An early warning system for food supply chain resilience to environmental disruption

This PhD thesis aims to develop an anticipatory governance support tool for policy makers to develop capabilities to enhance and maintain food supply chain resilience to future environmental disruption.

Research questions:
1. What are the characteristics of resilient food supply chains and how can their resilience be maintained and enhanced?
2. How does environmental disruption impact food supply chains and what contribution can anticipatory governance make to mitigate its impact?
3. How is resilience perceived and operationalised by food supply chain actors?
4. What combination of foresight tools, processes and capabilities leads to effective decision-making?
5. How can foresight capabilities be embedded and enhanced within a regulatory environment?

Methodology:
The research has a pragmatic approach, seeking to support the development of practice by the application of tools and processes. It adopts a qualitative approach that utilises mixed methods. Research questions are addressed through observation and interpretation of stakeholder perceptions in the context of theoretical frameworks developed through literature review.
Research questions 1 and 2 are addressed through structured literature reviews combined with key informant interviews. Research question 3 is addressed through a single embedded case study. Research questions 4 and 5 are addressed through a mixed methods approach.