Supply Chains of Products of Animal Origin: A Complex Network Model for Strategic Management

Abstract

Due to the dynamic evolution of food chains during the past years, currently available chain models are no longer able to meet the needs of operators. This article introduces a model for chain analysis which is used in an analysis of the supply chains of the entire Italian production of Animal Origin which constitute a complex network in which the actors of the agro-food system operate. The new model is innovative for two reasons: it represents many supply chains of products of animal origin from different productive species in a single model and, in addition, allows to represent the complexity of the chain network.