IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v30y2023i2p589-604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises—Insights from a Delphi study

Author

Listed:
  • Rebekka Küchler
  • Birte Maja Nicolai
  • Christian Herzig

Abstract

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for a sustainable development of the food sector. Common tools to manage and improve business sustainability are not applied widely amongst food manufacturing SMEs yet. Therefore, this paper derives important aspects to consider for an SME‐suitable tool, based on an extract from a Delphi study. By conducting qualitative analysis of expert opinions, light is shed on needed initial requirements of a sustainability management tool for SMEs to use it. Furthermore, important conditions to create credibility are elaborated on, which can increase the application value of a sustainability management tool for SMEs. The different aspects hint at a sustainability management tool integrating not only sustainability assessment but also reporting and certification. With regard to content, the present paper recommends application of sustainability management tools for food manufacturing SMEs that take a holistic view on sustainability, including not solely the environmental but also social, economic and governance dimensions. The aspects explored through the present research lay a foundation for the development of a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing SMEs and can assist practitioners and researchers.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebekka Küchler & Birte Maja Nicolai & Christian Herzig, 2023. "Towards a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises—Insights from a Delphi study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 589-604, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:2:p:589-604
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2376
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2376
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2376?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beske, Philip & Land, Anna & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Sustainable supply chain management practices and dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 131-143.
    2. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513571011080144 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Li, Saiwei & Lopez, Rigoberto A. & Liu, Yumei, 2020. "Consumer preferences for sustainably produced milk in China," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304193, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Sala, Serenella & Ciuffo, Biagio & Nijkamp, Peter, 2015. "A systemic framework for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 314-325.
    5. Sarah Elena Windolph & Dorli Harms & Stefan Schaltegger, 2014. "Motivations for Corporate Sustainability Management: Contrasting Survey Results and Implementation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(5), pages 272-285, September.
    6. Roger L. Burritt & Stefan Schaltegger, 2010. "Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(7), pages 829-846, September.
    7. Johan Graafland, 2018. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Put Reputation at Risk by Inviting Activist Targeting? An Empirical Test among European SMEs," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 1-13, January.
    8. Larissa Shnayder & Frank J van Rijnsoever & Marko P Hekkert, 2015. "Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Why Sustainability Reporting Based on the Triple Bottom Line Can Be Misleading," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    9. Ki‐Hoon Lee & David M. Herold & Ae‐Li Yu, 2016. "Small and Medium Enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility Practice: A Swedish Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 88-99, March.
    10. von der Gracht, Heiko A., 2012. "Consensus measurement in Delphi studies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(8), pages 1525-1536.
    11. Ness, Barry & Urbel-Piirsalu, Evelin & Anderberg, Stefan & Olsson, Lennart, 2007. "Categorising tools for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 498-508, January.
    12. Roger L. Burritt & Stefan Schaltegger, 2010. "Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(7), pages 829-846, September.
    13. Barnes, Stuart J. & Mattsson, Jan, 2016. "Understanding current and future issues in collaborative consumption: A four-stage Delphi study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 200-211.
    14. José M. Moneva & Pablo Archel & Carmen Correa, 2006. "GRI and the camouflaging of corporate unsustainability," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 121-137, June.
    15. Grunert, Klaus G. & Hieke, Sophie & Wills, Josephine, 2014. "Sustainability labels on food products: Consumer motivation, understanding and use," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 177-189.
    16. Marco van Gelderen & Johan Wiklund & Jeffery S. McMullen, 2021. "Entrepreneurship in the Future: A Delphi Study of ETP and JBV Editorial Board Members," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1239-1275, September.
    17. Stefan Schaltegger & Sarah Elena Windolph & Christian Herzig, 2012. "A longitudinal analysis of the knowledge and application of sustainability management tools in large German companies," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 34(4), pages 549-579, December.
