Barriers to sustainable agribusiness: a systematic review and conceptual framework

Abstract

Purpose – As global concerns for sustainability have gained traction in all sectors of every economy including agribusiness, the need to investigate the critical barriers that could hamper this novelty has also risen. In that regard, this study presents a comprehensive overview of the dominant barriers encountered by agribusinesses to ensure long-term success through the lenses of a literature review. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a systematic literature review (SLR) of 43 relevant articles. The study applies content analysis to identify and analyze the selected articles. The conceptual framework underlines the three principal barriers to sustainable agribusinesses. Findings – The results from the SLR demonstrates that inadequate financial support, excessive post-harvest loss, gender inequality, non-climate-smart policies and weak institutional controls constitute the major challenges to the sustainability of agribusinesses. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited in scope to barriers to the sustainability of agribusiness only not the broad spectrum of the concept of agriculture. Originality/value – This study’s uniqueness is twofold. First, it provides a checklist for practice with the goal of addressing problems that hamper the sustainability of agribusinesses. Second, the findings and research gaps in this study are important to support future studies.