Mauriello, Roberto (2025) Technological Innovation for Sustainability in the Agrifood Industry: Investigating Challenges, Opportunities and Impacts. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

The agrifood industry faces unprecedented challenges trying to balance economic goals with sustainable development. Companies are under growing pressure to ensure a reliable supply of safe, high-quality food while reducing environmental impacts and addressing societal concerns. Governments demand that agrifood companies comply with stringent regulations, ensuring supply chain safety and accountability, while consumers require companies to provide transparency and reliable information about their products and operations. Consistently, scholars increasingly turned their attention to the sustainable transition of the agrifood industry, highlighting the role of technological innovation in reconciling economic and sustainability performance. However, while the connection between technological innovation and environmental sustainability has been extensively explored in the literature, essential aspects of the topic remain under-investigated. Indeed, the impact of innovative technologies on the social sustainability of agrifood companies has been mostly overlooked. Moreover, existing research focused mainly on conceptual studies, with limited empirical investigations into the challenges and opportunities posed by technological innovation from a managerial perspective. This thesis aimed to help bridge these gaps through a combination of conceptual and empirical studies. The investigation began with a review of the main applications of innovative technologies in the agrifood industry. This step enabled a reflection on how Industry 4.0 technologies may influence the performance of three fundamental types of agrifood supply chains, by matching technological applications with supply chain features, goals, and dynamics. Following this review, the thesis shifts focus to the relationship between technological innovation and social sustainability in the agrifood industry. Consequently, the next phase involved defining and testing a conceptual model to assess the impact of innovative technologies on the sustainable management of human resources, supply chains, and stakeholder relationships, including governments and consumers. This contributed to the literature by providing a reliable framework for assessing the social implications of technological innovation in agrifood supply chains. The final chapters of the thesis focus on a particularly relevant case: the adoption of blockchain-based tracking systems in the wine industry. By exploring this topic, the thesis addressed a notable gap in the literature concerning the lack of empirical studies on the social impact of innovative technologies within the agrifood sector. Through a multiple case study, an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with blockchain adoption in the Italian wine industry was conducted. This led to the identification of key requirements that a blockchain-based solution must possess to address the needs of Italian wineries. Finally, the outcomes of such investigation were exploited through a collaboration with partner company Euro.Soft s.r.l. to develop a prototype of a blockchain-based solution tailored to meet these requirements. This enabled an investigation of how blockchain adoption compares with currently available solutions.

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