Producers Responding to Environmental Turbulence in the Greek Agricultural Supply Chain:Does Buyer Type Matter?

There are many changes in the EU Agricultural Supply Chain (ASC). These changes cause environmental turbulence for supply chain entities operating in this sector. In the Greek ASC, there is a significant decline in its performance in particular at producers’ level. Based on the Contingency Theory this paper aims to identify the relevant environmental turbulence factors in Greek ASC context from the producers’ perspective and ascertain their impact on producers based on their choice of buyer type i.e. collaboration type. Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Greek ASC producers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. The findings suggest the existence of six major environmental turbulence factors at producers’ level which are: regulatory, market, competitive, weather, economic and political turbulence factors. Producers selling their products to cooperatives were found to be significantly impacted by the different environmental turbulence factors. Future research directions as well as managerial and policy implications are identified

Complexity Theory for a New Managerial Paradigm: A Research Framework

In this work, we supply a theoretical framework of how organizations can embed complexity management and sustainable development into their policies and actions. The proposed framework may lead to a new management paradigm, attempting to link the main concepts of complexity theory, change management, knowledge management, sustainable development, and cybernetics. We highlight how the processes of organizational change have occurred as a result of the move to adapt to the changes in the various global and international business environments and how this transformation has led to the shift toward the present innovation economy. We also point how organizational change needs to deal with sustainability, so that the change may be consistent with present needs, without compromising the future