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Because the business model (BM) is a fairly new concept, research is lacking on business model innovation (BMI) in certain industry sectors. One such sector is the agri-food sector. Using a systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1990 to 2014, the purpose of this paper is to examine the where, when, and how of the use of BMs and BMI in the agri-food sector.

A web-based search was conducted to identify peer-reviewed journal articles that contained a combination of “BM” or “BMI” with agriculture-related and food-related terms (e.g. “agri-food sector”). After winnowing out irrelevant and duplicate articles, 505 articles were chosen for analysis.

Using categories, the paper analyses various data about the selected articles. The categories include research settings, units of analysis, methodologies, and theories. Based on this analysis, the paper finds that these agri-food sector articles are primarily qualitative, empirical studies that focus on one or a few companies (i.e. case studies). The paper also finds that theory is not yet well-developed in the research on the agri-food sector.

SLRs of various concepts, theories, and models are common in many fields (e.g. information/software technology, healthcare, and organizational management). However, no such review is available for the agri-food sector, in particular in its use of BMs and BMI. This paper addresses that gap with its review of relevant articles published in more than 300 journals in recent years. Based on this review, the paper draws conclusions about BMI in the agri-food sector and offers suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze gaps and trends, as well suggest approaches and methodologies that should be addressed by future studies for implementing the lean and green management in the agri-food sector.

Based on a sample with 117 papers, this paper presents a systematic review on the integration of lean and green in the agri-food sector.

Key findings indicate that research on lean and green topics has increased in recent years, an important gap in the integration of lean and green in the agri-food sector has been identified. Two paths that remain open for further research are detected: the lack of theoretical, prescriptive and quantitative research and the possibility of integrating the two most used tools of lean (i.e. value stream mapping) and green (i.e. life-cycle assessment).

This study does not only advance the theoretical knowledge of the lean and green field, but it is also beneficial for agri-food companies who aim to effectively deploy lean and green in their processes in order to improve both operational and environmental performances.

No other industry matches in such a complete way the agri-food industry’s challenge of sustainability that is due to the amount of resources it consumes and its interrelatedness with the well-being of humanity.

There are separate streams of established research on lean and green management in the agri-food sector, yet very few authors have addressed the intersection of these strategic initiatives.

The paper focuses on an explanatory account of the Agri‐food Partnership in Wales (including the objectives, structure, participants, funding, decisions and activities); the relationship between the Partnership and other initiatives and bodies in the sector; and this is all set against an overview of the Agri‐food sector in Wales (describing the structure and outputs) and the key issues and problems it faces. The paper proceeds with a description of the particular paths of research being pursued by the authors, and concludes with contemplation of the broader, more theoretical questions to be addressed.

The authors investigate the contributions of social capital (SC) dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) in crowdfunding campaigns by comparing the dynamics of agri-food businesses with those of two other sectors – cultural and technological.

The authors develop linear regressions on a proprietary data set of 5,290 projects launched on the Italian platform “Produzionidalbasso.com”, from 2014 to 2020.

The authors’ findings suggest that combining the three social capital dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) has a more substantial overall effect on the number of backers involved in agri-food projects than in cultural and technological projects. Agri-food entrepreneurs effectively mobilize all resources embedded in the SC dimensions and therefore create the conditions to develop new ties that financially support the project.

Agri-food entrepreneurs may benefit from those results improving their funding strategies. Therefore, agri-food entrepreneurs can explore and exploit the instruments available on the CFD platform – video and rewards associated with the campaign – gaining more benefit from the backers involved compared with other project categories.

The study proposes a broader perspective regarding SC that encompasses the proponent, the company and the campaign with three different types of ties: bonding, bridging and linking. These SC dimensions can differently shape diverse sectors and this eclectic configuration can differentiate the effects of SC in crowdfunding campaigns. This study pinpoints how crowdfunding determinants change, based on project categories.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model and examine the relevance of a set of five dynamic drivers to building and sustaining the innovation capability of agri-food firms.

The empirical data were acquired through a recent study of 436 Greek agri-food firms. Regression analysis was employed to examine the correlation between innovation drivers and each of the four innovation capability dimensions, namely, product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation and marketing innovation.

