Sustainable purchasing in food retail: inter-organisational management to green food supply chains

Despite the perceived role of retailers to realize corporate supply chain responsibility, retailers face a number of structural and managerial challenges to effectively influence the sustainability parameters in upstream supply chain. At the same time, research that touches upon implementation of sustainable sourcing by food retailers is limited leaving aside the inter-organisational managerial implications for influencing and ensuring sustainability compliance of suppliers products and operations. The aim of current paper is to analyze and explain the inter-organizational governance approaches by food retailers to effectively influence and coordinate sustainability issues arising in the upstream supply chain. The paper is of relevance for retailers who aim to implement sustainability in food supply chains. It informs retail practitioners about the choice of inter-organisational management approaches that are better fitted to deliver sustainability outcomes depending on the specificities of the purchasing context. The paper also contribute to policy-makers understanding of challenges which food retailers face in the process of greening food supply chains.