Acknowledgements

We want to extend our appreciation to the chapter authors. They have made important contributions and accepted the challenges we posed during the review process with grace. With their help, our understanding of the challenges involved in developing and implementing sustainability-oriented innovation in agri-food supply chains has grown. In addition, we would like also to thank the companies behind each case. We are honored by their willingness to open their doors and collaborate with researchers to highlight best practices and learnings as well as share the struggles and challenges they faced during their journeys. We hope these chapters fairly reflect their hopes and accomplishments. Most of them have also been enthusiastic participants in the preparation of the cases; their insightful comments and discussions on the sustainable future of the agri-food industry are acknowledged.

We want to thank Lorelei Oriel Palacpac, Nora O. Hilton, Vivian Jimenez, Deborah Worley, and the staff at the Center for Effective Organizations for their logistics and manuscript preparation support. Coordinating permissions, getting figures to make sense in black and white, revising and editing manuscripts, orchestrating communications in many different time zones, and doing so with grace under pressure made our task easier.

We also acknowledge the support from our own institutions: the School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano, the NEOMA Business School, and the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

All of the cases in this volume were presented first during a conference held at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in October 2015. The support of the Orfalea College of Business, California Polytechnic, and the Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California is greatly appreciated. The other companies and researchers that participated in the Workshop – even if they were not ready to write a chapter for the volume – inspired a number of perspectives and comments in this volume. Special thanks to Sarah Behnam, Veronica Leon Bravo, Antonella Moretto, and Lorelei Palacpac for their invaluable support in organizing the Workshop.

Finally, we are very grateful to the series editors for their trust and continuous encouragement to publish this volume. As well, we are grateful to Emerald Group Publishing for providing the opportunity to build a series that allows us to not only share learning, but more importantly, to create knowledge that guides practice and theoretical development.