Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business

 

Special Issue on: "Sustainability in Agribusiness"

Guest Editors:
Prof. Eugenio Pomarici, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Dr. Antonino Galati, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy

Regardless of the broad consensus on its importance, a high degree of variability can be observed both in how sustainability in agriculture is defined (Hansen, 1996; Lewandowski et al., 1999; Sands and Podmore, 2000; Heller and Keoleian, 2003) and how it is pursued in practice in the policy-making process. Moreover, the general public in developed countries tends to associate sustainable agriculture with a large set of values underpinned by conservation of the environment, safe food, animal welfare and economic support for small and family farmers (VanLoon et al., 2005).

Indeed, agribusiness companies face many incentives as well as pressures and challenges for pursuing sustainability, coming both from the marketplace where consumers demand agricultural goods and in the supply chain where organisations demand growing efficiency and effective communication (Rankin et al., 2011). Thus agribusinesses today must balance a wide and continually evolving array of demands and challenges deriving from environmental and social concerns.

The initial focus on conserving the natural resource base upon which agricultural activities depended has broadened to include a wide amount of priority areas, ranging from the impact of pesticides and fertilizers in fields to the release of particulate matter, odours and greenhouse gases in all steps of the production and distribution processes, to several social issues related to workers rights, local development, community welfare and so on. Therefore achieving the goal of long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability in the agriculture and agri-food sector has become a more pressing and increasingly complex challenge.

All of this has motivated the Research Committee in Agribusiness of the EuroMed Research Business Institute (EMRBI) to organise this special issue. Therefore academics interested in this topic are invited to submit papers related to the topics below.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Sustainability and value creation for consumers
• Sustainability, firm organisation and network creation
• Social sustainability and agribusiness: critical issues and opportunities
• Economic sustainability and agribusiness: conceptualisation and operative tools
• Individual and collective experience to improve sustainability in the agriculture and food industry
• Sustainability labels: opportunities, risks and management
• Sustainability and chain relations in the agribusiness
• Politics and strategies to encourage sustainable consumption

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

Abstracts (max. 1000 words), along with any questions, should be emailed to the Guest Editors:
Eugenio Pomarici: pomarici@unina.it
Antonino Galati: antonino.galati@unipa.it

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Submission of long abstract (max. 1000 words): 15 October, 2014

Notification of acceptance of abstract: 15 November, 2014

Submission of full paper following acceptance of abstract: 31 January, 2015

Notification of acceptance, refusal or revision of full papers: 1 April, 2015

Final versions due by: 1 June, 2015