Novel taxonomy of sustainability soft and hard practices in the food supply chain

Abstract

The evidence on food supply chain sustainability practices (FSCS practices) is varied, fragmented and unstandardised. There is still no consensus about the meaning, components, empirical manifestations and impacts of FSCS practices. This paper uncovers/validates a new taxonomy of FSCS practices from a soft/hard management perspective. The procedure combines the general protocol of a systematic review with a taxonomic analysis based on critical incidents and agreement between judges. This study extracts 525 statements of sustainable practices from the literature. These are grouped into two hard/soft typologies, four dimensions, and 30 subdimensions. The taxonomy included both a mandatory core (‘operational management') and support functions of management and relational/cooperative social/environmental routines intra/inter-actors. The taxonomy enables to classify/describe/disseminate data/information/knowledge about the FSCS practices, and to plan/design initiatives favouring the practice/education of sustainability in food supply chains. This paper complements the traditional viewpoint in understanding supply chain management, using a more holistic perspective for managers.

KEYWORDS:

• Food supply chain
• sustainability practices
• hard practices
• soft practices
• systematic literature review

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable (the developed material is provided in this manuscript).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).