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Organizational structures of alternative food networks,msc thesis ppt
1. MSc Thesis, MST Food Technology
Organizational structures of alternative food networks
fitting sharing economy principles.
– Case studies from Valencia.
Supervisors: Domenico Dentoni and Stefano Pascucci
Author: Isabel Miralles Lorenzo
Wageningen, The Netherlands, 28th August 2014
2. Content
Introduction
Problem description
Research questions
Methodology
Results
Conclusion and discussion
Questions
5. Alternative Food Networks (AFNs)
Source: http://rosiecreekfarm.com/csa/ http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/01/10/madrid/
1389388135_287043.html
6. Problem statement
Why are the sharing economy systems in the agricultural
and food sector not emerging more rapidly?
Institutional bottlenecks, like the existing EU policy
framework.
Unclear definition of the different AFNs concerning the
internal organization, infrastructure, distribution and network
options.
The high context-specificity of the distinct AFNs.
7. Research questions
What are the main types of AFNs fitting the principles of a sharing
economy that exist in the urban and peri-urban area of Valencia,
Spain, and their main commonalities and differences with regard to
other EU models?
1. Which set of principles shape the sharing economy activities?
2. What are the main characteristics of the most extended AFNs in a
European/Japanese context, based on a literature study?
3. What are the main organizational elements that characterize the
different AFNs in the urban and peri-urban area of Valencia?
4. What are the main commonalities and differences among the
organizational elements of the analysed AFNs in Valencia and the
ones in Europe?
8. Methodology
• An inductive approach
Observation Pattern Hypothesis Model
• Case study method
• Selection of case studies
Theoretical sampling
• AFNs fitting the principles of a sharing economy.
• AFNs settled in urban and peri-urban areas.
Snowball sampling
17. Conclusion and discussion
The researched AFNs in the urban and peri-urban
Valencia fit as sharing economy systems.
The main features of the AFNs in the urban and peri-urban
Valencia are translated in a framework for
further testing in the categorization of similar
initiatives.
AFNs in Valencia and other European/Japanese
models are comparable according to their
organizational structures but further research is
needed.
19. Comparing the main organizational characteristics of the AFNs
in Valencia and other European/Japanese models.
20. Questions?
Thank you very much!
Collaborative
consumption
Pool of
resources
& services
Distributed
power
Trust
Innovative
use of
assets
Small
economic
actors
The sharing economy features
Editor's Notes
This research can be seen, up to a certain extent, as an inductive approach, although some changes have been performed. The starting point is not directly the observation and data collection but it is the information derived from it the one that will guide and shape the research (Goddard & Melville, 2004). Hypothesis are absent at the beginning of the research and they will be driven after posterior reasoning from experience (Goddard & Melville, 2004). The case study method is recognized to be a suitable approach to understand the nature of the research problem and to inductively draw conclusions of the studied phenomena (Merriam S. B., 2002).
The perimeter of the peri-urban area of Valencia is established according to the following two premises in this research: firstly, the initiatives have to be settled not further than 18km from the city center and secondly, and of major importance, they must serve to urban consumers.
The selection criteria yielded a research population that could be divided into two different blocks: community gardens and consumer groups. A key study to determine the research sample derived from a previous study developed by Utópika and ISF (engineers without borders); two groups actively involved in academic research and associated with the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Literature review together with an online search, yielded 20 consumer groups and 12 community gardens meeting the requirements in the urban and peri-urban area of Valencia. However, the total population sample size was subjected to enlargement or reduction depending on the new information encountered on the field. The snowball sampling technique was especially applied to find out more community gardens as the information on Internet was scare and not accurate.
The complete sample consisted of 20 consumer groups and 19 community gardens and it was intended to gather information from the totality of cases. However, the final research sample consisted on 6 consumer groups and 12 community gardens. The reduction of the sample was not due to a selection process but the willingness to participate. In the first place, nearly half of the consumer groups did not respond to emails sent neither in Spanish nor in Valencian (dialect spoken in Valencia). In addition, a few responses were negative claiming that “we have participated twice in academic research during the last year and we have received no feedback”. Furthermore, the consumers that accepted to participate got involved in a long process with their group members in order to set a meeting date due to their assembly character. On the other hand, community gardens responded in greater number, faster and all with a positive attitude to participate. Nevertheless, in this case the main constrain was to find the contact, as no
