85869 - Value Chain Management

Learning outcomes

The course provides knowledge about the concept and functioning of a value chain in the agro-food industry: which elements constitute it, the factors influencing a value chain, the theoretical approach and the tools for analysis and management. At the end of the course students know the actors of the agro-food system, the activities they carry out in the value chain and the relationships existing between them, the criteria for analysing its structure and are able to use basic tools for the analysis of the value chain and its sustainable management.

Course contents

The student acquires the ability to understand the structure and mechanisms regulating the food value chain.

MODULE 1

Unit 1: Theoretical aspects and definitions: Supply Chain, Value Chain, Logistics, Demand Networks, and Value Chain Management.

Unit 2: Delivering customer value: customer service and customer retention. Distribution channels and value delivery systems. Measuring logistics costs and performance. Matching supply and demand.

Unit 3: The food systems and related value chain analysis tools: Supply chain coordination; Transaction costs; Collaboration, trust commitment; Supply chain governance models; Performance indicators

Unit 4: The food value chain. Food production, Food manufacturing, Food retailing, Food logistics

Unit 6: Sustainability and future challenges, Food regulation, safety and quality, Food innovation, Sustainability challenges in food supply chains, Food security. Creating a sustainable supply chain. Waste in the supply chain.

MODULE 2

Unit 7: Some concept about logistics; optimization. Cost drivers and activity-based costing.

Unit 8: Vertical and Horizontal coordination. Contractual tools and hybrids patterns for value chain organization. Cooperatives and Producers’ Organizations.

Unit 9: Business Models.

Unit 10: Project work: Project proposal design, Literature review, Value chain analysis practice.

Readings/Bibliography

Martin Christopher (2016) Logistics & Supply Chain Management, 5th Edition, Pearson. [Link]

Pullman, M., & Wu, Z. (2021). Food Supply Chain Management: Building a Sustainable Future (2nd ed.). Routledge. [https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429329883]

Teaching methods

The course is based on face-to-face lectures, complemented by assignments, readings and practical training.

The class activity is split into content units.

Students are invited to propose a individual project work, aimed at preparing the analysis of a value chain that will be presented and discussed in the class and, in part, then during the exam. The project work will provide extra-points to the final grade.

Assessment methods

Oral exam, approximate duration of 20 minutes. The exam consists of questions focused on the project work presented by the student and arguments discussed during the lectures.

The project work may be one of these types:

- literature review on a specific topic in value chain management

- value chain analysis of a specific product (either in a single business or global perspective)

- research proposal for a value chain study

Teaching tools

Teaching materials (slides, scientific articles, and grey literature) made available online.

Office hours

See the website of Luca Mulazzani

See the website of Parthena Chatzinikolaou