Impact pathways: unravelling the hybrid food supply chain – identifying the relationships and processes to drive change
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 21 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the nature and operations of the supply chain that serves disadvantaged groups. With the increasing reliance on supplementary food provision through food aid, the authors seek to emphasise efficiency and sustainability in these supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interview data from 32 senior managers and experts from both commercial and food aid supply chains were abductively analysed to develop a relationship-based map of the food chains that serve disadvantaged groups.
Findings
Disadvantaged groups are served by a hybrid food supply chain. It is an interconnected supply chain bringing together the commercial and the food aid supply chains. This chain is unsurprisingly plagued with various challenges, the most critical of which are limited expertise and resources, operational inefficiencies, prohibitive logistics costs and a severe lack of collaboration.
Originality/value
This study identifies the currently limited role of logistics companies in surplus food redistribution and highlights future pathways. Additionally, the authors present useful actionable propositions for managers, practitioners and policymakers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is part of the outputs of the Food Systems Equality (FoodSEqual) project titled “Co-production of healthy and sustainable food systems for disadvantaged communities,” funded by the BBSRC under UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Funds. The authors hereby acknowledge the efforts of the FoodSEqual Consortium for their support in authoring this work. For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising. Data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from m.bourlakis@cranfield.ac.uk. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
Citation
Sawyerr, E.A., Bourlakis, M., Conrad, D. and Wagstaff, C. (2023), "Impact pathways: unravelling the hybrid food supply chain – identifying the relationships and processes to drive change", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-05-2023-0362
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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