A knowledge mobilisation framework for lean supply chains in agri-food industry

Agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) play an important role in achieving United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal of reducing hunger. However, AFSC have many special characteristics, for example, the products flow through AFSCs are perishable, have relatively short shelf-life and are exposed to rough and uncertain production environment (such as bad or unpredictable weather conditions). AFSC management usually requires concerted solutions and actions from the whole supply chain to avoid severe various risks and disasters. Increasing efficiency and eliminating waste across all stages of the AFSC have attracted great attention from researchers and practitioners in recent years. This calls for the exploration of classic lean principles and developing new lean management approaches. This project sets the research context in AFSC and focuses on investigating knowledge mobilisation across boundaries for achieving lean performance, that is, to eliminate any non-value-adding activities and use of resources in AFSC. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach by combining semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey to collect empirical data from AFSC stakeholders. The empirical study consists of two phases: a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase. During the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with AFSC stakeholders from seven countries across Europe (UK, France, Italy, Poland and Spain) and South America (Chile and Argentina). The interview data were analysed using thematic and comparative analysis. During the quantitative phase, over 300 valid survey questionnaires were collected and analysed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method. Main findings of the study include the development and validation of a Knowledge Mobilisation (KMob) framework. A conceptual KMob framework was developed via a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The conceptual KMob comprises three key building blocks: (1) key factors affecting knowledge mobilisation in AFSC; (2) boundary-spanning mechanisms; and (3) supply chain lean performance KPIs. Based on the data from the qualitative phase, an empirical KMob framework is developed which refines the content of the building blocks. Two categories of boundary-spanning mechanisms in the second building block (i.e. boundary practice and boundary discourse) were removed, one new category of the boundary-spanning mechanism (i.e. boundary interactions) was added, and two other categories (i.e. boundary objects and boundary spanners) were extended and enriched with new meanings. In the first building block, three out of eleven key factors (continuous improvement, time and cost) were also removed. By the end of the quantitative phase, the relationships between the second and third building blocks have been quantified in the context of lean management in AFSC, hence the resulting KMob framework at the end of quantitative phase is considered validated. There are both theoretic and practical contributions from the study. Firstly, an innovative KMob framework has been developed. It is the first systematic KMob framework addressing knowledge mobilisation across boundaries in AFSC. This KMob framework makes clear contribution to new knowledge. Secondly, the KMob framework has been empirically tested and validated in AFSC, demonstrating positive impact of three categories of boundaryspanning mechanisms (i.e. boundary objects, boundary spanners and boundary interactions) on five supply chain lean performance KPIs (i.e. inventory reduction, quality assurance, lead-time reduction, on-time delivery and smooth operations flow). It is the first time the impact relationships were quantified in real AFSC at such big scale (crossing geographic, cultural, social and organisational boundaries). Thus, the findings have managerial implications for knowledge management, supply chain management and lean management.