"During the last decade, sector wide crises in agriculture have rapidly followed each other, resulting in serious consumer concerns about the quality and safety of agri-food products. To prevent new crises, governments have developed quality regulations and retailers have introduced quality management standards. However, concerns have been raised about the administrative burdens placed on firms, because they must comply with many private and public quality regulations. Therefore, both government and firms strive for more integration and self regulation of quality management systems. By combining managerial and economic theory, this study builds a framework to demonstrate the impact of integrated quality management on self regulation and performance. Using empirical evidence from the poultry meat, the fruit and vegetable and the flower and potted plant chains, this study shows that integrated quality management systems positively affect performance and self regulation. However, it is necessary to find committed partners that share the firm’s quality objectives. In most cases, too strict enforcement of quality requirements is destructive, initiates conflict and does not lead to higher performance. Furthermore, governmental agencies should focus on innovative approaches to assure quality. Not legislation, but factors such as media attention and corporate social responsibility enlarge the integration of quality management systems. This book is recommended for a broad audience of professionals, practitioners and policy makers who concern themselves with the design, management and assessment of quality management and self regulation in agri-food supply chains."

Food quality incidents have made societal concerns on food safety grow worldwide. In the developed world, academics and practitioners explore food quality using a supply chain perspective. In transitional economies, such as China, this perspective is largely unexplored. This book addresses food quality and firm performance improvements through supply chain integration and quality management in China’s pork processing industry. Data were collected from Chinese pork processing firms. This book shows the relationship between quality management practices and firm performance. Factors that influence firm performance include in-company quality management, supplier/customer quality management, employee involvement and integrated governance mechanisms. This book is a valuable resource for practitioners of meat processing enterprises, as well as academic researchers with an interest in the areas of agri-food supply chain governance, quality management and firm performance in transitional economies.

In this book the results are presented of a comprehensive inventory of pork chains that has been conducted through expert interviews and in-depth case studies. The main focus of the book is on how well diverse and fragmented supply in the European pork sector matches differentiating demands for pork products in rapidly evolving markets. One of the central topics discussed in the book is management of quality in diverse mainstream and specialty European pork chains. Inter-enterprise information systems, governance forms, logistics and sustainability aspects of European pork chains are also presented, as well as a number of interesting innovations in the chains. 'European pork chains' consists of four chapters that discuss the European pork chain as a whole and nine chapters that present case studies. The latter comprise three specialty pork chains (Iberian ham from Spain, Mangalica pork from Hungary, and organic pork from the Netherlands) and three regional pork chains in Europe (a Greek integrated chain, the German 'Eichenhof' chain and the French 'Cochon de Bretagne' chain). To enable comparison with chains outside Europe, a review of pork chains in China, Canada, Brazil and South Africa has been included. The book gives a comprehensive picture of the structure, functioning and challenges of the European pork sector. It is intended to be a valuable source of information for practitioners as well as scientists.

Globalization of business markets and the rapid development of information technology are making information management more and more important. By combining managerial and economic theory, this book builds a framework to demonstrate facilitating factors for inter-organizational information exchange and the effects of information exchange on supply chain compliance and business performance. We have strong indications, both theoretical and empirical, that such an integrative conceptual framework is needed to grasp the complexity of information exchange between business partners. Using empirical evidence from the poultry chain in Mainland China, this book supports the complementary roles between contractual governance and trust in the process of improving the willingness to communicate. It also proposes that communication quality needs to be broader than information quality. Finally, it illustrates that in order to stand out from main competitors, companies should not only commit to realizing more potential communication benefits for themselves, but also for their main partners. Different solutions for buyers and suppliers in optimizing their business performance are also discussed. This book is recommended for a broad audience of professionals, practitioners and policy makers who concern themselves with information management, supply chain management, channel relationship management and performance management.

Presenting the gradual evolution of the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE), and the technical, social methods and tools that have been developed, including the many theoretical and practical challenges that still exist, this book serves to summarize the achievements and current challenges of CE and will give readers a comprehensive picture of CE as researched and practiced in different regions of the world. Featuring in-depth analysis of complex real-life applications and experiences, this book demonstrates that Concurrent Engineering is used widely in many industries and that the same basic engineering principles can also be applied to new, emerging fields like sustainable mobility. Designed to serve as a valuable reference to industry experts, managers, students, researchers, and software developers, this book is intended to serve as both an introduction to development and as an analysis of the novel approaches and techniques of CE, as well as being a compact reference for more experienced readers.

