Innovative Supply Chain Ecosytem: The Case of the Italian Agritech Supply Chain

The core objective of this work is empirically to observe and to test sustainable innovative supply chain redesign through the investigation of the new ways to carry out R&D activities by supply chain actors, and also the type of involvement of these in the supply chain technological heritage redesign. The research presents the first results of a study on green supply chain management with reference to the most relevant strategic decisions by economic operators (food firms, Farmers, etc.) and not economic (innovation communities, start-up, etc.) on a wide range of evolutionary phenomena in the way of doing business. The critical yet underexplores in this sector role of innovation diffusion in sustaining digital innovation in evolutionary supply chain systems are examined. Although technological innovation is the cornerstone of this research, our results theoretically contribute to new ways of doing business in modern supply chains by highlighting the importance of the platform relationships, understood as formalized technological-operating procedures, and recognized by the operators (innovators, suppliers, buyer-firms, information services providers) of supply chain. The analysis of disruptive innovation diffusion in the Italian agrifood supply chain favours the investigation of the roles played by case studies - distinct yet interconnected parties (agri- suppliers, food manufacturing systems, manufacturing firms, platforms or hub academies) - within innovative agrifood supply chain systems. About the methodology adopted in the research, still underway, the inductive method was used with empirical verification, to correctly interpret the management phenomena that emerge regarding supply relationship management. During the empirical survey, six Italian firms belonging to various sub-sectors of Italian agrifood supply chain and located in Italy were taken into consideration. The analysis covered the period 2020 -2023 and involved the industrial firms, the agricultural providers, the industrial clients, and other economic operators (start-up, incubators, innovation communities, etc.) in the Italian agrifood supply chain.