African countries have comparative advantages in the production and export of primary commodities; however, they face many sustainability challenges in the agricultural sector. Since the democratization of many African countries, notably Ghana, there have been a number of interventions costing billions of dollars to overcome the challenges facing the agricultural industry but with little success. The agricultural industry is a complex system. Casual loop and Bayesian belief network modelling were used to develop systems models to determine the components and interactions between the policy and the social, environmental and economic dimensions of the industry. Insights into potential system behaviors and leverage points for systemic interventions required for sustainable agricultural development were identified. The systems models will help governments to anticipate the long‐term consequences of their decisions and actions, as well as help to avoid any unintended consequences of policies and strategies such as ‘silo mentality’ and ‘organizational myopia’. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the leverage points in the Vietnamese coffee supply chain (SC) that would be used for increasing competitive advantages of the product. Design/methodology/approach A sequential approach by combining two established modelling techniques (causal loop diagram and Bayesian belief networks) was applied to identify the leverage points in the Vietnamese coffee SC for increasing the competitive advantages of the product. Data for the study were collected from a series of workshops and in-depth interviews with numerous relevant stakeholders of the coffee industry in the central highland of Vietnam. Findings The systems’ archetypes were developed and a sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify potential factors that can increase the competitive advantages of coffee production. The results indicate that higher investment in all elements of the coffee SC will lead to an enhanced competitive advantage. Originality/value Supply chain management (SCM) has become a potentially valuable method for improving competitive advantages, as competition is no longer only between organizations but also among SCs. Therefore, this research focus on enhancing the competitive advantages of production via SCM.

Coffee supply chain management is the global operational strategy for enhancing the competitiveness of coffee companies. Enterprises are attempting to find ways to improve their competitiveness by changing their operation strategy through methods that include the implementation of the supply chain management paradigm. However, a thorough and critical review of existing literature is yet to be carried out in order to identify pertinent factors and gain useful insights into the role and effectiveness of causal loop modelling in coffee supply chain management. In this paper, researchers develop causal relationships among different variables that present enablers and outcomes -operating within many identified feedback loops. The resulting causal loop model provides coffee production managers with a snapshot of the dynamic interactions among elements in the coffee supply chain, which helps to identify proactive action in implementing the coffee supply chain philosophy for increasing the competitiveness of coffee products. Based on this review and analysis, recommendations are made regarding the application of the causal loop method in coffee supply chain management. Important future research directions are also indicated.