Towards an integrative view of innovation in food sector SMEs

Most literature on innovation focuses on organizational engagement with innovation types in isolation from one another. By establishing the interdependency of innovation types in SMEs in the UK food sector, this study provides evidence to support the case for a more holistic approach in innovation research. Thus the study both contributes to the limited research on innovation in food sector SMEs and supports the integrative view of innovation. Using questionnaire-based data, structured equation modelling was used to propose and test the interrelationships between the level of engagement with product, process, position and paradigm innovation. A significant positive relationship between innovation types was identified

Statement based on the 4th International conference on global food security – December 2020:Challenges for a disruptive research Agenda

The 4th Global Food Security conference highlighted four major developments: the shift from food security to food systems; a focus on diets and consumption patterns; the importance of unknown futures and inherent uncertainties and risks; and the central role of multi-level connections between local- and global-oriented research. These shifts highlight the importance for research to contribute to dialogue and collective intelligence through evidence-based brokerage, and to move beyond polarization of debates. These shifts also call for the involvement of scientists in multi-stakeholder arrangements to strengthen innovation and learning at different levels, and for their participation in foresight studies to help navigate plausible futures. Delegates discussed five scientific challenges to be addressed through both research investments and by improving science-policy interfaces. © 202

Exploring the contribution of alternative food networks to food security. A comparative analysis

[EN] Food (in)security has become a challenge not only for developing economies but also for High Income Countries. In parallel, food scholars have actively investigated the contribution of alternative food networks (AFNs) to the development of more sustainable and just food systems, paying attention to drivers, initiatives and policies supporting the development of alternatives to the dominant industrialised food system and its detrimental environmental and socio-economic impacts. However, few studies have directly addressed the contribution of AFNs to food security in the Global North. This paper aims to establish new linkages between food security debates and critical AFNs literature. For that purpose, we conduct a place-based approach to food security in a comparative analysis of initiatives of three different European contexts: Cardiff city-region (UK), the Flemish Region (Belgium) and the peri-urban area of the city of Valencia (Spain). The results unfold: i) how AFNs weave a more localised socio-economic fabric that creates new relationships between food security outcomes and specific territories, ii) hybridization processes within alternative but also conventional systems and iii) the role of advocacy and collective action at different levels. The analysis allows identification of key elements on which food security debates hinge and provides new insights to ground conceptual discussions on territorial and place-based food security approaches.This research is part of the project "Assessment of the impact of global drivers of change on Europe's food security" (TRANSMANGO), granted by the EU under 7th Framework Programme; theme KBBE.2013.2.5-01; Grant agreement no: 613532. Dr. Ana Moragues-Faus also acknowledges the funding of the European Commission and the Welsh Government that currently supports her Ser Cymru fellowship. 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Properties that influence business process management maturity and its effect on organizational performance

Abstract BPM maturity is a measure to evaluate how professionally an organization manages its business processes. Previous research provides evidence that higher BPM maturity leads to better performance of processes and of the organization as a whole. It also claims that different organizations should strive for different levels of maturity, depending on their properties. This paper presents an empirical investigation of these claims, based on a sample of 120 organizations and looking at a selection of organizational properties. Our results reveal that higher BPM maturity contributes to better performance, but only up to a point. Interestingly, it contradicts the popular belief that higher innovativeness is associated with lower BPM maturity, rather showing that higher innovativeness is associated with higher BPM maturity. In addition, the paper shows that companies in different regions have a different level of BPM maturity. These findings can be used as a benchmark and a motivation for organizations to increase their BPM maturity

Does corporate reputation matter? Role of social media in consumer intention to purchase innovative food product

The exponential growth of the corporate reputation in food industry has resulted in innovations in every link of its supply chain. There have been studies that have characterized innovation in various industries from the perspective of technology, but far fewer in the area of corporate reputation, consumer perception, and intention towards innovations in food products. This research analyses the innovations in the food industry from the perspective of the consumer and provides a conceptual framework of food innovation stages. The study also investigates the relationship between corporate reputation and intention towards food innovation along with the other components of TPB model with an extension of social media engagement. The results from India and US samples confirm that social media engagement have a significant role to play in creating intention to purchase innovative food products. The study compares the US and Indian samples and identifies differences in subjective norms and perceived behavioural control

Sustainable food versus health concerns

Simultaneous with the growing demand for sustainable food, statistics in all EU member states report consumption patterns that are characterized by too much fat, overdoses of sugar and a lack of fruits and vegetables. The streams of literature that investigate the factors influencing sustainable food consumption and healthy food consumption are largely separated. However, the question whether there is a positive relationship between consumer behaviour towards sustainable food and consumer behaviour towards healthy food remains largely unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the consumption of different types of sustainable food on the one hand, and healthy food patterns on the other. The study is based on a sample of 2595 respondents in Belgium. The research shows a significant relationship between a healthy diet and sustainable food choices. Analyses applied to identify gender- or age-specific tendencies demonstrate that the association is particularly pronounced for consumers between 26 and 40 years old. For younger consumers (<26 years) and older consumers (>65 years), the relationship between sustainable food behavior and the choice for healthy food is weak. These findings can be extremely useful in the communication and promotion of different types of sustainable food

The Absence of the Past as Future for the City: Reconstruction as Situated Modern Urbanism in Post-War Milano, Rotterdam, and Warsaw.

Following the Second World War, numerous European cities grappled with the challenging task of reconstruction. Despite the transformative impact of these reconstruction projects on the urban landscape of Europe, the historiography of urbanism tends to acknowledge them only minorly, often reducing them to the mere creation of new housing developments or city centres. However, the reconstruction plans for European cities went beyond surface-level planning of neighbourhoods or central city areas. They were intricately connected to specific instances of urbicide and involved elaborate negotiations with pre-existing social, legal, economic, technical and morphological conditions, as well as with prevailing agencies. Focusing on the cities of Milan, Rotterdam and Warsaw, this article argues that, due to their charged relationship with the existing fabric, urban reconstruction projects appear as alternative approaches to post-war urbanism. They emerge as exemplars of a ‘situated modern urbanism’ distinct from their counterparts, as they establish a modern urbanistic approach grounded in a highly nuanced understanding of the dimensions of time and agency