https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5510-1920
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Abstract
The agri-food supply chain (AFSC) is an extremely complex structure that comprises a series of events from farm-to-fork. Additionally, there is a wide range of information and material flows that require to be managed, which are seen as the knowledge flow in the AFSCs. It is expected that the use of knowledge governance mechanisms (KGMs) will help in enhancing AFSC performance. To examine the impact of KGMs on AFSC performance, a mixed methods research design was applied. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Then, themes were generated through thematic analysis. Afterwards, relationships between KGMs and AFSC performance were built by using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM). Finally, questionnaire-based structured interviews were undertaken to evaluate the empirical and theoretical findings further. The research results indicate that trust-, reciprocity-, market-, and contract-based KGMs have positive effects on product quality, efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness, and process quality of AFSC. Furthermore, market-based KGM, located in the lowest level in the TISM hierarchy, should be given additional focus due to its role as a key force driving the higher level of AFSC performance and other KGMs. The findings provide AFSC practitioners with useful guidance on how the relationships between KGMs and AFSC performance should be managed to improve the performance of AFSC.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Guoqing Zhao
Guoqing Zhao is a PhD student at University of Plymouth, UK. He obtained his Master’s degree from Cardiff University, UK. His main research interests including knowledge management, agri-food supply chain resilience, and agri-food supply chain risks. He has published several research papers including those on high quality international journals such as Computers in Industry, Production Planning & Control, International Journal of Production Research, and International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics. Currently, he works for the Horizon 2020 RUC-APS project.
Jorge Hernández Hormazabal
Dr. Jorge Hernández Hormazabal is the Director of studies for the Business Analytics and Big Data Master programme and Associate Professor at University of Liverpool Management School. Dr. Hernández leads the areas of Operations and Simulation Management in the field of Agri-Food and HealthCare. Dr. Hernandez obtained his PhD in industrial Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València from Spain in 2011. His PhD thesis received the award to the extraordinary international best Ph.D. Thesis dissertation in 2014 and in 2016 Dr. Hernandez received the award to best researcher by the University of Liverpool Management School. In 2009, he received a special award recognition for his pioneering work on Collaborative Supply Chain Management on Reverse Logistics. With more than 20 years of professional experience in developing and applying modelling, simulation and optimization management methods in industries in the field of Agri-Food, Healthcare and Manufacturing, Dr. Hernandez focuses in gathering current and up-to-date challenges, requirements, and constraints to produce research with an IMPACT focus and high quality research. Currently, Dr. Hernandez is the Principal Investigator of the £1.3m H2020 RUC-APS project, which is about enhancing agri-food value chains under uncertainty in UK, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, China, Chile and Argentina, and is composing by more than 100 researchers and is leading research and impact outcomes. In addition, the research work of Dr. Hernandez is directly connected to projects funded by BBSRC, GCRF, INTERREG, ERDF funding schemes in the areas of supply chain management of agri-food products under the impact of climate change and changes in trade regulations.
Sebastian Elgueta
Sebastian Elgueta is a Researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Pesticide Residues and Environment at Agricultural Research Institute INIA, Centre La Platina Santiago-Chile where he has been working since 2016. As well, he is an Associated Professor at Faculty of Veterinarian and Agronomic Sciences at University Las Americas, Santiago-Chile since 2018. He obtained a BSc (2002), MSc (2009) and PhD (2013) in the field of environmental sciences at University La Frontera Chile and University Federico II Naples Italy. His research interests are related to pesticides residues in food, water and soil as well their impacts in the environment and human health. One of his main research is the health risk assessment due to pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables. He published over 20 scientific papers and chapter books in different editorial such as ScienceDirect, Springer, Taylor & Francis Group, MDPi. In his professional carrier he coordinated/collaborated in national and international projects dealing with chemical contaminations in the environment, food safety and management in the agri-food value chain, and spent >20 months at different eminent research and academic institutions in Europe. Currently, he works in the Horizon 2020 RUC-APS project.
Juan Pablo Manzur
Dr. Juan Pablo Manzur currently works as a consulting specialist on new technologies in agriculture (indoor farming, plant factory). He has long experience in horticulture, doing research in genetics, molecular biology and agricultural plant science. He has worked on several vegetal breeder topics: tissue culture (embryo rescue, virus cleaned), molecular markers (microsatellites development, marker assisted selection), interspecific hybridization (Capsicum spp., Solanum spp.), etc.
Shaofeng Liu
Shaofeng Liu is Professor of Operations Management and Decision Making at University of Plymouth, UK. She is currently the Associate Head of School for Research and Innovation for Plymouth Business School. Her main research interests and expertise are in knowledge management, decision support systems, business digitalization and e-commerce, as well as enterprise information systems applications for supply chain management, resource efficiency, process improvement, quality management and value chain innovation. She obtained her PhD degree from Loughborough University, UK. She has undertaken a great number of influential research projects funded by UK research councils and European Commission with a total value of over €40M. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator for three Horizon 2020 projects funded by European Commission. She has published over 180 peer-reviewed research papers.
She sits on the Management Board for Euro Working Group on Decision Support Systems, an international professional society dedicated to decision making and decision support systems. She is the Associate Editor for International Journal of Decision Support System Technology (IJDSST) since 2015 and for Journal of Decision Systems (2013–2018), and Senior Editor for Cogent Business and Management (2015–2019). In 2020, she published a new book on ‘Knowledge Management - An Interdisciplinary Approach for Business Decisions’. For more details, please refer to her professional website: http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/sliu1
Huilan Chen
Huilan Chen is a PhD student of Business Management in the University of Plymouth. Most of her research has focussed on knowledge management programmes and their impact on lean supply chain performance. Her main fields of research interest are situated in the domain of agri-food supply chain management.
Carmen Lopez
Carmen Lopez is a lecturer in marketing at the University of Southampton. Her research interests lie in the areas of international marketing and social media. Her work has been published in highly regarded journals including Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Computers in Human Behaviour, Computers in Industry, and International Journal of Production Research.
Dulekha Kasturiratne
Dr. Dulekha Kasturiratne is an Associate Professor in Marketing at the University of Plymouth, UK. Her forte lies in supply chain analysis but also teaches consumer behaviour, marketing and innovation to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her doctoral thesis on the topic of ‘Value, Relationships and Competitive Advantage in the Sri Lankan Tea Industry’ at Imperial College London, won the Emerald/EFMD award for the Most Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Marketing Strategy in 2007. She has also won numerous University awards for her work in internationalization. She has led and been involved in various consultancy projects exploring food supply chains with the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), and the FORD foundation’. She is an accomplished researcher and has published in many top ranking academic journals.
Xiaoning Chen
Xiaoning Chen is a PhD student of Business Management in the University of Plymouth. She obtained her bachelor and master degree from the University of Plymouth, UK. Her main research has focussed on the foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth of developing countries, and agricultural economics. Her work has been published in several international conferences.