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The aim of the paper is to investigate the determinants leading firms to choose among different voluntary standards within food supply chains. In specific, the authors explored the role of transaction risks, i.e. internal and exogenous risks, in the adoption of different traceability standards.

A survey was conducted within the Italian population of 216 food-processing firms that adopt voluntary traceability schemes. The identification of different transaction risks was based on the literature on supply chain management and transaction cost economics. An ordinal regression model was used in the analysis.

Empirical results highlight that the transaction risks perceived by food firms play a significant role on the kind of traceability schemes to adopt. There is a positive link between internal risks and the decision to implement complex schemes. Moreover, a negative relationship between the perceived exogenous risks and the complexity of the standard adopted is also observed. Exogenous transaction risk lead to the implementation of standards which do not imply strong co-ordination. On the contrary, internal risks imply complex schemes that lead to closer supply chain relationships.

The analysis is limited to cross-sectional data for a single country, and further investigation would help assess the generalisation of the findings.

The analysis can be considered a useful framework to orient firms strategic decisions towards the most appropriate voluntary standard to adopt for an efficient management of vertical relationships within food supply chains.

The present analysis is the first attempt to explain the determinants leading firms to choose among different kinds of voluntary standards within food supply chains. The approach used reveals that transaction risks can be considered a useful framework to explain firms’ strategic decisions related to the kind of schemes to adopt.

The objective of this study is to identify firms with a greater propensity to establish interorganisational relationships, as well as which value‐chain activities are affected by these relationships in the Canary Islands' food industry.

The firms are grouped into large firms and small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), given the different resource endowments and dependencies of these two groups. Differences in the degree of flexibility or rigidity of their interorganisational relationships and in the activities affected by these relationships were expected. The fieldwork used a survey of the managers of a representative sample of 201 food firms, and univariate analysis statistical techniques were used to handle the data.

The paper finds that only 53 sample firms have developed interorganisational relationships, and 62.5 per cent of these are large firms. The flexible interorganisational link predominates. With regard to the value‐chain activities affected by these relationships, the most prominent are distribution and supplies, although size only has a statistically significant relation with some support activities.

The small proportion of food firms that have carried out interorganisational links in the Canaries means that the findings obtained cannot be entirely generalisable to the rest of the firms in the sector.

Most studies of the food industry take a macroeconomic approach, and research taking a strategic and interorganisational perspective is scarce.

This type of study centring on this particular strategic behaviour has not been carried out before in the Canary Islands.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the productivity of parent firms over the food industry.

The main data in this paper are derived from the China Industrial Enterprise Database 2005–2013 and a data set of Chinese firms’ OFDI information. Then this paper uses propensity score matching to match the treatment and control groups with firm characteristics and combines that with the differences-in-differences method to estimate the real effect of OFDI on total factor productivity.

The food firm’s OFDI significantly improves the parent firm’s productivity (known as the OFDI own-firm effect), but this promotion only exists in the short term. The OFDI own-firm effect of food firms differs remarkably as the sub-sectors, regions and ownership of firms vary. The food firm’s OFDI in “non-tax havens” and high-income destinations has a significantly stronger effect on the parent firm’s productivity. FDI, R&D and exporting can effectively strengthen the OFDI own-firm effect of food firms.

The effect of OFDI on food industry productivity has not been researched yet. This paper aims to fill this gap. This paper further divides the characteristics of food firms into different sub-sectors, regions and ownership types for a comparative analysis, with the aim of conducting a more comprehensive study at the micro-level of firms. In addition, an investigation into which factors influence the degree of the OFDI own-firm effect at the micro-level has not been found in the literature. This paper will draw its own conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that motivate the halal food firms in Malaysia to practice halal orientation strategy (HOS).

Data were obtained from a survey of 137 halal food firms in Malaysia, and analyzed using the partial least squares technique.

Results showed that halal market demand, government support, expected business benefits, and integrity positively affect HOS.

The findings of the study will help policy makers and managers of halal food firms to understand external and internal drivers of HOS, which may lead to successfully motivating the implementation of HOS in halal food firms.

Although HOS plays a key role in protecting the halal status of any given product, this topic is rarely explored. This study thus contributes to the advancement of knowledge on factors that motivate the halal food firms to practice HOS.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of growth processes of speciality food firms and how these processes influence the producers' perception of quality demands of the products.

A case study approach was chosen covering four specialty food companies in Norway. This explorative study was conducted from the producer's perspective.

Results show that, as part of growth processes, firms invest in different activities to strengthen the quality of their products to achieve distinctiveness in more competitive markets. The most important quality that contributes to distinctiveness and increased value seems to be traditional handicraft production processes. In some cases, expensive and time-consuming processes are invested in developing qualities that are not transformed into higher value in the market.

The number of cases is too small for statistical analysis, but this explorative case study may provide a basis for a survey of a larger sample of firms.

The study indicates a need for companies to gain more knowledge about consumers' preferences and behaviour, and to develop product qualities and market communication accordingly.

Research is scarce on obstacles to growth in specialty food firms. This study contributes important knowledge to enhance further development of the industry.

The concept of food safety systems is increasing worldwide among farmers, manufactures, and processors and is also affecting consumer perspectives. This trend primarily impacts food businesses and table olive processing firms. The study seeks to explore the major economic obstacles to the adoption of food safety systems in table olive processing firms.

