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This study aims to explore how sustainable business models (SBM) can be developed within agri-innovation systems (AIS) and emphasize an integration of the two with a systemic understanding for reducing food loss and value loss in postharvest agri-food supply chain.

This study conducted longitudinal qualitative research in a developing country with food loss challenges in the postharvest supply chain. This study collected data through multiple rounds of fieldwork, interviews and focus groups over four years. Thematic analysis and “sensemaking” were used for inductive data analysis to generate rich contextual knowledge by drawing upon the lived realities of the agri-food supply chain actors.

First, this study finds that the value losses are varied in the supply chain, encompassing production value, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, market value, institutional value and future food value. This happens through two cumulative effects including multiplier losses, where losses in one model cascade into others, amplifying their impact and stacking losses, where the absence of data stacks or infrastructure pools hampers the realisation of food value. Thereafter, this study proposes four strategies for moving from the loss-incurring current business model to a networked SBM for mitigating losses. This emphasises the need to redefine ownership as stewardship, enable formal and informal beneficiary identification, strengthen value addition and build capacities for empowering communities to benefit from networked SBM with AIS initiatives. Finally, this study puts forth ten propositions for future research in aligning AIS with networked SBM.

This study contributes to understanding the interplay between AIS and SBM; emphasising the integration of the two to effectively address food loss challenges in the early stages of agri-food supply chains. The identified strategies and research propositions provide implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to accelerate sustainable practices for reducing food loss and waste in agri-food supply chains.

This paper aims to facilitate researchers, academicians and entrepreneurs gain insights on the social entrepreneurship concept and future research opportunities in the context of the Asia-Pacific countries (APAC).

The diversity of social entrepreneurship phenomenon visible in 101 journal publications was reviewed and analyzed to identify research perspectives and opportunities, with special focus on papers published on the APAC context between 1998 and 2015. The keywords for search were “social entrepreneurship”, “social enterprises”, “social entrepreneur” and the names of all countries in APAC.

The study identifies three prominent themes in need of more research in the APAC countries: contextual, institutional and personal factors surrounding social entrepreneurship; usage of market orientation by social enterprises to generate economic and social value; and impact of social entrepreneurship education on generating talent pool for social enterprises.

During the review on the social entrepreneurship concept, it was felt that most research originated from both sides of the Atlantic rather than the APAC. Interestingly, no review was found on research published on social entrepreneurship as perceived and practiced in APAC. Therefore, this paper would be of particular value to any researcher who would conduct social entrepreneurship research in the Asia-Pacific context. Asia-Pacific offers immense scope for empirical research for theory generation and theory testing in different contexts.