The Integration of a not-for-profit organisation into a for-profit supply chain: exploring Issues in creating shared value in the case of food banking in Tasmania, Australia.

Since the late Twentieth Century, there has been a global proliferation of not-for-profit organisations and an increased interest in how they collaborate with for-profit organisations in the delivery of social products and services. While in the ‘business and society’ literature such social value creating arrangements have been referred to and popularised as ‘Creating Shared Value’ (CSV), there remains a lack (especially with regard to some of CSV’s larger claims) of a finer-grained understanding of the processes involved in a given set of for-profit and not-for-profit arrangements that operate under apparent CSV-like conditions in a Supply Chain Management (SCM) context. An archetypical example is a not-for-profit food banking organisation that aims to address food supply chain waste issues by sourcing surplus food stuffs from food and grocery supply chain donors. This example provided a research opportunity and setting which allowed for an investigation of how not-for-profits (with social agendas of their own) collaborate with for-profit supply chain members and the implications for supply chain theory. The study adopted a quasi-longitudinal single case study design to address the research questions: what strategic priorities are evident for a not-for-profit food bank when integrating into a for-profit supply chain? And, what types of shared value is perceived as strategically important by the managers of a not-for-profit food bank when integrating into a for-profit supply chain? In response to the first research question a seven stage Process Model of supply chain integration informed a finer-grained understanding of the not-for-profit and for-profit interface with regard to food banks in food supply chains and to issues in SCM theory. In response to the second research question, from the food bank’s viewpoint, the continuous improvements in organisational efficiency over time and the different types of shared value identified facilitated both the supply chain’s needs and supported the further growth of the food bank. However, paradoxically, since the growth of the food bank is fundamentally reliant upon the production of more food waste within food and grocery supply chains, the social efficacy of the CSV-like conditions remains in doubt. The study therefore contributes to an improved understanding of inter-sectoral collaborative efforts that balance social efficacy with business efficiency and growth in a realistic SCM context. Further study is needed in order to establish the net positive contribution made to society (or, the actual social value created), as a result of the growth of food banking products and services, through the agency of supply chain integration under CSV-like conditions or otherwise