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The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of motives behind corporate giving and at finding out whether and when operational efficiency plays a major role in the case of surplus food donations by food supply chain companies.

A multiple case study methodology has been applied considering a sample of 16 food sector companies operating in Italy. Three cases have been analyzed in-depth to highlight the contextual factors that make cost savings possible and donations sizeable and regular.

The results show that the willingness of companies to reduce operational costs plays a relevant role in managerial decisions concerning the recovery and donation of unsold food, although to different degrees across the supply chain stages.

The paper shows that not only strategic and moral motives, but also economic efficiency concern plays an important role in the managerial decision-making process pertaining to surplus food donations.

This chapter highlights factors, such as stakeholder engagement and changes in operating processes, which can enable retailers to implement an alternative approach to recovering and redistributing fresh surplus food.

A successful fresh surplus food redistribution program was identified as part of a larger research project on food waste and redistribution. The “Buon Fine” program of a large Italian retailer (Coop Lombardia) was described by two senior executives who were interviewed for four hours using a semi-structured questionnaire. Collected information was triangulated with corporate reports and other publications.

Coop Lombardia implemented an expanded supply chain by cooperating with municipalities and food aid organizations. Such a process differed in important ways from the traditional “food bank” model. The latter organizations collected and distributed surplus food to disfavored populations.

The findings of this chapter will help senior executives of retail trade companies to improve the sustainability of their supply chain and help policymakers address food poverty to improve food security in their territory.

Integration between the different components of development is a major aspiration of the 2030 agenda, but the efforts of firms that intend to contribute simultaneously to multiple development trajectories may be hindered by trade-offs that occur between the different sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets. At the same time, synergies may also materialize and reinforce firm’s contribution. This chapter analyzes the effects of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and other foreign investors on two different targets of SDG 7, namely access of population to modern energy systems, chiefly electricity, and the use of carbon-free and renewable energy sources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and the authors investigate whether foreign investors experience trade-offs and synergies in their contributions. A two-equation growth model of households’ access to electricity and carbon factor is estimated by employing a panel dataset that covers 15 SSA countries and foreign direct investment (FDI) from 82 origin countries over the 2005–2011 period. The findings reveal that foreign investors are subject to a trade-off in their effects, because when they foster access to electricity they are also likely to spur carbon factor increases, and vice versa, depending on the economic development of host and home countries. Nevertheless, electrification and carbon factor reduction are shown to be linked by a system-level synergy. The results have implications for the design of MNEs attraction measures and energy policy in recipient countries.

This paper offers quantitative evidence on how surplus food, i.e. safe food that is not sold to the intended customers, is generated and recovered within Italian manufacturing and retail firms. The purpose of this paper is to enlighten the process through which the food supply chain firms come to donate surplus food-to-food banks.

Surplus food and recoverability were defined as the key terms of the problem. In total, 12 exploratory case studies were conducted to segment the manufacturing and retail sectors, to assess recoverability in each segment, and to establish the protocols for descriptive case studies. A multiple case-study approach was used and 83 firms were investigated.

The primary source of surplus food is shown to result from products reaching the internal sell-by date, i.e. the date by which manufacturers and warehouses must supply perishable products. Donation to food banks is found to be a relevant management practice in the ambient and chilled manufacturing segments and at retail distribution centres, while frozen food companies and retail stores are found to rely nearly exclusively on waste disposal.

The degree to which our findings are specific to Italy is an issue to investigate. Future research should target surplus food management in farming and food services, and assess the cost effectiveness of alternative management channels.

The paper highlights the changes required to increase the amount of food recovered by food banks. It also summarises the steps for establishing a structured procedure for managing surplus food within firms.

The paper offers quantitative evidence on a relatively untapped yet socially relevant topic, i.e. the upstream process of food recovery and donation.

Infrastructure projects lend themselves quite naturally to the domain of collaborative networks, because they are not feasible without the coordinated efforts of several independent and heterogeneous actors. This chapter analyzes the nature and role of multilateral collaboration in the early stages of local infrastructure projects.

After having developed a conceptual model of collaborative approaches to early project stages, a survey was designed and targeted at experienced and informed managers of utilities that develop infrastructural facilities in Italy.

The empirical analysis reveals that collaboration with local governments and other stakeholders is sought by managers mainly to acquire knowledge about project options and feasibility, and to improve public acceptance.

Purpose – This chapter aims at investigating the impact of cross-border knowledge spillovers on technological innovation in the renewable energy sector.

Methodology/approach – The analysis presented in the chapter assumes that technological knowledge exhibits several tacit elements and requires established connections to flow between countries. A new measure for knowledge spillovers is obtained by weighting international R&D stocks through bilateral trade flows. The country-level patenting activity is modelled through a knowledge production function. The sample includes 18 OECD countries over the 1990–2006 period. Estimates are obtained through panel data techniques.

Findings – Our econometric results show that international knowledge developed by other countries has positive effects on the focal country's innovation in renewable energy technologies. Cross-country linkages, rather than mere geographic proximity, are found to favour cross-country knowledge spillovers.

Impact – The research contributes to the design of energy innovation policies. Public R&D is confirmed to be a relevant input to energy innovation. Coordination between countries in energy R&D activities can be required, particularly when countries maintain mutual linkages.

Originality – This study adds empirical evidence on the effect of cross-country knowledge spillovers and on the channels through which technological knowledge diffuses globally. It contributes to the emerging empirical research on energy innovation.

We argue that in order to address the contemporary challenges that organizations and societies are facing, the field of organization development (OD) requires frameworks and skills to focus on the eco-system as the level of analysis. In a world that has become economically, socially, and technologically highly connected, approaches that foster the optimization of specific actors in the eco-system, such as individual corporations, result in sub-optimization of the sustainability of the natural and social system because there is insufficient offset to the ego-centric purposes of the focal organization. We discuss the need for OD to broaden focus to deal with technological advances that enable new ways of organizing at the eco-system level, and to deal with the challenges to sustainable development. Case examples from healthcare and the agri-foods industry illustrate the kinds of development approaches that are required for the development of healthy eco-systems. We do not suggest fundamental changes in the identity of the field of organizational development. In fact, we demonstrate the need to dig deeply into the open systems and socio-technical roots of the field, and to translate the traditional values and approaches of OD to continue to be relevant in today’s dynamic interdependent world.