Modeling the Impact of Distributed Ledger Technologies on Food Donations: A Case Study in the Austrian NGO Sector

Abstract

Food donation became a strategy for reducing food waste and food insecurity. However, incentivizing food bank supply chain (FBSC) stakeholders to donate food instead of disposing of it, especially in the retail sector, is still a major challenge. The lack of transparency and incentives, process inefficiencies, and the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of food donations are some of the reasons that hinder the widespread adoption of food donation practices. Emerging technologies, such as distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), can potentially facilitate food donation processes (FDPs) by improving stakeholder communication, reducing distribution time, and extending the remaining shelf life of donated food products. With the existing lack of empirical studies on the technologysupported food donation and food sharing practices as well as on measuring their impact, this study provides an outlook on quantitative impact of DLTs implementation and their anticipated potential in FBSCs. A case study with two Austrian non-profit organizations in the food donation sector provided empirical input for developing and evaluating a simulation model. This study estimates the DLTs' implementation potential towards reducing food waste generated across two stakeholder levels, increasing the extent of satisfied demand in the FDP, and increasing the effectiveness of food donations by means of system dynamics modeling.