I predittori dello sviluppo sostenibile condiviso da imprese agroalimentari e territorio

Objectives. The mutual recognition of companies and the territory of interdependence and the complementarity of sustainable development objectives is a form of value cocreation. Interpreting this relationship from the perspective of a Viable Systems Approach, the research proposes a theoretical and conceptual framework to analyze the motivational levers that may represent the predictors of a shared sustainable development.
Methodology. Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied to a group of variables representative of sustainability, and proved useful in understanding the motivational assets of the sharing process.
Findings. By interpreting the loading of factors and the relationships between the variables that make them up, it was possible to trace a path that links specific motivational levers, which prove to be predictors of a path shared by agrifood companies and a territory oriented to sustainability.
Research limits. This paper offers a theoretical and conceptual framework; its empirical verification was to 120 companies, pointing to a need for further development through broadening the sample and potentially focusing on specific agrifood sectors.
Practical implications. The identified predictors, together with consolidated managerial models, may represent guidelines that can be adopted both by institutional actors who choose to consider the territory as a viable system to be fed in all its dimensions, and by networks of companies that see in their relationship with the territory a driver of the adoption of sustainable development strategies.
Originality of the study. The originality of the work lies in its proposing a potential behavioral framework around which sustainability in company‒territory relations can catalyze.