All 59 table olive businesses in the Aydın Province of Turkey were included in the survey. In an effort to remove extraneous items and demonstrate internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha was calculated for each variable. To better specify the economic obstacles to food safety system implementation, data were examined with exploratory factor analysis using principal component extraction and varimax rotation.

Major economic obstacles that most prominently emerged from analyses may explain several key indicators including difficulties in employing well‐trained personnel required for food safety systems, insufficient training facilities for employees intended to aid in the implementation of food safety systems, deficiency of infrastructure and other physical conditions, and deficient financial support from government and non‐government organizations.

The study investigated only table olive processors. Future research should include analyses of consumer behaviors.

The Turkish government must ensure implementation of food safety systems to increase public knowledge and accelerate government funds for the establishment of such systems in the food business industry.

The study contributes to the positive perceptions of managers and their behaviors towards implementation of food safety systems in table olive processing firms. Since the paper is one of only a few dealing with this topic, it provides key clues for dissemination of food safety systems adoption at the firm level.

This study seeks to empirically and theoretically show how and why food chain specific advantages along with country-specific and firm-specific advantages impact the development of competences and shape distinct strategies for international growth.

Case studies were conducted with three Brazilian meatpacking firms with solid global operations. Top managers in charge of international operations were interviewed and documents were collected. Data were coded and submitted to triangulation. Content analysis was used as data analysis technique.

Results suggest that a meso-level of analysis is important to understand the development of competences and strategies for internationalization of meatpacking firms. Additionally, it was found that the internationalization process of meatpacking firms are supported by four supportive competences, namely: technical, production, sales and logistics competences. Findings also reveal that these companies tend to pursue either a raw material seeker or local taste supplier strategy.

International business scholars have struggled to incorporate meso-level characteristics into mainstream literature. This paper tries to fill in this gap by incorporating distinctive features from the food supply chain in the analysis. Two novel international strategy typologies were introduced by considering firm-, food chain- and country-specific advantages. It also proposes sound theoretical and managerial evidence to support public and private decision-making.

Over the past few years, several scholars have focused on innovation strategies with specific regard to family food firms. In line with this research stream, the purpose of this paper is to understand how family food firms with long-standing traditions can implement innovative productions while remaining anchored to the past.

By adopting a qualitative research methodology, mainly based on a multiple case study, this paper seeks to cover some unexplored areas regarding the opportunity of combining tradition and innovation to achieve success in the highly competitive international arena in which family food firms operate. The authors analyze the cases of “La Torrente,” “Cioccolatitaliani” and “La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano.”

Successful family food firms leverage their deep-rooted knowledge of both family and local traditions to innovate. At same time, they establish continuous info exchange flows with all of the firm’s stakeholders by adopting an open innovation approach.

From a theoretical perspective, there is a need for an in-depth study of how an effective blend of tradition and innovation is formalized, above all, in family firms. As for the practical implications, all the three case studies represent a best practice, especially for family firms with a long-standing history and strong local connections.

The paper shows how important it is to keep traditional factors in food industry and offers hints and suggestions to decision makers of family firms on how to valorize, in terms of competitiveness, their traditional resources – almost bound to their territory with innovation tools and processes.

The paper is interesting because it offers an analysis of a specific group of firms – family firms – that characterize many industries in Italy and in Europe. Although often small, these firms can show dynamism and creativity. The paper offers hints on how to approach innovation in the sector while keeping the value of tradition.

The originality of the proposed conceptual model stems from the need to overcome the previous theoretical models, which deal separately with sources of past knowledge and sources of new and/or external knowledge.

This is one of the first empirical studies aimed at analyzing the interrelation between creative partnerships (CPs), absorptive (AC), knowledge application (KA) capacities and innovation performance in food companies.

We tested this on a sample of 112 Italian medium-sized food firms that established CPs through a partial least square (PLS) structural equation model (SEM) approach.

Results are in favor of an important role of CPs in the innovation process of food firms analyzed only if combined with the development of the two internal capacities investigated (AC and KA).

Implications are provided in order to stimulate new and more forms of collaboration between CIs and food firms as well as more empirical studies on this topic.

Few studies in food companies keep into account the role of internal capacities that firms have to build with the aim of acquiring external knowledge through partnerships, in particular in the specific context of CPs. These specific kinds of partnerships are becoming increasingly important because they provide key nonoverlapping knowledge and propose new creative methods, ways and answers that differentiate the innovation process of food firms.

This study aims to examine the effect on firms’ new product development (NPD) and significant product modification of knowledge interaction with local and non-local knowledge actors.

This study draws insights from the literature on external knowledge sources. The negative binomial regression is used to analyse the data of 245 sample food-processing establishments in Thailand.

Local knowledge actors play only limited roles in enhancing food-processing establishments’ product innovations. Only knowledge interaction with local universities and public research organisations helps enhance establishments’ ability to modify their products. For the NPD, significant sources of knowledge are non-local industrial actors.

This study adds new empirical evidence on knowledge sources for innovation of low-tech firms in less developed countries. It contributes new findings to an on-going debate on the importance of local vs non-local knowledge sources on firms’ innovativeness. It also contributes some implications for the Thai Government’s cluster-based innovation strategy.