Food Chain Management Research Group

Scientific Focus Areas

Our special interest is on understanding facilitators and barriers to change in food supply chains, namely with respect to more sustainable behavior. This requires a multidisciplinary approach, and we are committed to integrating economic and behavioral theories to explain organizational and individual decision making.
Our latest endeavors include spatial approaches to account for social influence in behavioral responses.
Qualitative and quantitative empirical studies are employed at farm, manufacturer, middlemen, retailer, and consumer level.
Relevant application areas are:

Supply Chain Management

Sustainability oriented supplier management

Relationship Marketing

Contract Design

Human Resource Management

Incentive design for sustainable behavior in the work place

Consumer Behavior

Willingness-to-Pay for animal welfare meat

Attitude-behavior gap related to meat consumption and purchasing sustainably produced food

The group currently works on the following, third-party funded projects:

1. Chain-wide change management to upgrade a pork brand with improved animal welfare measures
Projekt MarkiT
Dr. Birgit Schulze-Ehlers & M.Sc. Nina Purwins
Studentische Hilfskraft: Annkathrin Possner

2. Collaborative approaches for a chain-wide sustainability management of Food SMEs
Projekt TransKoll
Dr. Birgit Schulze-Ehlers, Dr. Marie von Meyer-Höfer & M.Sc. Antje Risius
Studentische Hilfskraft: Johanna Meinecke
Master- und Bachelor-Theses: Carolin Kruska, Hanna-Friededrike Siebert, Marleen van Kampen, Anna-Maria Völcker

3. Innovative approaches for member bonding in agribusiness coops
Projekt CooProximity
Dr. Birgit Schulze-Ehlers & M.Sc. Tim Viergutz

4. Upgrading pangas and tilapia value chains in Bangladesh
Projekt BangFish
Dr. Birgit Schulze-Ehlers
Master- und Bachelor-Theses: Cordula Hinkes