Digital Marketing as an Enabler of Sustainable Food System: The Mediating Role of Relationship Marketing

Abstract

In modern world, due to rapid development and burgeoning population, food security has assumed centrality to ensure a sustainable future. Food security stems from a close-knit food system that maintains smooth relationship among all the stakeholders. It is widely accepted that modern digital technology can play crucial role in accomplishing this objective through seamless communication and, thereby, strengthening mutual relationships. This paper is an attempt to test this proposition. Drawing on data from 25 Agricultural SMEs in and around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the study aims to examine the role of digital marketing in enabling a sustainable food system. Results supported our hypotheses that digital marketing led to the desired outcomes by enabling smooth marketing communication and enhanced mutual understanding. The paper also elucidated mechanism of the process by testing and validating mediating role of relationship marketing. We thus believe that the study contributed to the field of digital relationship marketing and the agri-food system. The paper also presents the practical implications of findings that are relevant to the policymakers and governments.

Keywords:

• Agribusiness management
• agri-food industry
• digital marketing
• SMEs
• sustainable food system

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the assistance that we received from the Addis Ababa university community

Disclosure statement

Dr. Hailemariam Kebede and Dr. Amit Shukla would like to submit the manuscript entitled “Digital marketing as an enabler of sustainable food system: the mediating role of relationship marketing” to be considered for presentation and publication as an original article.

We declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. Moreover, no conflict of interest associated with this publication, and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influence its outcome.