Editorial

摘要

Over the last decades, important changes have affected the world agriculture and food systems, in line with the structural changes of economies. In particular, the agri-food sector has been characterised by a remarkable process of industrialisation and globalisation, both in terms of the model and paradigms and of concrete practices associated with these (FAO, 2017; Lamine et al., 2014). These processes, in some way very fast, have had a significant impact on business structures, leading to a deep transformation of the organisational models and changing the company dynamics. Addressing these dynamics is then crucial in order to dominate key food and agriculture policy debates at the global level (Thompson and Scoones, 2009). Transition processes of agri-food systems at the territorial scale and not, highlight the linkages among farming systems, agri-food chains and several actors from production to consumption (Lamine et al., 2014). Indeed, food systems approach covers food, agriculture, and health fields (Neff et al., 2015). In this scenario constantly evolving, agribusiness firms, in order both to keep their advantage on the world market place, and to respond to the increasing consumer demand for sustainable products (Ross et al., 2015), have fielded efforts to introduce new organisational models and paradigms in their corporate cultures for pursuing both sustainability and efficiency (Rankin et al., 2011). Today, the concepts of sustainability and social responsibility in the agri-food systems have become of high significance for food and agricultural companies for the strong impact on the economy, the environment and on society (Hartmann, 2011). However, the power in the food chain has to be taken into account to achieve social responsibility (Spence and Bourlakis, 2009). These new dynamics incorporate important policy implications in small business, that highlight the value of food chain and systems approach (Ericksen et al., 2010). In this scenario, managers are constantly making decisions among strategic solutions to produce a competitive advantage in an attempt to earn above-average returns (Newton et al., 2015). Innovations, also triggered by environmental standards, play a fundamental role in the improvement of the business efficiency and performance and maintaining competitive advantage in global markets (Zouaghi and Sanchez, 2016). In fact, as assert Lapple et al. (2015) innovation in agriculture can contribute both to achieving increased quality products and simultaneously preserving the environment. Porter and van der Linde (2007) emphasise that the innovations enable businesses to make more productive use of business resources, thereby compensating the costs that they need to reduce the environmental impact. Numerous businesses, in order to survive to the competitive pressure of the market, have instead chosen to adopt a differentiation strategy. Is widely recognised that firms' differentiation strategy not only has a direct and significant impact on firm performance but also it has indirect and significant impact on firm performance through financial measures (Teeratansirikool et al., 2013). However, the adopted differentiation strategy allows to sustain the current performance of firm in the future, to a greater extent than a cost leadership strategy, despite having a greater systematic risk and more unstable performance (Rajiv et al., 2014).