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Food supply chain (FSC) in Greece is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who face several challenges in adopting green practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key drivers and barriers influencing the environmental performance of SMEs within the Greek dairy supply chain (SC).

Descriptive research methodology attempts to prioritize the drivers and barriers for improving the environmental sustainability performance. Analytical hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis are used to understand the complex nature of the influencing factors.

The analysis identifies five barriers and six drivers for the implementation of green practices within the dairy SC. While external drivers significantly influence the market structure and logistics network, government, competitors and customers are the driving factors for improving environmental performance.

The study contributes to filling the literature gap on key factors influencing the implementation of green practices within the FSC. The identified influential factors will contribute toward building a framework for improving sustainability performance within the Greek dairy SC.

The study is expected to benefit the Greek and European SMEs by driving their environmental practices within the perishable SC network.

The paper provides directions for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in understanding the challenges for implementing green practices in the dairy SC. The holistic approach followed in this paper is a building block for a conceptual framework on implementing environmental sustainability within the FSC. Apart from contributing to the current literature by extending the research horizon to SMEs’ green adoption capability, this study also provides better understanding of the pivotal role of internal and external key factors in influencing sustainability performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences in value outcomes within the Greek food chain by examining its key members and to illustrate which members are contributing, excelling and underperforming towards value creation.

A survey was conducted with 1,121 companies representing four Greek food sectors and each tier of the chain. These companies evaluated the value outcomes of their supply chain based on four competitive priorities and the subsequent data were analysed by employing appropriate statistical techniques.

The primary producers were found to have the worst value outcomes, whilst the best outcomes were noted for catering firms. The findings show that the Greek food chain has still many characteristics of a traditional chain and many improvements are required to reach the “best value chain” status.

The results could be used as benchmark points to guide managers towards achieving highest scores in specific business operations. The paper demonstrates a logical methodological process for obtaining these results which can be used by managers.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper providing an overall view of value outcomes of various chain members altogether and of the chain they are part of. The paper has filled a relevant gap in the literature by providing an empirical comparison of the perceived value outcomes for several tiers in a food chain.

Measuring chain performance which extends beyond supplier–buyer interface is of paramount importance in tracking and tracing the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the entire chain. In response to chain inefficiencies, key performance indicators need to be assessed at different chain levels. Knowledge amongst chain members and evident research on the chain members’ assessment of the chain partners’ contribution to their individual chain performance is equivocal. The purpose of this study is to investigate perceived performance contribution of bilateral relationships of each chain member to its chain partners’ performance across the dairy sector.

The research was conducted in a dairy agri-food sector in Uganda. A total of 115 triad chains (three matching chain members) were obtained during the period of January to April 2016. Using simple random sampling, the dairy farmers (first suppliers), the cooperative supply managers (second suppliers) and the processors (buyers) were surveyed. Means and standard deviations presented descriptive findings. Furthermore, Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests were used to assess the differences and similarities of the perceived performance contribution of the individual chain partners.

The results revealed that each chain members’ perception of chain performance contribution toward the individual chain performance is relatively high. Further, it was found that there were significant differences between the chain members about the perceived chain performance contributions. However, within the internal chain analysis, no significant differences were observed.

Although limited to a single agri-food sector within the Ugandan dairy sector, the findings support evidence from similar agri-food chains worldwide.

Literature shows shortcomings in measuring chain performance at three chain levels. Therefore, this shift from single or dyad to triad chain analysis provides new insights into the field of agri-food chains and supply chain performance in particular. It also provides important empirical results on how each chain member contributes to the chain partners’ performance.

This study aims at modelling the enablers of dairy supply chain (DSC) in Indian context.

Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach has been used to model the enabler of dairy supply chain. The opinion has been taken from the industry experts and experienced academicians. Further, Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC) used to classify the enablers based on driving and dependence power.

Findings show that stakeholder trust and top management support/leadership are the very crucial enablers in dairy supply chain; they are at a lower level of hierarchical structure and work as primary enablers to development of DSC. While customer satisfaction and financial performance are at top of the digraph, it shows these enablers are the outcome of a smooth supply chain. The MICMAC analysis suggests that the identified enablers are largely classified into dependent and independent enablers; there are no autonomous enablers in the dairy supply chain.

The study can aid businesses in the dairy processing industry in managing demand fluctuations, enhancing product quality, implementing effective information systems and adapting procedures, thereby enhancing supply chain performance.

There is very limited study on enablers of the dairy supply chain in general, while in the Indian context, there is no specific study on modelling the enablers of dairy supply chain.

Food purchasing behaviour is influenced by economic factors such as price and income, as well as by non‐economic factors such as concern about diet and health, growth of vegetarianism, convenience, household′s life cycle and advertising. Reports on a survey in Chania, the second largest city of Crete, to determine the factors that affect the purchasing behaviour of fresh pasteurized milk and to identify the attitudes and perceptions of consumers towards it. Reveals that the concern about health of consumers, strong advertising campaigns, as well as the age and economic status of respondents, influence consumer choice towards fresh pasteurized milk. Finally, scrutinizes the attitude of the majority of consumers towards fresh pasteurized milk although concentrated milk (the basic competitor) still has the biggest market share in Chania.

The objectives of this paper were twofold: to explore if there are differences in the perceptions about supply chain performance (SCP) and relationship quality (RQ) among traditional food supply chain members, and to examine the influence of individual relationship variables and aggregated relationship quality on SCP in the traditional food sector.

