Case Study

Strategic Corporate Responsibility in the Food Chain

  1. Pasi Heikkurinen1,2,*,
  2. Sari Forsman-Hugg1

Article first published online: 20 FEB 2011

DOI: 10.1002/csr.257

Issue

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

Volume 18, Issue 5, pages 306–316, September/October 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Heikkurinen, P. and Forsman-Hugg, S. (2011), Strategic Corporate Responsibility in the Food Chain. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Mgmt, 18: 306–316. doi: 10.1002/csr.257

Author Information

  1. 1

    MTT Agrifood Research Finland

  2. 2

    University of Vaasa, Finland

*Pasi Heikkurinen, MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790 Helsinki, Finland.
E-mail: pasi.heikkurinen@mtt.fi

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 29 SEP 2011
  2. Article first published online: 20 FEB 2011
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 16 DEC 2010
  4. Manuscript Revised: 13 DEC 2010
  5. Manuscript Received: 11 OCT 2010

Funded by

  • Tekes
  • Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and the firms

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Keywords:

  • strategic corporate responsibility;
  • corporate responsibility;
  • strategy;
  • food chain;
  • resource-based view;
  • case study

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy. The aim is to identify how strategic corporate responsibility (CR) intentions are in the Finnish food chain and analyse how competitiveness could be enhanced and sustained with strategic CR. The theoretical framework is built on a contextual definition from a resource-based view. A multiple case study method was deployed and the data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews. It was found that the case companies aim at increasing their chain's competitiveness with CR. The food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy with varying depth and breadth. This results in four types of strategic CR combinations, namely: beyond-responsive & holistic; beyond-responsive & arrowhead; responsive & holistic; and responsive & arrowhead. The strategic CR combination that is rare, inimitable, and for which competitors cannot find substitutes, can yield a sustained competitive advantage and above-normal economic performance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.

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