Brokering for the Benefit of Others: How Purpose‐Driven Organizations Create Sustainable Supply Chains

Brokering for the Benefit of Others: How Purpose‐Driven Organizations Create Sustainable Supply Chains

Summary

This paper examines how purpose-driven organisations (PDOs) acting as intermediaries in global coffee supply chains use brokering activities to improve farmers’ livelihoods. Drawing on qualitative, abductive analysis of 31 PDOs (exporters, importers, roasters and local intermediaries) across Colombia (Origin) and Consumption countries (Netherlands, UK, USA), the authors identify a “middle-out” brokerage approach that contrasts with traditional profit-driven, top–down brokerage.

PDOs perform four value-driven brokering practices: aligning and empowering at Origin (farmer-facing), and educating and mobilising at Consumption (consumer-facing). They legitimise novel practices across three domains — regulative, normative and cognitive — to enable farmers to capture more value. Two brokerage forms emerge: single-direction (either Origin- or Consumption-focused) and multi-stakeholder (integrated or partnered Origin–Consumption work). Multi-stakeholder brokerage is shown to be more effective at improving livelihoods because it closes information gaps and channels resources across the chain.

Source

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.70002?af=R

Key Points

1. PDOs act as bridging actors but prioritise purpose over profit, using brokerage to support farmers’ incomes, resilience and long-term livelihoods rather than primarily serving buyer demands.
2. Four value-driven brokering practices were identified: aligning and empowering (farmer-facing) and educating and mobilising (consumer-facing).
3. PDOs use legitimation (regulative, normative, cognitive) up- and downstream to make novel practices accepted — e.g. price transparency, storytelling, certification support and aligning with legal/payment norms.
4. Two brokerage pathways: single-direction brokerage (localised benefits at Origin or Consumption) and multi-stakeholder brokerage (integrated or partnered efforts that connect both ends and deliver greater, measurable farmer benefits).
5. Empirical evidence comes from 31 PDO cases and 42 interviews, showing concrete outcomes such as higher prices, training programmes, social projects, traceability and consumer engagement via storytelling.
6. Multi-stakeholder brokerage is more effective but requires resources for traceability, impact measurement and stakeholder management; single-direction brokerage achieves limited, localised gains.
7. Findings offer transferrable lessons for other agri-food supply chains and for-profit intermediaries seeking to improve upstream sustainability beyond certification-only approaches.

Content summary

The authors frame PDOs as hybrid organisations combining commercial viability with social/environmental missions. Unlike traditional brokers who may hoard information and enforce top–down compliance, PDOs aim to redistribute value and empower farmers through transparent pricing, training, advocacy and by mobilising funds and partners at Consumption.

The study’s methodology is qualitative and abductive: cases were chosen for explicit PDO purpose and evidence of improved farmer outcomes, interviews were triangulated with impact reports, and analysis produced an empirical model where legitimation of practices is the mechanism linking brokerage to improved livelihoods.

Key empirical distinctions:
– Origin-based PDOs focus on aligning (translating requirements, advocating) and empowering (training, finance, farmer leadership); they legitimise practices in the regulative and normative domains.
– Consumption-based PDOs focus on educating consumers and mobilising resources (networks, funding, certifications) and legitimise practices cognitively (storytelling) and normatively.
– Multi-stakeholder models (either single PDO covering both contexts or partnering PDOs) combine all four practices, creating feedback loops, better traceability and larger impacts for farmers.

Context and relevance

This research is important for anyone working on sustainable supply chains, procurement, social impact investing or CSR. It shows a concrete mechanism — middle-out brokerage plus legitimation — through which intermediaries can redistribute value and build farmer resilience in global commodity chains. The findings challenge reliance on certification alone and offer practical routes (price transparency, storytelling, capacity-building and multi-stakeholder mobilisation) for firms and policy-makers to support upstream actors.

Why should I read this?

Quick and practical: if you care about making supply chains fairer (and not just greener on the surface), this paper maps what actually works. It shows how relatively small, purpose-driven importers/exporters and roasters stitch together money, knowledge and markets so farmers get paid better and can survive climate and market shocks. Read it for the model and the case details if you’re designing supplier programmes, sourcing policies, or impact interventions.

Author note

Punchy takeaway: the middle matters. PDOs demonstrate that intermediaries can be engines of change when they prioritise legitimacy, transparency and long-term relationships — lessons larger firms and policy-makers should not ignore.