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Can Digital Activism Change Sustainable Supply Chain Practices in the Agricultural Bioeconomy? Evidence from #Buttergate Ven, Hamish van der

Abstract

Under what conditions will digital activism elicit a response from industry? What is the nature of that response and how does it impact sustainable supply chain practices? I develop three hypotheses in response to these questions by examining a recent case of digital activism targeted at the use of a controversial bioproduct in the Canadian dairy industry. Drawing on 14 key informant interviews as well as a novel Twitter dataset, I hypothesize that digital activism can elicit a response from industry when it originates with a small number of activists, provided that it also spreads to traditional media. I further hypothesize that industry’s response will be superficial and result in only token changes to sustainable supply chain practices due to the ephemerality and lack of cohesion inherent in some forms of digital activism. These hypotheses lay a foundation for broader cross-sectoral research on how industries respond to digital activism directed at their supply chains and add nuance to ongoing debates about the efficacy of digital activism as a means of changing industry practices.

Item Metadata

Title
Can Digital Activism Change Sustainable Supply Chain Practices in the Agricultural Bioeconomy? Evidence from #Buttergate
Creator
Ven, Hamish van der
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2024-12-19
Description
Under what conditions will digital activism elicit a response from industry? What is the nature of that response and how does it impact sustainable supply chain practices? I develop three hypotheses in response to these questions by examining a recent case of digital activism targeted at the use of a controversial bioproduct in the Canadian dairy industry. Drawing on 14 key informant interviews as well as a novel Twitter dataset, I hypothesize that digital activism can elicit a response from industry when it originates with a small number of activists, provided that it also spreads to traditional media. I further hypothesize that industry’s response will be superficial and result in only token changes to sustainable supply chain practices due to the ephemerality and lack of cohesion inherent in some forms of digital activism. These hypotheses lay a foundation for broader cross-sectoral research on how industries respond to digital activism directed at their supply chains and add nuance to ongoing debates about the efficacy of digital activism as a means of changing industry practices.
Subject
digital activism; industry; social media; connective action; agricultural bioeconomy; dairy; palm oil; sustainable supply chains
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2025-01-10
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0447728
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90100
Affiliation
Forestry, Faculty of; Wood Science, Department of
Citation
Applied Sciences 14 (24): 11893 (2024)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/app142411893
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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CC BY 4.0