L.H. Aramyan

Performance measurement in agri‐food supply chains: a case study

Purpose – Measurement of the performance of entire supply chains is an important issue because it allows for “tracking and tracing” of efficacy and efficiency failures and leads to more informed decision making with regard to chain design. However, the choice of appropriate supply chain performance indicators is rather complicated due to the presence of multiple inputs and multiple outputs in the system. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the usefulness of a novel conceptual model for supply chain performance measurement in an agri‐food supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model for integrated supply chain performance measurement is evaluated in a Dutch‐German tomato supply chain by means of a case study approach.Findings – The proposed conceptual framework is found to be useful for measuring performance of the tomato supply chain. From the case study it is concluded that four main categories of performance measures (i.e. efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness, and food quality) ar...

Performance indicators in agri-food production chains

The last decade has seen an increasing interest in indicators of supply-chain performance. A large number of various performance indicators have been used to characterize supply chains, ranging from highly qualitative indicators like customer or employee satisfaction to quantitative indicators like return on investments. This large number of different performance indicators, and the lack of consensus on what determines performance of supply chains, complicates the selection of performance measures. Furthermore, combining these indicators into one measurement system proves to be difficult. Efforts as well as progress have been made in this area but supply-chain performance measurement received little or no attention in the field of food and agribusiness. This paper provides a literature review on existing performance indicators and models, and discusses their usefulness in agri-food supply chains. Furthermore, based on this overview, a conceptual framework is developed for further research in this area.

A conceptual framework for supply chain governance: An application to agri‐food chains in China

Purpose - Chinese agri-food chains consist of the millions of small scale farmers, who are not well structured and organized in the supply chain. Owing to market liberalization and globalization, one of the most challenging issues along agri-food chains in China is becoming the issue of how to link these small-scale farmers into the modern chains. Consequently, it is essential for both policy makers and private sectors to understand the governance structure in agri-food supply chains. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for supply chain governance, including its antecedents and consequences, as well as a series of hypotheses for empirical testing. Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual framework of chain governance is proposed in this study, where governance structure consists of two dimensions: contractual governance and relational governance. The study intends to propose a complementary relationship between contracts and relational aspects, such as trust, in the Chinese context. Future research is needed to empirically test this model. Findings - The proposed conceptual model is unique, since the majority of the articles addressing this topic focuses on contract farming while limited research touches upon the issues of trust and relations. However, a combination of both contracting and relationships are seldom addressed. Originality/value - This paper evaluates a novel concept of two dimensional governance structure in the agri-food supply chain, where transaction cost economics theory and relational theory are combined to study the governance relationships between small scale producers in China and their buyers.