British Food Journal—Entrepreneurial Practices in Agri-Food Industry

Guest Editors: Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi, Arun Sukumar, Joan Lockyer

Entrepreneurship is generally considered crucial to the economic development and prosperity of societies (Acs et al., 2005; Jafari Sadeghi, Biancone, et al., 2019; Rubio-Bañón & Esteban-Lloret, 2016). In fact, launching new businesses not only creates employment, innovation and new markets that cause economic growth, but it also improves the quality of life at all levels of society for men and women (Elam, 2014; Sukumar et al., 2020). According to Davidsson (2003), entrepreneurship is a part of routine life, which contributes to society. Mitchell, Smith, Seawright and Morse (2000) and Baum and Locke (2004) explain it as the willingness of individuals to be self-employed. Raising the concept of readiness toward self-employment, Lau et al. (2012) consider entrepreneurship as not only linked to the individual's need for self-achievement (as a motive for business-creation) (Olugbola, 2017) but also as associated with the knowledge, skills and capabilities of those looking forward to creating a new business (Jafari-Sadeghi et al., 2020; Lim et al., 2010). In general, entrepreneurship can be explored in different perspectives. For example, scholars have focused on the country attributes (Bruton et al., 2008; Jafari Sadeghi, Nkongolo-Bakenda, et al., 2019), others on firm attributes (Zahra & Garvis, 2000), and still others who have identified individual attributes (Manolova et al., 2002).

When it comes to agricultural and food sector, entrepreneurship has been perceived as an important pillar that contributes to dealing with the challenges and rapid changes emerged in recent years (Gellynck et al., 2015; McElwee, 2006). This is particularly important since agricultural and food businesses have been pushed to align with obstacles including new trends in food safety, consumer habits, as well as changes in biotechnology and sustainability (Dias et al., 2019; Lans et al., 2017). In this vein, the adaptation of farmers and food entrepreneurs with the socio-economic changes, there has been an increasing interest among scholars in agri-food entrepreneurship research in recent years (Seuneke et al., 2013). On the hand, entrepreneurs have been constantly working to exploit new opportunities to address new scenarios through generating added value from their farm and food-oriented activities (Alsos et al., 2011; Vesala & Jarkko, 2008). As the food industry expands, technology is already starting to influence food production, patterns of consumption and distribution circuits (Garousi Mokhtarzadeh et al., 2020). Start-ups have quickly jumped on the food-tech bandwagon, transforming the dynamics of the food sector. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of mobile apps for preparing food, for food deliveries and even for restaurants reviews. Businesses are responding to this trend by offering new tech products and services that efficiently address these users' needs. These products and services are referred to as elements of the food-tech industry. Born from the alliance between innovative technology and the food industry, food-tech can be described as the application of technology to improve any stage of food production and distribution. Undoubtedly, improving the conditions and facilitating the creation of these start-ups can help boost business in the food industry. In this vein, it should be noted that although there is a major difference between agri-food sector and others such as high tech manufacturing, individuals who involved in value creation within farms and businesses related to food and agriculture are regarded as entrepreneurs (Vermeire, 2009). Therefore, agri-food entrepreneurship can be seen similar to the entrepreneurial field which deals with different phenomena such as innovation and technology advancement, corporate social responsibility, etc. Consequently, this call attempts to broaden the understanding of agri-food entrepreneurship as in dealing with different below topics.

• Innovation in Food Ecosystems
• Technology and Food Entrepreneurship
• Agri-Foods and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
• Rural Innovation
• Food and Agri-Tourism Entrepreneurship
• Social Enterprises and Food Ecosystems
• CSR and Food Entrepreneurship
• Agri-Family Businesses
• Entrepreneurial decision-making in the Food Sector
• Knowledge Management in Agri-Businesses
• Entrepreneurship and Food Network
• Food Entrepreneurship and Socio-Economic Development
• International Food and Small Agri-business Management

The submission deadline for all papers is 31st August 2021

The publication date of this special issue is January 2022 (Vol. 124 Iss. 4)

To submit your research, please visit: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bfj

To view the author guidelines for this journal, please visit: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=bfj

Please ensure you select this special issue from the relevant drop-down menu on page four of the submission process. If you have any queries, please contact the Guest Editors.

