Authors: Delma Poniman; Joanne Sneddon; Sharon Purchase
This paper develops a conceptual framework for traceability systems in Halal food supply chains, specifically from the business network perspective. The paper brings together two areas of research: food traceability and innovation within business networks. The Halal food industry comprise of about 16% of the entire global food industry. With the demand for Halal food increasing worldwide, the integrity of Halal food is always questioned, particularly when no unified Halal standard exists in the market. In Australia in particular, not all of its Islamic Organizations’ Halal certifications are accepted in the global Halal food markets. For example, only the following four out of seventeen Australian Halal certifications are accepted worldwide, they are Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc. (AFIC), Australian Halal Food Services (AHFS), Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria (ICCV) and Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc. (SICHMA). The remaining thirteen certifications are only accepted in limited markets. Therefore, there is potential for a Halal food product traceability system to provide transparency of information surrounding food processing and allow customers to be able to track and trace the process involved in food preparation.Business networks are groups of interdependent relationships, such that successful product innovation requires the resources of the whole network rather than a single actor (Håkansson and Snehota 1995). The implementation of a food traceability system from farm gate to retail shelf can be considered a network innovation as changes to business activities are required by all actors involved in the network.The focal point of this paper is to examine the factors influencing the adoption and implementation of a traceability system by all actors in the network. The IMP group approach to business network research has been drawn upon to consider innovation within a network context. The proposed framework will integrate a framework for product traceability systems (Regattieri, Gamberi and Manzini, 2007) into the Activity-Actor-Resource-Idea (AARI) model in business network (Welch and Wilkinson, 2002). The framework will address innovation in the supply chain through the adaptation of the traceability system in the network of a manufacturing company, involving buyer-seller relationships at each business functions from farm-to-fork. A case study approach will be employed in this study. As previous research has largely concentrated on theory building, the development of an integrated traceability and AARI framework using an empirical case study will seek to address gaps in the literature regarding industry applications in analysing buyer-sellerrelationships. Furthermore, many previous studies have addressed traceability systems from the consumers’ perspective, whereas, this paper will contribute to the business network literature in the area of change and innovation adaptation in buyer-seller relationships in the context of traceability.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2012
Conference: Rome, Italy (2012)