Factors Influencing Contractual Choice and Sustainable Relationships in European Agri-Food Supply Chains.Pdf

Rosella Pampanini and Gaetano Martino

Contributing to the Analysis of the Sustainability Management in the Organization of the Green Procurement: Theoretical Elements and Empirical Evidence from a
Case Studie
Rossella Pampanini and Gaetano Martino
Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Food Science, University of Perugia, Italy [e-mail] 1 Introduction
The introduction of the environmental dimensions within the Public Administration procurements and contracts is increasingly held as contribution to the sustainability of the chains governance.
The so called Green Procurement (COM (2001) 274, l.n.488/1999) thus represents an important institutional innovation in Agri-Food Chains and it may potentially act as driver of changing toward a better rooted managerial approach to sustainability.
Fritz and Schiefer (2008) underline the variety in the definition of food chain and networks and the role of both the concept of cooperation (Omta et al., 2001) and of the evolution of business relationships. In this context the search for sustainability models requires that the long-term development paths have to balance the improvements in monetary benefit–cost balance and the society’s consideration of the benefit–cost balance to assure acceptance and sustainability. While interdisciplinary efforts are required in order to draw and to assess the patterns of change of the enterprises and of the chains (Fritz, Schiefer, 2008), the role of the governance structures and strategies has also to be investigated. The real meaning and scope of the sustainability management have to be carefully investigated and accounted for (Ilbery, Maye, 2005). Fischer et al. (2009) emphasize the role of firm level factors in designing the approaches to the management of sustainability. Despite the need for involving all the chains agents (Fritz, Schiefer, 2008),
Hamprecht et al (2005) underline the difficulties in structuring efficient actions and patterns of behaviours at

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