PhD defence

Systems thinking in managing the success of food products. Exploring the potential of a system dynamics approach

PhD candidate Andrijana A (Andrijana) Horvat PhD
External copromotor prof.dr. V Fogliano
dr.ir. PA Luning
dr. B Behdani
Organisation Wageningen University, Food Quality and Design
Date

Thu 29 August 2019 11:00 to 12:30

Venue

Summary

The development of new food products has been a major driver of growth for food industry. However, it has been challenging for food companies to develop new products and it is common that new food products fail among consumers on the market. Since consumers’ wants change over time, we recognized a need to use an approach that can capture those changes to increase product success chances. In this PhD thesis, systems thinking and system dynamics approaches were employed to develop qualitative models and quantitative simulations. Such models increase understanding of causal mechanisms that affect food product performance (e.g., sales). We discovered that these approaches are rarely used in the food industry in Europe. Therefore, in the thesis we present how they can be employed to improve food product management of existing products (i.e., healthy fruit snacks) and to increase understanding of causal mechanisms leading to adoption of radical new products (i.e., insect-based burgers).