Impact of agri-fresh food supply chain quality practices on organizational sustainability

The aim of this paper is to present empirical evidence about the relationship between Agri-fresh Food Supply Chain Quality (AFSCQ) practices and Organizational Sustainability (OS) outcomes. Organizational Sustainability embraces economic, environment and social sustainability. Based on literature review, a set of AFSCQ practices has been identified to create a theoretical model and to setup their relationship to OS as Economic Sustainability (ECS), Social Sustainability (SOS) and Environmental Sustainability (ENS). The measurement scales of AFSCQ practices and measures of OS were established in four stages: initial instrument development; structured interviews and utilization of Q-sort method; wide-ranging data collection by survey questionnaire; and analysis to confirm reliability and validity. Finally, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to validate the model with survey data collected from Indian agri-fresh food industry. The study developed relationships between AFSCQ and OS. Specifically, Customer Focus (CF) and Supplier Management(SM), both have direct and indirect influence on OS while Top Management Leadership and Commitment to AFSCQ, Internal Management(IM) and Supply Chain Integration Management using IT(SCIMIT) have indirect and direct influences on OS, respectively. The results also show that AFSCQ practices should be executed as an integrated coordination instead of independent practices, wherein they co-operate with each other and enrich OS. The empirical outcomes of this paper give evidence to count the AFSCQ as a reliable medium for OS. The AFSCQ practices are favorable to develop organizational sustainability, and then improve economic, social and environmental performance indirectly. The suggested model establishes the relationship between AFSCQ and OS. Additionally, the model's justification to utilize the Indian agri-fresh food industry gave significant insights both from theoretic and realistic perspectives.