Business readiness in agriculture for transitions to a sustainable bioeconomy : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Management and Commerce at Lincoln University

Abstract

The significance of bioeconomic transitions is increasingly acknowledged and pursued, yet these transitions also need to deliver sustainability outcomes. This requires a focus on understanding what sustainable bioeconomic transitions look like in practice. The businesses and industries that make up national economies have an important role to play in this, however, this has yet to be addressed empirically in the literature. With no single tool agreed as the definitive measure of sustainability, it is necessary to explore what a transition currently looks like via a concept of readiness. This research focuses on whether businesses are ready for a sustainable bioeconomic transition, as represented by their use of tools available to measure and track sustainability. To evaluate the concept of readiness, a multi-disciplinary approach is taken to establish a multi-theory assessment framework used to assess readiness at the business level. This research assesses readiness using this framework in the context of New Zealand sheep farming; an industry facing both sustainability opportunities as well as significant challenges. Data was collected via an online survey, with 260 usable responses included in the analysis. Results indicate that most New Zealand sheep farming business owners feel ready for a sustainability transition. The majority feel very ready or already sustainable, while a smaller group of respondents are not completely ready or could make more progress on their level of readiness. Readiness in terms of day-to-day activities and over shorter time frames differ from readiness in terms of strategy and planning, and longer timeframes. There are low instances of formal strategy development and the capability for a strategic approach to the sustainability transition appears small. Overall, there was a low level of sustainability tool use, with few respondents using more than a couple of sustainability tools. Respondents were, on average, using far fewer tools than the number they were aware of, and they were not familiar with tools developed overseas. There was also some discrepancy between the larger number of respondents who scored highly when asked how ready they felt for a transition, and the smaller number of respondents who scored highly in measures such as strategy creation, data collection, and sustainability tool use. General data and information collection methods and frequency are also reported, and additional results are presented regarding prioritisation, social norms, and individual perception. Overall, this research suggests room for additional support for New Zealand sheep farming business owners to be ready for a sustainability transition occurring within their industry, agricultural sector and national economy. This includes greater access to sustainability tools and greater data and information collection and management. Achieving the potential that sustainable bioeconomic transitions seek requires designing actions, interventions and policies that assist each level of the economic system. Developing an understanding at the level of individual businesses, as is designed in this research, can be expanded to inform industry and national-economy directions.