Development of a Maturity Assessment Model to support infrastructure development in Wholesale Food Markets

Infrastructure advancement is continuously improving agrifood distribution supply chains by promoting efficiency, continuous improvement, and profitability. A vital segment of the agrifood supply chain is the Wholesale food markets (WFMs), which are known as agrifood distribution hubs. They depend on various factors, including infrastructure, to manage the flow of products, information, and money. Essentially, the hope for connecting producers and customers lies in the intersection between WFMs and their infrastructure capability. Despite the significant role WFMs play in food distribution, they currently face one of the biggest management challenges: degrading/poor infrastructure. In addition, current literature does not adequately reflect the complexities of infrastructure in WFMs for continuous improvement. This knowledge gap motivates the need to understand the complexities between infrastructure components to promote infrastructure maturity. This study used Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) to systematise the development of an infrastructure maturity assessment model and its practical tool. Theoretically, the study made significant contributions to the literature by firstly identifying infrastructure components through a scoping review. Thereafter, production efficiency was used as a proxy indicator for technology in South African WFMs to assess how efficiency influences performance indicators like turnover. After setting the tone on the importance of efficiency in WFMs, an in-depth conceptual literature review was conducted to understand infrastructures that are responsible for the physical flow of products, information flow, and cash flow. Ten infrastructure domains, with specific sub-domains, were identified from the literature to build up the maturity model. Following DSRM as an iterative process, various experts across the globe were interviewed to verify the relevance of identified domains. The conceptual maturity model was converted into a practical tool for assessing the current maturity levels of various infrastructures to give direction for infrastructure improvement; the tool was also validated with experts before being applied in a real-world case study. The case study served as the final component of this research. The tool was applied in a real-world case study in South Africa to assess current infrastructure maturity levels. The key findings of the assessment revealed that multiple infrastructures are optimised and innovative. However, there are still infrastructure dimensions that currently need continuous improvement by following the suggestions that the maturity assessment tool provides.

Grantor dc:publisher

Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Ngobeni, Etian

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Grobbelaar, Sara S
• Mejia-Argueta, Christopher

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136093

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136093