Organizing the Co-Production of Health and Environmental Values in Food Production: The Constitutional Processes in the Relationships between Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups and Farmers

Gaetano Martino, Giulia Giacchè and Enrica Rossetti
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Gaetano Martino: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX giugno, 74, Perugia 06124, Italy
Giulia Giacchè: European University of Brittany, University of Rennes2 - 5 Boulevard Laënnec 35000 Rennes France
Enrica Rossetti: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX giugno, 74, Perugia 06124, Italy

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: The paper focuses on the Solidarity Purchasing Group (SPG), defined as a group of households that establishes an organization primarily to provide food to its members. The study aims at illustrating and testing two hypotheses. The first is that within the group, specific organizational processes take place according to which food communication practices determine the resource use objectives. The second hypothesis is the SPG tends to assign larger values to health and environmental protection than other resource use objectives. These hypotheses concern the ranking of the resource use objectives managed by the group. The idea is that an SPG defines the resource uses according to the specific group’s objectives and by means of organizational tools, especially the food communication practices. For testing purposes, we conducted an empirical analysis by submitting an online questionnaire to 900 Italian SPGs. The results firstly indicate that the organizational dimensions of SPGs, including the relationships between SPGs and farmers, influence the group objectives, providing empirical evidence that supports the first hypothesis. Moreover, the test of the second hypothesis indicates that group objectives concerning health and environmental protection are particularly valued by the SPGs. We then conclude that the groups are aimed at co-producing health and environmental protection with public authorities. We then underlined limits of the study and potential future research paths.

Keywords: solidarity purchasing groups; organization; constitutional process; co-production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:316-:d:66839

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