Supply chain quality and its managerial challenges - Insights from Ukrainian agri-food business

This article analyses the effect of the East-European business environment on quality management as a means of operationalising chain management strategies. The particular focus on the Ukrainian agri-food business in combination with fifteen in-depth expert interviews reveals the infancy of chain (quality) management in transition economies. General mechanisms of chain management are primarily installed by foreign enterprises acting as focal companies in their supply chain networks. At the same time, progress in operationalisation of chain management (including quality management) is still hampered, mainly due to infrastructural and institutional conditions.