Food Traceability and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Conceptual Model for Corporate Sustainability

Abstract

The expansive and complex nature of the global food supply chain presents major challenges to firms in the industry. Ensuring that quality, safe and nutritious food is adequately produced, processed, and distributed timely across the globe to meet the nutritional requirements of the ever-growing population is paramount. This should be met while simultaneously achieving corporate social, economic and environmental sustainability. To achieve this, effective information sharing using traceability systems is critical as it guarantees food security, food safety, and increases transparency in the food system. However, several factors affect the decision of firms to adopt traceability technologies including social factors (social interest versus firm interest), economic factors (cost-benefit concerns) and technological factors (perceived ease of use and perceived benefits) as well as food safety and quality concerns, and presence or absence of standardization and legislations. Since the food industry is a business that directly affects the health of people and there is lack of uniformity in the adoption of traceability system, the decision by firms to adopt food traceability system should be founded on the grounds of moral legitimacy (business ethics) through anchored on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. This will help safeguard stakeholders’ (consumers) health against food safety risks. However, evidence of the role of CSR in moderating the relationship between firms’ decisions to adopt food traceability systems and the attainment of corporate sustainability goals is yet to be investigated, hence the focus of this review. This review article therefore proposed a conceptual model to explain the moderating effect of CSR on the relationship between traceability system adoption and corporate sustainability. The review inferred that CSR plays a complementary role in promoting the adoption of traceability technologies by food supply chain companies to achieve corporate social, economic and environmental sustainability performance objectives. The finding has several implications for practice, policy and theory formulation.