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The purpose of this paper is to investigate integrative practices within institutional food chains with special emphasis on cooperation and information sharing.

A qualitative approach was applied, based on 17 in-depth interviews with staff from four different institutions. The data collection and analysis were guided by constructivist grounded theory.

In summary, the authors find that: low differentiation lead to a high level of service variability at the satellite kitchens, high level of optimizing behavior lead to a high level of service variability, there is a positive relationship between food task involvement and access to the information being shared, there is a positive relationship between food task involvement and participation in cooperation activities and when the physical distance between stages in the chain increases, the information sharing will deteriorate.

To empirically generalize the findings, this first qualitative study should be followed up by a quantitative study.

Based on the findings, the authors suggest that the chains would benefit from improving the interfaces between front line employees, and share information more extensively. The location of the central kitchen seems to influence information sharing across stages in the food chains.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first study that examines cooperation and information sharing practices within institutional food chains.