International collaboration formation in entrepreneurial food industry: evidence of an emerging economy

Abstract

PurposeInternational collaboration is a crucial requirement of entrepreneurship, particularly in developing emerging economies. This collaboration seems so necessary in the food industry as a major contributor to environmental, social and economic problems. This paper aims to identify, analyse the influential network relationship and prioritise the key success factors (KSFs) of international collaboration formation in the entrepreneurial food industry with a case study on Iran's emerging economy.Design/methodology/approachTo identify a list of KSFs, a qualitative method, literature review, is initially used. A quantitative method, fuzzy-Delphi, then is employed to finalise the main KSFs based on the entrepreneurial food industry experts' opinion. To analyse the causal relationship, and prioritise the KSFs, a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-analytic network process (ANP) methodology, i.e. FDANP, is applied. At the first stage, the cause–effect diagram of KSFs is extracted using fuzzy DEMATEL and then, the KSFs weights and priorities are evaluated using a fuzzy ANP.FindingsThe results illustrate that the characteristics of effective development workers are the leading dimension of a successful international collaboration that directly affects other dimensions. On the other hand, increased marketing and trading is the most important KSF that is directly related to international entrepreneurial collaboration team capabilities and professionalism. The leading and casual role of team members also plays a vital role in strategic and communication issues affecting the collaboration success, e.g. market research and new product development. Availability of financial resources and the ability of partners in continuous financing is also a crucial and required factor for a successful collaboration.Originality/valueUsing an extensive review of the literature to extract the KSFs of international entrepreneurial collaboration and finalising them using a fuzzy-Delphi method and examining the cause-effect relations between them, as well as prioritising the KSFs are the main contributions of this paper.

Evolution of entrepreneurship research in the food sector: a bibliometric review

“…Second, there has been a growing trend in recent years of publications on these topics. This indicates that there is a strong interest both in the academic community and among professionals in the sector who are starting new businesses to learn more about specific aspects of the food sector (Hajiagha et al, 2022;Umarov, 2021). In this respect, sustainable development has emerged as an emerging research topic and food safety as a cross-cutting issue of major interest.…”

The role of Industry 4.0 technologies on performance measurement systems of supply chains during global pandemics: an interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy approach

“…However, the advantages of qualitative and quantitative mixed methods have recently been highlighted to gain more reliable and precise results (Jafari-Sadeghi et al, 2021). Besides, the importance of considering the uncertainty of the environment as well as the hesitation and intuition of experts have been highlighted by recent scholars to gain such valid and reliable results (Hajiagha et al, 2021). In this domain, the combination of the fuzzy-Delphi technique and new uncertainty approaches, e.g.…”

“…In this domain, the combination of the fuzzy-Delphi technique and new uncertainty approaches, e.g. hesitant fuzzy (HF) and intuitionistic fuzzy are recommended by recent scholars to screen and finalize research items (Hajiagha et al, 2021). On the other hand, the interaction between SCPMSs and IDT has not been yet researched to adopt a well-suited technology for each SCPMS to improve SC performance.…”

“…However, the advantages of applying qualitative and quantitative mixed methods have been emphasized by recent scholars to attain more reliable results (Jafari-Sadeghi et al, 2021). The integration of the SLR and fuzzy-Delphi method is such a well-known mixed method for extracting and screening the research items (Hajiagha et al, 2021). To the best knowledge of the authors, the integration of the Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Hesitant Fuzzy (IVIHF)-Delphi has not been yet developed and has been introduced in this article.…”

“…, 2021). The integration of the SLR and fuzzy-Delphi method is such a well-known mixed method for extracting and screening the research items (Hajiagha et al. , 2021).…”