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The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of smallholder supply chains on sustainable sourcing to answer the question how food and agribusiness multinationals can best include smallholders in their sourcing strategies and take social responsibility for large-scale sustainable and more equitable supply. A sustainable smallholder sourcing model with a list of critical success factors (CSFs) has been applied on two best-practise cases. In this model, business and corporate social responsibility perspectives are integrated.

The primary data of the value chain analyses of the two smallholder supply chains of a food and agribusiness multinational have been applied. Both cases were of a join research program commissioned by the multinational and a non-governmental organization using the same methods and research tools. Similarities, differences and interference between the cases have been determined and assessed in order to confirm, fine tune or adjust the CSFs.

Both cases could be conceptualized through the smallholder sourcing model. Most CSFs could be found in both cases, but differences were also found, which led to fine tuning of some CSFs: building of a partnership and effective producers organization, providing farm financing and the use of cross-functional teams in smallholder supplier development programs. It was also concluded that the smallholder sourcing model is applicable in different geographical areas.

The findings of this study are based on just two cases. More best-practise cases are recommended in order to confirm or to adjust the developed sourcing model and the CSFs.

This paper/research fills the need in sustainable supply chain management literature to study supply chains that comply with the triple bottom line concept, rather than supply chains that are just more “green.”

Despite the increasing interest on multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) as novel organizational forms addressing grand challenges surrounding agri-food systems, the literature on how MSPs influence farmers' innovation remains scattered across sub-disciplines and geographies and, overall, of limited help for informing managerial and policy action and reflection.

To address this gap, this systematic literature review (SRL) provides an overview on what MSPs are and how they influence farmers' innovation in emerging economies.

The selected sample included n = 44 publications in 2004–2018, focussing for 70% on Africa, with minor shares in Latin America and Asia, and with a strong theoretical and methodological segmentation across five sub-disciplines (agribusiness management, agricultural economics, agricultural innovation systems, agricultural research for development and public policy and governance). Overall, this SRL leads to three findings. First, a key distinctive organizational feature of MSPs relative to other novel organizational forms in emerging economies entails the presence of a virtual and/or physical interface spanning across multiple heterogeneous stakeholders. Second, in relation to their impact pathways towards farmers' innovation, MSPs tend to achieve different intermediary outcomes and levels of innovation depending on their organizational goals and activities.

These findings also reveal four key limitations of the extant MSP literature – namely, disciplinary silos thinking, linear thinking, limited focus on the role of informal institutions and little emphasis on power dynamics – which could inform managers and policy makers on how MSPs could influence farmers; innovation.

This study offers a SLR with the goal of providing practitioners and academics with first, a holistic view of the available research on the impact of MSPs on farmers innovation, and second, propose an impact pathway framework to understand how and under which circumstances MSPs support farmers' innovation given their functioning, structure and the governance mechanisms of MSPs.

Recent studies have questioned the direct relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance (e.g., Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin, & Frese, 2009; Wales, Gupta, & Mousa, 2013). Following this stream of research, this study examines this relationship by identifying the intermediate steps between these two variables (Alegre & Chiva, 2013; Wales, 2016; Zahra, Sapienza, & Davidsson, 2006). EO is considered essential for new market entry and new business foundation, which is why this study focuses on startups. Startups search for viable business opportunities, and this search is highly dependent on organizational learning (Kreiser, 2011). Previous studies suggest that organizational learning mediates the relationship between EO and performance (e.g., Real, Roldan, & Leal, 2014; Wang, 2008). This study investigates the role of organizational learning in this relationship by analyzing how EO and absorptive capacity (AC) interact. We propose a more direct and fine-grained measure of entrepreneurial success by developing a conceptual model that includes opportunity identification as an early outcome measure for startups. Drawing on a sample of 95 academic spin-offs in the Netherlands, this study examines the mediating role of AC and market readiness in the relationship between EO and market opportunities. The findings indicate that AC and market readiness mediate the direct effect of EO on market opportunity identification. By using opportunity identification as an outcome measure for EO, this study adopts a more direct measure for firm performance, resonating with recent discussions on the main effect of EO for organizations. These findings suggest that academic spin-offs’ AC leads entrepreneurial efforts to achieve a better product-market fit, and in return, helps to identify more market opportunities.

The food processing industry, confronted with increased global competition and more stringent customer demands, is pressurized to improve the pace and quality of its innovation processes. This paper aims to find out what factors constitute the main drivers and barriers to innovation and to explore how far the food processing industry can rely on the principles of innovation management developed in high‐tech industries to improve its innovation performance.

The study is based on the investigation of nine multinational food processing companies with their headquarters and/or major operations in The Netherlands. For this study a research questionnaire was developed, based on theoretical insights derived from the industrial organization theory and the resource‐based view. In each company the research director, CTO, or CEO completed the questionnaire and was interviewed about different aspects of innovation management.

The food processing industry can indeed rely on the principles of innovation management. However, there is clear room for improvement. Especially the potential of “open innovation” with suppliers and buyers to leverage innovation resources and capabilities is underutilized. Interestingly, the uneven power distribution in the chain, especially the high pressure of buyers, acts as a strong driver for innovation. Seen in this light it is noteworthy that in most companies the communication from R&D to marketing needs further improvement to enhance customer orientation, one of the main drivers of innovation success.

This study is the first to investigate innovation management concepts related to success in the food processing industry.

This paper seeks to investigate with reference to which factors the innovation processes of new and improved products differ and how these factors relate to the products' success on the market, with a specific focus on technology‐ and market‐related factors.

Data were collected on 129 products of the Dutch food and beverages (F&B) industry announced in professional journals in 1998. Questionnaires were used in 2000 to evaluate product innovativeness, product innovation process factors and short‐term market performance; whereas in 2005 long‐term market performance was measured.

