Corporate Perspectives on Responsibility and Sustainability in the Food System: A (Food) Communicative-Constructivist Viewpoint
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Embedding Corporate Responsibility and Food Communication in Institutional Theory
2.1. Responsibilities and Communication of Food Industry Corporations
2.2. Corporate Food Communication in Institutional Theory Perspectives
3. Research Design
3.1. Research Site and Case Selection
3.2. Data Collection and Methods
3.3. Data Analysis
4. Findings and Discussion
4.1. Communication as Responsibility Dimension for Sustainable Development of the Food System
“Not until all of us in society have a common understanding and act together, I believe it won’t be possible to carry sustainability forward. As long as the issue is understood to be extremely different and is sometimes driven by different motivations, it will hardly ever give a clear picture on the consumer side”.(Multinational, Public Affairs Manager 1)
“When looking at sustainability in macrosocial terms, there is also the question of finding a way to achieve more sustainability as a society as a whole, and we can only manage this by communicating about sustainability”.(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Manager)
“As said before, we cannot manage sustainability through the corporation alone, but rather we see it as a cooperative task of many stakeholders, because the central question always raised is whether corporations can play any role at all in facilitating sustainability (…) where we engage in discussions. Where we take a stand, we are also saying, what our contribution on this occasion might be”.(Multinational, Nutrition Manager)
4.2. Roles of Food Communication in Issue-Based Fields of Sustainable Food
4.3. Food Quality As A Resource for Common Understanding Processes
“Well, in the area of food there is very much that relates to the topic of sustainability and various aspects interlock. Of course, healthy and good food belongs to this area, but also enjoyment and the pleasure of eating belongs to sustainability. In addition, equally, so do the social and ecological aspects, because the food that we eat is always grown by someone somewhere. That’s where sustainability begins: that these people can make a good living, that they grow food under fair conditions, that they are able to produce good food. This is only possible by working ecologically, when the soils are machined reasonably well, and when there are reasonable conditions” .(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Manager)
“High quality is the basis of our actions. (…) Our corporate approach, from the outset, connects high quality – and therefore also economic success – with ecological and social aspects”.(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Report 2007)
“To investigate ecological food and its impact on human health we co-initiated a scientific institution, where European scientists can connect with one other and exchange information. This institution deals especially with questions of new methodologies to determine the quality of ecological food”.(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Report 2007)
“The collaboration with politicians is naturally taken extremely seriously by our corporation, as we are aware that the political system creates the framework conditions for the economy. There, a healthy development must be enabled”.(Ecopreneur, Website 2017)
“And, for us, this is the expression of responsibility that we try to implement. If there is transparency, if we know which farmers and suppliers in which countries and with which plants and production steps form the supply chain, to really ensure that everyone complies with the guidelines that we set.”(Multinational, CSR-Manager 2)
“Based on consumer surveys it arises that the basis of our corporate business is quality of food products. Our corporate brand attached to food products guarantees that consumption of these products is safe, it ensures that all regulations are properly obeyed and that the product complies with high quality standards”.(Multinational, Sustainability Report 2006)
“The holistic understanding of quality, as illustrated in our programme, encompasses nutritional aspects, such as e.g., the reformulation of recipes or knowledge transfer concerning food, but also sustainability issues in the supply chain”.(Multinational, Sustainability Report 2015)
“Only if nutrition research directly collaborates with the food industry and recent research findings are translated for implementation into practice may the quality of the food products on the market and therefore, the nutrition of society, be improved sustainable”.(Multinational, Website 2017)
“That is so to say, one the one hand we have the nutrition-physiological quality and on the other hand we have the sustainability quality of food products. This is something that is currently being developed in R&D networks with different tools and scores (…). How may we get this together?”.(Multinational, Head of Nutrition)
