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International trade and production have been increasingly organized around the configuration and evolution of global value chains (GVCs), even as the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have been established in an era of deepening globalization. The connection between these two processes raises some concerns around how economies, firms, and individuals can benefit from participation in the global economy. This chapter looks at the relationship between the relative positions of countries in high-tech GVCs and the impact on potential fulfillment of the SDGs. In this chapter, the authors make a first approach (descriptive analysis) to the relationship between the relative positions of countries in high-tech GVCs, possibilities for upgrading, and corresponding levels of inequality. The authors focus particularly on a set of indicators corresponding to Goal 1 (no poverty), Goal 5 (gender equality), Goal 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and Goal 10 (reduced inequalities). The findings reveal that the relationship between the position of a country in terms of forward and backward participations and the relative distance to fulfillment of the SDGs differs among distinct GVCs. While some patterns of income inequality reduction are observed in high-tech-related industries, gender inequality is not similarly affected. This confirms the relevance of building a two-dimensional framework that looks simultaneously at GVCs (i.e., the type of GVC and type of participation) as well as the distance from SDG achievement.

Intermediate short food supply chains (SFSC) have been presented as a possible solution to unsustainable global food supply chains. There is currently a knowledge gap about intermediate SFSC. Thus, this review synthesizes the available literature to identify prominent themes and their main considerations.

This research is based on a systematic literature review including peer-reviewed journal articles until December 2021. Inductive data coding resulted in the identification of four themes related to intermediate SFSC.

The identified themes illustrate the complex landscape intermediate SFSCs operate in and focus on the key relationships within these supply chains. The established relationships have implications for the governance of intermediate SFSCs. The organization of intermediate SFSCs affects numerous sustainability indicators.

Future research should focus on the position intermediate SFSCs have in food systems and the roles intermediaries have in intermediate SFSCs. There is furthermore an opportunity for researchers to investigate different types of intermediaries and explore the factors influencing them.

Creating sustainable food supply chains is one of the major societal challenges of today. The current state of the art suggests that intermediate SFSCs could play an important role in achieving this. So far, this area is underdeveloped and this review highlights knowledge gaps in the literature and suggestions for a future research agenda are proposed.

This article aims to examine how users' involvement in value co-creation influences the development and orchestration of well-being ecosystems to help tackle complex societal challenges. This research contributes to the public management literature and answers recent calls to investigate novel public service governances by discussing users' involvement and value co-creation for novel well-being solutions.

The authors empirically explore this phenomenon through a case study of a complex ecosystem addressing increased well-being, focussing on the formative evaluation stage of a longitudinal evaluation of Sweden's first support centre for people affected by cancer. Following an abductive reasoning and action research approach, the authors critically discuss the potential of user involvement for the development of well-being ecosystems and outline preconditions for the success of such approaches.

The empirical results indicate that resource reconfiguration of multi-actor collaborations provides a platform for value co-creation, innovative health services and availability of resources. Common themes include the need for multi-actor collaborations to reconfigure heterogeneous resources; actors' adaptive change capabilities; the role of governance mechanisms to align the diverse well-being ecosystem components, and the engagement of essential actors.

Although using a longitudinal case study approach has revealed stimulating insights, additional data collection, multiple cases and quantitative studies are prompted. Also, the authors focus on one country but the characteristics of users' involvement for value co-creation in innovative well-being ecosystems might vary between countries.

The findings of this study demonstrate the value of cancer-affected individuals, with “lived experiences”, acting as sources for social innovation, and drivers of well-being ecosystem development. The findings also suggest that participating actors in the ecosystem should utilise wider knowledge and experience to tackle complex societal challenges associated with well-being.

Policymakers should encourage the formation of well-being ecosystems with diverse actors and resources that can help patients navigate health challenges. The findings especially show the potential of starting from the user's needs and life situation when the ambition is to integrate and innovate in fragmented systems.

The proposed model proposes that having a user-led focus on innovating new solutions can play an important role in the development of well-being ecosystems.

Agricultural aggregation schemes provide numerous farmer-facing benefits, including reduced transportation costs and improved access to higher-demand urban markets. However, whether aggregation schemes also have positive food security dimensions for consumers dependent on peri-urban and local markets in developing country contexts is currently unknown. This paper aims to narrow this knowledge gap by exploring the actors, governance structures and physical infrastructures of the horticultural value chain of Bihar, India, to identify barriers to using aggregation to improve the distribution of fruits and vegetables to more local market environments.

This study uses mixed methods. Quantitative analysis of market transaction data explores the development of aggregation supply pathways over space and time. In turn, semi-structured interviews with value chain actors uncover the interactions and decision-making processes with implications for equitable fruit and vegetable delivery.

Whilst aggregation successfully generates multiple producer-facing benefits, the supply pathways tend to cluster around urban export-oriented hubs, owing to the presence of high-capacity traders, large consumer bases and traditional power dynamics. Various barriers across the wider enabling environment must be overcome to unlock the potential for aggregation to increase local fruit and vegetable delivery, including informal governance structures, cold storage gaps and underdeveloped transport infrastructures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first critical analysis of horticultural aggregation through a consumer-sensitive lens. The policy-relevant lessons are pertinent to the equitable and sustainable development of horticultural systems both in Bihar and in similar low- and middle-income settings.

This study comprehensively depicts the state of the art on sustainability research in the meat supply chain to advance the debate on challenges and issues associated with developing sustainable supply chain management practices.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review of 333 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and organized the extant literature into five areas of supply chain management practices: strategic orientation, continuity, collaboration, risk management, and proactivity.

Since 2016, the meat supply chain has received increasing scholarly attention. The literature shows the diffusion of highly heterogeneous sustainability practices related to multiple management areas and levels of analysis (institutional, industry, firm). The need for integrated, multilevel initiatives involving different stakeholders becomes increasingly crucial to the transition towards more sustainable meat supply chains.

This study highlights the importance of regulatory and stakeholder pressures in the sustainability transition. Beyond setting regulatory requirements, policymakers may facilitate the establishment of collaborations within the meat supply chain and foster the development of support services that help firms to integrate sustainability in their business models. The review also alerts entrepreneurs and managers to the benefits from cooperating with their supply chain partners to navigate the industry transition and thus more effectively respond to the demands of stakeholders and to the increasing customers’ awareness of sustainability issues.

This study is the first to systematize the corpus of knowledge on the sustainability of the meat supply chain by adopting a comprehensive approach to analyze relevant management and agriculture literature.