Intensity of organizational change and traceability adoption: Evidences from French agribusiness
Résumé
This paper explores the relation between the adoption of traceability systems and the intensity of organizational changes in agribusiness. It aims to show that the adoption of electronic traceability systems (ETS) increases the intensity of firm-level organizational changes and to highlight the existence of a process of co-evolution between technology adoption and organizational changes. The results are drawn from the Organizational Changes and Computerization survey conducted in 2006, and which provides representative data on French industrial firms with more than 20 employees. On this basis, we test, in the case of agro-food firms, the respective role of ETS adoption and of the other factors related to firms’ structures and strategies as well as the influence of their external environments. Overall, the results show that the adoption of ETS has been a major driver behind the organizational changes the agro-food sector underwent during the observed period.