D3.4: Final version of reference sustainable collaborative business model archetypes : WP3 – Sustainable Collaborative Business Model Innovation

Farmers are put under pressure to produce more and higher quality food at a lower cost in an
environmentally and socially sustainable manner. However, farmers might struggle to benefit from
implementing socially and environmentally sustainable practices due to two, related, main reasons:
• Power imbalance: an increasing power imbalance in favour of other supply chain actors such as
retailers (e.g., large supermarket chains) reduces profit margins and, consequently, the
economic ability of farmers to adopt sustainable business models.
• Market access: most food products are now routed through (regional) distribution centres and
several processing stages, which increase the distance between the farmer and the market.
Consequently, farmers struggle to benefit from the willingness of consumers to pay premiums
for sustainable products produced through sustainable business models. Collaborative business models offer a promising avenue to overcome these struggles by innovating the value creation and value delivery systems together with other value chain actors instead of by farmers independently. This deliverable builds upon D3.3. “Initial version of reference sustainable collaborative business model archetypes”. While D3.3. provided an overview of sustainable collaborative business model archetypes based on the analysis of sustainable agri-food start-ups, this deliverable:
• Updates the identified archetypes by moving beyond start-ups and analysing existing businesses
and lessons learnt during the project (e.g., the outcomes of the Ploutos Sustainable
Collaborative Business Model Innovation process). In total, nineteen different archetypes are
identified.
• Provides insights into how the different archetypes augment each other and can be used in
conjunction. We identified seven archetype combinations and demonstrated how the
archetypes augment each other.
• Provides key considerations for the adoption of the archetypes by farmers, also outside of the
Ploutos context. Specifically, we demonstrate that past investments, partnership vibes, clarity
of the financial impact, the novelty of the business model and stakeholder management play
an important role in the adoption of the archetypes by farmers.