Business Model Innovation for Sustainability in the Food Manufacture Industry: Moving Forward, by Tongshi Li, with Ying (Cathy Xu) and Heidi Wechtler
Since the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the food industry’s role in achieving these objectives has attracted attention due to its centrality in food production. One of the biggest challenges facing the food manufacturing industry today is environmental and social performance. World widely, about one-third of greenhouse gas and most water pollution are emitted and caused by the food manufacturing industry, highly processed and packaged food also increase the use of resources and generate more waste, and a record reported that 345 million people across 82 countries are facing acute food insecurity, up to 50 million people in 45 countries are right on the edge of famine and risk being tipped over without support (FAO, 2022).
Technological advancements, while offering significant opportunities, also present challenges in terms of adoption and integration. With the emergence of intelligent temperature control systems and high-efficiency motors, energy use in the production process can be optimized, resulting in a significant reduction in energy consumption for food manufacturing companies. In addition, the demands of stakeholders are also changing rapidly, consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable and healthier food, and investors are paying more attention to sustainable aspects. Moreover, the government has also shown its demand for sustainable enterprise performance. Many governments have issued regulations and plans. For instance, the EU's Waste Framework Directive sets out the overall framework for waste management and requires member states to adopt a waste hierarchy, namely prevention, reuse, recycling, and other forms of recovery (such as energy recovery), and finally, landfill. Nevertheless, the regulatory landscape is not unified, and this creates inconsistencies that are complex for organizations to navigate.
Therefore, investigating why companies are slow to make sustainable BM transformation actions and what the characteristics of companies are that successful transformation and innovation are crucial to driving companies to achieve sustainability. The overall research aim of this thesis is to explore how to promote enterprises to innovate their BMs for sustainability by exploring the antecedents of BMI with new perspectives (e.g. complexity theory, diversity theory).
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Tongshi Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tongshi-li/
Heidi Wechtler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-wechtler-9349a647/
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