The survey was conducted in a triadic context with 189 supply chain members (62 suppliers, 65 focal companies and 62 customers) of 65 traditional food supply chains (cheese, olive oil, meat products, brandies and liqueurs, wine and honey) in Croatia. The influence of individual relationship variables and aggregated RQ on perceived SCP was tested using regression analysis.

It was found that there were no significant differences in the perception of overall SCP and RQ among supply chain members. It was identified that aggregated RQ and all individual relationship variables (trust, commitment, economic satisfaction, non-coercive and coercive power, reputation and conflict) have a significant influence on perceived SCP of the traditional food supply chains.

This study provides a systematic approach to investigate the SCP and supply chain RQ in the traditional food sector. The findings suggest that managers should not neglect any aspect of supply chain relationship to keep high SCP and to be competitive on the market.

This multiple supply chain study makes an original empirical contribution to the supply chain and network management literature by using a triadic approach to investigate RQ and SCP. The influence of individual RQ constructs and aggregated RQ on traditional food SCP examined in this study has not been explored thus far. This study also makes an original empirical contribution by investigating RQ and SCP in the traditional food sector, which has received little attention recently.

The current study aims to deliver a consolidated view of environmental sustainability in cold supply chain performance systems (CSCPS), incorporating theoretical and empirical analysis for improving environmental standards. For this purpose, this study firstly aims to explore and analyze the various crucial challenging factors for environmental sustainability in the cold supply chain (CSC). Secondly, it discovers the most effective sustainable strategies for improving the environmental sustainability of CSCPS.

The exploration of the crucial challenging factors and the proposed sustainable strategies have been done using a systematic literature review relevant to the sustainable performance of CSC. At the same time, semi-structured brainstorming sessions were conducted with the domain professionals having an industrial and academic background to finalize the strategies. Empirical analysis has been performed using an intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) based hybrid approach of SWARA and COPRAS methods.

The key findings of the study address that “higher energy consumption during refrigerated transportation and storage” is the most crucial challenge for environmental sustainability in CSC. In addition, “managerial refrain to profit decline due to sustainability implementation” is the second most crucial challenge that hinders the adoption of sustainable practices in CSCs. Meanwhile, the governmental attention to motivating organizations for green adoption and implementation of solar energy-driven refrigeration technologies are the two most important discoveries of the study that might help in improving CSC's environmental performance.

From the implications side, the study enriches and extends the current literature content on CSC sustainability. In addition, it offers sound managerial implications by identifying the challenges that create threats among the management for sustainability adoption and suggesting the most suitable sustainable strategies, which may help the management to raise the environmental performance of their CSC. Besides having various important theoretical and managerial implications for the study, contemplation of only environmental sustainability traits as a broader perspective limits the scope of the study.

The study's main contribution is the exploration of the most crucial challenges imparting obstructions in sustainable development and sustainable strategies, which may get the interest of the CSC players, market leaders, and industrial and academic practitioners working in the domain of CSC sustainability. In addition, this study offers structured theoretical and empirical evidence for CSC's environmental sustainability, thus playing a bridging role between theoretical sustainability concepts and its practical implications in CSC industries.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise how the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature has discussed knowledge dynamics across the extended supply network, particularly in the contemporary context of fragmented, globally dispersed supply networks.

A systematic approach to reviewing the literature is applied, covering 20 years, starting with 267 references, and narrowing down to 88 articles specifically addressing knowledge diffusion processes across the extended supply network.

This study shows that vertical ties limited to direct suppliers or third-party monitoring of global suppliers are both insufficient. Lack of co-opetition is an impediment to knowledge diffusion. And the debate of whether or not global dispersion is an impediment to knowledge diffusion seems inconclusive. More importantly, there is a lack of network-level studies mapping the diversity of actors in supply networks.

First, future SSCM research should shift from an operational focus to strategic knowledge diffusion. Second, the scope of SSCM should expand from linear buyer–supplier relationships to multi-tier and multilateral studies. Special focus should be placed on the literature on social network to support processes that look at the drivers of effective large-scale, global diffusion of sustainability.

This review contends that it is paramount to set a new research direction captured in a new definition of “sustainable supply network management”. Future research should overcome the barriers of data collection at the network level in order to contribute to the field’s current challenges, which clearly lies in globally dispersed and complex supply network, not dyads or linear chains.

The objective of this study is to estimate the competitiveness for both the Greek food and beverage industry as a whole and the flour and milling industry, justifying the certain economic factors and the way which these factors affect on it.

The Greek food and beverage firms which published their balance sheets for the studying period were studied. According to the existing literature two equations were created and estimated as a simultaneous equations system.

Summarizing the results both for the whole food and beverage industry and the flour milling industry are observed significant similarities on how certain economics factors such as profitability, market share, sustainable growth, age and operating costs affect on competitiveness as measured in this work. This may happen due to the high degree of concentration but also in the special characteristics which present both the Greek food and beverage industry and the flour milling sector.

The fact that this work referred only in Greek firms can be a limitation of this research, in spite of that it can provide useful and safe conclusions for the Greek food manufacturing industry.

The provision of proposals for increasing firm competitiveness to managers as well as to policymakers.

The importance of food and beverage industry for the Greek economy as well as that the flour milling industry holds an important position in the Greek food and beverage industry makes the study of the competitiveness for both of them to be important from both an academic and research perspective.

The Greek food and beverage industry is the strength of Greek manufacturing and at the same time an important lever for the development of the entire Greek economy. The high quality products it produces and the organized promotion of its products in international markets are elements that give it an advantage and stimulate its competitiveness. The flour milling industry is one of the sectors in which there is intense competition and whose presence in terms of sales, turnover, employment and gross value is particularly important, so a simultaneous study of these cases is very important.