Strategic Corporate Responsibility in the Food Chain

This paper explores how food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy. The aim is to identify how strategic corporate responsibility (CR) intentions are in the Finnish food chain and analyse how competitiveness could be enhanced and sustained with strategic CR. The theoretical framework is built on a contextual definition from a resource‐based view. A multiple case study method was deployed and the data were collected through 20 semi‐structured interviews. It was found that the case companies aim at increasing their chain's competitiveness with CR. The food chain responsibility can be connected to strategy with varying depth and breadth. This results in four types of strategic CR combinations, namely: beyond‐responsive & holistic; beyond‐responsive & arrowhead; responsive & holistic; and responsive & arrowhead. The strategic CR combination that is rare, inimitable, and for which competitors cannot find substitutes, can yield a sustained competitive advantage and above‐normal economic performance.