Quality standards between co-existence and coordination: Lessons from the French durum wheat case study

Abstract The objective of this article is to explore how value chains adapt quality standards governance to account for societal issues such as sustainable development. It aims to better understand how public and private standards co-exist or hybridize within sectors by focusing on two kinds of quality: ‘intrinsic’ product quality and environmental quality. It offers a new analytical grid combining the literature on innovation economics with that on value chain governance. A case study on the French durum wheat sector for couscous and pasta production is offered to test this grid. To this end, we conducted interviews with the main representatives of the French chain. The results show that there is international competition on product standards and that environmental standards are struggling to emerge in France. These results are discussed in terms of public/private design, homogenization/differentiation processes, vertical/horizontal relationships and links between social values and economic interests. We emphasize that broadening the range of quality attributes impacts the ways in which a value chain organizes itself.