Exports or public procurement to resist in the post-pandemic world? How e-commerce appeases this food and beverage SMEs ambidextrous dilemma

Jacopo Ballerini, Daniele Giordino, Luboš Smrčka and Francesca Culasso

European Journal of Innovation Management, 2023, vol. 26, issue 7, 715-750

Abstract: Purpose - Food and beverage (F&B) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must diversify their markets and obtain predictable sources of revenues to withstand difficult and volatile periods such as the post-pandemic geopolitical scenario, recently burdened by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. On the other hand, another strand of the literature suggests that public procurement could be considered a great source of income, enabling solid contracts, revenues and cash-flow stability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the role of public procurement, the adoption of e-commerce platforms and their interactions in affecting the exporting performances of SMEs operating in the F&B sector. Design/methodology/approach - The study retrieves data from 2,186 Italian F&B manufacturing SMEs relying on Margò by Cribis database. Therefore, it conducts a structured equational model (SEM) to test the developed hypotheses empirically. Findings - The findings reveal that digital selling platforms positively affect exports, whereas public procurement negatively affects F&B SMEs exports. Nonetheless, findings underline that the interaction between public procurement and the adoption of digital selling platforms dampens public procurement's negative effects on exports. Originality/value - This study brings an original contribution to the F&B literature by conducting empirical research on an extensive sample of firms from one of the most influential countries in the F&B vertical, Italy, with officially registered data. More importantly, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study pioneers the investigation of the relationship between public procurement and e-commerce platforms in affecting F&B SMEs' export performances.

Keywords: Public procurement; E-commerce; Resilience; E-commerce platforms; F&B; Export; Ambidexterity; Agility; Cross-border e-commerce; SMEs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-01-2023-0021

DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-01-2023-0021

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