AUTHOR=Otter Verena , Robinson Douglas M. 

TITLE=Transparency and changing stakeholder roles in the digital age of sustainable agri-food supply chain networks

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1449684

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2024.1449684

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Society and policy demand greater food system sustainability, driving practitioners to increase supply chain network transparency through digital innovation. Uncertainties regarding the structuring of relationships with primary and secondary stakeholders for sharing intangible data and information diminishes the potential for exploitation of digital transparency. While businesses are accustomed to organizing efficient flows of tangible goods, management research integrating digital transparency considerations to investigate and conceptualize structural changes in agri-food supply chain networks is scarce. This gap motivates the following four questions of this study: (1) Who are the primary and secondary stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain networks of the digital era? (2) What are their transparency interests? (3) How do agri-food supply chain network structures change with the emergence of digital innovations that can facilitate sustainability transition through greater transparency? (4) How to conceptualize those structural changes to agri-food supply chain networks? The netchain approach and respective transparency concept is integrated with classical stakeholder theory. Data was collected via a series of 21 semi-structured pilot interviews with technology providers in the EU agri-food sector and analysed using structured content analysis. Results paint a complex picture of contemporary primary and secondary stakeholders of agri-food supply chain networks and their interests. Primary stakeholder interests lead to coopetition in vertical and horizontal relationships of the netchain and low transparency efforts by intermediaries. Both hamper the dissemination of digital innovations and the exploitation of their potential to improve agri-food supply chain network sustainability. Among secondary stakeholders, policy makers and governments, NGOs, and technology providers excel in being drivers of digital transparency for sustainability, with social media as a strong direct communication tool to reach netchain stakeholders, consumers, and research institutes/universities as collaborators and customers. The emergence of ‘Information AFSCN’ and ‘Digital AFSCN’ increases the complexity of the whole supply chain network through intermediation, reconfiguration and emergence modes of change to underlying structures. Agri-food business managers, scientists and policy makers should innovate in private and public governance to facilitate collaborative advantage and sustainability in a combination aligned with innovative digital transparency solutions.