Data structure
| Illustrative quotes | First-order codes | Factors affecting traceability |
|---|---|---|
| “If we were to buy from an importer here, we would have no visibility into where those products actually come from.” (FF General Retail) “The chains are quite long. Whether it is a raw material or some components in a machine—there are very many stages in those supply chains.” (LT Chemical Products) “We’ll get quite far on the brewery side […]. As usual, if we talk about raw materials, of course, we have one step backwards. That much is abundantly clear. With regards to our operating model, we always try and want to do direct trade with industry and manufacturing partners. So, as much as possible, we try to avoid having many middlemen.” (FT Beverage Manufacturer) | Number of intermediaries | Supply chain complexity (supporting literature, e.g. Kumar et al., 2017; Gualandris et al., 2021; Akın Ateş et al., 2022) |
| “Those longer international chains—I think if we challenge [a sugar supplier] to tell the country of origin of the sugar, as far as possible, one more step to the upstream, then I don’t know how easy it will be for them.” (FT Beverage Manufacturer) “When we work in China, it is more difficult, because there is a lot of outsourcing and a lot of different suppliers […] they mostly work with an exporting company, and this exporting company is working with also– so one is doing spinning and one is doing weaving and another the dyeing.” (FT Textile Products) “For us, there are very few raw materials that come from the other side of the world, for which we wouldn’t know who the supplier is.” (FT Bakery) “As far as our own production is concerned, we pretty much source raw materials directly from the source. Then we know that there is a domestic meat wholesaler or fish wholesaler in the background, and we know exactly where the product comes from.” (FF Passenger Traffic) | Geographical distance and dispersion | |
| “I think if you work with one source or supplier for different raw materials, it is easier to trace back.” (LT Yarn) “If you consider that there are 2,000 items here, and there are 400 raw materials and there are packaging materials – I think we have thousands of items to buy. If you add all these things up, it’s impossible to know the suppliers—of course, there aren’t that many active suppliers. But in critical cases, it is possible for us to know.” (LT Chemical Products) | Number of suppliers | |
| “Materials that have various components—these are difficult to trace.” (FF Food Service) “The more refined the product, the more challenging it [traceability] is.” (FT Beverage Manufacturer) | Product and service complexity | |
| “Spare parts are a number one thing. We need to know exactly which nob is attached to which machine and where it was sourced from […] the technical side is very regulated.” (FF Passenger Traffic) “There are certain categories where legislation requires [traceability]. For example, contact materials that are in contact with the product—there has to be a certain degree of traceability.” (FT Meat) “We have to do it. Because when we make our final product, which is an edible product, we have to trace everything from raw material to packaging—and we do it.” (LT Vegetables) | Regulatory pressure for traceability | Regulatory and industry environments (supporting literature, e.g. Sodhi and Tang, 2029; Garcia-Torres et al., 2022) |
| “We can trace via the GOTS certification with transaction certificates where it [raw material] came from and that it is from an organic origin. So I really think labels and certifications such as GRS and GOTS are the best ways today to trace the origin.” (LT Yarn) “There is a grain passport for grain, which shows us information about the farm from which the grain was loaded. In case of, for example, a smaller aggregate warehouse, it is also possible to trace the alternative farms that have delivered to that silo.” (LT Grain Mill 1) | Industry-wide traceability mechanisms (including certifications, product passports, and blockchain technology) | |
| “We also work with [a brand firm] and [a brand firm] and they want to know this […] they show their ability to trace on the packing.” (FT Textile Products) “Particularly [FT Bakery] has now come to the point where they would like to see the chain from field to table. In other words, they—and many others too—would like to know who has grown the raw material.” (LT Grain Mill 1) | Traceability requirements from customers | |
| “If a producer doesn’t want to inform us where they [raw materials] come from, it becomes challenging for us to dig that information […] For the most part, the information is happily communicated to us, because everyone knows that this is about sustainability […] I don’t think we have had a lot of problems with it.” (LT Beverages) “Overall, this [tracing] has changed. It is so much easier these days, just by asking. Everything is told and shared.” (FF Food Service) “We do have a requirement that they should inform us, but they might not […] They don’t necessarily think that if their raw material or raw material source changes, they should report it.” (LT Chemical Products) | Supplier’s willingness to disclose information | Information sharing (supporting literature, e.g. Fernie et al., 2010; Tuladhar et al., 2024) |
