FooDization · The role of digital data for food cleaner production innovation and cleaner value proposition.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-06-01 → 2023-05-31
- EU contribution
- €151,851
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The role of digital data for food cleaner production innovation and cleaner value proposition.
Why does FooDization deserve to be studied? Food is essential to human health and prosperity. This cannot be denied. Nevertheless, food production causes many environmental hazards, such as overexploitation of natural resources (e.g., water, vegetation, and animal life). Moreover, the human population is expected to increase in size and longevity, so the demand for food will grow, putting more pressure on natural resources. Therefore, shifting towards cleaner food production is critical and urgent for human society, which can also attract consumer preferences. Although the introduction of digital technologies in the agri-food sector has led to increased accuracy and better quality of products, enhancing the sustainability of farming, food production still prompts severe consequences for the natural environment, especially regarding food waste, pollution and the overexploitation of natural resources. Hitherto, there is still a substantial imbalance between the natural resources’ regeneration time and the pressure imposed by the market. The discrepancy between Nature and market timings is why studying the concept of agility applied to Nature is vital. FooDization employs a qualitative multiple-case study research design aiming to unpack the complex relationship between digital transformation, agility, and environmental sustainability in the agri-food industry.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Food is essential for life but its production causes the overexploitation of natural resources. Customers’ awareness of sustainable food production is only poorly growing. Still, the ecosystem is sending explicit signs requiring an urgent shift towards cleaner food production which also must capture the consumer’s preference because sustainable economic growth is not achievable without significant changes in firms and customers’ behaviour. Digital transformation is pivotal to cleaner production. The most helpful for firms is to exploit the digital data generated by digital technologies about the use of natural resources during food production to reduce environmental impact. Yet, we still lack a clear understanding of how food production firms are exploiting digital data to foster cleaner production innovations and shape the value proposition. FooDization aims to explore how food firms employ digital data to innovate their production process and how cleaner production innovation influence value proposition. An expected contribution is a theoretical framework which (1) will explain how digital data are employed by food firms to make cleaner production innovations; (2) will show how cleaner production innovation affects value proposition; (3) will display the indirect relationship(s) between digital transformation and value proposition. In doing so, FooDization will lead to a new concept, the cleaner value proposition that is defined as an ecological value – created by the exploitation of production digital data – that firms promise to deliver to customers if they buy their cleaner-innovated-products. FooDization’s managerial guidelines might help food firms recognise how cleaner value proposition better attracts new conscious customers. In the food sector, this could help firms achieve competitive advantage by improving not only food production efficiency in the use of natural resources but also create a more sustainable and appealing value proposition for customers.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- BUDAPESTI CORVINUS EGYETEM · BudapestCoordinatorHungary
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101030185
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652622039488
Data: CORDIS, © European Union