Evolution of Short Food Supply Chain Innovation Niches and Its Anchoring to the Socio-Technical Regime: The Case of Direct Selling through Collective Action in North-West Portugal

Fabíola Sostmeyer Polita and Lívia Madureira
Additional contact information
Fabíola Sostmeyer Polita: Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Lívia Madureira: Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-24

Abstract: This paper employs MLP (Multi Level Perspective) applied to a study on the transition to SFSC (short food supply chain) innovation taking place in North-West Portugal. MLP allows capturing transition phenomena and analysing them from a perspective that posits intervening factors and events on a three-level scale. Emphasis is laid on the institutional actors and factors that influence these processes, namely the Three Interrelated Analytic Dimensions and Types of Anchoring. Methodologically, personal interviews were conducted with 34 farmers who either are carrying out SFSC initiatives, or have dropped out, or even have never considered participating in them. A process of anchoring the innovation to the local socio-technical regime has been identified, characterised by a low buy-in from institutions and stakeholders. The anchoring that has been found has the peculiarity of occurring only in some points of the intersection between niche and regime, in a process in which it survives bordering this threshold, thanks to the mobilisation of multiple innovations. This type of anchoring, not yet described in the literature, draws attention to a possible pathway that innovations can follow, and brings implications for projects and for policy proposals to support the agroecological transition.

Keywords: transitions; multi-level perspective; short food supply chains; anchoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13598/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13598/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13598-:d:698426

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().