The findings verify that quality orientation and process management are the two most important innovation drivers. However, the impact of learning orientation, collaborations and environmental dynamism on a firm’s agri-food innovation capability is yet to be investigated.

This study has not investigated how firms’ characteristics form the drivers and barriers to innovation at the company. Moreover, a second limitation is related to the kind of innovation that drivers boost. This research does not separate between radical and incremental innovation.

In order to maintain their sustainable development and enhance their whole innovation capability, agri-food firms should closely relate their innovation capability dimensions to the formulation of a strategy and harmonization of innovation and innovation drivers’ activities.

The main contribution of this paper is that it develops an appropriate research framework (a proposed structural model) for examining the links among the five innovation drivers with each of the four innovation capability dimensions.

Despite the economic downturn, the Northern Ireland agri-food sector has remained resilient experiencing export growth, particularly in emerging economies. The sector recognises that to maintain its competitive advantage in both existing and new markets it will require a business strategy focused on product, service and process innovation. The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms within the sector consider how this will impact upon future skills and training needs and identifies where the industry considers the appropriate policy interventions are required.

A survey was undertaken to explore how innovation and technology adoption within the agri-food and drinks sector is impacting on educational and skills requirements. In total, 30 companies were interviewed, providing representation from all the food and drinks sub-sectors and covering at least 50 per cent of employee numbers in each sub-sector. The survey focuses on current and future skills requirements for specific cohorts of employees in the sector; specifically those who have undertaken further full-time training beyond minimum school leaving age. In addition, it aimed to seek employer feedback on those entering the labour market for the first time.

The results support the need for strong intermediate levels of educational attainment. In addition, the acquisition of work-related generic skills is essential for creating a more “flexible” and multi-skilled workforce. Up-skilling programmes, particularly for lower to mid-level management roles, will become increasingly important in the future. Experience gained through work placement and vacation and weekend work is viewed very positively. Companies expressed a greater need for engagement between the further and higher education sectors and industry in relation to the content, design and delivery of educational programmes to adequately meet the needs of the sector.

At a time when government is looking to growth in the private sector to stimulate economic growth in the wider economy, this paper highlights the skills and training challenges which have emerged within the Northern Ireland agri-food sector, in response to business strategies which are more focused on product, service and process innovation.

As evidence mounts on the importance of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to national and international economies and the opportunities presented to them by the internet, it becomes important to understand the key issues which determine internet adoption and utilisation. With literature on SME internet adoption fragmented and incoherent, there is also a need for conceptual framework development and testing to provide more focused research in this important area. Several researchers have also highlighted a need for research which concentrates more on specific industrial sectors rather than taking a more generalist approach to SME internet adoption. Within this evolving research context, the agri‐food industry makes a particularly relevant area of study, which this paper aims to study.

This paper addresses this purpose by conducting a study of 50 Northern Ireland SME agri‐food companies. The study utilises and tests a conceptual framework derived from the extant literature in relation to the determinants of SME web site adoption and utilisation.

The findings of this study point to the need for SME agri‐food companies to develop an awareness of the internet's efficacy for their business and a subsequent dynamic strategic approach in adoption and utilisation. However, the lack of marketing ability and negative industry norms prevalent within developed economy agri‐food industries will contribute negatively to internet adoption and utilisation. These will need to be addressed if the internet, and web site adoption and utilisation in particular, are to provide an effective business tool. The research findings support the conceptual framework's usefulness as a research tool. The findings point to the importance of marketing ability and industry norms in relation to their impact on the central determinants of internet adoption by the SME agri‐food companies studied.

In this paper it is contended that a lack of marketing ability and negative industry attitudes towards internet adoption and utilisation will constrain levels of awareness of the efficacy of the internet as a business tool for the individual businesses researched. The findings reveal that this will subsequently contribute to a lack of strategic web site development and subsequent utilisation.

The COVID-19 has had a diversified and dynamic impact on the food and agricultural sector, particularly in the agri-food value chain. Although a good number of articles were published in various countries and continents covering various aspects of the impact of COVID-19 on the agri-food value chain, no significant studies were found related to the mapping of published literature to know about the scenario and current trend research. The study aims to perform a systematic review and bibliographic mapping in the agri-food value chain to provide insights into the same.