4.4. Sustainability-Oriented Transformation of the Institution of Food Quality and Institutional Entrepreneurship
“It requires strong partnerships and innovative business models with relevant actors along the whole value chain of food in order to continually extend a sustained quality”.(Multinational, Website 2017)
“How should a debate lead to a result if not those, who have the largest frame for creation in their sphere of responsibility, participate in the discussion? Otherwise, we would have a naive and unworldly discussion carried by people that not at all are familiar with the issue and do not even know what is feasible”.(Multinational, Public Affairs Manager 2)
“Most of all, our corporation wants to carry the dynamic of our initiative deeper into the food industry, in order to promote the significance of quality and standards (…). Quality orientation will become the driver of growth for the whole food industry”.(Multinational, Customer Magazine 2015)
“We want to point out approaches as to what kind of behaviors in terms of health and environment of our society might also be acceptable in future (…). We need a new food culture. We need a holistic understanding of food quality.”.(Multinational, Customer Magazine 2012)
“With all passion for community, we consider a membership as appropriate only if we are able to express ourselves, because, as part of the silent majority we never felt comfortable. We have a say, we lend an ear, and we hand down and take along. The greater goals, that all groups share, are organic production, quality and sustainability. And, as such, there is a unity in diversity”.(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Report 2013)
“This approach in the meantime meets with the approval and support of broad levels of the society so that leading test institutes have also started to extend their classical product quality tests with investigations of social and ecological aspects”.(Ecopreneur, Sustainability Report 2007)
5. Conclusions
5.1. Implications
5.2. Limitations and Future Research
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Data Material | Ecopreneur | Multinational | Time Range | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amount | Scope | Amount | Scope | Year/s | |
in-depth interviews with corporate representatives | 3 | 255 min | 5 | 183 min | 2017 |
sustainability reports | 4 | 434 pages | 7 | 383 pages | 2007–2016 |
websites | 1 | 108 webpages | 2 | 261 webpages | 2017 |
customer magazines | 3 | 69 pages | 5 | 179 pages | 2011–2017 |
Communication as… | |
---|---|
…a medium | to generate insights and knowledge |
…a purpose | to build and maintain relationship networks and partnerships |
…a process | to solve problems |
…a transmission medium | to transmit data, facts, messages and disclose achievements |
…an instrument of power | to enforce understandings of acting sustainably in other contexts |
Issue-based Fields of Corporate Sustainable Food Discourse | Sub-issues | Perception of Communication as Responsibility Dimension | Corporate Genres | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ecopreneur | Multinational | |||
Food origin and manufacturing | business policy, employee management, (organic) farming, food waste, manufacturing standards, supply chain management | communication as a medium and purpose | communication as an instrument of power | corporate brochures, corporate websites, customer magazines, face-to-face, management guidelines, social media, sustainability reports, press work |
Food (product) composition | additives, aromatization and ingredients, product reformulation, recent scandals | communication as a process | communication as a transmission medium | corporate (service) websites, customer magazines, product communication |
Food quality (classic conception) | food prices, food risks, product safety, trust | communication as a process | communication as a transmission medium | customer magazines, press releases, product communication |
Food consumption | cooking skills, enjoyment, food-related bodily changes/diseases, food waste, health, nutrition practices/ diets, taste | communication as a purpose | communication as a medium | corporate service websites, customer magazines, face-to-face, newsletters |
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Bartelmeß, T.; Godemann, J. Corporate Perspectives on Responsibility and Sustainability in the Food System: A (Food) Communicative-Constructivist Viewpoint. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052024
Bartelmeß T, Godemann J. Corporate Perspectives on Responsibility and Sustainability in the Food System: A (Food) Communicative-Constructivist Viewpoint. Sustainability. 2020; 12(5):2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052024
Chicago/Turabian StyleBartelmeß, Tina, and Jasmin Godemann. 2020. "Corporate Perspectives on Responsibility and Sustainability in the Food System: A (Food) Communicative-Constructivist Viewpoint" Sustainability 12, no. 5: 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052024