Food Entrepreneurship & Start-Ups
Innovative and integrative business models, hybrid forms of organization and alternative or transformative economic forms are the subject of this research theme. Innovative business models are investigated and developed at all levels of the food chain (agricultural food production, further processing, trade and out-of-home catering), but also across all levels for the establishment of regional food hubs and food systems (for publications, see here).
In 2023, we also set up the Food Entrepreneurship & Start-Ups Coordination Office (Dr. Christina Weber), which deals with the development of research projects and training programmes in the field of impact business in the food industry and transformative business concepts for the production and supply of healthy and sustainable food.
Further examples of projects, workshops, doctoral theses and practical/teaching publications in the field of Food Entrepreneurship & Start-Ups
Food start-ups and social entrepreneurship
Project "WERTSCHÄTZEN" to investigate start-up processes in community-supported grocery stores ("Mitmachsupermärkte" or FoodHubs/SuperCoops), in cooperation with various grocery stores that have been founded or are in the process of being founded in Germany, 2023-2026, funded by German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Project "CoopFoodLab" to investigate socially innovative ventures in the food sector as part of the "Society of Innovation" funding line, 2023-2024, funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Organic pioneers & sustainable food entrepreneurship
Project "Succession and business handover in the organic sector - what can we learn for value-oriented business management and sustainable entrepreneurship?", financially supported by the Schweisfurth Foundation
Workshop "Value-oriented business management in the succession process at pioneering organic food processing companies: perspectives and challenges for partnerships with organic farming", Wissenschaftstagung Ökologischer Landbau (Scientific Conference on Organic Farming), Kassel
Workshop "Value-oriented corporate management of organic pioneers in the succession process", with young entrepreneurs from the Association of the Organic Food Processors, Bressanone/Brixen
Workshop "Value-oriented corporate management of organic pioneers in the succession process", Biofach Congress, Nuremberg
Workshop "Founders' meeting" and "Regenerative agriculture", Öko-Feldtage (Organic Field Days), Frankenhausen
Sustainable entrepreneurship, food sector and craftsmanship
Project "Development and implementation of a practical system for the sustainable management of craft enterprises in regions", with three environmental centres of the Chambers of Crafts Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Thuringia
Development of an integrative concept and realisation of empirical studies into sustainable entrepreneurship in the skilled crafts sector
Supervision of the doctoral project on sustainable management in small and medium-sized enterprises in the food industry (Germany / Denmark) (Rebekka Küchler)