The determinants leading to the adoption of traceability: adaptation to the Tunisian date sector

ABSTRACT

Traceability is considered as a solution to the state of uncertainty related to the agro-food crisis of these last years. Here, we focus on traceability in the Tunisian date sector in which it is deployed through a strategic managerial approach and considered by us to be a managerial innovation undergoing a phase of adoption. Validation of this hypothesis is provided by a study carried out on three Tunisian export firms. The results provide determinants of the adoption of traceability based on Rogers’ theory of diffusion and adoption of innovation and stakeholders’ theory. The results also show that information and communications technologies are just supporters of this management approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Traceability
• Tunisia
• theory of diffusion and adoption of innovation
• information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• stakeholders’ theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This author considers a managerial innovation as ‘any program, product or technique which represents a significant departure from the state of the art of management at the time it first appears and which affects the nature, location, quality, or quantity of information that is available in the decision-making process’.

2. Often used in the concept of innovation management, the diffusion and adoption of innovation theory is itself based on several theories and approaches involving sociology, psychology and communication.

3. ISO 9000: 2005 (en). Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary (3.5.4).

4. (–) = The characteristic influences the innovative capacity of the firm negatively.

5. (+) = The characteristic influences the innovative capacity of the firm positively.

6. It provides ‘order tracking, data management (product, customer, supplier, manufacturing and storage sites) and management of links between batches and products at an aggregate level’ (Lecomte, Ta, and Vergote 2006, 46).

7. Freeman (1984, 46) defines a stakeholder as ‘any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives’.

8. The stakeholder’s power to influence the firm.

9. The legitimacy of the stakeholder’s relationship with the firm.

10. The urgency of the stakeholder’s claim on the firm.

11. The Tunisian date sector has strengthened its position in recent years to achieve, according to the latest statistics, 34% in 2014 (National Institute of Statistics – Tunisia).

12. The choice of these companies is assessed on the basis of data from GIFruits – Fruit Interprofessional Grouping (the information concerns the traceability project upstream and the list of members on the GIFruits website), from IMP – Industrial Modernization Program (data from a pilot project that complements that of GIFruits) and from GS1Tunisia – coding standards site (list of members from Tunisian date packagers).

13. We conducted 12 non-directive interviews with officials from nine partner institutions and organisations supporting the development of dates’ industry. These organisations are the Industrial Modernization Program (IMP), National Institute of Standardization and Industrial Property (INNORPI), the Packaging Technical Centre (PACKTEC), GS1Tunisia, the Agrifood Technology Centre (CTAA), House of Councillors in agriculture, Fruit Interprofessional Grouping (GIFruits), Office Upgrade (BMN) and National Association of Exporters of Fruits, Vegetables and Dates.

14. (a) Controlling product safety, origin and integrity; (b) reinforcing the firm’s competitive advantage; (c) promoting permanent control and evaluation; and (d) redefining relations between the various stakeholders.

15. We have provided to each interviewee a table with the list of different actors or partners (internal and external). We asked the interviewees to specify whether each of these actors have one of the identification stakeholder characteristics (power, legitimacy and urgency).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meriam Karâa

Meriam Karaa is Associate Professor of Management at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale – France, and member of ICI Laboratory (Information, Coordination, Incitations). She received her PhD degree from the Université de la Méditerranée Aix-Marseille II in 2010. Her research interests include global supply chain management and traceability. Meriam can be reached at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, IUT de Quimper, 2 Rue de l’université 29 334 Quimper Cedex, France. E-mail: [email protected].

Joëlle Morana

Joëlle Morana is Associate Professor of Financial and Sustainable Supply Chain Management at Lumière Lyon II University (Université Lumière Lyon II – France) and member of the Transport Economics Laboratory (LET – Laboratoire d’Economie des Transports). She is habilitated to supervise research (HDR – Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches). She has published several books, book chapters and papers in conference proceedings and academic journals. More details about her career are available at https://sites.google.com/site/joellemorana/home. Joëlle can be reached at the Laboratoire d’Economie des Transports, Institut des Sciences de l’Homme, 14 Avenue Berthelot, 69 363 Lyon Cedex 07, France. E-mail: [email protected].