Partnerships for sustainable food and bioeconomy systems in Europe: exploring the role of intermediaries

Partnerships have their own vision of sustainability, from formal broad concepts such as bioeconomy or blue economy to grounded-specific objectives. As highlighted in numerous studies, managing diverse visions towards a common goal can be challenging. This article seeks to explore the factors influencing sustainable value co-creation through a novel lens: the intermediaries operating at the partnership level. These intermediaries are potential key players in the success of partnerships focused on sustainable food and bioeconomy systems in Europe. To identify their roles and positions, three in-depth case studies were conducted on partnerships (Pôle Mer Mediterranée, Foodwest, and BIOEAST) operating at regional, national and cross-countries scales. The findings contribute to the existing literature by clarifying the role of intermediaries in sustainable value co-creation processes and by classifying the positioning of intermediaries within partnerships. Here, we have described intermediaries as the actors within a partnership who facilitate interactions between partners and/or partners' connections with the outside. Two different types of intermediaries emerged (i) a part-time facilitating group of intermediaries loosely bound together and (ii) a full-time management team of intermediaries coherently intervening. The study demonstrates that both categories have a major influence in shaping the sustainable co-creation process even though they employ different approaches using a unique mix of tools: animation, communication (internal), promotion of the partnership (outside) and coordination. These are further influenced by factors such as the level of formality or informality in communication between intermediaries and partners as well as their specific geographic and thematic contexts.