence. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to explore the main themes shared in online reviews by food delivery riders and which of these themes are linked to positive and negative ratings.

The authors used 729 employee reviews posted on the Glassdoor website. In addition, they used content analysis to examine reviews of Uber Eats online food ordering company shared by food delivery riders on an online platform.

The results of this study include seven main themes: “earning,” “customers,” “orders,” “tips,” “car,” “flexible schedule” and “app” (navigation). Positive concepts are associated with “earning,” “orders,” “tips” and “flexible schedule.” Negative themes are linked to the “app” (navigation), “car” and “customers.”

Management should consider online reviews as employees’ opinions and voices. Specifically, management should provide financial support to employees for car maintenance, offer insurance for income stability and arrange training programs to enable them to use several tip-enhancing behaviors.

No research has been conducted using online reviews from an employment search engine to investigate employees’ experiences of online food delivery. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts using user-generated content from an employment search engine to explore employees’ experiences.

Circular supply chain management (CSCM) is considered a promising solution to attain sustainability in the current industrial system. Despite the exigency of this approach, its application in the food industry is a challenge because of the nature of the industry and CSCM being a novel approach. The purpose of this study is to develop an industry-based systematic analysis of CSCM by examining the challenges for its application, exploring the effects of recognised challenges on various food supply chain (FSC) stages and investigating the business processes as drivers.

Stakeholder theory guided the need to consider stakeholders’ views in this research and key stakeholders directly from the food circular supply chain were identified and interviewed (n = 36) following qualitative methods.

Overall, the study reveals that knowledge, perception towards environmental initiatives and economic viability are the major barriers to circular supply chain transition in the UK FSC.

This research provides a holistic perspective analysing the loopholes in different stages of the supply chain and investigating the way a particular circular supply chain stage is affected by recognised challenges through stakeholder theory, which will be a contribution to designing management-level strategies. Reconceptualising this practice would be beneficial in bringing three-tier (economic, environmental and social) benefits and will be supportive to engage stakeholders in the sustainability agenda.

The purpose of this study is to present a methodical procedure on how to prepare event logs and analyse them through process mining, statistics and visualisations. The aim is to derive roots and patterns of quality deviations and non-conforming finished products as well as best practice facilitating employee training in the food processing industry. Thereby, a key focus is on recognising tacit knowledge hidden in event logs to improve quality processes.

This study applied process mining to detect root causes of quality deviations in operational process of food production. In addition, a data-ecosystem was developed which illustrates a continuous improvement feedback loop and serves as a role model for other applications in the food processing industry. The approach was applied to a real-case study in the processed cheese industry.

The findings revealed practical and conceptional contributions which can be used to continuously improve quality management (QM) in food processing. Thereby, the developed data-ecosystem supports production and QM in the decision-making processes. The findings of the analysis are a valuable basis to enhance operational processes, aiming to prevent quality deviations and non-conforming finished products.

Process mining is still rarely used in the food industry. Thereby, the proposed method helps to identify tacit knowledge in the food processing industry, which was shown by the framework for the preparation of event logs and the data ecosystem.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain service quality (halal values, assurance, meal quality, reliability, security, system and traceability) and perceived risks (financial, quality, environment, social, time, psychology and health) and its influence on satisfaction, as well as trust concerning online halal food delivery system (OHFDS).

This study uses quantitative methodology, through an online survey, by using purposive sampling across a sample size of 423 respondents. The analysis of data was conducted using SmartPLS.

The results of the findings indicate that assurance and halal values have an influence on satisfaction, as well as trust; nonetheless, only reliability has an impact on satisfaction. On the other hand, perceived health and financial risks have negative influence on trust and satisfaction toward OHFDS. In addition, perceived psychological and financial risks are found to have negative impacts on trust of OHFDS.

The theoretical value of this study is the testing of perceived service quality and risks concerning OHFDS in the same model, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of its impact on trust and satisfaction toward the online food service delivery industry. The results of this study may appear as a starting point for researchers who wish to conduct further studies on the same topic.

This study suggests that the service providers need to boost their efforts in establishing high quality service and, simultaneously, reduce perceived risks, to develop satisfaction and trust toward OHFDS.

The long-term consequence of the business's achievement is that it makes it simpler for customers to have confidence in, be satisfied with and recommend the service providers to others.

A number of research investigations have been conducted among Muslims, specifically in the Asian region, which have yielded crucial data regarding consumer behavior toward halal products, such as food and tourism. This study, nonetheless, remains close with other studies on halal food, except that it adds together the knowledge of perceived quality and risks, as to gain a deeper understanding of the experience customers have on food, through online service delivery.

The present research investigates the effects of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies (ADT) on the Pakistani food sector’s sustainable performance (SP). Specifically, it focuses on the roles of green supply chain collaboration (GSCC), circular economy practices (CEP) and technological readiness (TR) as mediators and environmental dynamism (EDY) as a moderator.