| “It depends on the supplier. There are some really digital and modern suppliers who trace every batch they deliver down to the raw material they process.” (LT Vegetables) “… the providers or suppliers of those products are on a certain level; they are working on a very high safety, hygiene level and great facilities, so it’s quite easy to trace that back.” (FT Meal Solutions) | Supplier’s capability to collect and share information | |
| “You can clearly see that our main partners, with whom we have been working for a long time, tell us everything and we get information. However, if there is a slightly bigger partner to whom we are a slightly smaller customer, then perhaps they are not going to invest too much in this information sharing.” (FF Textile Retail) | Power dynamics | |
| “There is a lot of talk about a new system, which would make it easier to collect supply chain and sustainability-related information. It is on the table, and we want to collect that information about all our products.” (LT Beverages) “They all [retailers and suppliers] have their questionnaires that they send here to our quality department. Then a few people in the department collect and type that information forward—it’s a real challenge. I wish there were some database somewhere where we and suppliers could insert and retrieve the information from.” (FT Agri-food Production) | Information systems and tools | Traceability resources (supporting literature, e.g. Razak et al., 2023; Razak et al., 2024; Tuladhar et al., 2024) |
| “It’s more of a resource issue for us. We invest in our main raw materials, and we really want to know information about these.” (FF Food Service) “Some people think […] that we need to shorten supply chains and go straight to the source. However, there are no resources to visit every place where we buy. There is no competence. We simply cannot. Our management doesn’t give us a double team, and even that wouldn’t be enough.” (FT Agri-food Production) | Staff allocation |
| Illustrative quotes | First-order codes | Factors affecting traceability |
|---|---|---|
| “If we were to buy from an importer here, we would have no visibility into where those products actually come from.” ( | Number of intermediaries | Supply chain complexity |
| “Those longer international chains—I think if we challenge [a sugar supplier] to tell the country of origin of the sugar, as far as possible, one more step to the upstream, then I don’t know how easy it will be for them.” ( | Geographical distance and dispersion | |
| “I think if you work with one source or supplier for different raw materials, it is easier to trace back.” ( | Number of suppliers | |
| “Materials that have various components—these are difficult to trace.” ( | Product and service complexity | |
| “Spare parts are a number one thing. We need to know exactly which nob is attached to which machine and where it was sourced from […] the technical side is very regulated.” ( | Regulatory pressure for traceability | Regulatory and industry environments |
| “We can trace via the | Industry-wide traceability mechanisms (including certifications, product passports, and blockchain technology) | |
| “We also work with [a brand firm] and [a brand firm] and they want to know this […] they show their ability to trace on the packing.” ( | Traceability requirements from customers | |
| “If a producer doesn’t want to inform us where they [raw materials] come from, it becomes challenging for us to dig that information […] For the most part, the information is happily communicated to us, because everyone knows that this is about sustainability […] I don’t think we have had a lot of problems with it.” ( | Supplier’s willingness to disclose information | Information sharing |
| “It depends on the supplier. There are some really digital and modern suppliers who trace every batch they deliver down to the raw material they process.” ( | Supplier’s capability to collect and share information | |
| “You can clearly see that our main partners, with whom we have been working for a long time, tell us everything and we get information. However, if there is a slightly bigger partner to whom we are a slightly smaller customer, then perhaps they are not going to invest too much in this information sharing.” ( | Power dynamics | |
| “There is a lot of talk about a new system, which would make it easier to collect supply chain and sustainability-related information. It is on the table, and we want to collect that information about all our products.” ( | Information systems and tools | Traceability resources |
| “It’s more of a resource issue for us. We invest in our main raw materials, and we really want to know information about these.” ( | Staff allocation |
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