Articles included in the Scopus database from January 1, 2020 to July 10, 2021 are considered. After initial screening and inclusion criteria, 41 articles have been selected to perform a systematic review which is published in the agri-food value chain. In addition to this, by considering the growth of the online food market, systematic mapping with the application of bibliometric analysis is performed to know the trend of the publications. Co-occurrence analysis with VOS viewer software version 1.6.16 is used for making network maps and supports the visualization of these maps.

The synthesis of the findings reveals that four broad themes recur in the articles: namely, food security and crisis during the pandemic, food price fluctuations, the impact of COVID-19 and disruption in the agri-food value chain and resilience strategies to strengthen the value chain. Alongside, the synthesis of the findings, this study describes the geographical coverage, methodologies used, sector/industry-specific context of the articles and scope of future research. In co-occurrence analysis with keywords, four clusters are identified related to the online food market and are categorized as “COVID-19 and Online food delivery services,” “Consumer satisfaction to online food delivery services,” “Food delivery system” and “Demographic impact on online food market.”

The study considers only the article from the Scopus database and article published between January 1, 2020 and July 10, 2021. Future studies are encouraged related to impact analysis studies of resilient strategies suggested by various authors by considering multiple databases.

This study will be beneficial for scholars and policymakers to know what is trending in the agri-food value chain and policymakers can implement various resilience strategies as discussed to mitigate the impact. The future research scope highlighted in this paper will encourage scholars and academicians to explore this area and will provide in-depth understanding.

The food supply chain has faced many challenges due to its complex and complicated nature. Blockchain technology is one of the mechanisms used to improve agri-food supply chain processes by evolving organization capabilities. A study is being conducted to scrutinize the adoption of blockchain technology in the agri-food supply chain through the lens of the operational capability approach. It further makes an attempt to identify the capabilities of blockchain to improve supply chain processes.

The qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews was used to gather information from experts and professionals in the food supply chain and blockchain technology. The authors have adopted a systematic approach of coding using open, axial and selective methods to depict and identify the themes that represent the blockchain-enabled agri-food supply chain. The data were collected from 32 interviews of selected participants.

The result shows five critical areas where blockchain can come up to enhance the agri-food supply chain performance by providing traceability, transparency, information security, transactions, and trust and quality. Further, the study reveals that blockchain will provide safety, lower the cost of transactions and can create trust among users to communicate within the whole supply chain without the intervention of a third party. This study demonstrated that the capabilities need to be considered when introducing technology into the practice.

The study implies thought-provoking implications for bridging the theory-practice gap by examining the empirical data to demonstrate how the operational capabilities of blockchain technology further strengthen the agri-food supply chain. Additionally, this study provides some suggestions for utilizing the results and proposes a framework to understand more about blockchain use cases in the agri-food supply chain as well as extend the application of blockchain using an operational capability approach for future academic researchers in this area.

This study presented some more important managerial implications which reveal that the majority of organisations were in the initial stages of adoption process of blockchain technology. Further, the positive influence of managers and IT experts can help the information technology companies (IT) and stakeholders for developing and promoting blockchain solutions in the agri-food supply chain. The important implication of blockchain enabled agri-food supply chain is to maintain information security and incresae supply chain performance.

The study shows the operational capabilities of agri-food supply chain using blockchain technology. Blockchain can contribute in enhancing the agri-food supply chain to increase traceability and transparency and helps to reduce the risk of disruptions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and successful open innovation within agri-food businesses. This particular piece of research focuses on agri-food businesses which utilize crowdfunding platforms.

The research adopts a survey-based methodology, which is useful in enhancing the generalization of results. The final sample includes 80 cases for the analysis. The model and the hypotheses were tested through a hierarchical regression model.

This research assesses the importance of knowledge management capabilities for successful open innovation in crowdfunding for agri-food businesses. In particular, it emerged that IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities are enablers of open innovation strategies. Additionally, it emerged that knowledge exploration capabilities can positively mediate the relationship between IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities and open innovation in the context of agri-food businesses.

To the authors’ best knowledge, few researchers have explored this topic and, as such, there is a need to better conceptualize this intriguing phenomenon and to provide empirical evidence to support it.