In this paper we use a combination of behavioral and new institutional economic perspectives to look at the transactions of “sustainable‐oriented” foods (e.g. organic food, fair trade, etc.) which often assume the characteristic of credence goods. When credence attributes are involved in...

Increasing competitive pressures as well as growing requirements with regard to quality and safety pose a continuous challenge for farmers in European agrifood netchains. Against this background, the significance of network‐wide collaboration has been pointed out in recent years – especially...

In this paper we analyse different strategies used by Italian organic farmers to create value from credence food production. More specifically, we consider the following strategies: participation in policy support programmes (i.e. rural development measures and agro‐environmental schemes),...

This paper outlines how a team work approach, recently suggested in institutional economics to overcome the problem of externalities, can be used to promote better food quality. Cost sharing as “team work” is considered a novel institution to improve food quality by giving incentives to...

Traceability can serve various purposes in the food sector, including that of chain quality control. However, the aspects that seem to be most frequently required of traceability are those related to food safety. Nevertheless, traceability systems development has recently shifted its focus from...

Increases in water demand due to population growth, industrial development and urbanization necessitate economically efficient use of water resources worldwide. This is particularly true in the dryland zones of the world relying on irrigated agriculture for economic development such as in...

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...

Together with the evolution from the agro-industrial model to the sustainable rural development model (Roep and Wiskerke 2004), a part of the agro-food market has evolved from an anonymous, mass food market to a quality-food market. This shift is driven by factors, such as the changing relations...

In addition to traditional marketing communication instruments, social media marketing has become a powerful tool of interaction with participants within supply chains. An increasing number of com-panies, especially in the US, are using social media platforms not only to market their products...

Assets are an important means of coping with adverse events in developing countries but the role of gendered ownership is not yet fully understood. This paper investigates changes in assets owned by the household head,his spouse,or jointly by both of them in response to shocks in rural...