Challenging the establishment: A computational grounded theory of the emergence of sustainable food companies in Colombia.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive institutional change is a necessary step toward developing paths to sustainability. One possible instance is studying the emergence of new market logics in food systems. For this, we focus on a case study in Colombia. Current industrialized food production systems have been under scrutiny for their negative impacts on human health and the environment. New businesses have been emerging as a social movement and are being formed with a different market logic. Organic food producers are striving for their establishment in a market dominated by industrialized food producers. These organic food producers favor small-scale organic food production over industrialized food chains, and focus on social rather than on monetary profitability. To address this case study, we use a mixed-method approach that combine data from semi-structured interviews carried out to 30 small and incipient organic Colombian food companies, a subsequent computational text analysis, and an agent-based computational model. We focus on the question: How can markets transition to a logic of sustainable food production systems?

Backing up the agent-based model construction with the key dimensions, actors, and firm strategic elements identified by text mining techniques, the model aims to explore actionable strategies that lead to the emergence and establishment of sustainable enterprises.