The results show that there are considerable differences in the innovation processes of new versus improved products and in the role of process‐related aspects in the short‐ and long‐term market success of these products. Interestingly, taking the current emphasis on market orientation in the F&B industry into account, technology‐related aspects are especially crucial for long‐term market success.

The study distinguishes between product development processes of new versus improved products and relates innovation process factors to the success not of the company as a whole but of the specific product that is under development. This is a new approach. Moreover, the success of products is measured not only soon after market launch, but also after several years. It fills an important research gap by investigating success factors of products that have become cash cows of F&B companies.

This paper aims to provide insight in the set‐up and governance of niche (organic, local and/or regional) pork supply chains and networks (netchains) in the UK, Greece, and Spain, characterized by societal embeddedness and differentiation in food production.

The study consists of 29 expert interviews; it compares the different types of netchain innovation trajectories and concludes on each innovation driver and barrier what lessons can be learnt.

The findings clearly demonstrate the influence of the institutional setting on these netchains; whereas in the UK there is a clear focus on operational excellence and leadership, both in Greece and Spain the focus is on preservation of tradition and culture.

The paper provides directions for further research based on the conclusion that for niche pork netchains to enjoy market growth, effective netchain driven learning structures are needed to catalyze innovation.

Although a lot has been written on the adoption of innovations, the combination of the social network theory with innovation adoption theory seems to be absent in the present literature. So whereas normally theory on innovation adoption is looking at adoption of individual innovations, this study is taking a broader perspective by looking at the adoption of a range of innovations on a netchain level.

Supply chain integration (SCI) is one of the most distinctive dimensions in achieving long‐term competitive advantage in the business world. Although considerable state‐of‐the‐art studies regarding the SCI concept and its dimensions have been conducted, empirical research by using the data from agri‐food firms in China to examine the relationship between SCI and firm performance attract little attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of SCI on firm performance in pork supply chains in China.

The study follows a causal research approach and survey methodology to collect data from 229 pork processors. The SCI‐firm performance link is examined in two relationships: the pork processors with their upstream pig (meat) suppliers and with their downstream customers. Partial least squares method was used to test the causal relationships.

The results suggest that internal integration and buyer‐supplier relationship coordination are significantly related to firm performance in both relationships. Information technology integration is not significantly related to both upstream and downstream relationships. Logistics integration significantly contributes to pork processors' performance in relationships with downstream customers.

The extension of the SCI construct contributes to supply chain management theory in the context of China.

This article aims to provide an analysis of the joint impact of the business network and the company's internal resources on the level of environmental management (EM) deployment.

Correlation, regression and cluster analyses of data gathered in 2005 in the Dutch food and drink (F&D) industry were carried out.

The deployment of managerial capabilities that support ecological modernization (such as supply chain cooperation and network information exchange, or product‐redesign) in the Dutch F&D industry is low. The results show that different company profiles are connected with specific drivers and barriers for environmental pro‐activeness. Prospector companies (a minority) are more pro‐active with respect to environmental capability building than defenders.

Comparative longitudinal studies of environmental management drivers in subsectors could improve the understanding of the factors that stimulate environmental performance.

Optimism that industry will enhance EM‐performance through radical market‐induced innovation is misplaced. Instead, a contingency approach is in place. Public environmental policy with respect to the F&D industry should be adjusted to discernable managerial patterns and categories of companies. Voluntary cooperation, self‐governance, and market‐induced environmental innovation are only effective with respect to a minority of the companies.

The research opposes the existing foundation of public environmental policy on generic attributes assigned to the whole F&D‐industry and, consequently, of generic policies to improve environmental management performance. A differentiation of public policy should be based on the understanding of the drivers of managerial behavior.

The aim of this paper is to establish the differences between the food and beverages (F&B) and technology-based industries with regards to the relation between previously identified success factors and innovation project performance.

These differences are established on the basis of logistic regression analysis, using 38 innovation projects (18 F&B and 20 technology-based).

Newness of the innovation project to the company, communication capabilities and market potential have a more negative impact on innovation project performance in the F&B than the tech-based industry. Especially functional upstream capabilities increase the likelihood of success in F&B, when compared to tech-based innovation projects.

While functional upstream capabilities are important for success of F&B innovation projects, there is still room for improvement in order to deal effectively with newness of the innovation project to the company. Internalization of resources from the network and a balanced radical/incremental innovation project portfolio contribute to additional enhancement of functional capabilities of the F&B companies, improving their capacity to deal with newness. Through a larger focus on co-innovation with retail, F&B companies can improve their intra- and inter-firm communication capabilities to attain more consumer-oriented integration of R&D and marketing activities, improving the market potential of their innovations.

This paper demonstrates that the previously identified critical success factors for innovation projects differ in impact and importance for F&B innovation project performance when compared to innovation projects in the technology-based industry.

The aim of this paper is to extend the understanding of the configuration of inter-organizational information exchange (IOIE) and the role of each aspect of IOIE in realizing potential communication benefits.

A conceptual framework on the configuration of IOIE was developed by examining the relationships between companies in the poultry supply chain in China. A sample of 165 buying companies and a sample of 96 sellers were analyzed by partial least square modeling.

Communication willingness plays a critical role in improving communication quality and realizing potential communication benefits. Modern media remain as a huge potential opportunity for improving performance. Meanwhile, the power of face-to-face communication should never be neglected, even in the coming Information Age. Higher communication frequency contributes to better understanding of companies' changing requirements and expectations. Taking use of senior managers and staff from different functions helps sellers grasp better changing markets. Communication quality is found as a multi-dimensional concept and plays a critical mediating role in realizing communication benefits.

The proposition of the model of configuration of inter-organizational information exchange and the quantitative empirical examination of the model fills an important research gap.