    18. repec:eme:mrn000:01409170910994178 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Bourlakis, Michael & Maglaras, George & Aktas, Emel & Gallear, David & Fotopoulos, Christos, 2014. "Firm size and sustainable performance in food supply chains: Insights from Greek SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 112-130.
    20. Jiyun Kang & Gwendolyn Hustvedt, 2014. "Building Trust Between Consumers and Corporations: The Role of Consumer Perceptions of Transparency and Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 253-265, December.
    21. D. Perez‐Sanchez & J. R. Barton & D. Bower, 2003. "Implementing environmental management in SMEs," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 67-77, June.
    22. Marco Lerro & Riccardo Vecchio & Francesco Caracciolo & Stefano Pascucci & Luigi Cembalo, 2018. "Consumers' heterogeneous preferences for corporate social responsibility in the food industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1050-1061, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oriana Gava & Fabio Bartolini & Francesca Venturi & Gianluca Brunori & Angela Zinnai & Alberto Pardossi, 2018. "A Reflection of the Use of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Agri-Food Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. José M. Moneva & Sabina Scarpellini & Alfonso Aranda‐Usón & Igor Alvarez Etxeberria, 2023. "Sustainability reporting in view of the European sustainable finance taxonomy: Is the financial sector ready to disclose circular economy?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1336-1347, May.
    3. Chege, Samwel Macharia & Wang, Daoping, 2020. "The influence of technology innovation on SME performance through environmental sustainability practices in Kenya," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    5. Lhermie, Guillaume & Wernli, Didier & Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard & Kenkel, Donald & Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia & Tauer, Loren William & Gröhn, Yrjo Tapio, 2019. "Tradeoffs between resistance to antimicrobials in public health and their use in agriculture: Moving towards sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Laura Broccardo & Elisa Truant & Lèo‐Paul Dana, 2023. "The sustainability orientation in the wine industry: An analysis based on age as a driver," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1300-1313, May.
    7. Burritt, Roger & Schaltegger, Stefan, 2014. "Accounting towards sustainability in production and supply chains," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 327-343.
    8. Elżbieta Izabela Szczepankiewicz & Przemysław Mućko, 2016. "CSR Reporting Practices of Polish Energy and Mining Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Jule Naffin & Johanna Klewitz & Stefan Schaltegger, 2023. "Sustainable development of supplier performance. An empirical analysis of relationship characteristics in the automotive sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1753-1769, July.
    10. Sgarbossa, Fabio & Russo, Ivan, 2017. "A proactive model in sustainable food supply chain: Insight from a case study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(PB), pages 596-606.
    11. Tobias Engelmann & Daniel Fischer & Marianne Lörchner & Jaya Bowry & Holger Rohn, 2019. "“Doing” Sustainability Assessment in Different Consumption and Production Contexts—Lessons from Case Study Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-25, December.
    12. Matthew Cohen, 2017. "A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Kishore Kumar & Ajai Prakash, 2020. "Managing sustainability in banking: extent of sustainable banking adaptations of banking sector in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5199-5217, August.
    14. Pei‐Chi Kelly Hsiao & Charl de Villiers & Claire Horner & Hein Oosthuizen, 2022. "A review and synthesis of contemporary sustainability accounting research and the development of a research agenda," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4453-4483, December.
    15. Kumar Mangla, Sachin & Börühan, Gülmüş & Ersoy, Pervin & Kazancoglu, Yigit & Song, Malin, 2021. "Impact of information hiding on circular food supply chains in business-to-business context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1-18.
    16. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    17. Jacob Hörisch & Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2015. "Implementation of Sustainability Management and Company Size: A Knowledge‐Based View," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 765-779, December.
    18. Naoum Tsolakis & Foivos Anastasiadis & Jagjit Singh Srai, 2018. "Sustainability Performance in Food Supply Networks: Insights from the UK Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-13, September.
    19. Troullaki, Katerina & Rozakis, Stelios & Kostakis, Vasilis, 2021. "Bridging barriers in sustainability research: Α review from sustainability science to life cycle sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    20. Etheldreder Trecia Koppa & Innocent Musonda & Sambo Lyson Zulu, 2023. "A Systematic Literature Review on Local Sustainability Assessment Processes for Infrastructure Development Projects in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-37, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:2:p:589-604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.