Verena Brenner provides a systematic approach for the investigation, measurement, and management of supply chain disruptions. A terminological, theoretical and practical basis for the analysis of supply chain disruptions is developed to create a consistent and transferable research framework. To better understand why certain supply chains are more susceptible to disruptions than others, this framework is then tested empirically in cold chain logistics. Based on a survey with approximately 60 supply chain specialists from production, distribution and retail of food and pharmaceuticals, drivers for resilience and vulnerability of supply chains are identified by comparing how partnerships and transactions were organized. Thereby, strategies for assuring the robustness of supply chains are depicted and connections to company-internal risk management are highlighted.

Since the turn of the Millennium, world-wide initiatives from the private sector have turned the regulatory environment for food businesses upside down. For the first time in legal literature this book analyses private law initiatives relating to the food chain, often referred to as private (voluntary) standards or schemes. Private standards are used to remedy flaws in legislation, in order to reach higher levels of consumer protection than the ones chosen by the EU legislature and to manage risks and liability beyond the traditional limits of food businesses. We see that litigation is no longer solely framed by legislative requirements, but ever more by private standards such as GlobalGAP, BRC, IFS, SQF and ISO. These private standards incorporate public law requirements thus embedding them in contractual relations and exporting them beyond the jurisdiction of public legislators. Other standards focus on corporate social responsibility or sustainability. This book also addresses how private religious standards such as Kosher and Halal play a role in defining specific markets of growing importance. It is noted that organic standards have found an interesting symbioses with public law. Another development on this topic is that food businesses are inspected more often by private auditors than by public inspectors. Effects in terms of receiving or being denied certification far outweigh public law sanctions. In short private law has changed an entire legal infrastructure for the food sector. It emerges as competing with the public law regulatory infrastructure. This book is of interest to all who concern themselves with food law legislation and litigation and the evolving role of private standards on changing the landscape of food chains and innovation.

An interdisciplinary framework for managing sustainable agrifood supply chains Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks provides an up-to-date and interdisciplinary framework for designing and operating sustainable supply chains for agri-food products. Focus is given to decision-making procedures and methodologies enabling policy-makers, managers and practitioners to design and manage effectively sustainable agrifood supply chain networks. Authored by high profile researchers with global expertise in designing and operating sustainable supply chains in the agri-food industry, this book: Features the entire hierarchical decision-making process for managing sustainable agrifood supply chains. Covers knowledge-based farming, management of agricultural wastes, sustainability, green supply chain network design, safety, security and traceability, IT in agrifood supply chains, carbon footprint management, quality management, risk management and policy- making. Explores green supply chain management, sustainable knowledge-based farming, corporate social responsibility, environmental management and emerging trends in agri-food retail supply chain operations. Examines sustainable practices that are unique for agriculture as well as practices that already have been implemented in other industrial sectors such as green logistics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks provides a useful resource for researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, regulators and C-level executives that deal with strategic decision-making. Post-graduate students in the field of agriculture sciences, engineering, operations management, logistics and supply chain management will also benefit from this book.

The SAGE Handbook of Nature offers an ambitious retrospective and prospective overview of the field that aims to position Nature, the environment and natural processes, at the heart of interdisciplinary social sciences. The three volumes are divided into the following parts: INTRODUCTION TO THE HANDBOOK NATURAL AND SOCIO-NATURAL VULNERABILITIES: INTERWEAVING THE NATURAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES SPACING NATURES: SUSTAINABLE PLACE MAKING AND ADAPTATION COUPLED AND (DE-COUPLED) SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS RISK AND THE ENVIRONMENT: SOCIAL THEORIES, PUBLIC UNDERSTANDINGS, & THE SCIENCE-POLICY INTERFACE HUNGRY AND THIRSTY CITIES AND THEIR REGIONS CRITICAL CONSUMERISM AND ITS MANUFACTURED NATURES GENDERED NATURES AND ECO-FEMINISM REPRODUCTIVE NATURES: PLANTS, ANIMALS AND PEOPLE NATURE, CLASS AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY BIO-SENSITIVITY & THE ECOLOGIES OF HEALTH THE RESOURCE NEXUS AND ITS RELEVANCE SUSTAINABLE URBAN COMMUNITIES RURAL NATURES AND THEIR CO-PRODUCTION This handbook is a key critical research resource for researchers and practitioners across the social sciences and their contributions to related disciplines associated with the fast developing interdisciplinary field of sustainability science.

This Open Access book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues. The multidisciplinary and multi-organisation research team steered a four-year action-research process in two territories of France. It also presents: i) the key dimensions to be considered when dealing with agroecological transition: diversity of agriculture models, management of uncertainties, polycentric governance, autonomies, and role of actors’ networks; ii) an operational and original participatory process and associated boundary tools to support local stakeholders in shifting from a shared diagnosis to a shared action plan for transition, and in so doing developing mutual understanding and involvement; iii) an analysis of the main effects of the methodology on research organisation and on stakeholders’ development and application; iv) critical analysis and foresights on the main outcomes of TATA-BOX, provided by external researchers.