This study is based on the natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory to determine the 14.0 adoption toward sustainable performance with mediators and moderators. The authors conducted an online questionnaire from 318 employees of the food manufacturing industries in Lahore, Pakistan, and applied the PLS-SEM approach to test the relationships of variables.

The findings of this study reveal that adopting Industry 4.0 technologies significantly influences sustainable performance through GSCC, CEP and TR in the Pakistani food sector. Moreover, the relation between industry 4.0 technologies, GSCC, CEP and TR is positively moderated by environmental dynamism.

The findings have marked implications for the literature on adopting I4.0 on sustainable performance in the Pakistani food sector. This research is based on data collected from a single country, and industry is the limitation of this study.

The present study provides conclusive evidence of the influence of the adoption of Industry 4.0 on sustainable performance through GSCC, CEP and TR in the Pakistani food sector. This study is the first to investigate the moderating role of environmental dynamism among industry 4.0 technologies, GSCC, CEP and TR.

This paper aims to examine the influence of supply chain management by assessing the relationship between internal and external integration and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) owners’ Islamic practices in enhancing halal supply chain integrity (HSCI) and SMEs’ performance.

A total of 176 SMEs were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample was selected using convenience sampling from two major halal exhibition events in Malaysia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The findings showed that supply chain integration (SCI), Islamic human capital and HSCI have a significant relationship with SMEs’ performance. It was also found that HSCI mediated the relationship between both SCI and Islamic human capital and SMEs’ performance.

SME owners or managers should be committed to developing the internal processes within the organization and strategizing to link these processes with the external processes to obtain the full benefits of integration. Furthermore, as the upper management, owners and managers must understand the supply chain challenges, priorities and practices thoroughly, as they are responsible for Islamic business ethics. They should work to provide support to increase religious orientation in the SMEs, as this would likely enhance all other factors.

This is one of the few types of research to use HSCI as a mediator in halal food studies in addition to improving SMEs’ performance.

At the end of the case study exercise, students will be able to evaluate a company’s competitive standing and formulate business growth strategies based on internal and external environment analysis, develop business strategies for a company to strategise product offerings and recommend promotional strategies for a company to best market new product offerings.

This case study is about the Central Production Unit (CPU), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirah Heritage Holdings Sdn. Bhd. (owner of the popular restaurant brand “Tuuu […] Dia Pak Tam”), which was initially set up to standardise production for the whole company. However, ever since the subsidiary was set up, the management realised a few pertinent issues that needed their attention. Firstly, the CPU was underutilised even with the large number of Tuuu […] Dia Pak Tam restaurants across Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, the CPU was also tasked to introduce new products and services that could attract consumers and increase the visibility of their restaurants, but the company had no idea how to promote its new products. This study aims to look at the issues faced by the CPU by applying analytical tools such as SWOT analysis, Ansoff matrix and promotion mix.

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students who are taking courses such as strategic management, marketing management and business development. This case study can also be used by training departments, corporate trainers and other relevant managers to improve growth strategies using business theories.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing

The research methodology used for this case study follows a comprehensive approach, combining both primary and secondary sources to ensure a well-rounded understanding of the subject. Primary sources include in-depth interviews with the founders of the company, providing valuable firsthand insights into their experiences and decision-making processes. Multiple company visits were also conducted, enabling a closer examination of the operational aspects and allowing for a more holistic perspective on the case. Complementing these primary sources, secondary sources were used, consisting of a diverse array of articles from leading journals, newspapers, magazines and other reputable sources. These secondary sources offer a broader context and perspective, enriching the case study’s content and ensuring a robust foundation for classroom discussion and analysis.

True Elements was a clean health food brand that emerged from the vision of Mr Sreejith Moolayil and co-founder, Mr Puru Gupta, who recognized the potential of promoting healthy foods in India inspired by the health-conscious lifestyle that they observed during their work tenure in China. The co-founders began their entrepreneurial journey in 2011 with “Healthy World” kiosks inside IT company campuses in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. However, early challenges surfaced as the target market narrowed. Undeterred, the founders sought innovative solutions to expand their reach and created “True Elements” – a brand that resonated with health-conscious consumers given its positioning as a clean and minimally processed food brand devoid of chemicals, preservatives and added sugars. True Elements excelled in the online market and catered to a few offline markets. To sustain and augment their success, the entrepreneurs sought a strategic partnership and succeeded with Marico Ltd. However, challenges remained on the horizon. One was the need to appeal to a new target group: the 25–45 age group with a lower monthly income of INR 30,000. Another pressing question was exploring the entry into the modern trade sector.

This case can be taught in undergraduate and post-graduate business management programs for marketing, strategy and innovation and entrepreneurship related courses. Apart from that, this case can also be discussed in incubator programs as cases highlighting entrepreneurship can facilitate discussions among early-stage founders, providing practical insights and lessons for their ventures. This case also can be discussed very effectively in management classes for working executives.