The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented stress to food supply chains, pointing to weaknesses in the labour, processing, transport and logistics spheres, as well as significant changes in demand. Food supply chains have shown considerable resilience in the face of such stress. Monitoring of the food sector during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that the effects of COVID-19 on food supply, demand and access are interlinked processes and have a complex impact on food systems. In addition, high-value food supply chains in developed countries are even more complex, so countries need to respond quickly to restore them and also develop mechanisms that balance business and public interests and protect farmers and food business workers during future potential pandemic crises. The research aims to identify the main demand and supply side factors that affect the resilience of local and global food supply chains during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as assess the resilience of the supply chain for arable crops during the COVID-19 crisis in Latvia, identifying the main risk factors. The research found that arable crop farmers were relatively less affected by the COVID-19 crisis than other agricultural employees. The impact of the crisis was larger on the crop processing industry than on the other industries, and the main risk factors related to changes in demand and the industry’s dependence on imported raw materials and the successful operation of export markets. Based on an in-depth risk analysis, the research developed recommendations for policy makers and actors in the agri-food chain that would improve the resilience of local (domestic) participants of the arable crop food supply chain in Latvia.

Poultry production decision setting is full of risk and imperfect information. Attitude towards risk is a measure of farmers’ willingness to take risks which is an important determinant in their production decisions. Strong social capital emanating from social networks can lead to efficient risk management strategies, thereby minimizing risks faced by the farmers. Therefore, the effects of social capital on the risk attitude of small-scale commercial poultry farmers in Oyo state were assessed. Data were collected from two hundred small-scale farmers and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, factorial analysis, multinomial logit and a two-stage least square. Results showed that 52.5%, 37.5% and 10% of the poultry farmers were risk averse, risk neutral and risk preferring, respectively. About 31.4% and 68.6% of the female and male farmers respectively were risk averse. Close to a fifth, a quarter and two-thirds of the risk averse, risk neutral and risk takers respectively contributed 21-30% of the decisions in the associations. Fourteen percent of the farmers belonged to homogeneous groups. The choice of being risk averse was affected by marital status, educational level, family size, percentage spent on poultry income and aggregate social capital. There was no reverse causality between risk attitude and social capital.

This research seeks to contribute to the literature by classifying the operational risks to which companies are exposed and that have an impact on the results of sustainability through taxonomy. This study begins with a systematic literature review that covers 103 documents to build the theoretical constructs and establish the taxonomy; from this, the relationship among the constructs is established through reasoning based on 100 business cases. The results show a relationship between operational risks and corporate sustainability in aspects that generate this link, such as causes and consequences. From this, it is concluded that operational risks could affect corporate sustainability given that, based on case-based reasoning; we found relationship patterns linked by the economic, social, and environmental consequences and temporary effects on companies. The major contribution of this work lies in the proposed classification of operational risks regarding corporate sustainability and the establishment of their relationship. The findings of this study allow the management to classify the operational risk related to sustainability to carry out comprehensive risk management in companies, looking at the effects that this generates in the long term. The main limitation of this research was that the results of the connections can change depending on the analysed case. In addition, the CBR case base includes many sectors of the economy, which is why it provides heterogeneous results. It was identified that the relationship can change if a sectoral analysis is performed.