Dr Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi

School of Strategy and Leadership, Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University

Link to access the call: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/bfj/entrepreneurial-practices-agri-food-industry-advancing-research-agenda 

Acs, Z. J., Audretsch, D. B., Braunerhjelm, P., & Carlsson, B. (2005). Growth and entrepreneurship: an empirical assessment. Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Alsos, G. A., Carter, S., & Ljunggren, E. (2011). The handbook of research on entrepreneurship in agriculture and rural development. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Baum, R. J., & Locke, E. A. (2004). The relationship of entrepreneurial traits, skill, and motivation to subsequent venture growth. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(4), 587.

Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Obloj, K. (2008). Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Where Are We Today and Where Should the Research Go in the Future. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00213.x

Davidsson, P. (2003). The domain of entrepreneurship research: Some suggestions. In Cognitive Approaches to Entrepreneurship Research (pp. 315–372). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Dias, C. S. L., Rodrigues, R. G., & Ferreira, J. J. (2019). What's new in the research on agricultural entrepreneurship? Journal of Rural Studies, 65(September 2018), 99–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.11.003

Elam, A. B. (2014). Gender and Entrepreneurship. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Garousi Mokhtarzadeh, N., Amoozad Mahdiraji, H., Jafari-Sadeghi, V., Soltani, A., & Abbasi Kamardi, A. (2020). A product-technology portfolio alignment approach for food industry : A multi-criteria decision making with z-numbers. British Food Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2020-0115

Gellynck, X., Cárdenas, J., Pieniak, Z., & Verbeke, W. (2015). Association between innovative entrepreneurial orientation, absorptive capacity, and farm business performance. Agribusiness, 31(1), 91–106.

Jafari-Sadeghi, V., Kimiagari, S., & Biancone, P. Pietro. (2020). Level of Education and Knowledge, Foresight Competency, and International Entrepreneurship: A Study of Human Capital Determinants in the European Countries. European Business Review, 32(1), 46–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-05-2018-0098

Jafari Sadeghi, V., Biancone, P. Pietro, Anderson, R. B., & Nkongolo-Bakenda, J.-M. (2019). International entrepreneurship by particular people 'on their own terms': a study on the universal characteristics of entrepreneurs in evolving economies. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 37(2), 288–308.

Jafari Sadeghi, V., Nkongolo-Bakenda, J.-M., Anderson, R. B., & Dana, L.-P. (2019). An institution-based view of international entrepreneurship: A comparison of context-based and universal determinants in developing and economically advanced countries. International Business Review, 28(6), 101588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.101588

Lans, T., Seuneke, P., & Klerkx, L. (2017). Agricultural entrepreneurship. In Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (pp. 44–49). Springer.

Lau, V. P., Dimitrova, M. N., Shaffer, M. A., Davidkov, T., & Yordanova, D. I. (2012). Entrepreneurial Readiness and Firm Growth: An Integrated Etic and Emic Approach. Journal of International Management, 18(2), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2012.02.005

Lim, D. S. K., Morse, E. A., Mitchell, R. K., & Seawright, K. W. K. (2010). Institutional environment and entrepreneurial cognitions: A comparative business systems perspective. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(3), 491–516. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00384.x

Manolova, T. S., Brush, C. G., Edelman, L. F., Greene, P. G., & Bremen, S. B. (2002). Internationalization of Small Firms Personal Factors Revisited. International Small Business Journal, 20(1), 9–31. https://doi.org/0803973233

McElwee, G. (2006). Farmers as entrepreneurs: developing competitive skills. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 11(03), 187–206.

Mitchell, R. K., Smith, B. J., Seawright, K. W., & Morse, E. A. (2000). Cross-cultural cognitions and the venture creation decision. Academy of Management Journal, 43(5), 974–993.

Olugbola, S. A. (2017). Exploring entrepreneurial readiness of youth and startup success components: Entrepreneurship training as a moderator. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 2(3), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2016.12.004

Rubio-Bañón, A., & Esteban-Lloret, N. (2016). Cultural factors and gender role in female entrepreneurship. Suma de Negocios, 7, 4–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sumneg.2015.12.002

Seuneke, P., Lans, T., & Wiskerke, J. S. C. (2013). Moving beyond entrepreneurial skills: Key factors driving entrepreneurial learning in multifunctional agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 32, 208–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.06.001

Sukumar, A., Jafari-Sadeghi, V., Garcia-Perez, A., & Dutta, D. K. (2020). The potential link between corporate innovations and corporate competitiveness: evidence from IT firms in the UK. Journal of Knowledge Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2019-0590

Vermeire, B. (2009). Absorptive capacity and innovation in the agrifood sector: role of regional networking and uncertainty. Ghent University.

Vesala, K. M., & Jarkko, P. (2008). Understanding Entrepreneurial Skills in the farm context. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick.

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