| dc.description.abstract | In our current food systems, about one-third of the produced food is wasted. This food waste has a severe negative impact on our environment. Besides, it is expected that the kilograms of wasted food every year will double within the next 15 years. Over the last few years, various surplus food redistribution initiatives have started to address these problems by redistributing food that would otherwise be wasted. One interesting characteristic of these initiatives is that they are often hybrid organizations: they pursue environmental and commercial activities. Although these initiatives are a potential solution to the food-wasting problem and are expected to engage in novel and unknown business models, little research has been employed about these organizations’ business models. Besides, it is questioned whether the different operational business models or choices that businesses make in prioritizing their missions might result in some organizations being more successful than others. Therefore, through a mixed-method design in which a qualitative study was followed by quantitative analysis, this thesis set out to a) identify and categorize the BM archetypes of all surplus food redistribution initiatives in the Netherlands; b) determine the degree of hybridity of each initiative; c) establish the level of success of different initiatives; and d) explore the relationship between business model archetypes, degrees of hybridity, and the levels of success. A database was set up using desk-research, which captured 45 initiatives followed by a survey to enrich this database. Besides, three propositions were explored using quantitative methods. The findings indicate that there are four different business model archetypes operational in the surplus food redistribution sector. Furthermore, the results support the existence of a relationship between archetypes and success as well as between hybridity and archetypes. No association between success and hybridity was identified. Besides, recommendations for future research on both the topic of hybridity and surplus food redistribution are given. | |
