Sustainable development and supply chain coordination: The impact of corporate social responsibility rules in the European Union food industry

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility has become a strategic asset for food firms to demonstrate their good environmental conduct. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the implementation of corporate social responsibility activities on the reorganization of vertical relationships within food supply chains. Applying content analysis techniques to the Global Reporting Initiative reports, we collected qualitative data on investments in environmentally friendly options, the adoption of standards, stakeholder engagement, information searches, impact-monitoring activities, and chain coordination to transform it into quali-quantitative data. We find that the variables affecting chain coordination relate to the presence of sourcing standards, effort in discussing with chain partners ways to prevent and manage chain environmental impacts, and costs related to stakeholder feedback collection. The results of the analysis confirm corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool to improve supply chain relationships through an augmented vertical coordination and to integrate environmental policy.

Consumers’ Attitudes for Sustainable Mountain Cheese

“…Thus, driven by the increase of consumers' environmental sensitivity and the emerging demand for environmental-friendly food products, agri-food producers have embarked on a path of sustainable techniques implementation for their productions, together with the communication of these new strategies to their consumers [2]. The communication of sustainability is a key asset for success in the global market [3] and consumers' sensitivity to environmental issues has become strategical in producers' choices to increase their prices, reputation and to differentiate productions [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Incentive Decision for Supply Chain with Corporate Social Responsibility and Lag Effect

“…Two differential equations can be obtained by substituting Equation (16) and Equation 18into Equation (15) and Equation 17, respectively. By observing the characteristics of the differential equation, the specific expressions of functions…”

“…Substituting Equation (22) into Equation (1), and according to the boundary conditions of the state equation T(0) = T 0 , the optimal trajectory expression of the level of CSR of supply chain can be obtained as shown in Proposition 2 2 . Substituting T d * and Equation 22into Equation 2, and according to the boundary conditions of the state equation G(0) = G 0 , the optimal trajectory expression of supply chain reputation can be obtained as shown in Proposition 2 3 ; substituting Equation 22into Equation (15) and Equation (17) to obtain the optimal profit functions of manufacturer and retailer, respectively, as shown in Proposition 2 4 . Corollary 1.…”

“…Hosseini Motlagh et al (2019a) considered the optimal pricing, sustainability level, and CSR decision of reverse supply chain under demand disruption [8]. Stranieri et al (2019) studied the impact of CSR activities on the relationship restructuring of the food supply chain [15]. Hosseini Motlagh et al (2019b) and Jokar et al (2019) took CSR investment as an important decision-making in the context of supply chain, and analyzed the coordination of supply chain under scenario demand [4,5].…”

Recent Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research in the Field of Sustainable Development

“…Food production is one of the economic activities that poses major pressures on the environment [79,80]. Focusing on climate change, which is one of the major challenges that society is facing, agriculture, forestry, and land use change are responsible for 20-24% of global greenhouse gas emissions [8].…”