Title: Identifying knowledge brokers, artefacts and channels for waste reduction in agri-food supply chains

Authors: Huilan Chen; Shaofeng Liu; Guoqing Zhao; Festus Oderanti; Cécile Guyon; Biljana Mileva Boshkoska

Addresses: University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, UK ' University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, UK ' University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, UK ' University of Hertfordshire, Room M233, deHavilland Campus, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK ' Bretagne Développement Innovation, 1, Bis Route of Fougères, 35510 Cesson-Sévigné, France ' Faculty of Information Studies, 'Jožef Stefan' Institute, Ljubljanska cesta 31a, 8000 Novo mesto, Slovenia

Abstract: Knowledge mobilisation has been proven crucial to increasing organisation's efficiency, improving profitability and achieving competitive advantage. The paper aims to explore an approach to integrating knowledge mobilisation within agri-food supply chains to enhance collaboration of all value chain actors and achieving a holistic reduction of waste. The research focus will be on the identification of knowledge brokers, artefacts and channels in order to facilitate knowledge mobilisation crossing boundaries to reduce agri-food wastes. Cauliflower from Brittany, France's largest cauliflower production and export region, provides the data underlying the following analysis. Research methods include semi-structured interview and documentation for data collection and thematic analysis for data analysis. This study has great potential in helping make the right supply chain decisions for eliminating lean wastes in agri-food industry.

Keywords: knowledge mobilisation; knowledge brokers; artefacts; knowledge channels; muda (waste) reduction; agri-food supply chains.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSAMI.2018.099238

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, 2018 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.273 - 289

Received: 18 Oct 2018
Accepted: 14 Jan 2019
Published online: 23 Apr 2019 *

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