Food systems in transition: conceptualizing sustainable food entrepreneurship

Abstract

This paper presents the sustainable food entrepreneurship framework (SFEF). It aims to further the understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in the sustainability transition of the food system, especially in the context of food system relocalization. The framework conceptualizes sustainable food entrepreneurship as a cyclical ongoing process of change. We argue this enables transcending the behaviour of entrepreneurs and their enterprises and map the ongoing development they fit into. The framework is based on literature reviews and expert interviews in the Dutch city-region of Almere-Flevoland. Theoretically, it expands on effectuation and bricolage theory, i.e. the 'resourcefulness perspective', that centres the socio-material context in the entrepreneurial process. The framework assumes the uncertainty of sustainability incites a cyclical process of change and implores entrepreneurs to reflect on the past before imagining the future. These imagined futures must be fitted to the socio-material context before emerging as artefacts (e.g. products, services or firms), which incites new uncertainties and a new cycle of change. Our framework has implications for policy and science. Its temporal dimension, that accentuates the continuous change entrepreneurship spurs, incites a reevaluation of terms such as 'success' and 'failure'. Moreover, it stresses the importance of intermediary actors in facilitating entrepreneurship.

Between ambitions and actions: how citizens navigate the entrepreneurial process of co-producing sustainable urban food futures

“…This province was created by reclaiming land from the sea in the mid-twentieth century, primarily for agricultural purposes. Almere emerged in the seventies to accommodate the increasing population pressure of the nearby city of Amsterdam (Jansma and Wertheim-Heck 2021 ; van der Gaast et al 2022a ; van der Gaast 2023 ). The last decade, the city of Almere prioritizes food policy as manifests in their signing of the Milan Food Policy Pact and the hosting of the international horticultural festival of the Floriade.…”

Sustainability in times of disruption: engaging with near and distant futures in practices of food entrepreneurship

“…Recently, cities such as Almere are reconnecting with their agricultural hinterland and have started to position themselves as green growing cities. This results in policy that foregrounds sustainable and healthy food, which has a profound influence on food entrepreneurship as well (Van der Gaast et al, 2020, 2021).…”

Community and Cultural Entrepreneurship and Value Co-Creation in the Local Food Marketscape

“…The re-localization of food production and consumption and the generation of associated pro-community impacts (e.g., cultural preservation, environmental stewardship, health and wellness, social justice) is heavily dependent on entrepreneurs who intentionally confine the scale of their firms to localized boundaries and short supply chains [1,[7][8][9]]. Yet, the efficacy of entrepreneurship as a strategy for advancing the local food movement is a point of debate.…”

“…Similarly, local food entrepreneurs are faced with a persistent "dilemma of scale" due to the precarious balance between a steadfast commitment to the local food movement agenda and the economic constraints that come from limiting production and distribution to confined, highly dense local marketspaces [8] (p. 629). Surprisingly, there is a paucity of research on the strategies local food entrepreneurs pursue to sustain their firms in ways that do not compromise the 'localness' of their operations or their alignment with the local food movement agenda [8,9]. In other words, how local food entrepreneurs work to escape the local trap and overcome the dilemma of scale without neglecting their commitments to generating pro-community impacts are under-studied.…”