Raffaella Cagliano – författare

The sustainability of agri-food supply chains is particularly relevant for global sustainable development. Many existing food production systems do more harm than good. They compromise the natural rhythms of the Earth, introduce toxins, and therefore sacrifice future capability for current demands – the opposite of sustainable development norms. The existing system is also unbalanced with respect to its capacity to produce, the amount of waste it generates, the number of people who suffer from hunger, and the nutritional value it provides. Most of the current supply chains have been developed within the classic economic paradigm, where scale and leverage drive choices towards more profitable models. As a consequence, finding new ways to produce, distribute and consume food is a morale, financial, and environmental necessity. Sustainable development and triple bottom line perspectives provide the logic for questioning this paradigm. This book presents and discusses nine cases of organizational innovation in food supply chain, covering different phases of food production, facing different challenges, and proposing different solutions to the challenge of sustainable food development.

This book is intended as atribute to Gianluca Spina, the influential and inspiring Professorof Business Management & Organization and Supply Chain Management at theSchool of Management of Politecnico di Milano, who very sadly passed away earlyin 2015. It brings together seven of his most important papers, published inrenowned international journals, and supplements these papers with insightfulcommentaries from friends and colleagues who highlight key messages and valuesof enduring validity. The selected papers offer a clear sense of Spina’sresearch journey over the years and cover the main research streams thatdistinguished his work. They have also been chosen on account of their highimpact, as reflected by the number of citations received, and to represent the mostimportant research collaborations that Spina had established within Italyand abroad. An introductory chapter relates his research to major developmentsin the field of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Strategy and also outlines thevery important contribution that Gianluca Spina made to Management Education.