Governance and trust in sustainability-based agri-food value chains. A comparative analysis of five cases in Germany

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

Sustainable Food Systems

Victoria Dietze¹  Pascal Grohmann¹  Peter H. Feindt¹  Christine Krämer² 

[1] Agricultural and Food Policy Group, Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany;Institute of Rural Studies, Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Braunschweig, Germany;Projektbüro mareg markt + region, Ippesheim, Germany;

关键词: credence goods;    information assymetries;    hybrid governance;    trust;    coordination;    external effects;    food systems;    transformation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fsufs.2023.1130895

 received in 2022-12-23, accepted in 2023-05-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Value chains that generate an increased willingness to pay among consumers by offering enhanced levels of sustainability are widely discussed as an important strategy for creating new business opportunities and fostering food system transformation. Previous research has highlighted the importance of governance arrangements to secure the trust necessary for the establishment of sustainability-based value chains. However, how different coordination designs by private and public actors along the value chain affect trust formation is not well understood. To address this question, this paper combines the concepts of hybrid governance and multidimensional trust to guide a comparative analysis of five sustainability-based agri-food value chains in Germany as exemplary case studies. The findings show that different types of governance activities are necessary to build the capacity to address four different sources of trust: dispositional, affinitive, rational and procedural trust. Building trust capacities facilitates coordination of activities along the value chain and reliable delivery of sustainability-related value propositions. In all five cases, governance arrangements and building of trust capacities were geared towards increasing willingness to pay. Sustainability-based agri-food value chains have therefore limited potential to internalize the agri-food sector’s substantial negative externalities.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Grohmann, Dietze, Krämer and Feindt.